Benton's Birth Story - Part 1



Headed to preschool and then the hospital...my belly was HUGE!


I don't know how many parts this story will take. Hopefully not too many but I don't get too much free time and I always feel like I have so much other stuff that needs to be done other than blogging. But here goes..

I went to my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, November 16th (my due date was Tuesday, November 15th...and I have to add that I ran in a local store on my due date to get AC some shoes for Christmas. The two sales clerks were young and the girl asked me when I was due. When I replied, "today!" the young boy said, "That makes me so nervous. You need to go home." It was hysterical! I guess they thought I might deliver right there in the store.)

My doctor was really surprised I had made it this far and sent me home telling me to come back Friday morning at 5:30 am to be induced. Steve decided he would hunt Thursday morning since it might be his last chance for a while. G.G. made plans to drive over late Thursday afternoon so that she could be home with the girls Friday morning and get them to school.

When Steve got up at 4:00am on Thursday to leave to go hunting, I never went back to sleep. I laid in bed for a while, then got up and did my Bible study. I decided to get in the bathtub about six and that's when I started feeling some very mild contractions. I really didn't think anything about it and sent Steve a text telling him it wasn't a big deal but just keep his phone close by just in case. Well, they started coming more frequently and by 7:30 when it was time to take Anna Clare to school, I was starting to be in pain. I remember driving through car line thinking, "I am in labor!"

When we got back home a little before 8 I sent Steve another text and told him they were definitely contractions and he did NOT need to go to the office, he needed to come home...NOW. He called me and told me he was on his way. I finished packing my bag and started loading the car with our stuff. The plan was to take Owen to preschool, call the nurse on the way, and hopefully head to the hospital.

I was hurting in this picture!

Steve got home, packed his stuff, and we loaded up. I called the doctor's office on the way to preschool and waited on hold for the on call nurse forever. I finally just hung up and called Labor and Delivery. I told them I was two days past my due date, this was my 3rd baby, and my contractions were 5 minutes apart or less. The nurse said, "We're full. We don't even have a room to put you in." Hmmm....not sure what she thought I was supposed to do about that. She told me she would put me through to the on call nurse at the doctor's office. Great. This time the nurse picked up and I told her the same thing I told L & D. She said, "You need to head on to Labor and Delivery." This would have been comical if I had not been in pain. I told her I tried that and they wouldn't take me. She told me to she would call them and call me right back. By this time we had taken Owen to preschool and were sitting in the parking lot at the hospital. Finally she called back and told me to check in at the ER and get started on my paperwork. We did, and they got us up to L & D pretty quickly where we waited in the hall for them to clean a room that had just been vacated. They were THAT busy.

The doctor on call was Dr. Nicholls, whom I had heard wonderful things about and remembered how nice he was when I had seen him on rotation during my pregnancy with Owen. By the time they got me settled in and he came around to check on me I was six centimeters. Yikes! My biggest fear was missing my epidural which I mentioned to the nurse more than once and she assured me I would get it. In the meantime, GG was on her way and so were my parents and my sister. My mom was first to arrive and pretty soon after that the anesthesiologist arrived, Praise the Lord! By the time Steve and my mom were allowed back in I was feeling good and in no pain.

Anna Clare had begged to be checked out so she could be there (not in the delivery room obviously but just at the hospital). So Steve called my dad and asked him to stop by her school and pick her up. We knew she would be so surprised and so excited. In the meantime, I called her piano teacher from the hospital bed to cancel her lesson for that afternoon :)

My labor slowed down a bit after the epidural so I sent Steve and my dad to go get a quick lunch, and my mom, sister, AC and I waited on GG to arrive, which she did about 1:30.

When Steve and my dad got back, I talked the others into going down to eat at Subway in the lobby and promised them I would call them if anything changed. About the time they were getting back, the nurse came to check me and told us it was time! She was from my hometown so we all knew her which was great. She was wonderful and so was Dr. Nicholls. I pushed about 5 minutes and Benton made his way into the world! Steve kept saying later he had no idea he would be here that fast! It was an amazingly wonderful experience.

Our beautiful baby boy!

November 17, 2011  3:10 pm   9 pounds, 6 ounces, 21.5 inches

More to come!