Four Men and a Lady: 365 days later

September 11, 2001 was a national tragedy. Last year it became a wonderful day for us. Our second son Gabriel was born at 4:05 pm. Oh yeah, then hurricane Ike hit.

Gabriel's birth story:

Gabriel was born on a Thursday but his story starts on Tuesday September 9th. All the weather people had been talking about was Ike and that he was headed toward Houston. I headed to my weekly check up 39 weeks pregnant with the thoughts of Ike coming toward up. My doctor checked me out and I had progressed from 1 to 2 cm and was 90% effaced. I was happy to hear that there was some progress. Then my doctor starts discussing his plan of action. He tells me he would like to get me in tomorrow (Wednesday Sept 10) and asks the receptionist to call the hospital to see if they have an opening. They don't...go figure! I guess all of the other doctors had the same idea. "Get the babies out!" First choice wasn't an option, what's the other option? Dr. M says he wants me to come back first thing Thursday morning and they will check for more progress. If there is more then they will send me over to the hospital and tell them I am in "labor."

The rest of Tuesday passes with nothing and the same on Wednesday. Thursday morning rolls around. I get up and get Joshua ready to go over to my parent's house and get myself ready to see the doctor. Royal got dressed for work. He figured there would be no change and I was going to be sent home to ride out the storm pregnant.

We were the first appointment of the day and go figure Dr. M was running behind. They called me back, weighed me, took my BP and had me pee in a cup. Dr. M came in and checked me. Low and behold we had progress. I was now 4cm and 90%. While he was down there Dr. M stripped my membranes and said with a walk to the hospital I should start having contractions. Woohoo I was having a baby. They called the hospital to let them know I was on my way.

We walked over to the hospital (still no contractions) and into L&D. They took me to get changed and then we went to my room. This was around 10am. They got all of my IVs in and got me strapped to the monitors and we were set to go. All of this was about 30-40 minutes of paper signing and poking and prodding. After I was settled Royal left to go home and change clothes and get lunch. No biggie I wasn't going anywhere. I watched the Ike coverage all day. The nurse came in every once in while to turn up the pitocin (sp). I could feel the contractions getting stronger but nothing too bad. At 1:15 pm Dr. M came in and checked me. I was now 5cm and 90%. There was progress but not much. He let me know that after lunch he was going to break my water and if I wanted to get the epidural I should get it now. I was having back labor again and opted for the epidural.

The nice epidural lady came in and started getting everything ready. She was in a bit of a hurry because they had an emergency c-section coming. Well, in her haste she messed up and instead of pressure I was getting stabbing pain in my spine. She took it out and did it again. Ahh, much better. Dr. M came back around 2pm and broke my water. Things really started progressing quickly after that.

TMI following

About an hour later I started really having the urge to pee. I tried to ignore it but it started getting worse the longer I sat there. At 3:30 I decided to call the nurse. When she got to my room I told her I thought something might be wrong because I really needed to pee. She said everything was working right. She decided to check me-sure enough I was 10cm and ready to go. They called the anesthesiologist back in and she gave me a second epidural. The first one was wearing off. Then the nurse called Dr. M to let them know it was time. He got to the room at 3:50. I started pushing and Gabriel Joseph was born at 4:05pm.