Your Birth Story

Three years and two days after the birth of our daughter, we welcomed our second child, a boy into the family. In accordance with my need for everything to be done in a timely manner, I was scheduled to be induced on his due date.... I know, I know, it's a little extreme, but the doctor assured me he was ready and it just worked better with my parents since they wanted to be here for the birth. My husband and I left for the hospital early the morning of his arrival, leaving my three year old at home with my parents. They would give us time to settle in and bring her to the hospital as the labor progressed. That was the plan!!! Shortly after my induction I began to remember all of the reasons you tell yourself you'll never have another child. It's amazing how the memory of the pain of labor fades as the thrill of being a parent escalates. I was just getting to that really cranky stage, when you look at your husband with  simmering rage as if the pain is all his fault. After all, if men were tougher, they'd be the ones to deliver the children (can I hear an amen). I glanced over as my husband calmly flipped through the magazines he had gotten from the gift shop. Seconds before I began my verbal assault on him for being too comfortable while my insides were being ripped out by a alien being, the nurse ran into my room, slapped an oxygen mask on 
my face and literally threw the head of my bed down and jacked the foot of my bed all the way up. She was shouting orders and seemed to be in a very big hurry for God only knows what reason. The activity did manage to drag my husband away from his magazine article as the doctor and anaesthesiologist begin to grill him on exactly how many ice chips I had ingested that morning. They explained to us that the heart monitor showed the baby was in severe distress and an emergency c-section would be done immediately. The last thing I remember is asking.... "Is my baby okay?" then I was out like a light. Can someone explain to me why nurses find it necessary to shout at you when you are waking up for anesthesia??? It always seems like they have a megaphone placed right up against your ear as they shout your name and give your orders to wake up. There I am, in such a comfortable, foggy
happy place when the nurses begin shouting for me to wake up. Then I hear my husband's sweet voice as he says... "Hey Jackie, we have a beautiful baby boy.".... All of the irritation left when I heard those words and I only wanted to know one thing..... "Is he okay, is my baby okay?" My husband responded that he was absolutely perfect in every way. Then I slipped back into nothingness for a little while. When I woke up (no yelling required) I was hooked up to tubes and it really did feel like my insides had been ripped out. But I had a beautiful baby boy, so it was totally worth it. My husband walked into the room as my little one lay asleep in his crib. I looked at him and told my husband.... "He's going to be our quiet one."... Those are the words I will forevermore laugh about. He wasn't my quiet one, he was just hungover from the anesthetic that had put me in the fog. Days later, he awoke from his fog and I quickly learned he was not going to be my quiet one, but my very lively one. When I wrote his birth story last year he said.... "I don't think I ever remember hearing my birth story before." The reason would be, because I could never get him to sit still long enough to listen to his birth story, and that's a fact! 25 years later he is still on the move. He has rambled and roved on road trip to road trip, from state to state with his friends. He has taken the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. He is all about doing, going, seeing and experiencing. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a fear in the world and trusts in the Lord always. Happy Birth Day Bubba! You make me so proud.