Hope's Birth
With my first child, Noah, I had labored for about 10 hours at home before I had progressed enough that we thought it was time to go to the hospital… On top of that, I hadn’t even dilated anymore than I had been before I started labor when I got there. So with this in mind, when I started having contractions about 8-10 minutes apart around 2:30 on Friday morning with Hope, I thought I was in for a long, sleepless night and day. Almost every night that week I had been awake for some time with contractions that just went away after about an hour or so. This time, instead of just waiting in bed to see if it was for real, I got up, did my hair, tidied up the house a bit, and packed a few last minute items.
Around 3:30 am, I was fairly confident that it was “go time”, so I woke up Kevin, my husband, and he took over timing contractions and helped me relax. We stayed in bed until about 4:30, when I decided I wanted to change my position and sit on the toilet. Contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, only lasting 40 seconds. With my son, I had really hard back labor, so Kevin had to constantly be rubbing my back and putting pressure on my hips, but with this one, I preferred just a gentle shoulder massage.
We were able to talk and laugh between contractions, he put on a pot of coffee and some music, and I asked him to pack some things I hadn’t gotten packed yet. It definitely felt like early labor. Around 5:30, we still thought we had plenty of time at home, so I went ahead and changed positions a few times, trying to keep things progressing. I crawled around on the living room floor, sat leaning up against Kevin, and swayed with him standing up, until around 6:30, when I felt like maybe it was time to call my mom to come watch Noah so we could go to the hospital. Kevin wasn’t convinced that it was time to go, so he put off calling and suggested we go into the bedroom again to lay down.
Contractions were getting more intense, but were still around 6 minutes apart, and they were hard to time as I would have some little ones in between big ones that I wasn’t sure counted. However, as soon as I laid down, I had a contraction that was way more intense and felt a gush of water. I told Kevin, I thought my water broke, but I wasn’t really sure. He raced outside to call my mom (we don’t get reception inside our house very well), pulled up the car to the door, and put the bags in.
Luckily, his mom, who lives right beside us, was awake and noticed he was rushing around. She came over so that we could leave before my mom, who lives about 7 minutes away, could get there. As all of this was happening, I had one more intense contraction. Then as Kevin came back into the bedroom, I got another one, but this time, I had the urge to push! Kevin asked me in disbelief, “ARE YOU PUSHING?” and then said we had to get in the car. I just wanted to lie on the bed, but he got me dressed and helped me walk to the car.
He was able to drive really fast…since it was fairly early still there wasn’t much traffic. We did have to wait behind a buggy for about 20 seconds because there was a car coming (which happened to be my mom), but other than that, we were pretty much flying down the road. I had a couple of pushing contractions which I tried to just relax through instead of pushing. I had to squeeze (more like claw) Kevin’s neck to help me relax, and when he tried to sweep my hand away I told him to just let me do it in a pretty stern voice. He kept asking if he needed to pull over, but I told him to just get to the hospital.
We got onto Rt. 30 from S. Kansas Rd. and saw that the left turn lane for Rt. 57, which we needed to take to get to the hospital, had about six cars stopped at a red light. Instead of getting in line, Kevin drove up to the first car and yelled out the window, “My wife’s in labor, can I go ahead of you?” The guy nodded. There was no cars going through the intersection, so Kevin just ran the red light. As he was turning, I had another contraction and felt her head coming out. I told Kevin, “she’s coming out, she’s between my legs!” He pulled over into the vacant parking lot of Bishop’s Restaurant, raced around the car, opened my door, pulled off my shorts and underwear and sure enough, there was Hope from her ears up! Kevin helped her out while I pushed one more time and as soon as he turned her over, she started to cry. (There was only about fifteen minutes in between my water breaking and Hope being born.)
We had a split second where we looked at each other thinking, ‘ok, now what?’ We didn’t have time to get worried, because help was pulling into the parking lot. Laurie, an OB nurse who was on her way to work at Dunlap, had been sitting in the left turn lane and saw Kevin speed through the red light. That got her attention, and when she looked to see what we were doing in the parking lot, it was clear to her that a baby was being born. (Kevin had parked with the passenger side facing 57, so all the cars going by could pretty much see right into the car.) When she got out of her van she explained that she was an OB nurse and could help. Ironically, I recognized her even before she said anything because she had assisted me in the delivery of my son 18 months earlier! She checked on Hope and myself and made sure we looked ok, as Kevin got out the towels he had grabbed just in case, cleaned Hope off and wrapped her up, and then called 911. He told them the baby was already born and everyone was ok. It took them about 20 minutes to get there, which we spent chatting and laughing. I was simply overwhelmed with joy and relief and love for this new little girl I had in my arms, so thankful that we weren’t waiting in fear because something wasn’t right.
When the EMT's got there, they transferred Hope and I, who were still connected because the placenta hadn’t delivered yet, to their bed and put us in the ambulance. There, they cut the umbilical cord and we headed over to the hospital, which was only a couple of miles away. Kevin followed in the car. When we got there, we had to wait another twenty minutes for the doctor to arrive. Maybe he heard that Kevin and I had taken care of the delivery already and felt no need to rush. Now, Hope will always have Bishop’s address as her place of birth and her daddy as the attendant who delivered her on her birth certificate!
Around 3:30 am, I was fairly confident that it was “go time”, so I woke up Kevin, my husband, and he took over timing contractions and helped me relax. We stayed in bed until about 4:30, when I decided I wanted to change my position and sit on the toilet. Contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, only lasting 40 seconds. With my son, I had really hard back labor, so Kevin had to constantly be rubbing my back and putting pressure on my hips, but with this one, I preferred just a gentle shoulder massage.
We were able to talk and laugh between contractions, he put on a pot of coffee and some music, and I asked him to pack some things I hadn’t gotten packed yet. It definitely felt like early labor. Around 5:30, we still thought we had plenty of time at home, so I went ahead and changed positions a few times, trying to keep things progressing. I crawled around on the living room floor, sat leaning up against Kevin, and swayed with him standing up, until around 6:30, when I felt like maybe it was time to call my mom to come watch Noah so we could go to the hospital. Kevin wasn’t convinced that it was time to go, so he put off calling and suggested we go into the bedroom again to lay down.
Contractions were getting more intense, but were still around 6 minutes apart, and they were hard to time as I would have some little ones in between big ones that I wasn’t sure counted. However, as soon as I laid down, I had a contraction that was way more intense and felt a gush of water. I told Kevin, I thought my water broke, but I wasn’t really sure. He raced outside to call my mom (we don’t get reception inside our house very well), pulled up the car to the door, and put the bags in.
Luckily, his mom, who lives right beside us, was awake and noticed he was rushing around. She came over so that we could leave before my mom, who lives about 7 minutes away, could get there. As all of this was happening, I had one more intense contraction. Then as Kevin came back into the bedroom, I got another one, but this time, I had the urge to push! Kevin asked me in disbelief, “ARE YOU PUSHING?” and then said we had to get in the car. I just wanted to lie on the bed, but he got me dressed and helped me walk to the car.
He was able to drive really fast…since it was fairly early still there wasn’t much traffic. We did have to wait behind a buggy for about 20 seconds because there was a car coming (which happened to be my mom), but other than that, we were pretty much flying down the road. I had a couple of pushing contractions which I tried to just relax through instead of pushing. I had to squeeze (more like claw) Kevin’s neck to help me relax, and when he tried to sweep my hand away I told him to just let me do it in a pretty stern voice. He kept asking if he needed to pull over, but I told him to just get to the hospital.
We got onto Rt. 30 from S. Kansas Rd. and saw that the left turn lane for Rt. 57, which we needed to take to get to the hospital, had about six cars stopped at a red light. Instead of getting in line, Kevin drove up to the first car and yelled out the window, “My wife’s in labor, can I go ahead of you?” The guy nodded. There was no cars going through the intersection, so Kevin just ran the red light. As he was turning, I had another contraction and felt her head coming out. I told Kevin, “she’s coming out, she’s between my legs!” He pulled over into the vacant parking lot of Bishop’s Restaurant, raced around the car, opened my door, pulled off my shorts and underwear and sure enough, there was Hope from her ears up! Kevin helped her out while I pushed one more time and as soon as he turned her over, she started to cry. (There was only about fifteen minutes in between my water breaking and Hope being born.)
We had a split second where we looked at each other thinking, ‘ok, now what?’ We didn’t have time to get worried, because help was pulling into the parking lot. Laurie, an OB nurse who was on her way to work at Dunlap, had been sitting in the left turn lane and saw Kevin speed through the red light. That got her attention, and when she looked to see what we were doing in the parking lot, it was clear to her that a baby was being born. (Kevin had parked with the passenger side facing 57, so all the cars going by could pretty much see right into the car.) When she got out of her van she explained that she was an OB nurse and could help. Ironically, I recognized her even before she said anything because she had assisted me in the delivery of my son 18 months earlier! She checked on Hope and myself and made sure we looked ok, as Kevin got out the towels he had grabbed just in case, cleaned Hope off and wrapped her up, and then called 911. He told them the baby was already born and everyone was ok. It took them about 20 minutes to get there, which we spent chatting and laughing. I was simply overwhelmed with joy and relief and love for this new little girl I had in my arms, so thankful that we weren’t waiting in fear because something wasn’t right.
When the EMT's got there, they transferred Hope and I, who were still connected because the placenta hadn’t delivered yet, to their bed and put us in the ambulance. There, they cut the umbilical cord and we headed over to the hospital, which was only a couple of miles away. Kevin followed in the car. When we got there, we had to wait another twenty minutes for the doctor to arrive. Maybe he heard that Kevin and I had taken care of the delivery already and felt no need to rush. Now, Hope will always have Bishop’s address as her place of birth and her daddy as the attendant who delivered her on her birth certificate!