Baby V and I had an "agreement" that he couldn't arrive until the coast was clear on Friday. Despite feeling that baby's arrival was soon, even as early as my July 3rd checkup, I was determined to hold out at least through Wednesday July 18th. I had learned that my doctor was going on vacation. This was an unfortunate surprise as I had chosen a solo doctor practice this time around, so I would know exactly who would deliver me when I went into labor. On top of the doctor being away, Marty had his global team in town for a big session that didn't finish until Friday morning. Thus, determining that Friday was the best day to have a baby.
So on Friday, July 20th (9
days before due date), while Marty finished up his final, important meeting of
the week, I decided to keep Hayden home to spend a little time with him. Marty's parents, John and Sharon, had also just come into town so in the morning, we all went to the Pancake House for breakfast. Then went to the newly opened OZO Play Café to let Hayden enjoy a little play time with some new toys.
Throughout the day, various people texted me to check in and see if there was any baby yet. Earlier in the day, I was just excited that we had made it this far, but as the afternoon went on, I was starting to ponder the possibility that the baby could be late. With our impending move on 8/18, we actually needed Baby V to come soon and it was starting to look like Friday was not going to be the day.
After getting Hayden down for a late nap, I went to
lay down but could not fall asleep, so I rested for a little bit and did some
reading.
Around 5:30 pm, I started to have contractions that were a
little stronger and crampy.
However not a dramatic difference to what I had been having - other than maybe a little more regular – about 5 min apart. They were definitely strong and regular, but each contraction only lasted for about 30 seconds.
By 5:50, I texted Marty as everyone was outside and I was
upstairs, “We should probably eat soon.
Stronger contractions.”
By 6:30, with contractions still coming very regularly, I thought we might want to call the doctor to see
what he thought. He wasn't concerned and told me to
drink some water, prop my feet up and wait 45 minutes to see if the contractions slowed. At the time, I realized I hadn’t drank much water and thought that was probably what was causing my contractions. But just in
case, I decided to eat something. While eating, contractions got more
painful and they actually started coming every 2-3 minutes despite the half gallon of water that I guzzled.
By 6:45, I started to think this could be the real thing and it might be a good idea to head to
the hospital. Of course, Marty had been cleaning the car out and had taken the car seats out, so he needed a little time to get the car reassembled and packed up. We were on the road just before 7pm.
The car ride was pretty intense. The contractions changed from strong yet bearable, to really strong and painful - and they reminded me of contractions just before I delivered Hayden. I could feel them in my back
and it was hard to sit on the car ride to the hospital. We got to the hospital at about 7:10 and raced in. The emergency entrance felt anything but that with people
calmly waiting. There was someone
in front of us and I remember saying “Tell someone we need help quickly!!!” Hearing that from a pregnant woman seemed to do the trick and a nurse rushed to us and wheeled me quickly to the labor and delivery
floor.
We got to the desk and I
made it long enough to sign the necessary forms before another major
contraction. This one put me to my
feet. I could not bear to sit and
searched for a wall to lean on. A
nurse, grabbed me and helped me to a triage room. Turned out to be Johaina, who was the nurse in our delivery room when Hayden was
born. There really wasn’t time for
anything. Jo got me on the bed
just in time. My water broke – it
was 7:16. There was a frantic
flurry as other nurses came in and they assembled a makeshift delivery
room. I remember hearing a nurse
say that they were there to catch the baby. It was a tight squeeze with about 10 people in total - the 3rd yr resident on call, several nurses and a couple med students - all crammed into the room.
Everything was progressing so fast that they couldn’t hook me up to
anything. I remember they couldn’t
even get the computer to work and as one person tried to get the computer
started, another said “Just write it down.”
I asked Marty to announce whether it was a boy or girl. Of course, we were in such tight quarters
that I pretty much knew at the same time too – a boy!
Beckham Gabriel Vanderstelt arrived at 7:47pm, just 30 minutes
after we arrived at the hospital. We
BARELY made it to the hospital in time!
This whole time, I had been texting Melanie of Beautiful Beginnings, who we had asked to capture the birth. She was one of ones who had checked in earlier in the day and I wanted to keep her posted so she had enough time to get to the hospital to capture the birth. The string of texts show how quick this all went!! :)
It's ironic that even
though I successfully held out until my doctor came back from vacation, he STILL wasn’t there to
deliver the baby! I'm certain it is God’s way of
telling me that we can’t control everything, even when we try. :)
And thanks to Melanie, we have AMAZING pictures that captured our first moments with our sweet little boy!
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