On Thursday, March 16, 1994, 2 days before my due date, I had finally given up that this baby would ever be born. That day David and I had cleaned the house, bought all the supplies to install a sprinkler system at our apartment complex, and gone to a job interview for David.

Early that afternoon, my Mom, Grandma Thurston, and brother Kael came by to visit while David was out front digging trenches for sprinklers. I made a batch of banana bread while I visited, and finished up laundry, and got the last of the dishes finished up.

(Note: At my 36 week appointment, the Doctor told us that I had dilated to "a loose 2 cm" and was about 50% effaced-- four full weeks before my due date!)

Anyhow, everyone went home and I went outside to help David lay sprinkler pipes (about 4:00 pm). We laid the pipes in trenches and hooked up risers and sprinkler heads and got all the heads turned the right way. We were going through cutting off risers to ground level and burying the pipes when, three sprinkler heads short of being done, I bent over to cut off a riser and felt a "pop" and a warm "gush".

The first thought through my head was "Oops!" I sat back up and called across the lawn to David that I thought we had a problem... he thought I meant something about the sprinklers! I told him I thought my water had broken, and I think we both went through a moment of shock before we figured out what to do. So, since both of us were covered nearly head to toe in dirt, my natural first instinct was to take a shower and shave my legs-- I couldn't see having a baby with my ugly unshaved legs! (Have to remember the important things!)

While I stood in the shower, I checked the time: 6:15pm. No pains yet! We finished showering and I stood wrapped in my towel in the bathtub until about 7:00 trying to direct David to grab my last few things to take to the hospital, and trying to figure out how to deal with the constant leaking! (Yuck!)

Finally, we both got dressed and got into the car to start making the rounds. We drove by LuAnne's (David's mom's), but she wasn't home, so we went to Grandma Reeder's (David's grandma). Grandma kept saying we needed to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW! David called his dad from there, and called Mike and Marcia (his brother and sister-in-law) over at Marcia's parent's house. We left to go by East Elementary (where David's mom works) to see if Lu was at work. She wasn't.

Everyone somehow ended up at Lu's house (she got home right after we left her house), and Mike gave me a blessing that everything would be ok. Then we went to my Grandma's house to tell my Mom and everyone else. Still no pains.

Mom called to tell Dad, but he was out so she left a message for him. We decided to go to the hospital even though I hadn't had any pains at about 8:00 pm.

The first pain hit at about 8:10 -- in the elevator on our way to the OB floor. From there on out they came every 3-4 minutes and lasted 1-2 minutes. We got to the OB floor and opted to wait for them to clean out one of the birthing rooms rather than being admitted to a labor room (it was a small regional hospital, with only 2 birthing rooms).

It was close to 9:00 pm by the time the room was ready and I was admitted and checked and hooked to monitors and had had blood drawn from my left arm. At that first check I was already at about 4cm and 65% effaced. I asked the Doctor how big he thought the baby was, and by external check he was guessing "not more than 6 1/2 or 7 lbs", which sounded good to me, since I am only 5'5"! (LuAnne came to the hospital just before the nurse got there to check me; Mom was there with us.)

David hung out on my bed for a long time while the contractions got worse and worse. Meanwhile, Mike & Marcia, Dana, Michelle, Angel, & Lisa Mathews (Marcia's family), & Anna & Danny (David's brother and sister) were all waiting out in the waiting room. (The video I have seen of them just sitting there waiting is hilarious!)

At about midnight, the pains were so close together, and it was hard to survive through them, so David told the nurse I was ready for an epidural... he did this without telling me, because I was fighting it since I hate needles... turned out it was a really good thing he insisted!

The nurse came in to hook up my IV (a requirement for an epidural). She tried to give it to me in my left arm, but the vein burst, so she had to put it into my right arm. (4 needles, what with having to deaden the area first!) Then Gayle (Dr. Carter) came in and put in a continuous drip epidural, and within a few minutes all of the pain was gone -- just a little pressure left.

Then everyone came in to visit for a few minutes -- now that I was coherent enough to visit! Then the nurse came in and kicked out just about everyone so she could hook up my catheter -- yuck! (By this time, between IV, continuous drip epidural, monitors, and catheter, I felt like I was connected to too many things and tied down onto my bed.)

David played a game or two of chess with his friend Justino when he and Steff came by, while I watched cartoons and talked to Mom. David and Lu slept for a while ('til about 5:00 or 5:15am) when my epidural ran out.

The nurse came in and checked me, then had me push a few times and checked me again. That's when all of the trouble started. While she was checking me, she said the baby hadn't budged at all, and that she was afraid that he was posterior (face up instead of face down). Then she basically told us that you can't deliver a first baby posterior. That's when I got scared, because I really didn't want to have a C-section. She left then, and said to keep pushing while she went to get Gayle. (So, there I was, pushing, with just me, Mom, LuAnne, and David in the room... kind of a scary thought!) David said later he heard them call in the C-section people to be ready in case they had to do an emergency one on me.

Gayle came in and gave me a "booster" epidural to get me through the birth. Then he checked me, and I guess he didn't really think the baby was posterior, so he was going to go ahead and try to deliver him. I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed for what seemed like forever, doing 10 counts, and then the doctor got out the foreceps. He hooked them onto the baby's head and started pulling. Mom said his foot was propped up against the frame of the bed, and he was pulling so hard that I was being pulled off the end of the bed! I was scared, because he was pulling all of my weight by my baby's head!

The nurse grabbed one of my arms, and David grabbed the other one, pulled me back onto the bed, and then held me there while Gayle kept pulling. The Nurse was also pushing the baby straight in my stomach, because he was laying angled over toward my left side. Gayle twisted and turned and pried the forceps for a long time, and even with the "booster" epidural I was feeling some pain. Gayle said the baby's head was lodged against my pubic bone. At about this time -- even before the baby started crowning -- Gayle was pointing out hair on the baby's head to my Mom. -- My baby had hair! (and isn't that all that really matters at that point? *giggle*)

Gayle pulled for a few minutes more, and then the baby started crowning. The doctor tried to ease his head out, but that wasn't working, so he went ahead and performed an episiotomy. The baby crowned, and the doctor started saying "She tearing... I don't know that I can stop it!" (--Not really encouraging to hear at that point!)

And then his head was there -- they got it on film with the baby looking straight up (I objected to video of the labor, and they had the camera there only to catch the first few minutes of his life, but when he came out face up, David wanted it on film, and I was in no condition to object anymore... and, truth to tell, I'm kind of glad they got that once-in-a-lifetime shot!)

But, it wasn't over yet. There was still a lot of pain when Gayle eased out the baby's shoulders, and then the baby slipped out (6:01 am, March 17, 1994), and I started crying because it was over, and the doctor said we had a big baby boy! They laid him up on my stomach -- all purple and wrinkled -- and he was so ugly, but he was so beautiful, too, because he was ours! (I wouldn't have traded him for anything!) He got really pretty really quick as they cleaned him up and he cried and turned pink.

Then Gayle handed David the scissors and had him cut the cord -- it took 4 tries to get all the way through! (He says that that is worse than the whole labor thing!) They asked his name, and I told them "David", and then the nurse came and took him to clean him up. She said he looked post-mature -- his hands and feet were wrinkled and he didn't have any lanugo left on him -- even though he wasn't due 'til March 18!

Gayle stitched me up (took two stitch packs to fix all the damage from the episiotomy and 3rd degree tear... they didn't even bother counting the number of stitches) and removed the epidural. David ran back and forth between me and Ender (what we finally decided to call him) with nearly a perma-grin! When we finally got to sit down and see him, he looked just like his dad, except for his chin (which was from me).

I nursed him then, and everyone who had survived through the night came into see Ender. David called Grandma Reeder, and left a message for his dad with his dad's wife, Janet, and Mom called Dad and Grandma Thurston. Grandma Reeder and Grandma Thurston came by to see Ender in the nursery that morning, too. And Mike got a polaroid to take pictures to take up to David's dad's (they were leaving later that morning to go visit).

At about 6:45 am, they took Ender to the nursery, and Mom and David went with him. Mom was back pretty soon to tell me Ender was 8lbs. 11oz and 22 1/2 inches long! (Where was he hiding all of that these last 9 months?!? I think my belly -- which wasn't huge was all baby and no water!) The nurse came in shortly after that, and said that she was amazed that I was able to deliver him, what with my size, and his size, and this being my first, and the fact that he was posterior presentation... if I didn't know better, I think she sounded almost impressed! I had him back in the room with me within 2 hours.

Around 12:30pm they removed the catheter and moved me from the birthing room to my regular room. David stayed with me all that day and all that evening and night in my room. Ender stayed with us all day, too, except for once around noon (they took him to do his PKU test), and once around 6:00pm (they took him to take his vitals and give report), but he was only gone for 10 or 15 minutes each time. At about 10:00pm we took him to back to the nursery (my first real walk after his birth aside from bathroom trips). The nursery staff brought him to me every time he was fussy all night to be fed, and we had him back at about 7:00am.

Gayle came in and cleared me for discharge and they took Ender to the nursery about 9:00am. David went with him, but came back to my room before they did Ender's circumcision (poor baby!). I showered and changed and was ready to go home at 12:30... only 18 hours in the hospital!

Despite all the problems, and the pain, I would and have done it again! Twice!