BACKSTORY
All of my kids' births have been very quick. Carter's was just about 4 hours from the very first twinge of is-this-a-contraction? to his birth. I made it to the hospital about 45 mins before he was born. Drake and Rhett were both inductions and I ended up going from a 3 to delivery in a bit over an hour for both of them. With Rhett, even though the Dr was there to break my water...he missed the delivery completely because he stepped away for 10ish minutes. Richard and the nurses had to deliver Rhett. So for those wondering if we were surprised about a car birth- the answer is no, not really haha.
But for the full story we need to backtrack a bit. This was my third OB (the first two retired) and once we started moving towards the end of the third trimester, I warned my Dr about my fast labors and he asked if I'd be open to a 39 week induction. I prefer to not be induced for obvious reasons. However, once I found out I was GBS+ at 37 weeks (I'd been positive before) I assumed that would seal the deal for an induction. All being GBS+ really means for deliveries is that the Drs want 4 hours of IV antibiotics in your system before baby is born. For most deliveries that's no big deal. But in my case, without an induction to control things...there would be absolutely no time for me to get those antibiotics. So, at my next appointment at 38 weeks, I talked to the nurse and she said Clovis Community is really strict about any type of early induction but that I should talk to my Dr about it further at my next appointment.
Now here's where it gets really fun. Before my next appointment with the Dr, Richard tests positive for Covid. And it's not just the sniffles...dude is SICK. Like 103+ temperature, can't even get out of bed for days, sick. Obviously this turns our world completely upside down. I shoo him off into our bedroom for 5 days and I take care of him, our 3 wild boys and sleep on the couch at 38+ weeks pregnant. I took off a Friday from work throughout all this, but couldn't take off any more because my maternity leave coverage plans changed last minute and I only had a few days to shift gears and train someone new on how to do my job. All this to say, the urgency I previously had about pushing for an induction quickly got put on the back burner. Heaven help and bless all the friends I vented to during this time.
After Richard got better and I was able to resume my appointments, I spoke to my Dr and he said he'd leave it up to me whether I still want an induction. I sleep on it and decide the following day it's better to be safe then sorry and I request an induction with the office scheduler. She puts in the order and calls me back saying Clovis Community won't agree to it because it wasn't a serious enough medical need (like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes) to warrant induction. At this point I am obviously very frustrated from the emotional rollercoaster but am kind of stuck and just hope baby boy ends up being overdue so they'll allow the induction.
On Wednesday's 39 week appointment, I met with a nurse and admit I was a bit whiny. She advises me to not imagine worst case scenarios, and that every birth is different, and that things could very well go slower this time. I try very hard to stifle my attitude and listen to her when she tells me to follow the 5-1-1 (contractions every 5 minutes, lasting for one minute, for at least an hour) before going to the hospital. She also checks me and I'm only dilated to a 1 and 0% effaced so once again, I'm hoping that means that baby boy will be overdue.
The night before I end up going into labor I'm kind of a basket case. I've had tons of Dr appointments, the boys have had baseball practices almost every night that week, Rhett had begged me to take him all over the zoo that day, and I was just so uncomfortable, tired and just desperately wanted our house to be spotless before the baby's arrival. Once we put the kids to bed, I hit rock bottom and ended up sobbing while taking all my frustrations out on our walls and baseboards with a box of magic erasers.
LUKE'S BIRTHDAY
Fast forward to about 5:30am the next (Friday) morning, I wake up to a checking-in text from my sister-in-law Nicki in Texas. I tell her I woke up to some cramping but that I wasn't going to take it very seriously. I'm thinking I probably just over did it lifting Rhett and walking around at the zoo. I told her about my baseboard freak out session the night before and we text back and forth making fun of each other (she's newly postpartum too). While we were texting, I started timing the cramping on my phone (which is sporadic) and got up to take a shower and figured I'd get a jump start on getting ready for the day since the boys were still sleeping. Nicki sends a text that makes me laugh out loud at 6:45am and it ended up corresponding with the first contraction that actually hurt and I'm thinking uh-oh...time to take things seriously now. I wake up Richard and ask him to give his Dad a call to be on standby around 7am. This is all about the time when Carter, Drake and Rhett start waking up. It's a school day, so of course it's absolute chaos trying to get everyone ready and I just remember Carter and Drake fighting over a sweatshirt and I am ooover it and accept that I'm in labor at this point. I ask Richard to take over getting the kids ready and out the door so I can really focus on timing these contractions to see where we're at. This is around 7:15am and Curtis says he'll head over. I ask Richard to take Rhett with him to drop off as well because things were starting to get difficult but at this point I'm still walking around and talking through things just fine.
However, once Richard and the kids are out the door and I'm left alone in the quiet, things start to pick up very fast. I remember the nurses 5-1-1 suggestion and I start to panic text Richard at 7:27am "Hurry 2.5 mins apart" and he's home within a few minutes. He finds me no longer walking around but hunched over in pain and starts to move fast. He packs up the car and I forget that I still have a bunch of Easter eggs and St Patricks Day stuff for the kids in the front passenger seat we have to hide haha. Richard finds spots in the garage to stash it while I scootch the seat as far back as it can go because there's no way I'm going to be sitting up at this point and I'm planning to be on my knees in praying position on the way to the hospital. I'm in the car now after having to basically be shoved in haha and Richard is waiting outside of the car in the garage for Grandpa Curtis to arrive. Grandpa pulls in and sees the panic in Richard's eyes and hustles inside to watch Rhett.
We peel out at 7:35am and Richard's like okay, are we going to the fire station or are we going to the hospital? (We had talked previously about the fire station as a just-in-case option since there's one around the corner from our house and Clovis Community is 30 mins away.) We're approaching the first light so I tell him to go to the hospital so he has to swerve across 3 lanes of traffic laying on his horn at everyone to make the turn haha. But as soon as I make that decision, I knew it was the wrong one because I feel the urge to push. Richard was on the phone already with Clovis Community's triage to make sure they'd be ready for our arrival but once we pass one more light on Herndon - I tell him to pull over. I've had all my kids epidural free at this point (I attempted with Drake but there wasn't enough time for it to kick in) so I'm very aware of how my body feels when it's time. He asks 2x "what do you mean pull over???" but he knows when I'm being serious and tells the triage people on the phone that we're not going to make it. (Side note about me: Richard says I freak out at all the wrong things, like a balloon arch gone wrong but stay strangely calm in actual stressful, life and death situations.) They tell him to hang up and call 911.
He calls 911 at 7:39am while pulling over on the SW corner of Herndon/Blythe (2 lights from our house, 4 mins from home) and says to send an ambulance. He parks while he's still on the phone and starts laying the 3rd row seats down thinking he'll carry me back to the trunk to deliver. However, I start screaming in the front passenger seat so he runs back to me and I'm full on pushing, there's no stopping it. If you know, you know. Sorry this is way TMI, but the situation on hand was that I was still fully dressed so Richard is having to remove my sweats and pull my underwear to the side and after one more involuntary push (so 2 total) he guides Luke out and puts him right onto my chest at 7:40am. The wild part is that he was still on the phone with 911 during all of this...he just put the phone down on the dash to catch Luke and then picked the phone right back up for what to do next. The dispatcher gives him instructions while I tell him I packed an emergency bag in the trunk if this were to happen. The emergency bag had a clean, waterproof mattress pad (too late for that) a receiving blanket, and a leftover hospital hat I had from the older kids. We got Luke covered up with the blanket and tried our best to wipe stuff out of his eyes and mouth and nose. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation - be sure to pack a bulb syringe. On the phone, 911 asked Richard to find a "clean string to tie the cord" and he was like....I don't have a string? Lol. So we just left it alone and intact.
The ambulance arrived about 5 minutes later - but during these 5 minutes, when it was just the 3 of us...the car felt sacred. Luke was doing great, and despite the chaotic situation we were just in...there was an almost a tangible feeling of peace. My biggest concern was the cold and that the morning sun was blaring into Luke's eyes as you can see in the photo Richard took haha. I obviously have to give a major shout out to Richard. We've since listened to the 911 recording and you can definitely hear the worry in his voice before Luke is born but not less than 2 minutes after he is born he is cool as a cucumber, reassuring me and laughing and saying "well that was pretty wild" hahaha. It was definitely quite the bonding experience for our marriage.
Once the ambulance got there, they cut and clamped the cord and loaded Luke and I onto a gurney. Richard stayed behind to clean up the car and drive it over to the hospital. I have no answers for how this happened, but the car wasn't even that dirty?? Richard said he was able to clean up mostly everything with some baby wipes (I've since used my little green machine on it). I don't know if my water conveniently broke in the shower or what but there was no tearing, no blood, no umbilical cord problems, no gush of water. It was obviously painful and stressful, but physically speaking, it was my easiest delivery yet. Props to Dr. Richard.
The paramedics main concern was getting Luke warmer and making him cry more. It was a 30 minute ride and they got an IV in me (had to be my hand...the worst) took vital signs on both of us and asked a ton of questions while relaying info to the hospital. They were able to clear up his mouth and nose so I could nurse him, but he was still gagging quite a bit so I kept him upright on my chest. I was still having a lot of contractions for my placenta and they said if I wanted to push I could...but that it might be better to wait 'til I was at the hospital just in case there was an emergency with it. I was able to hold off and was brought in through the ER (past SO many other filled gurneys!!!) right into a delivery room where there were about 10 nurses waiting on standby. Once they realized everything was going just fine, all but about 3 or so left and they got me hooked up to fluids and checked vitals again. Dr Mason came in shortly after and I gave him the ol' "I told you so" and he delivered the placenta. So at least he earned part of his pay ;)
Richard was still not there and he had my bags so I borrowed a nurses cell phone to leave him a voicemail to tell him what room I was in. He got there shortly after and was able to watch Luke while he was taken from me for the very first time to get his first little inspection. Overall, he was perfect. He had some issues resulting from not getting properly suctioned out when he was born - very gaggy and gassy which made it hard for him to nurse but he's doing much better now. We also had to stay at the hospital for 48 hours for monitoring since I obviously got no antibiotics. But after enduring watching Luke get labs done (soooo sad) the blood cultures came back clear and he had no sign of any infection.
We've have had the name Luke Richard picked out for awhile - but now that he's here, it has so much more significance. Of course it's only appropriate that his middle name is Richard since Dad is the one that brought him safely into this world. And Luke means "light giving" and from the literal rays of sunshine that poured onto him from the moment he was born to his super sweet countenance that we've enjoyed this past week...he is truly the light at the end of so many tunnels in our lives and we're so incredibly grateful that he's here and he's ours.
