Michele's Story

A Quick Delivery

This is the story of the birth of my second child, my son Ethan. My whole pregnancy was quite uneventful. I couldn't have asked for anything better especially as I had a one year old toddler running around.

I went into labor at about 2:30 in the morning. At first I thought that it was just another bout of diarrhea (I'd had one earlier about an hour earlier). However, after 15 minutes of pains 5 miinutes apart I knew it was time to wake my husband and head to the hospital. It was a bit of a rush as we had to let my sister-in-law know so that she could watch our daughter.

We were on our way to the hospital when we remembered to phone the doctor. The hospital was only a half hour away but by the time we were half way there it was all I could do to keep from pushing. If I had been in the mood to laugh I would have. You see every time I had a bad pain, my husbands foot got heavier on the gas pedal. Good thing there was no traffic on the road because he was driving through all the lights regardless of color.

By the time we got to the hospital it was 3:20am. I couldn't even walk a few steps before I was doubled over with another contraction. A nurse who was on her break went and got me a wheelchair and took me into triage. There was one other couple in the triage area of Emergency and they were just sitting down to tell their story when another pain hit. When the traige nurse head me groan she dispatched me quickly to the case rooms. I can still hear the other couple protesting that they were there first and that his wife was very ill.

Once in the case room/delivery room, a nurse asked me for my paperwork and I had to inform her that we didn't have any paperwork as we were dispatched upstairs with great speed. I was given a hospital gown to put on and I laughed at the nurse saying that I couldn't even stand upright. My husband started to help me and had just gotten my trousers off when my water broke. It almost got him on the head. This event spurred him on to get me onto the bed and to get my underthings off.

I only had to wait 5 more minutes before I was allowed to push. I think I had only three good pushes before the head was out and I had to stop. The nurses were busy with unwrapping the umbilical cord from my son's neck (no the doctor had not yet arrived) when another contraction hit and I heard one of the nurses say, "Holy Cow, we've got a whole baby hear!". And that was the beginning of the end. For some reason I didnot have any strength to push out the placenta until a good 10 minutes had passed, by that time the doctor had arrived and he delivered the easy part and stitched me up (only 6).

Since then our son has proven to be as different form his sister as night is from day. He is now 6 months old and is wearing up to a 12 month size in all his clothing. He is a joy and a true blessing even if he arrived with such short notice.