This weekend I had 5 clients deliver within a 36 hour time frame.
Notice I didn't say I delivered 5 babies in a 36 hour time frame....
In twenty years of being a midwife it has never happened.
Friday night while I was sleeping I got three calls from clients saying that they thought their water had broken.
Did you guys drink the same water? Did a romantic movie come on? Was it your weekend that became "the weekend"? What the heck!
I gave the normal "everything coming out, nothing going in" speech and said a prayer asking Jesus to let everyone wait until my daughters wedding reception was over that night. I know that's mean but it was my daughters wedding reception and I had promised her I would go off call. I had rented a flapper dress and everything! I put all my staff midwives and then some on standby in case it happened during the reception. I kept saying "One at a time in a nice orderly fashion in Jesus name", which has always worked in the past 20 years and was taught to me by my mentor. Well the reception came and went. I told my clients that I would be back on call at 10:00pm.
At 10:03 pm I got the first call. My client from Ardmore, Oklahoma was on her way to the Birth Center and was feeling like her baby was very close to being born.
At 10:06 I got a call from mama #2 (Fri nite water broke call) (Azle) saying she was finally laboring and wanted someone to come. I sent Abby to go check on her and see what was going on.
At 10:15 mama #3 (fri nite call) (Decatur) called and was finally also laboring but would wait a while to have someone come also. So I headed straight to the Birth center from the reception to meet Oklahoma.
Oklahoma arrived and was 4cm dilated. Because she called me first, she got me.
At 2:43 am (now Sunday) mama #2 who's contractions spaced out and Abby left earlier was ready for someone to come. I called Christy, one of my staff midwives and she and her apprentice willingly went to be with this mom.
I and Abby labored with Oklahoma all night.
At 6:07 am, Mama #4 calls (NRH) and is ready for someone to come. I call one of our privileged midwives and she graciously goes to this mama's side.
Ok, I have the birth center birth going and two other women laboring with backup midwives and one laboring waiting to call us when it kicked in better.
Decatur labors until noon and contractions stop at 6 cm. False labor. She sleeps, midwife goes home.
Now its 12:38 pm, Sun. and Decatur calls and wants someone to come. She has been calling off and on this whole time with reports on how she's doing.. I send Sarah, another staff midwife, to go see whats going on. She arrives and after two hours decided contractions have backed off so Sarah goes home to await client calling with stronger labor.
In the mean time I decide I must transport Oklahoma. She's 8 cm and has been forever it feels like. A little pitocin should do the trick. We get to hospital and they start the pitocin. Less than an hour later she looks at me and says "The baby is coming!" I pull back the sheet and there is baby's head out down to the nose!! I start yelling orders..."Get me some gloves! (you notice I say this first) hee hee, "Call the nurse!" I proceed to catch baby Oklahoma with no doctor or nurse around! Yipee!! Healthy 9lb baby boy! One down, three to go! I go to my phone to text the other midwives and notice that Christy has texted me and Azle delivered 20 minutes ago.
They both called three minutes apart and delivered 20 minutes apart. Dang it, I missed it!
I get home from the hospital at 6:00 pm, totally exhausted from being up all night and trying to manage all these births over the phone. At 6:30 as I was drifting off to sleep calls again and says to stand by, contractions have started up again. I sleep until 9:00 and wake up hungry. Go back to bed at 11:00 because I wanted to blog my frustration! I might mention that my husband made me look him in the eye and promise him that I would not go to any births during the night. He had spent the whole evening holding me while I cried about my stressful day and how I didn't understand God. When I cry he has learned that I am at my limit. So I promised him and went to bed.
At 12:30 am (Monday) I get a call from mama #5, Dr. Cindy's house, saying that she is laboring and I should come if I want to! She didn't want to call me earlier knowing I was having a birth marathon. I hang up the phone, tell Bob its Cindy and pretend to cuddle my pillow and go back to sleep. When his breathing changed I quietly got out of the bed, dressed and snuck out the garage door. I felt like a teenager who was sneaking out of a window! (I didn't do that mom, just heard stories from my wayward friends.)
While I was at Cindy's house I got the call from NRH that labor had started back up and she was laboring hard. I called the priviliged midwife and Abby to go running. She was 6cm and laboring like gangbusters!
My warrior friend Cindy had her baby at 7:58 am. While I was with Cindy, NRH birthed at 9:43am a healthy baby boy! Double Dang it! I missed another one! Another nights lost sleep but worth it!
At 7:00 pm after being asleep only 30 minutes, Sarah calls and Decatur is laboring hard and feels pushy. Sarah is almost the hour long trip there. I have run out of apprentice's to call for help so I call an old friend/apprentice and she jumps at the chance to go help. I have to resign myself to sleep or I'm going to throw up. I can't sleep cause I'm so upset that I'm missing my third birth in 2 days. My sweet husband comforts me and we get the call that Decatur was born only 20 minutes or so after Sarah got there. A surprise baby girl was born. (was told by sono that they were having 3rd boy.) A baby girl! I missed this wonderful surprise! I'm crying again as Bob leads me to the bed.
Poor Bob.....more tears and snot. I threw up, (all that snot) went back to bed and slept until 8:00 am Tuesday morning when I was startled awake yelling..."breathe, don't push!" Realized it was not a moaning pushing woman but the roar of a lawn mower outside my window. What??? Does he not know that I just delivered 5 babies in 36 hours? Reality sets in and I admit that I only delivered 2 of the 5 babies and I lay back down, cry and try to recover from the weekend that the uterus's went wild. I drift off dreaming about chopping the lawn guy up with the lawn mower.
Below is wild uterus weekend birth time line:
Azle was born on Sunday at.............,,........4:09 pm
Oklahoma was born on Sunday at ............4:30 pm
Decatur was born on Sunday at.................9:16 pm
Cindy's baby was born on Monday at......7:58 am
NRH was born on Monday at.....................9:46 am
Notice I didn't say I delivered 5 babies in a 36 hour time frame....
In twenty years of being a midwife it has never happened.
Friday night while I was sleeping I got three calls from clients saying that they thought their water had broken.
Did you guys drink the same water? Did a romantic movie come on? Was it your weekend that became "the weekend"? What the heck!
I gave the normal "everything coming out, nothing going in" speech and said a prayer asking Jesus to let everyone wait until my daughters wedding reception was over that night. I know that's mean but it was my daughters wedding reception and I had promised her I would go off call. I had rented a flapper dress and everything! I put all my staff midwives and then some on standby in case it happened during the reception. I kept saying "One at a time in a nice orderly fashion in Jesus name", which has always worked in the past 20 years and was taught to me by my mentor. Well the reception came and went. I told my clients that I would be back on call at 10:00pm.
At 10:03 pm I got the first call. My client from Ardmore, Oklahoma was on her way to the Birth Center and was feeling like her baby was very close to being born.
At 10:06 I got a call from mama #2 (Fri nite water broke call) (Azle) saying she was finally laboring and wanted someone to come. I sent Abby to go check on her and see what was going on.
At 10:15 mama #3 (fri nite call) (Decatur) called and was finally also laboring but would wait a while to have someone come also. So I headed straight to the Birth center from the reception to meet Oklahoma.
Oklahoma arrived and was 4cm dilated. Because she called me first, she got me.
At 2:43 am (now Sunday) mama #2 who's contractions spaced out and Abby left earlier was ready for someone to come. I called Christy, one of my staff midwives and she and her apprentice willingly went to be with this mom.
I and Abby labored with Oklahoma all night.
At 6:07 am, Mama #4 calls (NRH) and is ready for someone to come. I call one of our privileged midwives and she graciously goes to this mama's side.
Ok, I have the birth center birth going and two other women laboring with backup midwives and one laboring waiting to call us when it kicked in better.
Decatur labors until noon and contractions stop at 6 cm. False labor. She sleeps, midwife goes home.
Now its 12:38 pm, Sun. and Decatur calls and wants someone to come. She has been calling off and on this whole time with reports on how she's doing.. I send Sarah, another staff midwife, to go see whats going on. She arrives and after two hours decided contractions have backed off so Sarah goes home to await client calling with stronger labor.
In the mean time I decide I must transport Oklahoma. She's 8 cm and has been forever it feels like. A little pitocin should do the trick. We get to hospital and they start the pitocin. Less than an hour later she looks at me and says "The baby is coming!" I pull back the sheet and there is baby's head out down to the nose!! I start yelling orders..."Get me some gloves! (you notice I say this first) hee hee, "Call the nurse!" I proceed to catch baby Oklahoma with no doctor or nurse around! Yipee!! Healthy 9lb baby boy! One down, three to go! I go to my phone to text the other midwives and notice that Christy has texted me and Azle delivered 20 minutes ago.
They both called three minutes apart and delivered 20 minutes apart. Dang it, I missed it!
I get home from the hospital at 6:00 pm, totally exhausted from being up all night and trying to manage all these births over the phone. At 6:30 as I was drifting off to sleep calls again and says to stand by, contractions have started up again. I sleep until 9:00 and wake up hungry. Go back to bed at 11:00 because I wanted to blog my frustration! I might mention that my husband made me look him in the eye and promise him that I would not go to any births during the night. He had spent the whole evening holding me while I cried about my stressful day and how I didn't understand God. When I cry he has learned that I am at my limit. So I promised him and went to bed.
At 12:30 am (Monday) I get a call from mama #5, Dr. Cindy's house, saying that she is laboring and I should come if I want to! She didn't want to call me earlier knowing I was having a birth marathon. I hang up the phone, tell Bob its Cindy and pretend to cuddle my pillow and go back to sleep. When his breathing changed I quietly got out of the bed, dressed and snuck out the garage door. I felt like a teenager who was sneaking out of a window! (I didn't do that mom, just heard stories from my wayward friends.)
While I was at Cindy's house I got the call from NRH that labor had started back up and she was laboring hard. I called the priviliged midwife and Abby to go running. She was 6cm and laboring like gangbusters!
My warrior friend Cindy had her baby at 7:58 am. While I was with Cindy, NRH birthed at 9:43am a healthy baby boy! Double Dang it! I missed another one! Another nights lost sleep but worth it!
At 7:00 pm after being asleep only 30 minutes, Sarah calls and Decatur is laboring hard and feels pushy. Sarah is almost the hour long trip there. I have run out of apprentice's to call for help so I call an old friend/apprentice and she jumps at the chance to go help. I have to resign myself to sleep or I'm going to throw up. I can't sleep cause I'm so upset that I'm missing my third birth in 2 days. My sweet husband comforts me and we get the call that Decatur was born only 20 minutes or so after Sarah got there. A surprise baby girl was born. (was told by sono that they were having 3rd boy.) A baby girl! I missed this wonderful surprise! I'm crying again as Bob leads me to the bed.
Poor Bob.....more tears and snot. I threw up, (all that snot) went back to bed and slept until 8:00 am Tuesday morning when I was startled awake yelling..."breathe, don't push!" Realized it was not a moaning pushing woman but the roar of a lawn mower outside my window. What??? Does he not know that I just delivered 5 babies in 36 hours? Reality sets in and I admit that I only delivered 2 of the 5 babies and I lay back down, cry and try to recover from the weekend that the uterus's went wild. I drift off dreaming about chopping the lawn guy up with the lawn mower.
Below is wild uterus weekend birth time line:
Azle was born on Sunday at.............,,........4:09 pm
Oklahoma was born on Sunday at ............4:30 pm
Decatur was born on Sunday at.................9:16 pm
Cindy's baby was born on Monday at......7:58 am
NRH was born on Monday at.....................9:46 am
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2 comments:
God is so good in how He ordeigns things knowing months in advance when all of us conceived that our babies births would be a crazy weekend for you- a wonderful husband to take care of you, great midwives to work in teams and letting you come to my birth to push me onward and rub my legs (the best part :). I am so honored that you snuck out for Harper- tell Bob thanks. We love you guys!!
It only took me FOREVER to finally find your blog, but I made it and I'm SO glad I did! I have read it from start to finish tonight, ignoring my children and everything! :)
You are so humble it amazes me. When you told me about your blog, you acted like it wasn't that big of a deal. It's a BIG DEAL! You are sincere, endearing, encouraging, informative and FUNNY all in one! The very things that drew me to you in the first place (That and God, of course!). I love you girl! I KNOW God put you in my life and I thank Him for you every day!
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