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The Story |
| Saturday, June 23 is a day Laura and I will remember for the rest of our
lives. It was probably the best day of my life. Yes, I can definitely say
it was the best day of my life. Sorry Laura, June 5 is going to have to
settle for 2nd place. June 23 began right after 11:59:59 PM June 22. Makenna
made sure the 23rd would begin with a bang.
Before we get into what happened on that summer Saturday morning, we first need to start with some background information. Laura and I decided we wanted to add a baby to our family. The plan was to get pregnant in September or October and have the baby after Laura completed her masters in Speech Pathology at the University of Iowa. Well, we did just that. In October we found out we were pregnant with a due date of June 30, 2001. Laura planned on graduating in May. Perfect. We bought books, read magazines and watched baby stories on T.V. Laura and I waited for the morning sickness to start during the first trimester. Guess what? No morning sickness. Perfect. We were in the second trimester. So far so good. The doctor recommended an ultra sound. The ultra sound went very well. We could see the baby's head, legs, and arms. The technician told us she thought it was a girl. Later that day we found out that another ultra sound was needed. They wanted to take another look at the heart. This scared me. The doctor said she the picture didn't show the heart well enough. Still scared me. We had the 2nd ultra sound. Once again another technician told us we were having a girl. They got a good picture of the heart. Everything was normal! Perfect. Laura and I were ready for what is supposed to be the hardest trimester. We finished purchasing all our baby necessities. The crib, changing table, car seat, and stroller were all purchased. Laura's mom even came down and painted the baby's room. The bag was all packed for the trip to the hospital (actually it was 3 bags). Everything was ready to go. Perfect. June finally came. It was the 22nd. Exactly one week from the next day was Makenna's due date. We were ready. Boy were we ready. Laura would start to give me nasty looks when I would say "Gee, Makenna, you've been in there an awfully long time, isn't it time to come out? I think you need to come out and play with all your stuff. I am soooo ready for you to be born." For some reason Laura thought if anyone should say how much Makenna needed to come out, it should be her. I think this may have been one of the mood swings or hormones acting up. I've heard stories of pregnant women and mood swings, but I never experienced it with Laura. Maybe I did and I'm just blocking it out now, but I don't think so. One week to go. Perfect. June 22nd was a Friday. I went into work early planning to leave early (that didn't happen). Laura and I decided to meet for lunch at Bruegers that day. Coincidentally several people from work also decided to eat at Bruegers. Jen, Mellisa, Yan, Jana, and Steve were there. Doug and Prassanth showed up just as we were leaving. Laura had a veggie bagel and I a smoked turkey sandwich on asiago. After lunch Jen said something like "Laura doesn't look like she will be having the baby anytime soon." I needed to go to work on Saturday anyway to finish up a few things. We still had another week. Perfect. Chereen was at our place when I came home from work at around 6. Laura and Chereen had spent the afternoon baking a watermelon cake. Ummm, it was very good. We made plans to go to Bennigans for supper with Brian, Chereen and some other friends. Chicken strips seemed to be the popular meal that night. Laura had chicken strips, baked potato, and broccoli. I had the same, except french fries instead of a baked potato. We were full. After supper we went back to Chereen and Brian's for some watermelon cake. Man, were we full. Perfect. We left Chereen and Brian's around 10:00. Chereen and Sarah were going out that night. Brian and I made plans to get up early the next day and go fishing before they left for Mason City. Chereen brought her pager along so we could page her if anything happened. Perfect. Laura and I went downstairs to our place and sat on the couch. Laura said she really wanted to have the baby. We fell asleep on the couch for about half an hour or an hour. We were both pretty tired. We got ready for bed and laid down around 11:30. Time for a good night's sleep. Perfect. At around 12:00 Laura got up and went to the bathroom. She had heard a 'pop'. She came back into the bedroom and told a very sleepy husband, "Scott, I think my water just broke?" "Huh, what?" I said. Water, ah heck Laura probably just peed. Yeah, that was it, I was thinking. She just wet her pants. "Scott, It's a pink color." Oh crap, did her water really break? Time to call labor and delivery. Yes, it really happened. Saturday June 23 had begun. Grab the overnight bags and let's go. We were going to have a baby soon. Perfect. Did I remember to pack myself a change of clothes? Crap, better find some clothes. Where were my shoes? "Where are my shoes?" I said. I probably had three pairs of shoes lying there, but not the ones I wanted to wear were nowhere around. You know how you hear stories about dads getting so excited and frantic? Some drive off to the hospital without their wives. Well, I wasn't quite like that. I told myself that I would be calm and relaxed when the time came. But when the time came I was frantically running around our condo looking for one particular pair of shoes. What the heck? I finally realized I could just put on my other pair of tennis shoes. I was ready to go. Perfect. With all three bags, video camera, and cell phone we loaded up the car and headed for Mercy Hospital. First Laura called Brian so he could let Chereen know what was going on. "Hellakfj (Laura said it was some form of hello)." "Brian, my water broke and we are on the way to the hospital." "Ugh um ok. Scott and I probably won't be going fishing tomorrow morning." That was the only coherent statement Brian made. He was pretty sleepy too. Next, Laura called her parents in Mason City. She talked to her dad and told her we were on the way to the hospital and would call back when we were admitted. I'm sure Laura's mom was probably heading for the car as soon as Laura's dad hung up the phone. We had contacted some people. Things were rolling right along. Perfect. We arrived at the hospital, checked in and were admitted by 12:30 AM. Laura was hooked up to a computer to monitor contractions and the baby's heart beat. It was actually pretty cool. You could see when a contraction was beginning and ending. I don't think Laura found it very amusing when I said "Hey, look you're having a contraction right now." Perfect. I tried to call my parents, but my mom was on the internet. We called Laura's parents. Laura's mom grumbled something about Laura's dad not letting them leave until we called back. She was ready to get going. We told them the room number and waited for them to come. We also tried to page Chereen. Unfortunately I typed in the wrong phone number when I called Chereen's pager and she couldn't get a hold of us. Eventually she got a hold of Brian and found out what was going on. Perfect. The nurse monitored Laura for a little while and then told us to walk around a little bit and see if we could increase the intensity and frequency of the contractions. We walked around the maternity ward probably 74 times. It wasn't a very big maternity ward. Later on we ran into Chereen and Sarah in the hall. Chereen told us she had gotten a hold of Brian. She went to Sarah's, showered, and changed her clothes before coming to the hospital. They had a night out on the town and were a little smelly from the bars. Chereen said she only had 3 drinks, but she was talking very loudly. Laura and I were a little scared Chereen might be a little tipsy. "Move over doc, I'm a medical student I can deliver this baby." But Chereen was fine. Her hearing was a little muffled from the loud music, but otherwise she was fine. Perfect. We spent the next couple hours walking around, trying to increase those contractions. It wasn't working. The doctor gave Laura the choice of using Picosin to speed up the contractions. Laura decided to go with it and get this labor moving. Perfect. At around 4 or 5 in the morning the contractions got stronger and more painful. Laura's parents had arrived at about 4. Around 5 or 6 Laura was asking for an epidural. The nurse called the doctors and got things started. I think the epidural was finally in at around 6:30 or so. Actually by this point I had lost all track of time. I had been up for so long. But the epidural was in now and maybe Laura and I could get some rest. Perfect. I was talking to my mom on the cell phone at around 7:00. Laura's mom came and told me that Laura was feeling some pressure. I went back into the room and the nurse emptied Laura's bladder. There was a lot to empty. By the time the bladder was emptied Laura was still feeling pressure. The nurse looked down there and could see the baby's head. It was almost time to start the pushing. Pefect! At this point the epidural was in full force. Laura could not move her legs. The nurse told Chereen and I to each grab a leg. Time to push. It was about 7:30. Perfect. We pushed a little bit with the nurse. Three good pushes during each contraction. Chereen and I could both start to see the baby's head. It was crazy. I have never seen anything like that in my life before. It was just amazing. Perfect. The doctor came over and made Laura push some more. Wow, we could see the head coming out even more. Laura had given me some grief about whether or not I would be able to watch the baby coming out. "Are you sure you can handle it?" No problem. Now if it had been anyone other than my baby I probably would have had to leave the room. Not this time. I could see my baby being born. Perfect. I was prepared to be at the pushing stage for a few good hours. You always hear about these insanely long labors. The first babies are always supposed to take longer. Laura continued to do a great job of pushing. The doctors needed to make a small snip in order for the baby to come out. This is the only time I looked away. With the next contraction we would be parents. Perfect. The next contraction came. Laura pushed. I could see the baby coming out, but only the head. We still had a lot of baby left. The next push the baby's head came out and almost immediately the rest of the baby followed. It was so quick. 8:00 AM on the dot (The night before my dad said she would probably be born at 8). Little Makenna had made the transition from womb to world. She was perfect! "It was easy!" I made the mistake of saying this sentence out loud shortly after the delivery. Everyone laughed. It really was, but I guess the father may have a slightly different perception than the mother. I couldn't believe that Laura and I actually had a baby. Eight hours ago we were at home just going to sleep. |