The second half of the story…

So, when my computer started eating my text, I was in pain (a theme of the situation)…
The resident that the nurse had paged hadn’t shown up, so one of the doctors from my doctor’s group came in to see what was going on.  When Doug walked in at 9:40, the doctor was just getting things ready to check me.  Now, before I continue, let me tell you a little about this doctor.  When I had to see her for an appointment when I was pregnant with Macy I was told that she wasn’t exactly a gentle person.  She isn’t an extremely personable doctor, so when I saw her come in I thought, “Oh great.  She’s going to tell me to suck it up and get over my gas pains.”  Imagine my surprise when she told me that I was 8cm dialated!  At that point this doctor turned into one of my all-time favorite people.  She said that we needed to get to labor and delivery right now.  Then she looked at my nurse and told her that she wasn’t moving fast enough!  (I told you she turned into one of my favorite people).  The doctor asked if I wanted an epidural or pain medication if there was time…DUH!  Then she went on to labor and delivery to get everything ready and call the NICU to come down. 
I had 4 other nurses that started trying to get the bed unhooked and to labor and delivery.  I think they put a hole in wall trying to get my bed out the door!  They couldn’t get all the wires unhooked before someone else started trying to pull the bed.  Doug was about to knock them all down and push the bed himself!  By the time we got to labor and delivery there were at least 15 doctors and nurses in the room…to the point where my favorite doctor said, “If you don’t need to be here, then you need to leave.”  (I volunteered to go, but no one thought I was funny at that point)  The doctor immediately checked me again and put a monitor on the baby’s head to monitor his heartrate.  I had nurses all around me trying to get an IV in and doing who knows what else. 
As soon as the baby’s heart monitor was on, I could hear that his heartrate was getting really low…that scared me more than the pain.  The doctor told me that I was going to push continuously, even when I wasn’t having a contraction.  I kept my eyes closed so I could focus and listened to Doug’s voice.  When I was delivering Macy, I could tell by Doug’s voice when I was getting close…he had an excitement that I hadn’t heard before.  I heard that same excitement in his voice this time and was able to focus on it.
We were expecting an emergency situation when he was born…the NICU would swoop in and take him away without us getting a good look at him…thankfully, our situation was a little different.  He was breathing on his own when he was born…and even cried a little.  The doctor held him up so I could see him and then asked Doug if he wanted to cut the cord.  Doug was still thinking in our emergency scenario, so he said no at first, but once the doctor convinced him that it was okay, he cut the cord.  Once the cord was cut, the NICU team took him to the little bassinet to get him ready to go upstairs.  A nurse brought him back so I could give him a kiss before he left.
It was surreal.  Once the doctors and nurses cleared out, Doug and I were left in shock.  I couldn’t believe that we had actually just delievered a baby…AND that I did it without pain medication!  One of the nurses called up to the NICU and found out that he weighed 3 lbs. 10 oz.  I think that they said he was 17.5 in long, but I still need to check on that.  His APGAR score was a 9, so I was thrilled to hear that!
Once I went back and looked at the times everything happened, I realized that it was only 22 MINUTES between the time that Doug walked into my first hospital room and the time that he was born!  I knew that everything happened fast, but I didn’t realize it was THAT fast!!!!  We are thankful and blessed that he is here and as healthy as he could be to be 9 weeks early!