Magnolia and Boothe: June 2009

We were laying in bed on Friday night, around 10:45 pm. I had just fallen asleep. A couple of minutes later, I awoke to Jenica saying, in an extraordinarily calm voice, "Dan....my water just broke." I jumped up, not really sure how long we had (in other words, precisely how freaked out I should be). Jenica said that the contractions weren't starting in earnest, so we started gathering all or our stuff and called my parents so they could come over and keep an eye on Magnolia, who was fast asleep. Having no idea how long it would take, we made sure breakfast was laid out for Magnolia.

Once all of our stuff was together, around 11:11, Jenica started to bounce and take deep breaths and it was clear that things were in motion. I called my Mom to convey the new sense of urgency. Since Magnolia took about 12 hours to make an actual appearance once Jenica was induced, Mimi thought she had a few minutes to gather her things and brush her teeth before coming over. Jenica's face said otherwise. Mimi laid rubber all the way down Portage and got over to our house around 11:25. We waved goodbye to her as we hurried out to the car and sped off. Fortunately, we only live about 3 minutes from the hospital. I tried to work the right balance between speeding (I'm pretty sure I went 55 in a 25 at one point) and avoiding the bumps in the road, which made cont`ractions more painful for Jenica. The old, bulging brick roads near Memorial hospital did not make this easy.

We were admitted to the hospital at 11:30. The woman who admitted us casually asked some questions as Jenica struggled with some serious contractions that could not have been more than 1 minute apart. Admitting expectant mothers t the hospital, I'm sure she meets her fair share of women who are convinced they are going to give birth any minute, but this was serious. Jenica told her that we may just need to skip the triage altogether, but she went ahead and sent us down there anyway. These picture were taken around 11:35 in the triage, as Jenica was getting ready to change into her gown:

She's got her game face on

Still thinking there might be 2 babies in there.....

Jenica got changed and waited for the nurse to come in and check her out. We were hoping that the nurse would come in, take stock of the situation and rush us to a delivery sweet. No such luck. The nurse--equally adept at staying calm in the face of freaking out parents-to-be--listened calmly as we told her this baby was going to be here before we knew it. She said they would need to do a test to see if her water actually broke. Apparently, our description of our soaked sheets at home was not evidence enough.

After another couple minutes of fast and furious contractions, they decided that the test was unnecessary. The doctor came in a couple of minutes later and checked to see how far along she was. He was a first-year resident doing his OB rotation. Another calm character. His composure wore thin as he realized that he wasn't going to be able to give us a progress report because she was "complete" (fully dilated) and ready to go! Finally the doctors and nurses shared our sense of urgency and carted Jenica off to a delivery suite.

We knew at that point that it was too late for an epidural, but asked if there was "something......anything" she could take to ease the pain. The nurse said unfortunately, NO.

We got to the suite at 11:59 pm. Jenica was ready to start pushing as they were rolling her down to the suite. Once she got situated, the doctor told her to go ahead and start pushing (at 12:02). It was intense....5 contractions/pushes (all natural) and Boothe was here at 12:12 am on June 27th! That's almost exactly an hour from when the serious contractions started and only 10 minutes after she started pushing! Boothe was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and healthy as can be!