Zeke's Birthday Story

A lot of people have been wondering what exactly happened on the morning of October 4th when Zeke was born, so I decided the most time-efficient way of doing this was to write and share it via Facebook.

Monday the 3rd of October was a totally normal day. I think we went grocery shopping, cleaned house, I made dinner, and Ilse went off to bed around 8 pm. David and I decided to watch a movie, so we settled into the couch. After we finished the movie (Deathly Hallows pt 1), we decided to watch pt 2 (thank you, Russian bootleggers) since it was only 10:30 pm or so.

Around about 11:15 pm, in the middle of the movie, I realized I was getting quite a few contractions, so I started timing them. They were about 2-3 minutes apart, which I thought must be wrong since I wasn't in any pain. I had pretty strong contractions throughout my pregnancy, and these were not much different, just closer together, so I figured it wasn't labor. Finally I started feeling a little ill, so I laid down on the bed to try to relax.

A little later I had a very strong, long contraction that really worried me ( in regards to the baby's health ), so we decided to head down to the hospital to make sure everything was ok, and if not, try to induce since my Doctor told me I was dilated at 4cm (almost ready for labor). David called Sandy, my mother, and she got ready to come down. By this point I quickly began feeling very uncomfortable, and told David to tell Sandy to hurry! That phone call was around midnight.

I knew it was true labor now, because the contractions were very strong, and I couldn't talk through them anymore, so I began pacing while David got our bags ready. Probably about 2 minutes after we'd spoken to Sandy, my water broke. I was pretty uncomfortable (and sweaty :-P) so I wrapped a towel around myself and had David help me into the car. Once he was back inside, I had a real contraction that made me yell (I still can't believe I didn't freak out the neighbors!). I realized that the baby's head was crowning.

I bellowed at David to hurry it up, and that we were going to have to leave before Sandy got to the house. But Ilse was fast asleep and she was on her way, so we hopped in the car and sped towards St. Joes on the I-17. There were two more pretty nasty contractions, in which I probably scared David out of his wits since I sounded like a deranged animal, and he floored it, weaving around traffic.

I had one last third contraction in the car, and pushed, and little Zeke's head popped out! Whoops, we didn't make it to the hospital. I pushed one more time, and caught my own baby in my arms, and pulled him up onto my chest. Poor David was having an anxiety attack, probably, and we made it to the Thomas Rd off-ramp (2 miles away from our house), and pulled into the McDonalds or whatever is there by that overpass. David pulled out his phone to dial 911, in case there was something wrong with the baby. He told me later that he was so shaken up he couldn't dial the numbers. He kept mashing other numbers instead, like 812, or something. Finally he got a hold of the medics, and by then it was clear that little Zeke was ok: he was breathing and making little sounds and moving around. Total time of discomfort - 45m-1hr; Total time of really nasty discomfort - 15m

The ambulance was right around the corner, so they arrived in about 1 1/2 minutes. They estimated the time of delivery to be about 12:08 am. We were loaded into the ambulance (little guy was still attached via umbilical cord) to an audience of unwanted onlookers ( I wasn't wearing anything but a tank top and a towel - with my name monogrammed on it ). The medics assessed his apgar score to be 7, then 8, which is perfectly healthy, cut the umbilical cord, and hooked me up to an IV. We left quickly for Good Sam hospital, while David drove quickly back to the house to make sure Sandy was ok - it was probably a little bit of a shock to find the house empty when she got there.

All in all, everything turned out great - a quick, drug-free labor, a healthy baby boy, and the experience of delivering my own baby, in a car! Going 85 miles an hour! The only downside was I didn't get to see my doctor, and David had to clean up what looked like a crime scene in the front seat. We only stayed in the hospital one day, and we were back home.

As I'm writing this, little Zeke is 9 days old and sleeping on my chest peacefully. He is the best baby, and Ilse is the best big sister! We are all doing very very well, of which I am extremely thankful!