You are 6 Today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTHONY!

It is hard to believe that 6 years ago today I was sitting on my couch when the labor pains hit me. They were not close together, but they were extremely painful. This was my third pregnancy and I hadn't felt labor pains this strong so early in the process. I was home alone with Lee (6) and Champ (5). I live 20 min. away from the hospital on back roads (very curvy, winding and steep).

I had the phone right next to me and I couldn't pick it up and dial it because the pains were so strong. I asked Lee, in the calmest voice I could muster, to call his dad at work. I told him the number and told him to ask to speak to Frank please (explaining that there were other 'dads' that worked there). I guess his 6 year old instincts knew something was up because when the secretary answered the phone Lee excitedly said, "I need my daddy!!!!! I need my daddy!!!!!"

The secretary asked to talk to me. With her voice quivering, she said, "Jena. He's gone to lunch and I don't know where he went. What should I do?"

I told her the pains weren't that close together, but I did need him to call me as soon as he got back from lunch. Frank told me later that several of his co-workers met him in the parking lot before he even got out of his vehicle.

Background information: We have a small farm and Frank gets the boys actively involved in it with him. He had been teaching Lee to drive the lawnmower (with out the blades engaged) in low gear (Frank walking beside it). Lee was learning to steer and brake and basic things like that. Frank had a small trailer hooked behind the riding lawn mower and had fencing supplies in it. Frank would ask Lee to pull up a little (Frank walking right beside him) and stop so he could repair the fence. They had been doing this for a few weekends.

When I got off the phone, Lee asked if daddy was coming. I told him not right now. He began to get worried. He said, "Mommy, I can take you to the hospital. I know how to drive the lawnmower, you can ride in the trailer." It was precious. There is so much humor there and unless you knew where we lived, you cannot appreciate that statement to its fullest. But I think you can appreciate the sweetness of it.

Side note: My first labor was very long, we induced my 2nd child b/c the Dr. was going out of town, and I didn't experience a lot of pain until I was getting close to delivery so we had discussed me driving myself to the hospital and Frank meeting me there.

Frank called (it seemed like forever, but was less than an hour after I had called his work) and said, "Do I need to meet you at the hospital?"

I told him there was no way I could drive and that he needed to come get me as quickly as possible. (His work is about 20 min. away from our home and then there would be another 20 minutes to the hospital and then somewhere along the way we were going to have to drop off Lee and Champ to stay with someone - I needed him to hurry!)

Well, we made it and I could barely walk into the hospital. (You know those movies where the pregnant women scream when they are delivering their baby? I never got that, until now. When a labor pain hit me, I couldn't do anything, literally. Every time a labor pain hit me as I was walking into the hospital, I had to stop and Frank would have to help hold me up. I felt like screaming - I had never felt like that before).

They took me in and hooked me up and did all the routine hospital stuff and left me there with Frank. They would come in occasionally and check on me. I was in tears and asked about an epidural. The nurse said it wasn't time yet. After the nurse telling me to relax and me getting short with her, she finally said "Honey, your contractions aren't close enough together. You've probably not even dialated yet." She paused and then said, "I guess I could check you."

She did and then she looked surprised. I was dilated to 6 or 7 (can't remember exactly). The nurse said, "You're contractions must be very strong, because they are not close enough together to make you dilate." I'm thinking this whole time "That's what I've been trying to tell you." She immediately ordered my epidural, but of course the anesthesiologist was busy with someone else. She paged him several times over the next few minutes. She didn't leave me after she checked me until he arrived.

A short time later we had our beautiful bundle of joy. I am so thankful that God gave me this child (along with my other 3). Motherhood is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am so blessed.