Monday, October 29, 2012

Ephraim's Birth Story, Part 2

If you haven't yet check out Ephraim's preface and part 1 to his birth story yet, you might want to do that first.

While on the phone with my mom Seth walked in and gave me a, "so what's going on are we having a baby tonight" look. In return I gave him an, "I'm on the phone we'll talk about it when I'm off the phone" look; he then proceeded to give me a "hurry up and get off the phone" look and I gave him an, "I will, I'm almost done" look. Also, while on the phone with my mom I noticed that I was starting to pace a bit more with each contraction, which told me maybe I was dealing with the "real thing," even though they were still random. Although random, I also noticed that they were no more then 10 minutes apart. Basically, I was almost ready to admit this was the "real thing" however I'd never had random contractions before so I had no idea how much "time" I had. Since I had no idea how much "time" I had I decided to play it cool as I got off the phone and act like it wasn't really as bad as it really was.

I got off the phone shortly after Seth got home. He was unwinding on the couch so I went to join him to chat about how his night went. Any thought of relaxing left as I sat down and a contraction hit. I immediately shot up and started pacing whereas Seth started freaking out. It went something like this, "Your pacing! Your pacing already! We need to get going. Your all ready pacing!" Apparently when I start pacing it means we don't have much time and when you're in labor for less then 3 hours it kind of puts things into perspective. Seth would like me to add that he didn't feel like he was freaking out at this point, because there was a point that he was freaking out. Maybe he wasn't "freaking out" but he definitely was starting to get concerned and even if I still wasn't sure it was the "real thing" yet, he knew, at that moment, that it was! Because my contractions were still random and because of the randomness I wasn't completely convinced that this wasn't false labor. I told Seth I was going to take a warm bath to either do one of two things: If it was false labor I was hoping to get them to stop and if it was the real labor get them regulated to see how much "time" we had. It seemed like a really good idea at the time....

I got in the tub around 10:45pm I had no idea how many I'd had or how far apart my contractions were but I was getting annoyed at the frequency and knew that I had not been in the tub for that long. After about 15 minutes I got out and from the moment I got out of the tub my contractions were no more then two minutes apart. Pretty much, they so close that I wasn't even timing them. I went flying out of the bathroom mumbling to Seth, between contractions, that this was the real thing and we needed to go now and I needed to call the midwife and the babysitter and we were both off running around like chickens with our heads cut off because this was the real thing and we were way further along then either of us thought. I'd be interested to know how many times the words, "Lets go" came out of our mouths in those last 30 minutes.

I called the midwife it was, of course, after hours, so I had to talk to the "after hours guy", whom sounded like he was 12, not the person you want to explain your labor to, especially when your in labor! But what choice did I have? The conversations went something like this....12 yr old after hours guy: "So, how far apart are your contractions?" me: "I don't know a minute or two, they are so close I'm not timing them." 12 yr old: "Ok, I'm going to put random." my thought: Blast you kid! Don't do that they are going to think I'm an idiot for calling about "random" contractions! I'm about ready to have a baby! I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the hospital just have the midwife call me. 12 yr old after hours guys then tells me to wait for the midwife to call. Thankful to be done with that conversation I hang up.

I had already called our babysitter earlier and told her that I thought this might actually be the real thing, unlike the other two times. She knew my labor history and how quick I go so when talked to her earlier I asked her to have everything ready so that when I knew if it was the real thing she could be here asap.    So, after talking to the 12 yr old I texts the babysitter and ask her to come NOW! I think she was there 6 minutes later, yeah she's cool like that!

A few weeks before I was tucking Jericho in bed and we started talking about the baby and when he/she would come and all that stuff. Jericho asked if she could be the first one we called so she could know if she had a brother or sister and what her new siblings name was. I told her if it was during the day we'd call her first for sure but if it was in the middle of the night we might wait and just have the babysitter call us first thing when she got up. She seemed okay with that, but I think she really wanted to be woken up if she was asleep. Her next question was if she was sleeping when I was going to the hospital to have the baby could I wake her up and kiss her and tell her we were going to have the baby. Although I thought twice before answering I agreed....and I'm so glad I did! So, remembering that I told her this and knowing that we didn't have much time while waiting for the midwife to call I went into the girls room to Kiss and tell Jericho we were getting ready to go. I tried to wake her but she didn't stir and I was starting to have another contraction so I left the room, to go pace, without waking her.

The midwife called around the same time the babysitter arrived (things start to get a little fuzzy around this time of who did what when so bare with me) Thanks to Mr. 12 yr old the midwife, which happen to be the only one I was hoping wouldn't be on call when we had the baby (not that she was bad she just tended to rub me the wrong way, not what you want or need when you're in transition and about ready to give birth) called. Mrs Midwife was her usual chipper self as she said something like, "Sooooo tell me why you called since you're having random contractions." My thought: see Mr. After Hours 12 Year Old, I knew she'd think I was an idiot and now I have to waste precious time explaining to her that they are so close together that I wasn't timing them and that's why you put random contractions, when really they weren't random they were just not timed! So I explain that to her then she proceeded to ask me how my other 3 deliveries went. I wanted to scream and cry and yell, "I know what you are doing! Trying to stall me! You are trying to see where I'm at in my labor and I can tell you that I am going to have a baby ANY MINUTE! We are wasting time! Get off the phone with me and meet me at the stinking hospital!!!"Mind you I'm most likely in transition at this point. I somehow refrained from yelling saying this and instead said something like, "I go fast, around 2 and a half hours for my previous labors, they're already less then 2 minutes apart we are heading to the hospital. Okay! We will meet you at the hospital! Okay!" She tried to ask me a few more questions but after cutting her off and repeating myself about us getting to the hospital and her meeting us there (I must have repeat myself at least 4X.) At some the only thing I was saying was about us getting to the hospital and her meeting us there, it was around that time that Mrs Midwife finally "got it" and said she'd meet us at the hospital and hung up.

Okay so it was now 11:20ish (I think), we had a babysitter, we had midwife confirmation, although we probably shouldn't have waited for that, and Seth had Jericho in his arms for me to kiss and tell her that the baby was on the way and we'd let her know in the morning! We were finally headed out the door....

To be continued...

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