Albric arrived 8 days past his due date on Wednesday June 22nd. Our due date was June 14th. We had scheduled an induction for Friday after Mark's calculus final. I had several bouts of false labor and I was dilated to a 4 on the day before he was born. We did a non-stress test and decided that everything looked OK enough to wait a few more days. My committee chair was holding a meeting the night he was born. I started having contractions at about 7, and the meeting was at 7:30. I decided to go because I was sure they would stop, and I wanted to take my mind off the baby. Well, that was the trick I needed. I think I was stopping labor because I was scared, so taking my mind off of the baby let my body get to work. I walked to the meeting and the contractions didn't stop. I have to confess, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention at the meeting because I was in active labor. I walked home and told Mark to call someone to watch Calvin because we needed to go to the hospital. I guess he didn't hear me because I had to ask him again 20 minutes later. I got in the shower to ease the pain. When I got out, Mark was calling people. We had asked 3-4 family members to watch Calvin for us. None of them answered. I started to freak out a little bit, but I remembered that a neighbor had told me she would be willing to help. I told Mark that, and he said that felt right. He called her and she came over. I was throwing up when she arrived, but we were ready to head out the door otherwise. Calvin cried when we left, but I heard that he calmed down quickly. Mark's brother Tyler and sister in law Tien came and stayed with him after a few minutes. She put him to bed and Mark's brother switched with her at midnight. He said at about 4 in the morning, Calvin came out looking for us and wanted him to let him out the front door so he could find us.
Meanwhile, I felt nervous as we drove to the hospital. I remember each bump we hit on the road was painful. When we arrived at the hospital shortly after 9:30, I had to stop walking a couple of times before we even got in the building to deal with contractions. When we got to the labor and delivery ward, I expected someone to ask us for our insurance card and ID, but a nurse just let us in. We had a CNA show us into room 4. I got changed and got in the bed. The nurse came in and asked for my medical history and another CNA helped get the monitors on my belly. At this point, our family members were calling back and Mark was trying to handle all that. I got an IV, and they checked me. I was dilated to a 7. I remember the nurse telling me to make sure and call her if I felt like pushing because she has seen women dilate from a 7 to a 10 in the matter of a few minutes. Luckily, I had a little more time to prepare to deliver. My regular OB was not available that night, so they called the on call doctor from my OB's office. His name was Gary Fowers. He came and met with us and asked us about our preferences. He said I had "impressive control" after watching me handle a contraction. We told him that being in the bath would help with the pain and he said that was OK because my water still had not broken. He also said that he would stay close because this baby could come quickly.
I decided a shower would be nice because then I could focus the hot water on my back where it was hurting the most. Mark helped me get in the shower. The hot water was perfect. After a while, I decided that I wanted to sit down. So we stopped up the tub and let it fill up a bit. I asked Mark to give me a blessing and he did. It was so comforting to have the Spirit there and that blessing helped to bring it. After the blessing, I felt like I needed to get out of the tub and back in the bed. I remember that I felt like I couldn't stand up and I told Mark that I couldn't do this. He told me that I could and helped me stand up. Then he helped me get dressed and we made our way back out. This was about 11:20. As I got back in the bed, I noticed blood running down my leg. I pointed it out to the nurse as she was helping me back in the bed.
The nurse checked me again and told me that I was at a 10. The rest of this feels like a blur because it all happened so fast. I will try to recall it the best I can. She called the doctor and said that I had a bloody show. He came in and he offered a couple of different positions for delivery, I chose the same one that I had used with Calvin. They had to take the bottom of the bed away, but had to wait while I had a huge contraction. During this time, I had a couple of really bad contractions and I needed Mark to help me get through them. He helped me by holding me and steadily breathing so that could breathe with him. I never ever want to give birth without him there. I remember the doctor getting a long stick thing and using it to break my water. I did not think I would get dilated all the way to a 10 without a bloody show and my water breaking, but I did. The "water" felt thick and kind of dribbled out. There was a large amount of meconium in the water. Mark told me it was significantly darker than when Calvin had it. The respiratory team was called in. They were all rushing in, and I remember them talking about how they had just barely found out about the meconium. The urge to push hit me strongly and I said that I needed to push. The doctor told me to go ahead, and Mark and the nurse held my legs for me. I grunted as I pushed, and had the nurse count to ten for me. I think I pushed about 7 times and I remember Mark telling me that the baby's head was out and that he was here. He was born at 11:34.
The doctor quickly cut his cord and handed him to the respiratory team. They took him to the other side of the room and started working on him. I delivered the afterbirth and the doctor showed it to me and started to watch my bleeding. I had one small tear that he hoped would stop bleeding on its own, but didn't. He ended up stitching it. I think the most painful part of the birth was getting stitched up. I had so much adrenaline and was shaking from it. I asked Mark to take a picture of the baby to show me, because I couldn't hold him yet. I think we had a little miracle, because as they suctioned out his nose and mouth, they told us he had not swallowed or aspirated any meconium. They observed him for 30 minutes and finally brought him to me. I have been in love with him ever since.
