I hold my whole world in my arms, every time i hold my baby

Our birth story (don't worry, it will not include details like cervical dilation and membrane rupture)...

Friday afternoon (July 1st), my parents came into town. We spent a fun afternoon playing in the sprinkler and laughing and enjoying being reunited. Papa Mark, in particular, spent lots of time rolling down the hill through the water with Nathan. The Viking had to work late as he was about to be off work for the next 11 days (since we were having a baby on the 5th). Our plans for the evening were simple: fireworks, sprinklers, and sandwiches for supper. Several A few beers were to be consumed by The Viking and my parents. I of course was merely planning on some watermelon and sweet tea. Our friends came over and we all settled into the grass for some fireworks. I was feeling pretty lousy but just chalked it up to being 9 months pregnant in July and all the excitement of the day. We sat in the grass and watched the fireworks. The kids played with sparklers and Jersey Mama and I hung back out of the way and laughed. At one point there was an accident with one of the artillery shells. No one was hurt but it was quite a scare. I jumped up and grabbed Nathan out of the way and soothed him. Then I joked "I think I just went into labor". It should be noted that all night long The Viking and my parents kept making jokes like "Oh hey we're here now, the baby can come anytime" and "oh hey I'm off work now, the baby can come anytime". We even joked with one member of the Trailerhood who was standing down the hill talking to me, "hey while you're down there, if the baby falls out, be ready to catch him, ok?". So anyway, after the scare with the fireworks we decided that was enough of that excitement for now. Afterall, we had 2 more nights of fireworks planned before the 4th. My parents luggage finally got delivered around 11:30 p.m. (the airline lost it) and they headed off to the hotel. At this point I was feeling really really off and had been having not-particularly-painful contractions for the last hour or so.

Stomp had fallen asleep on the sofa and The Viking and I watched some Friends and tried to unwind from a super exciting day. I started to experience an unholy amount of pain. I let Mike pass out go to sleep and I just laid there and tried to deal. When the pain kept getting worse and worse and I was having trouble timing the contractions from the pain I woke The Viking up to help me time them. After an hour or so, around 1:30 or so in the morning, I called the ER and asked what I should do. "Come in now" they told me. I called my parents at the hotel and woke them up and asked them to come to the house and sit with Nathan so I could go to the hospital. We got to the ER and I explained that I'd run out of the pills that the doc had given me to stop the contractions but that these weren't anything like the contractions I was having anyway. They monitored me and called the doc who said to give me the pills to stop the contractions and we'd see where things went (I truly believe they didn't want to try to assemble a team to deliver the baby at 3:00 a.m...which is fine with me, I'd rather they be well-rested and sharp when they deliver my kid). I continued to contract, painfully, terribly, painfully so while Mike slept. Mike told me later, "I really thought they were going to give you some more Phenagran, the contractions would stop and we'd be going home". Around 6 I called my dad and told him what was going on and that I suspected we'd be having the baby today. Around then they came back in to check me (they'd been checking in all night) and saw that I was still having very painful, very strong contractions. They called the doctor back and he said "okay, get her ready, let's deliver this kid". The L&D room then became a flurry of activity as they rushed around getting me ready to deliver in an hour. As soon as the nurse announced we were about to pop this kid outta there (my words, not hers), the contractions stopped, completely. Mike and I frantically called the people who had wanted to be in the waiting room while I delivered and people started showing up. I was extremely nervous. I've always said that having a c-section didn't bother me and wasn't that nerve wracking but I hadn't finished preparing myself for it. Afterall, Joshua wasn't due to be born until the 5th! The doctor came in and reassured me (and confessed he didn't think I'd make it past 36 weeks so he was glad we'd made it to 38 weeks and 4 days)and we got ready to go. They swept Mike away to get dressed and I walked into the OR.

That's when the Hell started. The anesthesiologist missed where he needed to get the needle. Not once...not twice...three times. Three times he stuck the needle into the nerve that ran down my right leg. The first two times he did it I screamed and started crying. I screamed loud enough I began to worry Mike would hear and would come in and, being The Protective Viking Husband he is, knock the guy out. The third time it hurt so bad I opened my mouth to scream and no sound came out. That's how bad it hurt. Eventually he got the needle where it needed to go. But then...well, I assume he was touching my face because it was the only part of me not numb, but he kept caressing my face to ask if I was okay. I was very relieved when Mike came back into the room and could keep an eye on Dr Creepy-And-Inept. Once all that was done, it was easy as pie. Dr Wonderful was there and kept talking to me about how exciting it was. The baby came out screaming, no need to spank his bottom or get him rubbed down, he came right out wailing...wailing and cold. He screamed for the entire time they worked on him. He'd taken a big gulp of fluid on his way out so it took them a few extra minutes to get him all cleaned up and cleared out. They swept him off to the nursery and the docs finished stitching me up. For some reason Dr Wonderful and the doc who was assisting him started acting out The Big Lebowski. It was...surreal.

They got me all finished up and sent off to the room. As I passed by the nursery my whole family was there and I called out to Nathan "hey baby!". He ran over to me and said "Oh hey mama. Hey, Mom? Our baby IS SO CUTE." He was so serious about it. It was adorable. Joshua was the only baby in the nursery and apparently when you have a baby here you get the big room. My hospital room was bigger than some apartments I've seen. One of the days I was in recovering, we had 10 people in there eating supper and there was plenty of room. It was super nice and the nursing staff was amazing. They helped me to get him nursing as soon as possible and got me comfortable and just really looked out for us. They were, however, a little disappointed that we wanted him in room with us. They don't get a lot of babies born here in town and they wanted us to send him to the nursery so they could snuggle him! We had a really wonderful experience (with the exception of Dr Creepy-And-Inept) and I got to experience what labor feels like. Now I'll know for next time. I had so many "labor scares" this pregnancy and I kept telling the doctor "I don't know if I'm in labor, it's never happened before, how will I know?". Now I know.

Phew, that got long-winded. Kudos to you if you read all the way through!