I am going to attempt to catch up on my blog in the next week, which may be harder than I like due to my 5 children, which brings me to my first post.

At my doctor's appointment 4 weeks before I was due (this was October 2009), I had been dilated to a 2 1/2. Dallas had been joking the rest of the month that he should drive out to work every day just in case I went into labor on my own. We both laughed at that since I had never gone into labor on my own with my other pregnancies. I was scheduled to be induced on November 13, so my husband and I were sitting around on Monday the 9th talking about the baby coming. He again joked how he should drive to work and we started talking about my water breaking. We got into a discussion on how gross it would be to have my water break while walking around, and how I was glad that was one thing I had never experienced... should have known better!!! I didn't even knock on wood or rub a lucky rabbits foot, or anything! Most of Tuesday (the 10th) went as usual, me trying desperately to get things done (like washing baby clothes & getting the baby's room ready) while fighting to keep my 2 yr old out of EVERYTHING!!! My other boys get home from school between 3:15 and 3:45. Tracen had a Veterans Day program at school the next day but had no information about what he was supposed to wear or anything, so I called his school. I managed to get a hold of the teacher, and we ended up talking for a good 25 minutes. Apparently Tracen hadn't brought home any information on parent/teacher conferences, and we had missed it. So we went over his grades (he got mostly A's and B's, plus a C in math) and talked about his behavior. As soon as I heard we missed the parent/teacher conference, I started making faces at Tracen and hissing things at him like, 'You are in SO much trouble!'. I thought he had hid the information on purpose so I wouldn't find out he had bad grades. Then she told me his grades and since they were good, figured it was an accident. Unfortunately, I had made him cry before I stopped and felt bad. His teacher and I also talked about his ADD and the medication he was on (I had called the doctors office earlier that day and spoke with his nurse about his medication, which didn't seem to be working, and she told me the doctor wanted me to hold off changing any medication until after Thanksgiving), and she (the teacher) said Tracen couldn't concentrate hardly at all in class (which is why we put him on the meds in the first place) and if I needed her to, she would talk to the doctor about it. After I hung up with her, I immediately called the clinic and left a voice message for them to call me back. You may wonder what this has to do with me having the baby, but I wanted you to understand the drama that was going on at the time. It was around 4:20 when I left the message, and I started to talk to Tracen about the call with his teacher, and apologizing for making him feel bad. During our conversation, something very strange happened. The closest I can come to describe it is, it felt like a bubble popping, then I peed myself... only, the pee didn't stop, it just sort of continued to trickle.

I will pause here for dramatic affect...

for you to come to the right conclusion...

your almost there...

Right!

So, here I am standing in the hallway, having stopped in mid sentence, with Tracen looking at me funny, when I finally come to the only conclusion that makes sense, even though it didn't make sense, because it had never happened before! I look at Tracen and say, 'I think something is happening with the baby!' I grab my cell phone and call Dallas and say the words I had never said before (not outside a hospital or even without a doctor's help), 'Dallas, I think my water just broke!'
There is silence at the other end for a minute, then he says, 'You're kidding, right?' To which I reply, 'No, what do I do?' And then told him what happened. He tells me to call the doctor, but before I do that, I called my sister, Teri, since she was going to be in the delivery room with us. So I call the clinic and tell them I need to speak to my doctor because my water just broke. When he got on the phone the first thing he said was, 'This is a new experience for you isn't it?' He also told me to get to the hospital as soon as possible and I told him Dallas wouldn't be home until almost 6:00. He said if I could, call someone to drive me there. Well, by now it's almost 5:00, I know Dallas and my sister are on their way, or will be soon, I don't want to call someone to watch my kids and call someone else to drive me, nor do I want to go to the hospital without my husband. Plus, I needed to shower anyway, so I go ask the older boys to watch Kyler, but I can't find Tracen. I finally find him in the bathroom, and he had been crying. I asked him what was wrong and he mumbled a few things, but the jist of it was he thought something was wrong with the baby (and he might have caused it because of the call with his teacher)! So I reassured him, explaining that nothing was wrong, the baby just wanted to come on his own! I finally convinced him everything was okay and that he wasn't at fault and I jumped in the shower, and by the time I was ready, Dallas and Teri had gotten to the house. Dallas jumped in the shower real quick, which was good, since it gave me time to pack my bag for the hospital since I hadn't done it yet! I threw the most essential items in my bag, grabbed my coat and waited for Dallas to be ready. For those of you concerned about what was to happen with my boys, and you know you were (in the sense of 'what poor unsuspecting fool was going to watch them'), my mom had originally planned to take time off work to watch them, but only Thursday & Friday because she had a work deadline on Wednesday. Thankfully my nephew, Connor, was able to come up to watch them until 9:00pm, then my mother-in-law was able to watch them overnight and get them off to school the next morning. All I can say is thank heavens for family!! Anyway, where did I leave off...oh yes, I was standing in the dining room with my sister waiting for Dallas. After a minute or two, I wondered what was keeping him. Now, I hadn't had any contractions at this point, but I did want to get to the hospital before the 'crowning moment', if you know what I mean. So on the one hand I wanted to be in the car already, but I wasn't standing there tapping my foot, looking at my watch, or anything. Which brings me to why Dallas hadn't come out of the bedroom (he's going to kill me for this story... I love you dear!). My sister yells, 'What are you doing? Let's go already!'. Dallas walks out the bedroom doorway and looks sheepishly at us and says, 'I couldn't decide which watch to wear!'
I have to add another side story here, about a year or two ago, my father-in-law started watching ShopNBC (I personally think it was a slow TV day with no car racing, golf or sports on, haha) and started buying nice watches for everyone in the family. Somehow, Dallas caught that same (fever, slow TV day...???) thing and now has a small collection of nice watches... and on occasion can't decide which one to wear, or ends up changing it after he gets one on!
So that has been a bit of a joke, Dallas was willing to assist in a home birth just so he could wear the right watch! Needless to say we made it to the hospital in plenty of time! I did have two contractions on the way there, and then I did panic a bit, especially since, going with my luck, we hit EVERY light red! I get into my hospital bed (and the love-erly hospital gown) and was checked and was STILL dilated at a 2 1/2, almost a three, although I suspect the nurse just told me that so I wouldn't throw my bedpan at her! (okay, so I didn't have a bedpan, but I thought it sounded better then throwing a hospital pen at her!!) I then settled down to play the waiting game! After a little while, not as long as I would like to admit, I asked (begged) for, and got my epidural.



It was the hardest epidural I ever got! The actual shot wasn't too bad, pretty much the same as the others I have gotten, but the guy comes in and has me sit up, then tells me I need to move because I was in the crack of the bed. I moved and then he said, 'You're still in the crack' to which I DESPERATELY wanted to reply, 'Can't help it! My crack follows me wherever I go!'. Then he was trying to get me to relax and drop my shoulders, to the point he is PUSHING my shoulders down saying, 'Relax, relax!' All the while I'm thinking, 'Easy for you to say, you're not on the business end of this needle!', and out of the corner of my eye, I can see my sister and husband's head bobbing in quiet laughter! He finally got me relaxed enough to get it all set up and then it really was a waiting game. I SLOWLY dilated, and around 1:30 am, we all (Teri, Dallas and I) decided to try to get some rest. We shut the light off and I rolled onto my side so I could see the machine that was monitoring my contractions. I had just dozed off when I felt this uncomfortable pressure. I looked at the monitor, but it didn't show much activity, so I ignored it. About 30 seconds or so later, I felt it again, only worse. Looked at the monitor and, again, not much activity. I had just closed my eyes when I felt it for the third time and it was MUCH stronger, so I (tried) to roll over to push the call button, and apparently I must have flailed more than I thought because Teri & Dal both asked me if I was ok.
The nurse comes in to check me and says, 'Oh! Looks like he's ready! Better call the doctor!'
As the first nurse goes to call the doctor, another nurse comes in and starts prepping my room for the delivery.
When the first nurse comes back, she takes a quick peek at how the baby is doing and turns to me and says, "I'm going to need you to push now."
I look around the room thinking, 'Wow, I swear she just left to call the doctor. I know he has a fast car, but he's here already?' The more I look, the more I realize, unless he snuck in and is hiding in the bathroom, he's not here.
Again, the nurse says, "I'm going to need you to push now."



I look at her and open my mouth to say something, but I was raised 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'...okay, we all know that is a lie, but realize I am fairly drugged at the time and extremely tired, to boot! What I want to say is, 'No, no! There will be NO pushing until I see a doctor! And not just any doctor, MY doctor. So sorry, find someone else to do your pushing!'
She must have sensed some of that on my face (or I may have said it out loud, not sure, as I said...drugged), because she looked at me and said, 'Honey, if you don't push and relieve some of the pressure, it could harm the baby. The doctor will be here in plenty of time for the birth, this push is just to relieve pressure.'
Maybe thats not exactly what she said, again, I revert back to the fact I was drugged. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that sort of drugging, have asked for that sort of drugging on occasion in my home (to no avail!), just explaining my fogginess. (wish I had a good excuse for the daily fogginess I live with, but will chalk that up to being a mother of 5 boys!) So I reluctantly pushed and immediately felt less pressure, then she tells me to relax. We do this a couple of times, and each time she tells me to push I look around for the doctor, who was still absent. Finally, the doctor showed up and within a short time (a couple of good pushes) out comes our newest family member, born November 11, 2009 at 2:27am, weighing 8lbs 2oz and 21" long, Zackary Kay Orr.
I post this, realizing it has been exactly one year since his birth! Happy 1st Birthday Zack!