I Guess He Was Ready to Roll...

So I woke up around 6:26 a.m. with what I thought were cramps.  I recorded it on my phone and rolled back over and went back to sleep.  6:36 a.m. another one...6:49 a.m. again.  Cole woke up about 7:15 a.m. so I went in there and got him out of bed.  I took him into my parent's living room and told my parents about my cramps..just in case.  My mom went to get a bath and I decided to go ahead and get a shower.  At about 8:00 a.m., I knew this was more than cramps so I called the on-call doctor.  At this point the cramps were contractions and they were getting stronger and closer together.  I gave Dr. Morales a run down of the contractions and she said I needed to come on into the hospital.  Before we hung up she asked if there was anything special she needed to know about my delivery.  I told her about our situation and told her my doctor had agreed to let me Skype Stephen during the delivery.  She agreed and we started to pack the car.  My mom had called my aunt to come get Cole.  She was in the shower when we called and headed our way...wet hair and all.  My dad was going to stay back and wait for her and she pulled up just as we pulled out.  My dad put Cole in her car and jumped into the passenger's seat. 

My mom doesn't do freeways so we decided to take a different route, but I had never seen her drive so fast.  She also ran a couple of lights.  The contractions were getting painful and were 4 minutes apart.  As we pulled up into the hospital drop off, we saw two couples coming in from the parking lot.  They passed us up as I was having to stop and wait out some really painful contractions. When we got upstairs to L & D, I rang the bell and went inside.  Both first-time moms were being put in rooms to be monitored.  I told the nurse, I knew this was the real deal and we were going to have a baby today. Later on
I found out they were both sent home.

My nurse Maria got me set up in a room.  The nurse from Sunday had told me that I wouldn't have to answer all the 1,000 questions again, but that was too good to be true.  They didn't have it saved so I got to do them all over again.  When she checked my around 9:00 a.m. I was 4 cm dilated. 

As we got to talking I found out that my nurse had graduated in 1998 from the high school that I teach at.  She had been in the Office Co-op class and worked at Lyondell Refinery.  What a small world.

At about 11:00 a.m. she checked me again, I was 6 cm. Stephen and I were talking and he said, "So are we going to name this kid before he comes or what?"  I knew he liked Cade and so did I.  (It had grown on me.) So Cade Ross finally got his name.

They put the epidural in at about 11:30 a.m.  I was 7 cm dilated.  They said it took at least 20 minutes to work, so I knew I might be cutting it close.  Maria had guessed that he would be here by 1:00 p.m.  I had to have my water broken, so the doctor came in and did that at about Noon.

By 12:30 p.m. I was 8-9 cm.  I knew Cade would be here soon.  I began to feel some pressure around 1 p.m.  My mom and Maria were each holding a leg and Maria told me to go ahead and push and then I heard my mom say, "He's got some hair."  Then Stephen said, "How does she know that?"  So I told him that he was crowning and Stephen said, "Where is the doctor?"  Dr. Morales was next door delivering another mom.  I told Maria that I know this would take long and that she better go get the doctor.  My mother-in-law stepped into the hall and asked the nurses station to get the doctor.  She basically gloved up and caught him.  I pushed twice once she was in the room and out he came.

Cade Ross Bailey was here.  1:07 p.m.  8 lbs. (actually he was 7 lbs. 15.7 ozs.)  They round up, I guess. 21.5 inches in length.  I was a bittersweet moment.  It was so hard to hold him and look over at the computer and see Stephen in such anguish that he couldn't be there.  We switched over to Face Time so Stephen could go over and see Cade weighed and measured.