Our Miracle Baby Arrives

Posted in Eternal Love | 4 comments

After nine months and three weeks, our miracle baby had decided to leave the warmth and safety of my womb to be born.  

Early on the morning of October 15, 1973, Frank and I had left our apartment then drove to Saint Joseph Hospital in Bryan, Texas.  Although we had preregistered months before, after helping me out of the vehicle, Frank and a nurse wheeled me hurriedly in a wheelchair to a registrar’s office.  Of course, we left puddles on our entire route, and I was embarrassed, but with each contraction that embarrassment lessoned because I did not care anymore, at all.

Finally, we all got in an elevator headed to the second floor where there were labor rooms and the delivery room.  Frank and the nurse took me into a labor room then another nurse took over.  After being given one of those backless gowns by the new nurse, I was asked to put it on.  Frank told me that while I settled in he was going to go to a pay phone and call our parents to let them know we were at the hospital.

Since a small bathroom was in the room, I went in there to change.  The contractions were about every two minutes, so I decided sitting on the toilet was my best option, that is until the nurse found me. The nurse entered the bathroom then saw me sitting on the throne.

She was laughing as she asked,  “Mrs. Henderson, what are you doing?  You need to get off of there and get back in there in that bed, or you are going to drop that baby in the toilet!”

At  “drop that baby in the toilet”, I began hoisting myself up then waddling along leaving puddles, of course, as I moved out of the bathroom.  When getting to the bed, I noticed that the mattress on the bed frame sat about three feet from the ground.

Thinking that was going to be a real challenge, I asked the nurse, “Do you have a lower bed or can you lower it?  There is no way I can hike this belly and body up on to that bed.”

She laughed saying, “No Ma’am.  No other bed and I can not lower it, but I do have a step stool, but since I can’t trust you to stay out of the bathroom after I help you up in that bed, I’m taking the stool.”

I explained to her that the bed was going to get wet, but she just told me not to worry about it because my job was to concentrate on having a baby and they would take care of the rest.  She helped me up on to the bed then did some vital signs on me then pulled a stethoscope out to check the baby, but before she placed it on my tummy, she warmed it up in her hands.  Since it felt icy cold in the room, I thanked her for doing that then she left through a door on the opposite side of the room which we had used to enter it.

I was now trapped up on a bed, having contractions, wetting the bed, and with just a cotton sheet for cover when Frank returned to the room.  When he looked at my face, Frank asked, “Lou, you doing okay?  Are you in a lot of pain?”

Of course, I told him all about the situation and the dilemma that I was in with being constrained to the bed, but he stood there laughing then said,  “I love you, Nancy, but I am not gonna help you off that bed so you can have our baby in a toilet.”

Well, that made me laugh until suddenly another contraction hit which was harder than the others, as the nurse entered through her doorway to places unknown.  She came to the bed then told me she needed to do a vaginal check.  That was great timing!  After she finished the exam, she asked me how long the contractions had been two minutes apart.  I told her since they began around 5:00 a.m. Her next question was about pain.  I explained to her that I really was not having much pain, but my back hurt. She left the room for a moment then returned with a blanket and a pill that she asked me to take.  After I took the pill, she told me to roll on my side as she turned on a lamp on a table beside the bed that had a chair next to it.  Frank set down in the chair then the nurse turned off the overhead light as she left through her mystery door.

Evidently, the pill I had taken made me fall asleep because when I awoke my sister-in-law had replaced my husband in the chair by the table.  I remembered just vaguely the nurse coming in and placing the stethoscope on my belly, but nothing more. My sister-in-law told me that she had come to sit with me while Frank went to the cafeteria to get something to eat since it was way past lunch.  It seemed that time was flying by and I had no perception.

The nurse entered through her mystery door and flipped on the overhead light, but this time she had my OB-GYN Doctor with her.  Something told me that the Doctor was going to do his very own exam and I was so right.  As I got into the position for the exam, I realized that the contractions had gotten a lot stronger and the pill the nurse had given me had worn off.

The Doctor did not say much to me during the exam, but he did ask where Frank was and when he would be back. I told him then after the exam he and the nurse left the room, and my sister-in-law went to get Frank.

Frank came in the room at the same time the nurse returned through her mystery door.  The nurse had a hypodermic needle in her hand.  She told us that the Doctor was going to have to turn the baby because the baby was face up instead of face down which was why I was not dilating as fast as my contractions should have achieved.  She said that she was going to give me an injection in the bloodstream that would stop my contractions and knock me out while the Doctor turned the baby.  Since I did not have an IV, this was done in a vein in the crook of my arm slowly.  Frank told the nurse that he would not leave the room, but that was the last thing I remember.

Suddenly, I woke up with both hands pulling on Frank’s forearm as he leaned over me.  I was totally confused as to what was going on.  Another guy was on the other side of the bed close to my head with a machine that was beeping loudly.  I looked at him then asked him if I could have some silver nails to bite on.  He and Frank just laughed when I heard the Doctor tell them, “Let’s Go!”

The bed started rolling with me on it as we went through the mystery door then through some swinging doors into the delivery room.  I was asked to scoot over from the bed I was on onto the delivery table that they had rolled me up beside.  Since being still dazed, I tried to climb over on to the delivery on my hands and knees which met with an affirmative response of, “No Ma’am, please don’t do that.  The baby is in position!”  So they helped me scoot over on to the table.

I was feeling no pain, but very confused.  They had these long extensions on each side of the table near my shoulders on which they laid my arms.  That was okay until they started to strap down my arms.  I fought them asking them to please not strap down my arms, but the Doctor just told me that he did not want me grabbing at the baby.  I promised him that I wouldn’t, but it did not matter.  They placed my legs and feet in stirrups quickly then a man in a green surgical mask step up next to my head.  I looked at him smiling while asking, “Frank what are you doing in here?  They said you could not come in here.”

The man in the green surgical mask was the last thing I remember seeing as he placed a mask over my face telling me nicely, “Just breath deeply, Nancy.”

I heard someone loudly screaming, but it sounded very far away then I heard, “It’s a boy.  He weighs nine pounds and ten ounces.” The next thing that I remember was waking up in the recovery room, and the nurse was telling me that I was not out very long.  I asked to see my baby boy.  She asked me how I knew it was a baby boy then I told her what I had heard.  She confirmed to me that I was right then told me she would wheel my bed to my new room in the maternity ward.  I told her over and over that I needed to see my baby, but she said he was with his Dad going up to the nursery.

When we got to my new room, I was scooted over to the new bed by two nurses then a sheet was placed over me, and a plastic sheet over it then ice put on the plastic sheet.  I was told to stay in bed.  How could I have moved anyway because dizziness was overcoming me?  Fighting to stay awake, I laid there.

Soon Frank, three of my brothers, my Mom, and my Dad came into the room, but they all looked so exhausted.  I asked them about the baby, and they said he was just fine, but they did not seem excited which worried me.  They told me that it was getting late and the Doctor wanted me to get some rest so that they would be back in the morning.  Frank kissed me and told me he loved me before they left.

Having absolutely no conception of what time it was, the next time the nurse came into the room, I asked her.  She told me that it was time for me to go to sleep and get some rest then asked me why I was awake. Tears came to my eyes as I told her, “I want to see my baby.  I need to hold him and see that he is okay.”

The nurse look at my eyes then turned and left the room.  Probably not five minutes later, the nurse returned carrying Scotty wrapped in blankets on her hip like a bag of potatoes.  She placed him on my stomach, opened the blankets while saying, “Here he is!  He has all of his fingers and toes!”

I was smiling ear to ear, as she wrapped him back in the blankets then placed him into my arms.  He was beautiful with a head full of black hair and wide open eyes which were looking straight into my eyes.  I thought my heart would burst with the love I felt in my heart for him.

The nurse told me she would return in a little while to take Scotty back to the nursery, but I didn’t answer her because I was too busy looking and smiling at the bundle of joy and pure love from God that I was holding in my arms.

I talked to Scotty as he looked at my face telling him how much his Dad and I loved him.  Scotty just kept looking into my eyes, and I know he knew my voice, that I was his Mom, he was safe, and that he was so loved.

Nothing prepares you for seeing the child you have carried for nine months in your womb the first time.  The whole time you are pregnant, you wonder what will this child look like, what color hair will they have, what color will their eyes be, will they be healthy? Well, let me tell you, God got our miracle baby just right and perfect in every way.

In my arms was this beautiful baby looking at me with deep “dimples” in his cheeks just like his Dad’s.  He had olive skin, black hair, and dark brown nearly black eyes.  You betcha, he had me at the dimples. Yes, “Dimples Jr.”  My heart was indeed in double trouble.  How could I ever be upset with the two dimple-faced guys in my life?  You know what, that was just fine with me because God had blessed me twice.

The next day Frank, my folks, and brothers returned.  They were very excited and told me that the previous day had been a trying day of worry for Scotty and me.  The Doctor had knocked me out with gas because of his concern about Scotty.

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4 Comments

  1. Another excellent word picture of your experience. You still had a place for a little humor, too, even through the discomfort and embarrassment. I do love your way of describing your experiences. God bless.

    • Thank you so much Diane. You loose a lot of your modesty when you have a baby.
      I did edit out some of this chapter. Figured I didn’t want to scare some new Moms before labor.
      God Bless You,
      I love you,
      Nancy

  2. Utterly absorbing. You depicted the confusion and helplessness of a delivering mommy so well. How much you needed to hold your baby in your arms. This brought back all my memories of motherhood too.

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