A Family of Four

Last week, we added Desmond James Harris to our family.  He came on May 28th, one day before his due date.  Wes was out back with a friend working on installing a spa we recently acquired (for free!).  Scarlett was taking her afternoon nap and I decided to shower.  Afterwards, I felt super exhausted and slightly nauseas.  So, I called Wes to come get Scarlett up from her nap and take her outside with him and Victor.  Wes VERY reluctantly agreed because they had all sorts of tools and saws they were using laid out everywhere.  After he left, I laid down for about ten more minutes and then guilt set in about whether or not Scarlett would hurt herself or slow them down too much.  So, I got up, went down stairs and decided to quickly return an e-mail to my friend Lesly Morton when I had my first contraction at 4:05pm.  It immediately took my breath away and lasted for a minute.  The next one came 4 minutes later.  At my last appointment, my doctor told me that once they were 4 minutes apart, I should wait an hour and then go in.  I sent the e-mail and Wes came in right as I was having my 3rd contraction.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait an hour.  So, I told him to grab our bags because we were going to the hospital.  We left Scarlett with poor Victor who very graciously rose to the challenge and we headed out the door.  My sister and Alexsis were staying with us so they could watch Scarlett when I went into the hospital.  Luckily, they were only about 20 minutes away and were able to relieve Victor of babysitting duty.  


We walked through the doors of Labor and Delivery at 4:26.  They asked how long I had been having contractions and were very unimpressed when I told them 20 minutes.  They sauntered me over to a triage room and had me get into one of their lovely hospital gowns.  She checked on me and I was already dilated to a 7 and had a "bulging bag"—which means my water was about to break.  At that point they kicked into high gear.  After seeing me to the triage room Wes had quickly moved the car from the entrance to the parking lot.  He barely caught them wheeling me to a delivery room.  They kept telling me that I was the exception to the rule and that if I told my friends how fast I had come in they would have seventy moms coming into the hospital way too early. 


They debated on whether or not they should call the doctor.  My doctor wouldn't be coming since it was Memorial Day, so I  had to use the on call doctor.  Which was fine with me.  As long as she could get the baby safely out of me.  At 5:15, I got the epidural and that slowed me down a lot.  The anesthesiologist gave me a large dose because they knew I was going to be having the baby very soon and he wanted it to take effect.  However, it took a little too good of an effect, because I got the chills, my lips turned blue, my blood pressure dropped drastically, and I couldn't move my legs at all.  So, I had him come in and lower the amount of medicine he was giving me.  He wasn't very gracious about it.  I don't think he liked that I wasn't 100% happy with his administration of the epidural.  He did as I asked though, and immediately everything leveled back out and I felt better about having control of my legs again.  


At 7:07pm the doctor came in to break my water.  At 7:17, Desmond was born.  He's got a head full of peach fuzz, white eye lashes, and white eye brows.  He's got a perfect little nose, a perfect little mouth, and a perfect little round head!