Quinnten's Birth Story - As told in an email to family from Tyler

Family,

I'm sorry for the delay in writing this; the last 48-hours have been crazy and sleep-deprived.

As you now all know, grand-kid #17 is here.  As for the name...that's TBD any time now.

I'm sure you all want to know the excitement of how it all went down ... or perhaps you don't.  In any case, I'm going to guess that #17 arrived a little more rushed than any of the previous 16.

Let me explain.

On Friday evening, we had just enjoyed a nice evening of Dickey's with the kids and had put them down.  Around 8:00 Brigitte felt the 'usual' pains of a contraction, but basically brushed it aside due to having felt them previously and nothing ever coming of it.  She jumped in the tub to relax and hope they'd go away.  At 9:00 she was ready for bed and asked me whether she should take an Ambien or a Unisom; Ambien being the more powerful of the two, she chose to take .5 of a pill...which still zonks her out.  However, by 10:00 the contractions (which, due to the Ambien in her system, still didn't quite register as contractions) were becoming more regular in nature: from every 20 minutes to every 15.  At that point she began to have a pain in her lower back and for a blessing from me. 

Post-blessing, around 11:00, she took another tub, hoping the pains would go away -- remember, she's on Ambien, so it's not really registering.  At this point we decide to call the hospital and inquire about whether the contractions are of regular enough frequency to consider coming in to be checked out.  Post phone call, we discuss our options:

Option 1: we both go and have Brigitte's friend, Sheri, come and look over the kids.

Option 2: Brigitte goes alone -- but on Ambien at midnight. I say no to that.

Option 3: we stay put.

We select Option 3.

Soon enough, the contractions pick up speed: from every 12 to every 10 to every 8.  It's now 1:00 in the morning.  Contractions are every 6-minutes.  I make the call to go to the hospital since Brigitte isn't able to determine the gravity of the situation.  She calls Sheri, and we pack our things.  At 1:30 Sheri arrives and we jump in the car.....then we get to the freeway on-ramp and Brigitte remembers that she forgot her purse.  Normally, not being on Ambien, I think she would have said 'it doesn't matter, get me to the hospital ASAP.'  However, she requested that we return home....so, it's now 1:45 and we're finally on our way to Riverton Hospital, which is the furthest hospital you can find in the valley from our house (really, it is)!  By 1:55, Brigitte is having contractions every 2-minutes, if not quicker.  A pleasant drive has turned into a 'made for television' special of me flying at 100 mph on the freeway, then 100 mph on the expressway.

Here's the problem: I don't know where I'm going.  I know where the hospital is, but I don't know where the labor and delivery center is...and at this point Brigitte is screaming. 

So, finally, at 2:10 we arrive.  Fly into the emergency parking area, I run to grab a wheel-chair, and try to wheel Brigitte to the labor area -- but she instead decides to wheel herself to the bathroom because she really has to go to the 'bathroom'....which at this point is code for deliver a baby in a hospital bathroom without any help.  So, I wheel her into the bathroom and go running through the hospital; thanks to another couple coming to deliver, I figure where to go, jump into the elevator, run down the hall and pick up the phone.

 

The discussion went like this:

Nurse on phone: What can I do for you?

Me: My wife is having a baby in the bathroom downstairs -- please help.

Nurse: Okay, we'll be right there...

Two nurses follow me down to the 1st floor; they enter the restroom and have to pry Brigitte off the toilet and convince her to NOT go to the bathroom.  We quickly rush her to the 3rd floor, into the labor/delivery area, and into a room where 2 other nurses and an anesthesiologist have just arrived to prepare. 

The time is now 2:15.

The next 7-minutes go something like this:

Nurses: Brigitte, I need you to breathe and NOT push -- we want this baby to breathe.

Brigitte: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.......will I still get an epidural?....AHHHHHHHHHHH

Brigitte: (even louder) AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

By 2:20 the I.V. finally made it into her body, but that was all.  The nurses were asking me what her full name was, date of birth, etc. 

Nurses: Brigitte, we need you to slow your breathing and not push.

Brigitte: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2:22:

Baby: Very soft whimpering, but not much crying. 

I didn't even have time to get video (not that it would have been a pleasant memory for Brigitte). 

No epidural, no pain med.  The I.V. was supposed to have antibiotics, but wasn't in her system long enough to have an effect (she was Step B positive, which is unsafe for the baby).  The delivery was 100% natural. No doctor to deliver - just a nurse (guessing practitioner...but we never found out).  The delivery doctor on call didn't arrive until 2:35.

The rest, well, doesn't matter.

The important thing: luckily, due to really fast driving, this baby wasn't delivered on the freeway nor in the bathroom....by 7-minutes.

So, there you have it: Pace baby #3, still not yet named....the one that really REALLY wanted to come 10-days early!