In honor of “Surprise Sundays”, let me share with you the two best surprises that have ever happened to me:
Friday, August 22,
2008.
After nearly five weeks of complete misery, my first baby
boy finally decided to make his appearance.
The doctors, and nurses, had been telling me for weeks that he was
coming, to stay nearby the hospital, to leave my house at the first hint of
labor. Friday morning comes…my husband is at work, so my parents are staying
with me. I feel some contractions,
decide to get ready. Feel a few more,
decide to pack the bag. By the time we
get in the car, I feel one big one,
and tell my dad to hurry! We arrive at
the hospital around 10:00 AM. My mom and
I wait anxiously to hear if today is the day (after I have had one too many
false alarms). The doctor comes in to
check me out, and says “you’re going to have your baby today!”. My mom cries, we call my husband, and I get
myself ready for the unknown. I no
longer have pain—the doctor tells me to walk a few flights of stairs. I walk 8 flights. They wonder why he isn’t coming faster, so
they do an ultrasound. Everything looks
good, he’s a healthy baby, about 8 pounds they say. They decide to break my water (not pleasant), and then it hurts.
The first word out of my mouth is “epidural”, and so they get me
one. By now it is around 3:30 PM. I am ready to push, they say. As I push, my husband holds my legs so tight
that I get bruises. After about an hour
and a half of pushing, my perfect firstborn son comes out and screams his first
scream at 5:51 pm. Here comes the
surprise….the nurse takes him over to clean him up, and sets him on the
scale. She picks him up, re-starts the
scale, and weighs him again. She motions
to the doctor, who goes over, and they weigh him a third time. By now, my husband has gone to see what all
the fuss is about. My baby, our baby,
weighs 10 pounds 1 ounce and is 22 ¼ inches long. Now that
is a BIG surprise! (…..for those of you
who don’t know me, I am 5’6” and normally weigh around 110 pounds...NO one saw that coming!)
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| Samuel Roark |
Saturday, May 29,
2010.
My now 21-month-old son wakes up unusually early (around
5:00) and wants to read books. This is
very out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, I get him a few books and we
read. He drifts back to sleep, and I am
about to do the same, but then a big
sharp pain….my first contraction with baby #2.
I look at my phone to see what time it is: it’s 5:51AM (exactly the time
that big brother was born). About 20
minutes later, another contraction. I sleep
in between them, and get out of bed a couple hours later. They are coming about every 10 minutes, but
not as hard, so I load up my son in the car and we go to the Farmer’s Market
with my parents. I push the stroller, my
mom sees me stop and hang on to the handle tightly. “Are you ok?” she asks. “Yes, just another contraction” I
answer. We buy some candied popcorn for
my boy, and I buy myself a loaf of bread.
The market vendor says “Are you going to have your baby soon?” and I say “Yes, I think today!” Everyone laughs, but I’m not kidding. We leave the market around 9:30AM, and we go
home. I decide to lay down on the couch,
my mom runs an errand, and my dad takes my son for a walk. I’m laying on the couch, sending text messages
to my friends and calmly telling them I’m sure that I’m in labor. When the contractions are 4 minutes apart, I call
my doctor, who is out riding his bike. “Meet
me at the hospital,” he says. So, we
load up the car and drive. I check in
the emergency room at 11:07AM. They
offer me a wheelchair, and I say “no, that’s ok, I can walk”. My mom and I walk to the elevator; my dad
takes my son to play at the fountain. We
check in to labor and delivery, and the nurse says “you are almost ready to
have the baby!”. We call my husband, I ask
for the epidural, and my nightmare comes true:
it’s too late to have the epidural, I’m too far along. They offer to bring me some pain meds, and I wait
impatiently for them. The nurse comes to
put in the I.V. and says “oh, I forgot something”. She walks out for a minute, and then I feel
it. I turn to my mom and say, “I think
his head is coming out”. She runs for
the nurse, who calmly says “oh, honey, that’s just some pressure. It’s normal”. She comes over to check and be sure…and then
she runs to the hall. I was right---his
head was coming out! No time for pain meds or IV’s. The doctor comes running in just as I push. After a few hard pushes, I feel his head come
out. I look at my mom and say “now I have
to prepare for the shoulders, I remember that was hard the first time”. She looks at me and laughs, tells me to look
over at the doctor, who is holding my son.
Surprise….he is here! The time is
now 12:14. My husband is driving his semi-truck at ridiculous speeds
down residential streets. He walks in just as they take him to the scale. For nine months I have feared what size baby
comes after the 10-pound firstborn,
but I can see that he is nowhere near that size. The scale reads 6 pounds 13 ounces.
 |
| Cooper Alonzo |
I sure do love surprises, but I can’t think of any better
surprise in the whole world than these two precious, precious boys that call me
Mommy. One surprised us by coming out
the size of a 3-month old, and the other by arriving in just over an hour. And I wouldn’t trade either experience for the world.
I am anxious (very anxious) to see what surprises their little sister has
in store for us when she arrives this summer.
Only 3 more months until her story is told!
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