Connor's Birthday!

I remember the day Connor was born like it was yesterday.  I can remember things people did and said but I have never written it down.  So for his birthday I thought I would actually capture what happened that day. 

The night before I went into labor with Connor was a Saturday.  We had our good friends Dan and Susan over for dinner and games.  I was feeling huge and tired and very anxious to meet our new baby.  After our friends left we got ready to go to bed.  I told Terence that I felt weird but I could not put my finger on why.  I was so restless that he ended up sleeping on the couch because I was keeping him awake.  The next morning I woke up about 6:00am.  When I got up to use the bathroom I thought I had either peed my pants (yes it happens to pregnant women) or that my water had broken.  The more I walked around the more I felt like later was the case.  I went and woke Terence up and told him “don’t get excited but I think my water broke”.  He was instantly up and out of bed asking me what we should do.  To be honest I was not really sure what our next move should be so I did what any girl would do, I called my mom.  She was excited but also told me since I was still almost two full weeks out from my due date to not get my hopes up just yet.  She told me to go for a walk and see if I started having any contractions.  Terence and I got up and walked around the block from our house.  It was POURING rain and I remember the bottom of my pants getting soaked.  As we were walking I did start having contractions and a couple of them were hard enough that I would have to stop walking for a second and breathe.  When we got home the contractions continued.  Terence and I talked about what we should do and I ended up calling the hospital to let them know I thought I was in labor.  They told me to take a warm bath and see if the contractions continued.  If they did I was probably in labor, if not it was a false alarm.  The bath did not stop the contractions and they were progressively starting to get more painful.  After I had gotten out and dressed we headed towards the hospital.  By now it was around 8 in the morning.  The entire time I was at the hospital getting checked in and hooked up to monitors I was thinking to myself am I crazy?  Is this a false alarm?  Am I just another crazy person who comes in thinking they are in labor when they’re not?  Once I was on the monitor it was clear that I was having regular contractions but they were not very hard.  I had dilated from a 2 to a 3 so I was making some progress but they would not admit me yet.  They did a fern test to see if my water had actually broken and the results came back negative (even though looking back on it now I do think my water broke).  So sadly after all of this they sent me home and told me I just was not ready yet.  They said if the contractions got to the point where I could not talk through them and they were coming at regular intervals to come back in.  We were both disappointed but headed back home.  I very clearly remember on the drive we were on 405 almost to the I-90 interchange when I really started to feel the pain.  I had to move in my seat a couple of times because they made me that uncomfortable.  I even said to Terence I know I’m in labor; there is no way I’m not.  When we got home I had some dishes in the sink from the night before and I did not want them to be there when we got home from the hospital with a new baby so I cleaned the kitchen.  Then I made Terence a quesadilla and he put on a movie for us to watch (Eloise at Christmas Time).  I don’t remember watching a second of the movie.  I was having pretty intense contractions so I spent most of the time moving between sitting on the couch and crouching behind the back of it trying to get comfortable.  My parents got home from Church at noon and I called them to let them know what was going on.  My Mom told us to come over to their place so we headed that way.  When we got there My Mom and Terence took turns timing my contractions while my Dad watched some form of racing on TV.  At one point I remember my mom mouthing something to Terence about me not really being in labor and Terence saying I know.  I guess she thought that because I was not acting like I was in that much pain.  To be honest, I did not know if I was or not to me it did not hurt that bad, at least not nearly as bad as they make it out to look in movies.  By now it was probably around 1:30 in the afternoon and I decided that I needed to go back to the hospital.  When we got there they checked me and told me to walk around the maternity ward for an hour or until the pain got so bad I could not walk.  I think I lasted about half an hour before we went back.  When they checked me again I was dilated to over a four which was enough to admit me.  YEAH!  I was having a baby!  That was when reality set in.  Once they got us into our room the first thing they asked me was if I wanted an epidural.  My answer was yes, I had no intentions of having babies naturally.  Why would you when there were other options?  They made a call to the anesthesiologist but he was in a C-section so I would have to wait.  In the mean time they tried to get the IV started on my arms.  That was crazy!  They poked me three or four times but could not find a good vain.  They put these huge soaking wet hot wash cloths on my arms to try and get a vain to pop up.  While this was going on they also had me hooked up to a heart rate monitor for the baby and a monitor to measure the contractions.  They heart rate monitor was not working very well so I had a nurse sitting there holding it while I had another nurse working to try and get the IV started.  All of that going on while I was having pretty hard contractions was the only time that I was in labor where I feel like I lost control a little bit.  I remember saying to no one in particular that I needed those wet wash cloths off my arms NOW!  The nurses finally were able to get the IV started and they gave me some pain medication while I was waiting for my epidural.   I don’t remember what it was but I do remember that all it really did was make me fall asleep in between contractions which made the next hour or so pretty fuzzy.  I remember that LOTS of my Aunts and Uncles came to the hospital to be there which meant SO much to me!  That is probably one of my favorite parts of the whole day.  I also remember the nurses telling me to get comfortable and that is was going to be a while before I would have this baby since it was my first and it’s usually slow.  Around 5:30 the anesthesiologist finally came in to give me my epidural.  That was like the heavens opening and a choir singing HALLELUJAH!  What a difference!  Terence said I instantly went from mean Jacki to nice Jacki.  They had been telling me all along that after I got the epidural they would check me to see what my progress was and break my water.  When they did I heard the nurse go “OH” which is never good, but in this case it was.  She was surprised by the fact that I was at a 10 and ready to push.  Had they checked me before they had given me the epidural they never would have given it to me.  I was too far along at that point.  It worked out amazingly well though.  It took just enough of the edge off that I was able to do the really hard part without too much pain but I was not so numb afterward that I could not walk or move.  The room was cleared with the exception of Terence, the doctor (who was not my regular doctor but she still did an amazing job!) and of course the nurses.    I pushed for somewhere around half an hour and at 6:32pm on Sunday October 29^th 2006 Connor Terence Keenan made his appearance in the world.  Words cannot describe that moment and yet I know every mother out there knows that feeling.  Connor was very gray when he was born which kind of freaked Terence out at first.  But the second they laid him on me I said “oh my baby” and that was the moment it clicked for Terence.  Then he cried a lot (Terence not Connor)!  After we were all situated they let everyone come in and see the baby.  I remember lots of people holding him and lots of pictures being taken but I was in such a daze that that is really all I remember.  After everyone had left and things died down we got to spend some time with just our new little family, it was amazing!  We were both starving since we had not eaten at all that day so I remember ordering a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut (which at the time tasted like the best food I had EVER eaten) and we just sat and looked at Connor.  I don’t know how long we did that before Terence finally fell asleep.  He was totally exhausted.  The best part about Connor being born on October 29^th is that it is my Best Friend/Cousins birthday.  When I was pregnant with Connor, Linda and I joked that if he was born on her birthday then his middle name should be Lindo.  We ended up going with Terence instead but to this day there are still those in our family who call him Connor Lindo.  I don’t know, she’s not such a bad person to be named after.

I know this was long!  I am sure very few of you got all the way to the end.  But for me I really enjoyed writing it.  It’s seriously in my top 3 best memories of all time and was such a great day.  I’m glad I was able to capture it before I forget even more.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR!  You are such an amazing kid and we love you so much!