Pattie's Birth Story--guy safe

Pattie’s due date of August 28 had come and gone. My doctor was going out of town for Labor Day weekend so I was pretty sure she would come then LOL! Friday night around midnight I felt the first pains of labor…real labor. Nothing like the on and off light contractions Raley’s labor started with; just like Clay’s labor, Pattie was ready to go.


My Mom was with us so I woke her gently and told her we were leaving and would call her with updates when we could. I assured her that as soon as Pattie was born and we were settled, Jayme would come back and get her and the boys to bring them up to the hospital.

Jayme called Labor & Delivery and let them know we were on our way. My contractions were at 4 minutes apart from the very first one! We arrived at the hospital and got checked in very quickly. They sent Jayme down to get my things so they could ask if he beats me (no really, they ask you all kinds of questions like that, it’s weird) while they put in my IV and hooked us up to monitors. I was dilated to a 4 when we arrived and after asking me all the questions she checked me again and I was at a 9! They were definitely admitting me so that was a BIG relief. Jayme was finally allowed back with me and they loved us to a labor room. I got to experience my water breaking for the first time which was a very weird sensation I must say! With both boys they had to break it for me so that was a new experience. The crotchety old fart of a doctor that was on call came in and checked me over and told me that my baby wasn’t quite down far enough yet and it would be a little while before anything happened so I should try to take it easy (yeah, right!!).

A very short time later I felt LOADS of pressure and the nurse looked over at me and said, “She’s making THE FACE. Call the doctor back in here.” I never did find out what face I was making but I asked my aunt who is a L&D nurse and she said it’s pretty easy to tell when a woman who hasn’t had any pain meds needs to push by watching her facial expressions. Anyhoo, the doctor came back in and was acting kind of pissed saying he had just checked me out. The nurse was saying something and pointed over to me. The doctor looked over and his face totally changed. “Oh, hair!” he said. I looked over at Jayme, “Whose hair?” Both boys were little cue balls and I was kind of confused. “Pattie’s hair!” he said.

Things got very busy as the doctor called for his gown and drapes and tools of the trade. In the next few minutes, with just a few pushes, my little girl came hurtling into the world. Her amniotic fluid was stained so I wasn’t able to hold her immediately; they had to make sure she didn’t have any trouble breathing and suctioned out her mouth and nose a few extra times. I made Jayme go over and take some pictures of her while they checked her out and soon enough, they brought her over to me.

She had a head full of jet-black hair! It was so surreal! My kids are hairless I kept thinking but here she was; hairy, beautiful, sweet as anything I had ever seen, and MINE! She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces according to the scale in the delivery room (later they told me they think it must have weighed her a little heavy since she was 8 pounds 4 ounces the next morning which would have been alarming but they did not believe she had lost that much) and was 20 ½ inches long. She was born at 4:30 am, my easiest delivery and my last.