Part 2 of the journey

If you didn’t read my blog entry from yesterday, tonight’s entry will be hard to understand.



As I was saying, I passed the entrance exam. It was the real deal, no false labor… Ford was on his way. They wheeled me into a labor and delivery room where I asked for the epidural to come my way ASAP. Trey and I called our mothers to tell them it was for real and Puddin hopped in her car and headed north. By now it was about 1:00 and my mother was about to have a duck to come to the hospital. I told her I wanted to rest and if anything exciting happened I would let her know. I believe she was a little perturbed and entertained herself with some QVC home shopping network and with regular talks to Puddin as she drove from Jackson. Where were Pops and Boompa (our dads) you ask? Where do you think …. Asleep!


It had been a while since my water had broken and I was hurting. I don’t do pain well and on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst I think I was at a 9.9. Needless to say I was not pleasant to be around. Trey kept asking stupid questions like… “What does it feel like? Where does it hurt?” I remember VERY clearly in our child birth classes the nurses telling the dads to do as little talking as possible during this time. If it were necessary to talk, yes and no questions would be best. Apparently he had forgotten. I hadn’t. I spent the next hour like this…

For some reason yelling at the bed rails and hugging them tightly seemed to make me feel better. I couldn’t understand why the people wouldn’t come in with my epidural. I had not only asked for the thing twice already, but made it very clear at the last 4 or 5 doctor visits that I wanted to go ahead and sign up for one. My doctor laughed and said that was not necessary. Finally about 2:30 here comes the doctor to save the day with what appears to be his trusty side kick. Boy was I wrong! The side kick was a med student and I was her guinea pig. The next thing I knew they were telling me to lean over the side of the bed, hug a pillow, and relax. If anyone has ever had a baby and felt the pain of a 9.9 contraction relaxing isn’t exactly something you can do... much less when you know they are about to stick a needle the size of Texas in your back. Round one was a failed attempt. It hurt like a lot of bad words and then the med student tells me it DIDN’T WORK and she would have to stick me again. I wanted to panic. This time I did say a few choice words but apologized to her. I am sure they have heard much worse. Within 10 to 15 minutes I felt like this…

It is amazing how paralysis of the lower body can make a woman smile!

Neither Trey nor myself slept at all that night and by 6:00 or just a few minutes after we had a fan club.

Pictures while we wait…

By 8:00 that morning I was deeply concerned about my children at school. I was supposed to be at school that day. It was May 1… Ford wasn’t due until May 10. I called the school several times and sent text messages to other teachers giving them orders as to what should be happening. I was even supposed to go on a field trip that day. The school people got mad at me and said to stop calling and they would take care of my kids. It wasn’t like I had a lot to do. I was lying in the bed just waiting. And waiting we did.

I read a lot of baby books while I was pregnant. I was border line obsessed with it. You know in all the books I read none really told me how the actual birthing process would go. I was really thirsty and was told all I could have were some ice chips. BORING! I ate on those for a while. The nurses came in to check me every hour or two and I was making progress… just very slowly. One time they came in and said Ford’s heart beat was low and then I got to wear an oxygen mask.

As you can see being in labor is definitely not a red carpet moment. Apparently I ate too many ice chips because I started feeling nauseous. Lunch time came and went and we still had no baby. My epidural started to wear off so they had to rejoice me so I wouldn’t feel the lovely contractions. By about 2:45 they told me it looked like he wasn’t going to come out and they would have to do a section. MORE PAIN! Ohhh… I was not looking forward to that at all. But after almost 17 hours since my water had broken and no sleep I thought it might be a good idea.




To be continued….