Birth Story #1

This year Natalie was really showing an interest in how it is that she came into this world on her birthday. So I thought maybe I should have her birth story and all of the children's birth story written down in one spot for them to look at one day. And I figured what better time to do it than the month of May when we celebrate mothers. So for the next four weeks I'll be sharing the births of each of my children.

Starting with Natalie:

Natalie was born April 22, 1999 at 11:17 p.m. Eastern time.

After hearing from many people that I hadn't dropped yet and I'd probably be pregnant for another 2 weeks or so I had no idea what I was in store for at my 40 week check up. April 22nd was my due date. It's very rare to have a baby born on its due date, but a first one especially.

I'll never forget the whole day I was angry and not talking to Joe. He had jokingly told me that night before that if this baby wasn't a boy he was putting her back. I was 9 months pregnant, cranky, and sure I was having a girl even though we never found out by ultrasound. So thinking that Joe wasn't going to love this baby as much if she wasn't a boy really had me upset. I had my doctors appointment later in the afternoon. Joe and I didn't utter a word to each other all day. He brought me to my appointment and we didn't speak a word.

The nurse took my blood pressure and it was elevated. They put me on the monitor in the office and then seemed a little frantic in the office. It got me worried. Joe and I finally began talking. He was watching the machine and remembering what we were taught in our Lamaze class about how to read them. He watched me have contractions that I wasn't feeling. The nurse who put me on the monitor didn't even bother looking at it. They said well we don't like your blood pressure and don't know what's going on so head over to the hospital.

So off we went. I still had no idea that I was in labor or wouldn't be going home that night. We arrived and they got me all set up and my blood pressure amazingly had gone down by this point. But on the monitors they watched me contract pretty hard and regularly every five minutes. The midwife came in and checked me and I was 5 almost 6 centimeters dilated. I had no idea I was contracting. They were shocked I did not feel them. I was there for good though. So Joe went home to get my stuff and I called my mom to tell her this was it and I felt nothing. She was surprised that I didn't feel anything. She headed right over to the hospital. I walked the halls watching all of these other women double over in pain, but I still felt nothing.

Joe came back, my mom arrived, and we played cards. I continued not feeling the contractions. When the midwife saw that I was playing cards while contracting away and hadn't progressed to much more than 6 centimeters she decided to break my water. Well, that was that. Once that happened I was really feeling the pain then. Things moved very quickly from there. My water was broken at about 8 at night. By about 10:30 I was fully dilated. I started pushing. They moved me around because I wasn't getting far. They started losing Natalie's heartbeat. They put me on oxygen. I pushed for 47 minutes. I got to a point where I was telling them to just get her out already. I didn't care how I wanted it over. And at 11:17 p.m. on her due date (only 43 minutes to spare) Natalie was born. The nurse said, "It's a boy!" What? I looked at her quickly sure that I had had a girl. She goes "Oh no sorry, It's a girl!" Ahhh, that's better. After all I didn't get all bent out of shape 24 hours before for nothing. They put her directly on my stomach as she was coming out and wiped her up on my chest. Then they took her away to check her all out. 8 pounds 12 ounces and 21 inches long. No wonder I was told I hadn't dropped. I was all baby.

The midwife who delivered Natalie couldn't repair the tearing I had. So she called the on call doctor. He was a jerk. Two shots of Demerol and I could still feel him stitching me. He kept telling me not to move. My mom and Joe were watching from across the room probably holding each other back from attacking the doctor. When it was all said and done though I had a beautiful healthy baby girl. And then they were changing my bed and the Demerol finally took effect and I literally passed out onto my bed. They had to use smelling salt to get me up to get me back into bed.

I had no pain medications during the birth. I've always said if I had labored longer I probably would have been asking for drugs. My recovery was a long and painful one. But none of that matters. I brought a beautiful healthy little girl into this world. And for the record, Joe couldn't possibly have loved Natalie anymore if she were a boy. Every night he would stay up with her and sing, "You are My Sunshine". That's their song.

Kaitlyn's birth story
CJ's birth story
Alyssa's birth story