I started having contractionson January 22, they were not strong, but they got regular, and were 5-6 minutes apart. I wasn't due until Febuary 8th, but they were so regular we went to the hospital. The nurse sent us home saying that they would be stronger, and that these were just Braxton-Hicks. The next day they were still there, and a little stronger. We went back to the hospital, and again were told it was B-H.
During that night, they slowly got stronger, but were still not painful, we had been invited to lunch at my mother's house, and while we were going up the hill a car came out of the other lane and pushed us into the guard-rails. It was snowing pretty bad, and couldn't have been more than 20 degrees outsite, so while the police were taking thier time filling out paperwork, I asked if one of them could get ahold of my mother on thier cell phone, to come get me. The one I asked didn't seem happy about my asking this, and rather rudely asked why I couldn't just wait another 10-15 minutes for them to finish. I told him I was having contractions, and total chaos broke out. He panicked, and started yelling for his partner to get an ambulance, and he put me in his car while muttering,"I may have been told how to deliver a baby, but I'm not gonna see if I can."
When the ambulance got there, I walked over to it, and the EMT was asking where the girl was. When I told him it was me, he didn't seem to believe me. I was taken to the hospital where I was again told that it wasn't real labor (it is now around 2:00 pm). I was not at my hospital, and Dr. Sonnenberg wanted me taken there for tests. So back in the ambulance, and on to Titusville Hospital. I had an ultrasound, and was told that the baby was fine. I had not thought anything would have been wrong, we were not traveling fast, the roads were to slippery, all it took was a small bump from the other car to send us into the rails.
I was taken upstairs to the OB unit for observation, and they gave me the opinion that I was still only having B-H. I was checked at 4:30 by one of the nurses who said she couldn't even reach my cervix, and told that Dr. S would be in to see me before they sent me home. I had a wonderful (ha) hospital dinner, and Dr. S came to see me at 6:00, and told me they were going to send me home, and he wanted to see me in his office on Monday (this is Friday). He then said that he wanted to check my cervix to see if he could reach it. He checked me, and looked at the nurse with a rather astonished look, and said that I was 6 cm dialated, to get me admitted. He looked back to me, and said,"I guess you aren't going home after all."
I had decided against pain medication, and I was still not in pain, but John and Dr. S talked me into a small shot of Demerol, because Dr. wouldn't let me have anything after this time.
It was a pretty good idea that they did, too, because the contractions soon started getting stronger.
At 7:30 pm, I was told it was time to push, by now I was VERY ready, it had gotten painful, and I wanted it over. John had not left my side the whole time, and I think he almost got his hand broke while I was pushing.
At 7:45, we had a beautiful, little girl. She had a full head of dark hair, and looked a lot like her Daddy. She was 7 pounds, and 19 inches.
She was, and still is a very opinionated baby. But she has been a joy for the whole family. She is our little Chey, we love her more than anything.
Be sure to also visit theRSV page to learn about her fight with this virus, and also to learn more about the virus itself. You may also want to visit the January Playgroup Page to find pictures and links to pages of other January 97 babies and thier pages.
Also, a note, this music has meaning, it is one of the songs that was on the tape that was playing during her birth. Dr. Sonnenberg still picks on us for playing bagpipe music. I told him that he needs to put it on his web page. If you want to visit the famous Dr., whom I think I've mentioned in each of my pages somewhere, you need just to click here.