"You're gonna have this baby in the next two to six hours," says the hospital worker person as they exit our cubicle with a curtain, I mean... room. Kim and I look at each other in utter disbelief. I mean, sure, the doctor told us on Wednesday that she would recommend us not traveling1. So, we knew there was a chance, but we never thought it would actually happen. We thought, "We've had a textbook pregnancy. We're not monitoring any delicate situations. Most first pregnancies go over the due date2. What's the worst that can happen? If we go down there, and we have the baby. It's no big deal."

Like I said, that's what we thought. That's what we thought and said on Wednesday as we left the doctor's office. Now, it was two and a half days later, and we were about six hundred miles removed from that doctor, Rex Hospital, our house, and everything that we had planned on. Our thoughts were a little different at that moment.

At this point, they moved Kim and I to the "laboring" room. Really they just moved Kim, and I followed along, sort of like a lost puppy. When we get to room 202, we meet a few nurses and Dr. Rosenburg3. Dr. Rosenburg was a nice lady. She asked a few questions and was probably disappointed to find that we didn't have any medical records with us. Our lack of records4, led to the decision for them to take several vials of blood from Kim to run some tests. The nurse, Krista, got to work on drawing the blood for the labs, and the doctor informed us that she had to go do a C-section, and that she would be back in about an hour to take care us us.

While drawing Kim's blood, Krista asked if she wanted any pain medicine, or an epidural. Kim's response to the epidural was, "Sure. I had always planned to get one."5 Krista called someone to let them know that Kim wanted an epidural, only to find out that the same chick that had stolen our doctor had also stolen the anesthesiologist. The person on the other end let us know that it would be 30-45 minutes before they would be in to give her one. To this Kim responded calmly, "Okay. I'll just work through the contractions until then." Stud.

So, Krista finished up with what seemed like bloodletting, and as she got ready to exit the room, she and Kim had the following conversation.

"If you feel like you have to have a bowel movement, you need to let me know."6
"I kind of feel like that now."
"Really?!?"
"Yeah."
"Let me check your cervix again." [Checks Cervix] "You're complete!"7

At this, the nurse gets on the horn and calls for reinforcements. Then, she starts running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Now, I am not a smart man, but I put together a few things and quickly came to the realization that the nurse was not interested in helping Kim to the bathroom. The felt need to push had nothing to do with dropping any kids off at any pool, it meant there was a kid that wanted to come into the world.

1. back "You never know," she had said. "Things can happen. My sister had her baby at thirty-six weeks."


2. back I have heard Kim say this several times, but I have never read anything about it, but I figure she knows more than I do about this type of thing.


3. back We had been told that Dr. Rosenburg would be taking care us while we were in triage. Someone explained that she was the doctor assigned to those people who show up and don't have a doctor. I wondered how many people come to the hospital, aside from those people that are hundreds of miles from home, and do not have a doctor. Later we would find out that at least two people came to TMH that night without one.


4. back Kim had asked the doctor back in Raleigh if we should get a copy of her records to take just in case, but she, the doctor, had said "No."


5. back It was just that flippant, not "OH MY GOD! YES! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!". She was late in her labor, at least 7cm dialated, and she is like "Sure." My wife is a stud.


6. back I honestly thought that she didn't want Kim going walking over to the bathroom by herself, and if Kim had to drop the kids off at the pool, she wanted to make sure someone was there to help her get to the toilet. I was wrong.


7. back Complete in Baby Having terms means the cervix is 100% effaced and dialated 10 cm.

Labels: baby, birthStory