August 13, 2007

I spent three days in and out of labor with my little boy. I prayed to God that he would allow me to set up my 1st grade classroom the best I could and prepare my substitute teacher for my maternity leave. I prayed to God that any time after August 10th, 4PM, I was ready for Zackery to come. So at 6PM that evening while eating dinner with Derek and my friend, Lynette, I began to feel small contractions. I just ignored them mostly and ate my dinner. I didn’t want to alarm anyone and I also thought about Layla. Layla was in Window Rock with her grandma and she wouldn’t be coming back to Mesa until Sunday. I didn’t want her to miss anything. By 10PM, the contractions stopped and I just went to bed.

The next morning I rose early and felt the need to finish shopping for Baby Zack. I just felt I didn’t have the essentials for his arrival, like diapers and wipes. So I left before Derek woke up and made my trip to Wal-Mart for these items. I also figured I could walk around the mall. Within 20 minutes I started to feel the contractions again in the aisles of Wal-Mart and my mind lingered to the movie, “Where The Heart Is.” I didn’t want to be Novalee Nation, so I took the items I had in my cart and checked out. Breathing slowly and quietly. I also started timing my contractions and drove myself home. When I got back, Derek was surprised I even left and I told him that I started contracting so that is why I came home. I felt more controlled this time around. Not so alarmed and determined to allow my body to feel the contractions and allow my body to get this baby out.

So we started the timing and Derek called my mom. He told her I already had the baby and that declaration threw her into tears. I hate when he picks on my mom. When he told her he was joking, she allowed him to tell her that I started contracting. By that afternoon, the contractions stopped and we called my mom back and told her never mind. I just went on with my day and waited for my Layla to come home. Deep down, I knew that Zackery was waiting for his sister. That didn’t stop my family calling Derek with all the “directions and suggestions” about getting this baby out. He took me to Garduno’s to eat dinner. The hopes of hot chili to induce labor. I just enjoyed my food like I always did and nothing. No baby. It didn’t stop me from enjoying everything I ordered.

Sunday morning arrived and we waited for my family to come down. They swooped into the door and started throwing out information. Try this, try that. I even remember them telling Derek to take me in the bedroom and you know? This is my mother and my aunt telling my husband to DO me while they were waiting in the living room. I was so embarrassed and upset. I told them to get serious. I was in NO mood for THAT right NOW. The nerve! I was happy to hear my aunt’s husband got mad at her for even suggesting that and the apology that came later was accepted.

Finally they convinced me to take a swig of Mineral Oil. My last attempt to get this baby out. I took a swig of that nasty stuff Sunday afternoon and we went on with our Sunday. Walking around malls and stores. Driving me down bumpy roads. Nothing really. When I went to bed at night I hoped for a good night’s sleep. Well around 10:30PM on August 12, 2007, the contractions picked up again. Making one of the long trips to the bathroom I began breathing. This time I was able to control my urge to clean and did my business and went back to sleep. I would sleep in intervals of an hour and wake up with stronger contractions. By 3:30AM, I finally woke up Derek and said I thought it was time to take me to the hospital now. I packed my hospital bag and began walking to the car. Derek tried his best to be calm, but he had to wake up everyone to let them know I was going in. The frantic looks on their faces and good luck calls is all I remember as I thought GET ME TO THE HOSPITAL already.

The drive to the hospital was calm. I juts reminded Derek to take it easy and avoid as many bumps as possible. I breathed in and out. Before I knew it we were at Banner Desert Hospital. I remember being dropped off and walking in, letting the security guard know I was in labor and I was waiting for my husband to park the car. When Derek got in, he took us into OB Triage area of the Women’s wing. They asked all the questions, sent me the insurance lady to get my information and by 5AM I was being IV’d and getting ready to get my epidural. HOORAY! I told them I need it or it’s going to be a long day.

This hospital birthing room was much different than Layla’s. It was bigger and seemed to be more personal. I didn’t feel like everyone was watching me. They just let me be. Encouraged me. Made sure the epidural was working. This time around it only took one poke in my back to do the trick and the pain went away. I figured Zackery would be here by 8AM. Boy, was I wrong!
This time around, the epidural slowed down the process. I ended up gazing at the clock and realized hey it’s 8:00AM, my 1st graders are arriving to school. I wonder if I should call. Derek looked at me like I was crazy. But reassured me that he let my friends from work know I was in labor and that they should leave me alone for the day. So throughout the day I kept bringing up what my class should be doing at this point as I lay waiting for something to happen.

My mom and aunt arrived sometime around 8am with distractions for the day. Some drinks and snacks to keep them company. They’re the best birthing team. Derek, my mom and Aunt. They keep me laughing all day. My mom was taking pictures of everything in the room for the baby book. The whiteboard read “Baby Boy Boye” which everyone was excited to see. The nurses thought it was pretty funny too. Derek kept saying Men could handle childbirth to give the ladies in the room a hard time. My mom was in and out of emotions. It’s always a good time.

My doctor didn’t arrive to the hospital until around 12PM. The nurses waited on calling her until I was about 6cm and by the time she arrived the pain came back and I was starting to feel the urge to push. It’s funny how calm I was and confident that I could do this. This time I was ready. The pain I felt was bad and the nurses kept asking if I wanted more meds from the epidural. I told them NO. It seemed when it was time for the pushing, it felt like I wasn’t doing anything. They would tell me to PUSH and I was but it seemed like nothing was happening. I told the nurses that since I didn’t feel my legs it didn’t make me feel confident that my pushing was doing anything. So I kept praying…please get him out. My doctor was great. Reassuring and motivating. My aunt and Derek each had one of my legs in their arms to help with the pushing and my mom was in charge with motivating me to push.

At one point I told her she wasn’t doing a good job because she was so soft toned and “oh baby…this…oh baby that.” I finally told her, “Mom I need to you to be tough! I need you to just yell at me!” Her expression was priceless. She tried her best to be TOUGH! Eventually after an hour and half of pushing my doctor decided to use the “vacuum” device to get Zackery out. After one more push with the help of this device Zackery was out! I was convinced his head was huge and weighed a ton and that is why he didn’t come out. I knew he was stuck.

Sure enough! Zackery weighed in at 10 lbs. His head got stuck in a place it shouldn’t be stuck at and his umbilical cord had some knots in it. Which I learned later was not safe and could’ve gone terribly wrong. But for that moment everything was great. This time around as soon as my baby was out, I was in tears and thanking God. I just wanted to hear the words “HE’S HEALTHY!” and I looked directly into Derek’s eyes and screamed “I can’t do this again! Do you hear me? I can’t do this again. We’re done! Do you understand?” I had been telling him that for the duration of the pregnancy because I knew Zackery was going to be so heavy. I knew that anytime we chose to have babies, they came out monstrous and my body just couldn’t handle another. Zackery is PERFECT! He let out just one big cry and chilled out. They did the rest of the newborn baby screenings and brought him to me. He was just so calm and he just laid on my chest looking into my eyes. We were so happy. Just lying in the birthing room together.