On the afternoon of February 25th, 2001, there was a small earthquake here in No. CA. I was sitting at the computer, checking my e-mail. B. was outside, mowing the lawn I think. I remember thinking "An earthquake- maybe that'll get this kid moving." "This kid" was D. He was a week overdue and seemed perfectly happy to stay where he was, doing headstands on Mommy's internal organs and seeing if he could push his little feet right through my lungs.
A few minutes later, the muscles across my belly rippled and tightened. I didn't get too excited, as I had been having contractions for about a week- they'd start, then stop an hour or so later. I didn't even mention them to B., as I didn't feel like crying wolf again.
A couple of hours later, the tightening (still didn't hurt much at that point) was keeping pretty steady, so I had B. start timing. At about 7:30 or 8 p.m., we headed for the hospital. I was sure they were going to send me home, as it didn't hurt as much as I thought it should.
Nope, they said "We don't send home people that are almost 4 cm." And so commenced the longest 12 hours of my life. D. was having some trouble (apparently my water had broken and I had missed it), so there were many machines strapped to me in various ways, all beeping away. When the beeps would go awry, my sweet B. would hurry to the nurses station to make sure they were on top of it. My sister, K., sat quietly in the corner, keeping an eye on us. I think she was offering to get things, etc, for B., but I can't really remember anything past the edge of my hospital bed.
Many hours passed. D. continued to have a hard time, and his heart rate was continuing to go dangerously low (about 1/2 of normal and not coming back up after contractions), so at 7:32 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 26th, 2001, the Drs. went in and got him. He was so stuck that they had to pry him back out the other way (leading to his very first black eye), and his many hours of entrapment had led to a conehead big enough to rival those on SNL. Amazingly, both issues resolved themselves by the next day (I didn't even know it was possible to heal a black eye in 24 hours...babies are amazing). D. weighed in at a lean 9 lbs, 9 oz, had a healthy cry, loved being swaddled up and was the best thing that ever happened to me & B.
I can't believe it has been 10 years since my sweet boy was first laid in my arms. He may be a big kid now, but (much to his chagrin) he will always be my baby.
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