The Baby's Coming!

We all have our delivery stories which we share like hunters discuss their conquests!  I believe part of this is to make the experience a positive one so that we are willing to have another, and part is to receive some acknowledgement for all the effort.
My first son came one week after I went on maternity leave and two weeks before his due date.  My water broke and the doctor said to come in.  This wasn't my doctor whom I had been going to since age 21, but his standby because he was on vacation!  The doctor gave me something for the pain which burned up my arm and knocked me out.  I remember he and the nurse waking me up to push and my asking them to tell the lady screaming to shut up, to which the nurse replied that the screamer was me. The next thing I remember was the nurse pushing on my abdominal area causing me to ask, "Haven't I had this baby yet?"  She said, "Yes, you had a son. I am just making sure you expelled the afterbirth." I was pushed to my room and put in a bed.  After I slept, I awakened to the need to relieve myself.  I sat up and immediately got a horrible headache.  I rang for a nurse who brought me a bed pan and instructed me not to get up since they had given me a spinal, not knowing I would be out for the entire delivery. She left, and it took a considerable amount of time to get any of the various workers who entered and left my room to remove the bed pan.  Apparently, it wasn't in any of their job descriptions!
After three days, I was released to go home.  When my husband went to the clerk to finalize our leaving, she said that our son was not released and must stay. Panic! With much effort to locate a nurse or our doctor to explain, we were told that our son was jaundice and his bilirubin count was too high. They would keep him over night under blue lights, a form of photo-therapy, to get the count down.  As they explained to me, it is not uncommon after two or three days for a baby to be jaundice because of being breast fed, or premature, or due to a blood type mismatch between mother and child. Three for three, so he had to stay and I left with my husband and my "spinal headache."
I pumped my breast milk every few hours during the night and awoke to a call from our pediatrician around 6:30. He had received a call from the hospital's pediatrician that our son had projectile vomited during the night and they had suspected and started treatment for meningitis. This means, best case scenario, he will get better after 13 days of treatment, or worst case, he would die. At this point, I am in tears.  The doctor was heading to the hospital and said he would call us when he got there. Once there, the doctor called to say that our son was heartily sucking on his finger, and was fine, so to get there and nurse him.
Consequently, because they had started treatment, our firstborn had to stay in the hospital for the full thirteen days, and my husband and I went there two to three times a day so I could nurse him. (The rest of the time, he was to be fed the breast milk I continued to extract, but some slipped in formula.) Taking my baby out of the incubator with all the IV and other wires and holding him was awkward but worth it.  We needed to maintain our bonding and I wanted him to get all the benefits of breast milk, and we missed him!  If I had not been dealing with the spinal headache and he were in a room where I could stay, I would have been there all the time.  But that was not allowed.  After a few days, we arrived to find half our son's thick head of hair shaved and an IV inserted because he kept pulling it out.  Natural action for a baby boy! Don't know why I never had them shave off the rest of his hair.

Finally he was released and we could get into a normal routine.  He was such a joy that seven months later, my husband said he would like to try for another.  We stopped using protection and were successful right a way!

Because we had moved after the first son, the second and third sons were born in Florida.  Son number two's birth was so easy compared to the first.  At the end of an evening out with friends, I had what I thought was another Braxton Hicks contraction since it was two weeks from the due date. I went to bed and awoke around 3:30 AM with constipation cramps.  I went to the bathroom and realized when the cramps didn't leave after a bowel movement that I might be in labor.  I woke my husband who grabbed our son while I grabbed my bag.  When we arrived at the hospital, a nurse took me up to be examined while my husband and son waited.  Turns out I was fully dilated and ready to deliver. One nurse told me not to push but the urge was intense. (Are you hearing Prissy from Gone With the Wind saying, "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!")  Believe me, my face showed the terror, but the second nurse said to go ahead and push since she had delivered babies before. Then the doctor walked in, took a quick look, and told me to push.  Son two was born!  It was around one hour from when I awoke until he arrived, with 30 minutes of that in the hospital and two minutes of that with the doctor!  The doctor called down to let me speak with my husband, but he wasn't there. Son one had his own bowel movement and we hadn't grab diapers when we left.  As the hospital only had newborn sizes, they had gone home to change diapers thinking I would be awhile! I called him at home and when he answered, I began crying. He asked what was wrong and I shared that we had another son! Our son was very healthy but did have crooked legs due to how I carried him.  That was easily corrected with casts for a short span of time.

Raising two sons so close in age was not really difficult.  In fact, as I was soon approaching 30, we decided to try for a girl.  I had read all this literature on encouraging the female sperm and discouraging the male sperm.  I did the diet, douche, position, and timing and son number three was conceived!  His delivery was not as quick as son number two because he was only 6 days early and therefore a larger baby.  But I was able to have the delivery again without drugs so I could take care of three babies born in three years!  Sons two and three both had the same jaundice and high bilirubin count as son one.  However, since babies only stayed in the hospital one day as compared to the three from before, the pediatricians just kept an eye on them.  Funny incident with son three was the visit by our pediatrician in the hospital.  He had three daughters and knew I had been trying for one.  His comment when he saw me was, "I have just seen your daughter.  She is doing fine, and I will circumcise her tomorrow!" You have to laugh!

Having three boys in just over three years was truly a joy!  When we were done a phase with son three, we were done with that phase be it breast feeding, bottles, diapers, etc.... Their interests were similar and all we did was age appropriate for all three. Very enjoyable time in our lives!  Do you notice the fourth baby in the picture? That little doll and her sisters helped me a lot when taking care of the needs of son number three!  Read about her in the next post.