Luckily, which I would never say otherwise, Alli woke up early that morning - around 5:45 a.m. I had already been up and showered since 5 a.m. We hurried to get her ready and get dressed, as well as throw all our hospital items in a bag since we hadn't packed them yet. Just the night before, I had commented to Mommy B that all our suitcases were still in the attic. We jumped in the car about 6:30, and the contractions were about 6 minutes apart. Our first stop - Dad-E's work so he could get his laptop. It was on our way, so we stopped right in front of the building and Dad-E sprinted up four floors to get his computer and dash back down again. I think my 40 time has improved - and by that I mean my 40-stair time. Next stop - Alli's daycare. We wheeled in and out of there faster than a McDonald's drive-through. Dad-E grabbed Alli and tossed her into the first set of arms he could find. Luckily, it was Alli's teacher and she could tell that we were in a mad rush. As he was sprinting back out the door, he informed them that we were off to the hospital and that someone would be picking Alli up sometime later. I didn't know who it would be or when, but I knew someone would be back to get her at some point before they closed at 6pm.
Through all this, I managed to call the doctor's office and inform the on-call physician of our situation and to expect us at the hospital shortly. The last leg of our trip was up through Mt. Pleasant construction traffic in rush-hour. All the bumps from the construction were doing wonders for my labor pains, and I made Dad-E very aware of this as he swerved through traffic. She told me not to make sharp turns or go fast over bumps. I said, "Do you want me to get you to the hospital or do you want to have this baby in the car?" We made it to the hospital by 7:30. My doctor came into the room shortly thereafter, checked me and said I was 6 cm dilated and 100% effaced with a bulging bag of water. Yum again. Anesthesia was called to my room immediately to place my epidural, which took two tries but by that point I didn't care. I tried to watch this time, and it didn't happen. I had to turn around and look out the window while they shoved a 3/16" drill bit into my wife's spinal column in a hurry.
Fast forward three hours, and the doctor came to check again. She said I was 9 cm and to let her know when I felt "some pressure down there". Hmmm, being that I was numb from the waist down, I couldn't really feel much of anything - which was lovely, by the way. Less than an hour later, the nurse (who had been checking my progress on the monitor's at the nurse's station) came in and checked me - and informed me that I was 10 cm, the head was right there, and NOT to push because the baby would come out and the doctor wasn't there yet. She texted and called the doctor and within minutes, the doc was there. They put my legs up and said "go". Three big pushes later, he was out and screaming! Dad-E cut the cord (and double-checked to make sure all the "parts" were there) and there we were with our new baby, minutes before noon. We had only been at the hospital for about 4 hours, and it was already over. It was a great experience and I'm so glad he's finally here, even though he's just a tad early and we were a tad unprepared.
Pictures and updates to come soon.
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