Labor Day- Give Me the Epidural!

Happy Labor Day! In honor of Labor Day, I thought I would revisit my labor with our two beautiful children.

My labor with Josh stared three weeks before my due date on Monday morning at 7:00 when my water broke. The date was Nov. 6th the day before the elections. Most of you know that Joel and I only have children in election years, 2000/2004. Technically this should be a birth year. So imagine our excitement that our son was born the day before George W. Bush would be elected into office. Of course this was the election that would go down in history. We should have named him Chad!

Joel returned from work, showered and dressed in his Bush- Cheney t-shirt and off to the doctors office we went. It was a windy, overcast fall day. The first cool day we had had in a while. We were admitted. Contractions came, epidural followed:), heart beat dropped. Our doctor was wonderful, she tried everything to get his heart beat right where it should be. Shortly after 5:00 they decided to do a C-section as they feared his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. Joel quickly dressed into his scrubs and off we went to have our baby. We had a fabulous nurse that was supposed to go off duty at 6:00, but she stayed through the surgery. Joshua Ethan was born at 6:26 pm weighing 7lbs 14 oz. The doctors checked out our beautiful little Josh and let Joel carry him to recovery with us. He was so perfect since he never entered the birth canal (of course I am a bit biased). Josh loves to hear the part about me getting sick to my stomach and almost vomiting on him. Luckily, Joel moved fast.

Oh my little Belle was a different story. She waited until her scheduled c-section to make her appearance. The night before her birth date we spent a nice family evening together. A family that would soon increase by one. We awoke very early on the morning of Wednesday May 26th to travel to the hospital. They prepped me and off to the OR I went. Joel waited outside while I was given a spinal. The spinal was much easier to recover from than an epidural. Joel came in and at 8:06 am, little Isabelle JoAnn(named after my mom)was born weighing 7lbs. 4oz. The first comment made by the nurse, WOW look at how long her fingers are.

Josh came to visit and was more excited about the toilet in my room, than he was about his new sister. He helped feed her, but at 3 1/2 he was just bouncing off the walls. A special moment that I'll never forget was when Joel, Josh and my brother left the room and my dad stayed behind in awe of his new granddaughter. The look of bitter sweetness gleaming in his eyes. He told me how proud he was and with a choked up voice he left the room.

No crazy labor stories here where Joel has to pull over on the highway to deliver a baby while talking to a 911 operator, but miraculous to us as God gives us the gift of life in two little souls that give us great joy.

I encourage my other mom friends to revisit their labor stories on their blogs!