Best Laid Plans

We left the Detroit area around 9:00 pm, the plan had been to leave around 7:00 but I had planned the plan very loosely with many plan B's, so I was still okay. Mapquest had us driving to Port Huron and crossing into Canada on the Blue Water Bridge, but we did that the last time and Megan wanted to go across the Ambassador. I can do that. The plan was to fill up on gas and get soda and ice just before crossing. I haven't crossed on the Ambassador in years and I was a little confused on where to turn. We missed the gas stations but I had 3/4's of a tank so I figured I was okay. We were in Canada when Gordon mentioned soda and ice. Damn, Canada has yucky diet soda. We stop at a gas station and for 3 sodas, a coffee, 4 candy bars (Aero), and a bag of ice it was $15.00 even. And yucky diet Pepsi at that. Oh well, I had ice now so I would have good, cold soda soon.

The plan included driving until I was tired and then stopping for the night at a hotel. But the plan included the proviso that if Melody was in labor I would not get tired. Gordon was in charge of that. Sure enough about 12:45 when I was thinking about another hour and we would stop, we got the call that Melody was going to the hospital with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. Book light and trivia cards came out and we were now on a mission. Adrenaline kicked in and I never did feel really tired. We decided to stop and put some gas in still in Canada just to make sure and do a potty stop. I put in $20.00 for less than 1/2 a tank and the restrooms were closed for the night. Once we crossed back into the US (around 2:45) we checked in on Mel and the contractions were still 3-4 minutes apart they had given her pain medication but not the epidural yet. We had to make another stop for restrooms and I filled up the rest of the tank at $3.15 a gallon. (Cheap compared to the $3.50 it was in Michigan.) Once we got to Rome we could follow the blue hospital signs and made it to the hospital with no problem around 6:00.

Melody had just gotten the epidural. I was allowed into the room with Mary and Jonathan but Melody, Bryan, and Gordon had to go to the waiting room with John, and various friends of Melody and Jonathan. Melody was experiencing some side effects of the epidural one of which was shaking. It was very unnerving to watch her just tremble in the bed. The adrenaline was gone and around 7:00 I said "I think I'm going to pass out" had I been standing I would have been sure that I was going to pass out. After that I could hear everyone talking but I could not respond in any way. I was saying to myself that I couldn't do this, but I had no control at all. I heard the nurse call for the Rapid Response Team, they had just introduced such a team on ER so I new what it was and did not want them to respond. Eventually the smelling salts got to me and I came out of it. The Rapid Response Team was there and wanted to take me to emergency. I declared that I did not drive for 9 hours to sit in an emergency room while my baby had a baby. We agreed on a trip to the cafeteria where I got some cereal. While I was out they had brought Gordon in and sent him to the car for a soda for me. The car was on the other side of the hospital and Gordon is still walking a bit slow, so we made it back to the maternity ward about the same time. I insisted I was fine and went back in. Melody has stopped the trembling but was starting to itch. She was digging at her face like a mad man. She had no feeling from the waist down and her legs kept slipping off the bed and someone would have to lift them back up for her.

While I was down at the cafeteria her doctor had said that it would be soon, he was going home to change and get his kids off to school and when he got back she would be ready to go. We never saw him again. The midwife that had seen Melody last week while she was in was now on duty and she took over. She was incredible. Melody was at about 9 1/2 centimeters and her water had not broken yet. The midwife explained that since Mel was in no pain and was totally comfortable she preferred to let Mel's body do more of the work right now in pushing the baby down, that Mel could start pushing now but that it would be better to wait for the baby to get further along. So we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:15 they broke her water and we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:45 they were ready to start pushing. Mel pushed like a champ. The midwife coached like Sparky Anderson. As Melody was pushing the midwife was letting her know which pushes were doing the right stuff. "that's a good one, another one just like that" "nope a little lower push down some" Apparently the epidural does not numb everything so as the baby got lower Melody could feel the pressure, which felt a whole lot like pain to her. Soon we could see her head slipping out when Mel pushed but as soon as the push was done she would slip back. With each push a little more would come out but then go back as the push was done. It felt like she pushed forever and just as the head was staying out a little after the push Melody declared she was done and could not do this anymore. The midwife in true Sparky fashion "oh yes you can, and when you feel like you want to yell use that breath to push harder instead" Mel did and the head was out. There was this glorious head of dark hair. The midwife stopped Mel from pushing and did what she needed to do. When she was done Mel pushed again, the rest of the body came out and the baby turned around. We could now see the face but not much else. They put her (and we weren't positive it was a her) on Mel stomach and Mel yelped. The baby was not crying which scared us laymen a little, but they rubbed her back and she was off. Jon cut the cord and the gender was confirmed. Lynn Marie was here.

More later, probably. See Lynn's blog lynnmiz.blogspot.com for pictures.