Yankee Doodle

The fourth of July dawned much like any other day this year. Our planned fourth of July festivities were pretty tame, maybe a little ice cream and some firework viewing. Then around 4:30, I felt a contraction. When I went into labor with Mitchell my water broke and I didn't have any contractions until they started me on Pitocin at the hospital, and that pretty much coincided with getting an epidural. So, I had no experience with going into labor. That first contraction was followed 20 minutes later by another one. I've heard that it's possible to have contractions for days before going into labor, or to have contractions start and stop. So, I thought we'd wait it out a bit, and that was my doctor's advice as well. Extremely shortly thereafter they were coming five minutes apart and I figured we should start our nearly two hour drive to the hospital. By the time we were nearing town the contractions were right on top of each other, and that made me worried, because that just seemed so soon for them to be so close together. We contemplated calling an ambulance, requesting a police escort, possibly a helicopter to fly me the heck out of there. We finally made it to the hospital, where Lee's mom met us to get Mitchell. I hobbled into a wheelchair and they ran me down to L&D triage. The nurse informed me that I was fully dilated, and the baby was on his way out. And that is where my little world fell apart, because when you're fully dilated, it's too late for an epidural. Natural childbirth was not something I ever considered, I'm a fully medicated kind of girl. So the nurse rushed me down the hall, yelling for Lee to come along and warning me not to push. We made it to a labor room and the nurses were scurrying frantically to get the room ready, and still telling me not to push because there was no doctor. At that point I knew there were no drugs coming and the only way to stop all of this was to push, so I decided that I didn't really care if there was a doctor or not. The doctor showed up pretty quickly and mere moments later, Samuel Merrill was born. So all told, from start of labor to delivery was 5 and a half hours. He weighed 9 lbs 1 oz and is 22 inches long. So far he is a very good baby, and everyone seems to be adjusting pretty well. Mitchell was a little shy at first, but he seems to be warming up to Sam, although he has told me a few times that the baby is a monkey. That's okay, we like monkeys around here.