In honor of Baby Dan's birthday, I thought I would take some time to reminisce...
A year ago yesterday I had what I was hoping would be my last pre-natal doctors visit. In the exam room I was told that I hadn't progressed any in the past week. I was only dilated to a one and the baby was due in 3 days! The doctor stripped my membranes and we were done. After scheduling another appointment, I barely made it out of the office without bursting into tears. I still don't know how I made the hour-long drive home in safety. I was crying the whole way. I wanted the baby here now! I stopped off at our project house to tell Gary the news and then went home to comfort myself. Determined to try and help speed things along, I made myself a castor oil milkshake. After gagging it down (I can still tell which glass I used!), I laid down and took a nap. When Gary got home we went up to the town park and Gary played softball and I watched. Later, we took a walk down the road and back then went to bed.
At midnight I woke up for a potty break. After I finished I noticed that I was still leaking. “Funny,” I thought, “I’ve never had a bladder problem before.” It stopped, and I went back to bed, then started leaking again and headed back to the bathroom. After another bed-to-bathroom round, I woke Gary and told him that I thought my water had broke and we needed to go to the hospital. I changed clothes and sat on the couch while Gary shaved. We were both amazingly calm. How many men ask their wives if they have time to shave when they’ve been told their wife is in labor? After leaving a note on the kitchen table for Eric, who was staying with us helping on the project house, we left. We bumped into Eric on the way out, told him the news and headed for Logan.
As a testament to the fact that small town policemen have nothing better to do very early on a Thursday morning, we were pulled over on our way out or Preston for speeding. We explained the situation to the cop and he let us go, telling us to turn on our hazard lights. By this time I was beginning to really feel the contractions and every bump on the under-construction road wasn’t fun. We made it to the hospital and luckily they had an open room, seeing as how we hadn’t called ahead. When they checked me, sure enough, my water had broken but I was still only at a one! They got me into bed with an IV (I was dehydrated) and let us labor for a few hours. The next time they checked me I was at a three and they told me that I could have the epidural now, or wait hour because the anaethesiologist was going into surgery. I opted for now, and let me tell you – it is really hard to hold still while someone is sticking a needle into your back during a contraction!
After the epidural, life was good! Gary and I watched “The King and I” and we took naps. Labor progressed well and by 7 am I was ready to have the baby. I started pushing and then the doctor came in to deliver the baby. I pushed for about 40 minutes and Daniel arrived screaming. He was yelling before he was even all the way out. He was 7 lbs. 9 oz. And 19 ½ inches long.
After a year, I can hardly believe he is one, and so big! He was such a good baby and is such a sweet boy. I can’t imagine our lives without him.
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