Chapter 2

Once we composed ourselves, Husband said, "You have to call Art!" I was the first person she called every time she found out she was pregnant, so she had to be the first to know our news. Many people wait until they've seen the doctor or are through their first trimester before they spill the beans. We waited about 30 seconds. By the next morning the entire free world knew we were expecting...except Grandma and Grandpa M&M. I had already planned to go see them that weekend, so I got to tell them in person. That was so much fun.

Husband's older brother and his wife had a little girl (Niece E) who was 3 at the time. She was the only grandchild and only great grandchild on his side. My side had neither. This set our baby up for some serious spoiling. Everyone was thrilled for us. I started journaling in the form of letters to the baby (a friend's idea). I plan on leaving them for her some day when she is fully into the teen angst, everyone hates me thing.

Our first doctors appointment was almost 3 weeks away and that made us a little crazy. But once we were there and learned they were going to do an ultrasound, we were thrilled. My pregnancy was fairly uneventful. My blood pressure rose towards the end and I retained so much water that my feet looked like Cabbage Patch Kid's feet. The last 2 weeks I couldn't walk. Not only did I have that pregnancy waddle, but as my hips spread to allow birth to occur, I was in serious pain. Now, anyone who tells you pregnancy lasts 9 months is a big fat liar. Pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, 40 weeks is 10 months. Baby Girl decided not to make her appearance at all...or that's what I thought as we headed to my 41 week appointment.

When we got to the doctor's that day I was fully prepared to read him the riot act. I was still working full time at C***P and it was HOT!!! No air conditioning, on my feet all day, couldn't make it up the stairs to the canteen, and I was 41 weeks pregnant!!! I was not happy that morning. Doc had told me there was no need to go on maternity leave as I was "pregnant, not sick." I thought, when was the last time you were pregnant? I really did like my doctor, but at this stage in the game I didn't really like anyone...not even my mom who laughed at me while I waddled across the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Sue, our nurse, weighed me and was a little shocked to find I had gained 3 pounds that week (I think I hit all of 132 pounds my most pregnant with Baby Girl). My blood pressure was 144/95...normally it sat around 95/82 I think. Doctor came in, looked at the chart, checked me out, and said, "Well, your blood pressure is too high, you've gained 3 pounds in water, there's protein in your urine (I did warn you...). Let's get you delivered." L*O*N*G P*A*U*S*E "What? You mean today?" "Do you have something better to do?" OK, not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected. Maybe to be pregnant forever. To never actually have to deliver the baby...

The doctor left. I got dressed. Husband hugged me, and I lost all composure. I began sobbing. Husband asked what was wrong. I was scared. Flat terrified. Art had been induced for her first delivery and it was not pleasant (30 hours of labor). I did not want to be in labor for the rest of my natural life. Husband immediately wanted to run home, feed the dogs and get the suitcase. I didn't want to be left to register and make my way to OB on my own. In my state of mind, I may have wandered into the psych ward, and they'd have never let me out again. Finally Doc told Husband to get me checked in, take me to OB, then go feed the dogs. He promised nothing would be missed.

They started my pitocin drip about 10 o'clock that morning. Broke my water and gave me an epidural about 3 o'clock that afternoon. Mama and Daddy were there waiting with us (Bucka and Busha had dropped by earlier) and Bubba and Princess were hanging around too. Everyone was getting hungry. The nurse had checked me an hour earlier and said I was only dilated to 3 cm. It was going to be a while, they could all go get some dinner. I told her I was in a fair amount of pain (even with the epidural) so she decided to check me again. The look on her face made me a little nervous. She kept checking like something was wrong and saying, "Oh my goodness, no, that can't be," all under her breath. "What?!?!" I asked. "Umm, Husband, you might want to stop them. She's at 10!" 7 cm in 1 hour!!! No wonder I was in pain!

Husband yelled down the hall to my departing family that they might want to come back, the baby was coming. The doctor was called up (this is a VERY small hospital. We were the only delivery that day, and had the OB to ourselves after one other family left the next morning. The doctor's office was 2 floors down), he came in, Mama and Husband each stood to one side of me, and about 20 minutes later Baby Girl was here. In all the process took about 6 hours.

When Baby Girl was born, Doc told us "it's a girl" and I said, "Thank you, God!" Partly because she was here and healthy and I wasn't in labor an more, but mostly because she was a girl and I had an entire closet full of pink clothes at home. They cut the cord and plopped her up on my stomach, which was surprisingly flat by this time (that was the strangest thing...watching "Mt. Naval" collapse all at once). I was in a daze. Here was this little person that had been living inside me just 3 minutes earlier, looking at me with these giant steel gray eyes. She didn't look like the new borns I'd seen before. She wasn't red and wrinkled and scrawny. She was fat and pink and smooth and plump. She looked like a baby doll. She wasn't crying, just looking. It was so odd. It didn't quite seem real and I wasn't sure what to do with her.

Pretty soon the nurse whisked her off to clean her up. That's when she began crying. All they did was wipe her off, weigh and measure her, medicate her (vitamin K and eye ointment), wrap her in a warm blanket and give her to Husband. With in a few minutes there were 15 people in my room including our new little family (but not including the nurses). Baby Girl was passed all around and ohhed and ahhed over thoroughly. Both sets of grands took lots of pictures and tried to decide who she looked like (they settled on Husband and it's stayed that way ever since).

When they would give her to me, all I could think was, "She has the most perfect little mouth." Finally I looked at her ears and then it was, "She has the most perfect little mouth and tiniest ears." That was it. I couldn't stop looking at her ears and mouth. And then the exhaustion kicked in...but I didn't sleep most of the time we were in the hospital.

We took her home 2 days later, and that was the end of life as we knew it. But the beginning of life as we know it.