On B.C. Days & Birth

Today, when I woke up, my mind immediately went back to the "B.C. Years" -- before children. It was five years ago today that I awoke for the last time before becoming a Mommy!

Five years ago today, I drug my big, round body out of bed, showered, dressed, and drove to Hallsville to teach for what would be my last day. It was my due date, and I had been dilated for a couple of weeks, but I was feeling no different than any other day. I enjoyed spending the day listening to my students debate the finer points of genetic engineering and gene therapy in Socratic seminars, and I headed to the doctor at the end of the day for another check-up. As we pulled into the parking lot of the clinic, my mom came screeching to a halt next to us, making the 9 hour drive in a few less, in order to be at this appointment. She said she'd been antsy for days, packing and unpacking her suitcase, unable to decide when she should come up, not wanting to miss Abi's arrival. Dr. Furly (my name for her based on her demeanor rather than her birth certificate) said there was no significant change.

Me, at school the last day.

So, Nick, mom and I went home and took Darbin for a walk in the park -- boy, my back sure is achy. Then, we had dinner on the patio of our favorite Mexican restaurant -- it sure feels good to rock back and forth in this chair, makes my back feel better. After a relaxing evening at home, we all headed to bed at 10, since we were meeting at the school at 6 a.m. the next morning to take the senior class to a Cardinals baseball game in St. Louis.

At 11 p.m. I awoke, literally paralyzed with pain. The muscles in my back were absolutely frozen in agony! I managed to make it to the bathroom downstairs before the diarrhea hit and spent the next 3o minutes calling for Nick and having my intestines turned inside out. All I could think was, "Those *#@! Mexicans have poisoned me!" I finally drug myself upstairs, after three futile attempts, and got Nick and my mom to wake up. I spent the next 2 hours in the shower, trying to get my back pain to subside with hot water. Finally, Mom said, "I think we might need to go to the hospital. This might be something." I'm still thinking, "Yeah, it's something alright, it's food poisoning!" Duh! I would've had Abi at home in the shower, if it weren't for Mom's urging to go to the hospital. It honestly never crossed my mind that I was in labor!

So, we get dressed, me all the while thinking how tired I'm going to be on the trip tomorrow if I spend most of the night at the hospital, messing around with that. But, I went along with it. After Nick making a call to the hospital (call it Divine Intervention that he called ahead -- why would he do that?) and being told they were full to go to another hospital, WHAT!, and him running a red light and missing the hospital drive, we make it to the hospital where I received the "You're still upright and a first-time mom so you can't really be in labor" routine, I was checked and was at 8-9 cm dilated!! You could have knocked me over with a feather! Not only did I not believe I was in labor until then, but it was almost time to deliver.
After waiting for Dr. Furly to arrive for what seemed like a very long time (I am glad that she arrived without taking the time to put on make-up - although I didn't recognize her at first), I pushed a couple of times and Abi was born!!

I snuggled with Abi and fed her, impatiently waiting until a more reasonable time to start calling friends. Finally, 5 a.m. rolled around, and I figured most of my teacher friends would be up soon anyway, so I started dialing!
What a miraculous thing to watch the sunrise the next morning through the hospital window, holding a brand-new fresh precious baby girl! My, how much can change from one sunrise to the next!