New Beginnings

I think the title of this post says it all. It is a time of new beginnings; for our blog, and more importantly for our family. When we started this blog it was mostly due peer pressure. We aren’t that exciting and weren’t very sure what to write about...then I forgot it existed completely. Thanks to the grace of God, and a happy marriage we now have something to write about. As I am sure almost all of you know; we have a new addition to our family, Ada Ruth Reese! She was born at 10:58am Sep 20 2011, so mark your calendars (if you need gift ideas for next year, she looks beautiful in pink). Her stats were: 7pounds 11ounces and she is 20 inches. So here it is that we begin anew writing the story of our lives.

As far as Monday’s go last weeks was an uneventful one. Jennie and I had spent the weekend going out to eat and trying to keep our minds off of Ada’s arrival. The anticipation was killing us. I had been considering making a batch of my “special” chili that night as it had been successful at putting our friend Lynda in labor. However, I was tired and a bit lazy so I decided to pick up food instead. I got in the car to leave when I received a call from Jennie. She told me that it had been a hard day, and that her stomach had been cramping for about an hour. “Do you think you’re in labor?” I asked. She repeatedly protested that it was due to some apple juice that had given her gas and pleaded with me not to get my hopes up. We both arrived home about the same time and her condition had not improved and she had little appetite, she said that it seemed to come and go so, remembering what we had leaned at birthing class I insisted that we start timing the pains. As it turned out they were happening for a minute every five minutes. After a lot of coaxing I finally convinced her to call the doctor, and the next thing we knew we were off to the hospital.

Upon arrival we were ushered into a triage room to see if we were far enough along to be admitted. After monitoring Jennie for about an hour, and checking how far she was dilated, we were told that we were not quite ready. Jennie was very disappointed at hearing this news as she was in a lot of pain. The nurse explained to us that the next step would be for us to walk for an hour and check again to see where we were at. So it was, out in to hospital at midnight to roam the halls like a couple of pregnant ghosts haunting the halls of the labor and delivery ward. We found a nice stretch of hall at the back of floor that was mostly empty and paced up and down, stopping every few steps so Jennie could clutch the railing in pain while I rubbed her back and reminded her to breathe. At 12:45 we headed back to the triage room to be examined again. The same procedure as before was repeated, and the nurse looked at us disappointedly and told us that we had not progressed. At hearing this Jennie broke down in tears, partially from pain and partially from fear. She pleaded with the Nurse “You can’t make us go home, I am in so much pain, and how am I supposed to know when to come back?” The nurse replied that she was not going to make us go home that she had seen a lot of women in pain and she could tell that this was the real thing, that coupled with the fact that Jennie had high blood pressure meant that we could stay.

They told us they had an anesthesiologist who was in surgery performing a c-section, so they would give Jennie some pain medicine to tie her over until he could do an epidural. While they were doing that, I went to call her sisters Kathie and Heidi. Her friend Lynda who was supposed to be with us was sadly out of town. By the time I returned, our room was ready so we headed over to get the epidural. A short time later the girls arrived and we took a nap (at least I did) and prepared ourselves for the trials ahead.

Around shift change we got a new nurse. A lot could be said about this nurse but “you know, Jesus, and stuff” (wink at Kathie). They were having trouble finding the baby’s heart rate because she was moving around so much and they also could not tell how strong Jennies contractions were so they wanted to put in an internal monitor. They had a hospitalist come to put in the monitor and upon putting her hand in to install it she looked up and said “when is last time they checked you? You are complete.” Which was quite a shock since the last time was about two hours prior and we were only at 4cm. Not to long afterward Jennie began to have a strong urge to push and the real fun began.

They gave us the option of either increasing the epidural or starting to push. Surprisingly to me, she decided to push, so the three of us grabbed hold of legs and began to chant from one to ten in intervals of three. After repeating this cycle for about thirty minutes Jennie was writhing in pain complaining that her hip hurt too much and that she couldn’t go on. We all kept reassuring her that she must go on and that it would all be okay. She mustered up the strength and continued bravely to push. About this time; the nurse checked her progress, which must have been advancing faster than she anticipated because she told her to stop pushing and breathe through the contractions. We figured out that she was trying to stall for the doctor. She kept saying “just wait for Dr. Schlect, she is a good doctor you need to wait for her” to which Jennie finally yelled “I don’t give a (censored) great deal about Dr. Schlect!!!” Eventually they realized we meant business as we kept right on pushing, so they readied the hospitalist. Not long afterward, after about forty-five minutes after starting to push the most magnificent miracle of our lives came gushing and wailing into the world. I will admit that there was a lot of sobbing and crying in the room, though I won’t say from whom to protect the egos of those involved.

After cutting the cord and checking the baby out we were moved down to a different part of the unit into our permanent room. Coincidentally, the new room was at the end of the hallway that we had spent the night pacing the night before. Over the next two days we rested in bed, learned not to sleep, and how little we actually know about babies, contrary to Jennies profession and our careful studies during the pregnancy. We also had many wonderful visitors that livened our spirits and complimented our baby making abilities. Finally the time came to go home and as we wheeled Jennie and our stuff to the car we were both smiling from ear to ear with tears forming in the corners of our eyes overwhelmed by the joy of our new beginning.