Birthday!!!

Today is my youngest son's 16th birthday. I know, I'm old. Sixteen years ago he was already born, he was born at 12:10 a.m. (missed leap year by 10 minutes), I'd moved back to WI from CA and me and my oldest lived with my parents so I wouldn't have to have my second child in a military hospital, but my DH stayed behind as he still had time to serve in the US Navy. All that day I'd been cleaning, doing laundry, I crocheted arm rest covers for one of my parents chairs. I was having minor contractions, just tightening, not enough to make me suspicious. Then, my sister picked me up and she was going to make me a steak dinner, she came after she was done working at 3:00 p.m. on the 29th. We stopped off at the butcher shop to get the steaks and that's when I started getting more intense pains. At 3:20 when she came out of the shop, I told her that I thought I was in labor.

Having already paid for the steaks, she was a little miffed... like I could help it. Sure, I'd had one child already but he was not born in the "normal" way. With him, I was induced because my water broke and I had no contractions, so I didn't know what "natural" labor contractions felt like.

I think we finally went to the hospital around 4:30-4:45 when the contractions started becoming regular and getting stronger. We get there and I'm dilated to two pfft! So, we walk around, up and down the hospital halls, the pain gets more intense but not enough to warrant pain meds, so when they ask me, I say no. Dumbass mistake. I was dilated to 5 then.

I go to take a shower in hopes to relax a bit, but I had the water too hot and it made me sick, so if course I threw up. Gah. My poor sister does not do well with vomit.

The pain gets pretty bad and I'm ready for drugs, but the nurse goes to check how far I'm dilated and I'm at 8. She says I'm too far along to get drugs now. WHAT? Needless to say I swore a bit, even used the F word. Well, hell, it hurt! And my doctor is sitting in a recliner at the foot of my bed filling out paperwork and he says, "We're doing great. Just breath and we'll get there." WE hell! There is no "we". Just me feeling like this kid is like something from Alien and is going to rip out of my stomach at any moment, or tear me in two. Gah, it was evil.

Then I got the, "Don't push, there's still a little piece of cervix in the way." The hell with that! I had to push. So, the nurse moved the flap while I pushed. A hole-to-hole episiotomy and twenty minutes later, there was Mike was born.

Now that baby is 16 years old and it's hard to believe, but I'm very proud of the young man he's become... stomach problems and all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!