Jan. 3, 2008--The Day My Water Broke

Dear Jake,

Thursday, January 3rd was the 2nd most exciting day in my life; of course, the next day, January 4th (your birthday) would prove to be THE most exciting day in my life, but we will start with the 3rd. The 3rd was the last day of your Daddy's Christmas vacation before leaving to go on the road recruiting, so I scheduled a doctor's appointment that day so he could be with me. Up until that point, your Daddy and I had tried EVERYTHING in our power to get you here before his vacation ended. After all, I had been measuring big all along, so we knew that you would be a good size when you got here. So when the 3rd rolled around, we had kind of given up on the idea that you might come early and just tried to face the reality of me going into labor while Daddy was recruiting in Florida. We go into my 38 week appointment to see Dr. McKee, and I showed NO signs of labor; your head was nowhere near my pelvic cavity, I was maybe a fingertip dilated, and my cervix was nice and firm. It was so discouraging, and to top things off, Dr. McKee was starting to get really worried because my belly was measuring 42 weeks (which is a whole month bigger than I should have been). He was really afraid that because your head wasn't dropping that it wouldn't be able to "fit" for a lack of better words. So, for the 2nd week in a row we were off to ultrasound to see how big you were. 9lbs 2 ozs! We were shocked!! I knew your Daddy was a big baby and that he had some big babies on his side of the family, but I never thought my 5'4 frame would EVER carry a 9 lb baby! And then the reality set in...all those complications I've seen of women trying to deliver big babies...shoulder dystocia, anoxia, etc. Dr. McKee was really worried, too, so we decided a c-section was the safest option. We had scheduled the c-section for Tuesday of the next week; Daddy asked Dr. McKee what we did in the event that I went into labor before Tuesday, but he reassured us that it probably wouldn't happen. So we went home and relaxed.

Getting to the good stuff...

It was around 10 pm later on that day and I had just finished watching a marathon of 48 hours on A&E TV in the living room while your Daddy talked on the phone to recruits in our bedroom. I was getting ready for bed but decided I needed to take a shower. I could hear from the shower that your Daddy was talking to Swayze Waters, the kicker for UAB, about him leaving school early and entering the draft. All I could think about in the shower was, "man...what are we going to do without Swayze?" I was starting to stress about the season that wasn't even 8 months away when all of a sudden "POP!" I had no clue what the noise was. All dumb me could think was, "Oh, the baby's head must have just hit my pelvis." Tyson must have heard the pop because he came rushing in there and said, "What was that?" I quickly responded, "the baby must have hit a bone or something...no big deal." Yeah right. I got out of the shower and quickly realized something wasn't right. I wasn't about to stress Tyson out further so I let him get in the shower and I did what all girls do when they think their water just broke...I called my mama. After being convinced that my water had broken, I rushed Tyson out of the shower only so that I could dry my hair and put makeup on...afterall, I couldn't have you coming into this world thinking your mama didn't look good! Sidenote...thank you, thank you, thank you for breaking my water while I was in the shower. You must have already known how paranoid Mommy was about where her water would break and what all the cleaning up would involve. Anyways, we then started rushing around trying to pack for the hospital. I already had my bags packed weeks before that, but I was so panicked I felt the need to do it again. We were out of the door by 11 pm-ish. Your Daddy felt the need to drive 90 mph down I-65 and I was furious!! I hadn't even begun to have contractions but he was so scared he didn't know what else to do! It was kind of cute, but very dangerous...so don't ever do that!

We got to the hospital (thank god in one piece!) and were kindly greeted by the nurses who were expecting us. They quickly escorted us to the "triage room" where they checked to see if my water had indeed broken. My sweet nurse Mandy quickly confirmed that my water had broken, hooked me up to the monitors, and called my doctor. Long story short, Dr. McKee was on call that night and told Mandy to let me hang out that we were probably going to have a c-section in the morning! I was so nervous when she told me that...it was like it had just hit me that I was really having a baby! And then it hit me...I'm about to have a c-section!! And then she broke the news to me...since I was probably going to surgery in the morning and since there were no more beds in the hospital, I had to stay in the triage room overnight. "What?" Here I am VERY pregnant, VERY large, leaking "water", with a horrible back and I had to sleep on a stretcher in a room no bigger than my closet? Where was Tyson going to sleep? Where were my parents going to sit when they got here? How were we going to go to the bathroom?? Oh the bathroom...after your water breaks, you aren't allowed to get out of bed, so I had to use a bed pan. As a nurse, I know how busy nurses get and how tedious it is to put a patient on a bed pan, so I enlisted the help of your Daddy. He was such a trooper! Little did he know, I was just breaking him in for what was ahead of him.

We spent about 7 hours in the triage room that night, and I couldn't sleep a wink. All I wanted to do was watch your heart rate and make sure it was alright. Your Daddy did manage to catch about an hour or 2 of sleep in the waiting room, but the excitement of your arrival was too much. My mom and dad got there around 3 a.m. and the four of us just sat in the triage room and watched highlights of the Orange Bowl (Va Tech-20 and Kansas-24) and Britney Spears' meltdown. Of course all I could do was watch the monitor, though. I was so nervous about your heart rate for some reason (probably because I am a nurse and I know just enough to be dangerous); luckily it never dropped, and lucky for me, I never even had a contraction that I felt. The monitor said I was having some small contractions, but I couldn't even tell. At 6 am, Dr. McKee arrived to the triage room and said we were having the c-section in an hour. I started crying.

To be continued...