Ready Or Not...

Seven years ago today I was clueless.  I was 32 weeks pregnant with our first child and at my part time job working at our church (here) in Fort Worth.  As I was getting ready that morning I mentioned to A.J. that I was feeling periodic "twinges."  Nothing painful, or even uncomfortable for that matter, just something different I hadn't experienced before.  I went on to work for the day continuing to feel these odd twinges.  Something deep in my sub-conscious was prodding me: do you think you should call your doctor? But I was only 32 weeks pregnant so there's no way it was anything to worry about.  It was probably those pesky braxton hicks I'd heard about.  Besides that, I've seen my share of labors and births on tv and this was nothing like that! 

Later in the evening I was fixing dinner.  I opened the door to the freezer and suddenly felt a sharp pain across my belly.  Ouch.  And then I was fine again.  A.J. immediately went in to "I think we better time these" mode while I assured him it was nothing (now I wonder what on earth was causing me to be in such denial).  A while later, another pain.  It continued consistently in to the evening.  After calling one of our nurses at 11 p.m. we were told to take acetaminophen and if things didn't calm down within an hour to call back.  Well, things didn't calm down.  The pains got worse and continued about every five minutes as I lay in bed.  After an hour of these intense pains in my abdomen and back, I began to strip down and told A.J. I wanted to take a shower (???).  He stopped me and told me to get ready to hop in the Jeep because we were going to the hospital.  I will never forget our midnight ride to the hospital.


At about 1:30 a.m. we were settled in to our labor/delivery room and after being checked by the on-duty ob/gyn we were told that we be delivering a baby in about eight hours.  I had decided (thanks to our Lamaze class) to have a natural birth.  Pain after all was simply mind over matter, right?  And I do have a high pain threshold.  I just needed to remember to focus and to work through the pain.  It seems to be a pride thing to be able to say I endured horrific pain and lived to tell about it.   At about 3:30 a.m. I'd had about all I could take and began requesting a visit from the epidural man.  The idea of epidurals had always really creeped me out, but at that time it began to seem very appealing.  It seemed to take forever to kick in.  Just as it did though, the doctor came in to check me again and told me we were ready to deliver.  I'll spare all the gory details, and simply say that my beautiful Alex was born at 4:45 a.m. He was a hefty 4 lbs. 2 oz and 17 inches longs (see, good things do come in small packages!) with loads of black hair.  I didn't get to touch him since he was almost immediately whisked away to be prepared for a transfer to the NICU at Cook Children's for a three week stay.  He proved himself to be a hardy, tough nut (as Grampy would say) during his stay, and that still holds true today.  I cannot believe how fast these seven years have flown by...
 

Tomorrow my sweet Alex will be seven years old!