Putting the 'Labor' in Labor Day

The Cody Meyer birth story....

As I said two Friday's ago now, "...I know when Oscar's going to come. Baby's always come at the busiest or most inopportune time..." That Friday I assumed that would be during the Osceola Fair last weekend. However, the second most inopportune time was of course Labor Day. I had originally told Brian that I wanted to take Monday off and not do anything all day. I knew we'd have a busy weekend with the State Fair on Saturday and a wedding Saturday night and then Sunday was Meyerpoloza at Uncle Dan's and I wanted to get a bunch of stuff done around the house; therefore Monday was our day to relax. Wrong...

For the last year and a half Brian's been wanting to have all the guys that have given him a hand on the ranch over for a big steak dinner. So the week before Brian tells me that he told all the guys to come over on Monday for the 'Thank You' steak dinner since the corn is ready and we've got all the food from the garden. Which I too wanted to say thank you for all the help, but there goes my relaxing Monday, even though Brian assured me that I wouldn't have to do anything, he'd take care of it all. :-) Brian also choose Monday because he had scheduled the Fantasy Football draft with our family and friends for 6:00 on Monday night and a lot of people were going to come over to the house anyways for the draft, so why not kill two birds with one stone.

So Monday morning I woke up and started getting ready for the party. Brian came in the house at about 10 and shared the good news that the transmission had gone out in his 4-wheeler. AWESOME! I love when he shares news like that! Then he headed back outside to take the grill apart and clean it since it hasn't been working right for the last month and a half. Meanwhile, I made 10 pints of salsa and two things of fresh salsa for the party, two homemade apple pies, some homemade bread, and I cleaned up the house and got the corn, potatoes, beans, etc. ready for the party. At about 11:00 I was in the kitchen and felt like what started as a braxton hicks contraction, but by the end of it I was like, "Holy cow, that might have been an actual contraction?" I didn't say anything to Brian because I didn't want to stress him out more with the 4-wheeler news already getting him down. Little did I know about 10 mins later Brian would try to blow his face off with the grill...literally! He walked in the house with his face literally smoking, no eye-lashes and his 5 day old beard completely burnt off. He was trying to fix the grill and had it literally blow up in his face. So I gave him a hair cut and he jumped in the shower. By this time I was having contractions every 15 mins or so, but still didn't say anything to Brian. When he got out of the shower he happened to notice me bend over the counter and was like, "Are you having a contraction?"

Tee: "Yeah, maybe we should put the car base in the car."

BMeyer: "Are you fricking kidding me!?!?" [with a huge smile on his face]

Tee: "No, I don't know, I've been having them all morning, but didn't want to say anything."

We decided to just keep going and see how things progressed. So about 3:00 I had everything ready to go for the party and went into the bedroom to lay down to see if I could get the contractions, which were coming about every 5 mins now and lasting for about 40 - 60 seconds, to stop. Dan got to the house early, at about 3:15 or so (the rest of the guys were coming at 4), with his grill as ours of course had blown up. Brian told him right away that he'd need his help to get ready for the party since I was having contractions.

By 4 most of the guys were there and the contractions weren't going away they were getting stronger, so I called Sherri to have her come over. Once she got there we called the clinic right away to see if we should come in or not. The nurse said right away that we should come in and at least get checked out. So luckily I had packed our hospital bag at about 2:30 that afternoon just in case it wasn't false labor. So with a house full of guests, I walked out of the bedroom and got into the car. I was so embarrassed. I know it's nothing to be embarrassed about, but at the time I was so embarrassed.

Brian and I got to the hospital about at 5. They hooked me up to the monitors right away and checked me. "Oh, you're about a one I guess." the nurse says after checking me. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?! A ONE!?! I was so disappointed, I thought for sure I'd be farther along than that. With basically no dilation they wouldn't give me anything and said they might even send me home, although I was still having contractions every 2 min and lasting for about 70 sec at this point. The plan was to monitor me for a couple hours to see how I progressed and then determine what to do. The doctor didn't come in at this point; the nurses were just talking to him on the phone.

SIDE NOTE: The Doctor that happened to be on call that weekend was Dr. Weber, who was the doctor we'd been seeing and really liked. So we totally lucked out on that one!

So while I'm hanging out waiting for my cervix to dilate more and breathing through contractions; Brian's hooking up his laptop computer too see if he can get on the hospital network to still do the fantasy football draft from the hotel room. He got connected to the internet, but of course the school has the computer locked down tighter than Fort Knox so he couldn't get to the Fantasy site. On top of that, something got messed up with the draft time, which was originally scheduled for 6, but somehow actually started at 5:30, so everyone's calling Brian trying to figure out what's up with the draft times and why is he not on-line yet. They finally decide to just cancel the draft I guess or at least skip it for now and figure it out later.

Meanwhile the nurse checked me and no progress at all. So Brian and I hit the halls to try to walk the baby out, stopping every 2 mins or so for me to hang onto the wall and breath through the contractions. We check back in with the nurse at about 7:30 or so and still no progress. She tells us that they won't send me home with contractions every 2 min, but they still don't want to give me anything for the pain. The plan is to monitor me for two more hours until 10, if I haven't changed by 10 then they'll give me some Morphine and do a full body relaxation, which should either stop the labor or help induce labor. So Brian and keep walking the halls for two more hours.

At 10 the nurse checks me and I'm praying that there's some change. There has to be some kind of change, these contractions are very painful, they have to be doing something!

Nurse: "OH, I'd say you're almost a one and a half!"

Tee thinking: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? LADY WE DON'T COUNT BY HALVES IN THIS GAME! It's either a one or a two don't sugar coat it for me."

Of course I didn't say that, but I was thinking it. The good thing is they do give me some morphine at this point; which dramatically numbs the contractions. Since I won't be up and around anymore and the nurse wants me to try to get some rest; Brian decides to leave and drive back to Osceola so he can put some lesson plans together since he wasn't expecting Oscar to come until later in the week. When Brian left it was about 10:45 or so. I rested until 11:30 when the nurse came in and asked if I had to go to the bathroom. It was a new nurse, Angie, who was great, but because her shift had just started she checked all my vitals as well. By the time she was done checking me (still no progress) I was starting to feel the contractions again. Nothing compared to how painful they were before, but I could tell every time I was having a contraction.

I didn't really thinking anything of it and the nurse said that I could have some more morphine at 12:30 if I wanted it. So didn't tell the nurse. Well at 12:10, I swear Oscar did a Karate chop and kick cause right after he kicked my water broke and it broke good! I mean running down the sides of the bed; pooled in the sheets broke. So I called the nurse and said, "My water broke."

Nurse: "Oh, OK I'll come in a check."

Tee: "OK"

Nurse [after she's in the room]: "Let me just get a sample so we can confirm it's your amniotic fluid." [Then she lifts the sheets} "OH MY! WOW, I guess we don't have to check the water."

So I texted Brian right away to let him know my water broke and that he should come back. I couldn't get good enough cell service from the bed to actually call him. The nurse then comes in and asked about my plans for pain medication.

Tee: "I'll have an order of the strong epidural please."

Nurse: "Ok, I'll go call Dr. Weber and make sure it's OK."

Meanwhile, Brian's trying to call the room phone, but the nurse (not Angie the other one at the nurses station which is right outside my room) won't put him through to my room since it's after midnight. "I'm sorry sir, we don't do that after midnight." Whatever, she was just in the room talking to me, she knew I wasn't sleeping and what the situation was. Finally Brian calls the hospital operator not the nurses station and they put him through to my room. At this point he's on his way back to the hospital, but still a half hour away. Which is fine I guess cause Angie had come back in at this point and said the anesthetist is 15 - 20 mins away as well. She checks me then and says I'm about a three. WWOOHOOO! A THREE!

The anesthetist gets to the room at about 1:15 or so and starts working on the epidural. Brian walks into the room about 10 mins later, thankfully. The relief from the contractions is much needed and very much appreciated at this point. The nurse says, "Now you can get some sleep and wake up and have a baby." Wrong again. Soon after the epidural kicks in Oscar's heart rate starts getting really low during contractions. It would drop into the 80's and got as low as 50 at one point. The nurse is looking very concerned at this point; although I didn't really realize it at that point. She goes to call Dr. Weber in so he can look at the situation. Brian and I are looking at each other thinking, "We've been here before. C-section here we come."

Dr. Weber walks in at about 2:10 or so and checks us out. I'm still about a 3 at this point and says that as long as Oscar's heart rate is still going back up and settles down between contractions he doesn't think there's anything to worry about. He suggests to keep switching positions to see if that will help keep the heart rate from dropping. So every 20 - 30 min the nurses came in and helped me change positions as I couldn't move my legs or feet. I finally got Brian to lay down on the couch in the room and try to get some sleep. The last thing Brian remembers is the nurse coming in at 4:00, checking me and saying, "You're about an 8. You're making good progress." Then he totally crashed hard.

The nurse came back in at about 5:00 though and checked me again.

Nurse: "You're about a 9, but there's still some cervix in the way so I don't know if we'll have you push yet. Let me go talk to Dr. Weber."

At that point I completely started freaking out. I couldn't stop shaking and was getting very nervous. I couldn't feel my legs and had no idea how to push. The nurse comes back in about 20 mins later and is pushing this big cart.

Nurse: "OK Theresa we're going to have you start pushing now. Are you ready to have a baby? Brian we're going to need you to hold a leg."

Brian flies out of bed and is completely dazed and confused.

Brian: "What?! She's only at an 8. She's not ready to push yet."

Nurse: "No she's fully dilated. We're ready to have a baby."

I'm laying in bed shaking uncontrollable, nervous and scared.

Tee: "Babe can you come here and hold my hang?"

BMeyer: [As he's walking around the room looking at the floor looking for something] "Hold on I've got to get something."

Tee: "What are you looking for? Just come here and be with me"

BMeyer: "I need my shoes."

It was exactly what I needed to help calm me down at the time. He looked so confused and flustered and why does he need his shoes? I have no idea, but he looked so cute and excited I couldn't help but laugh.

The rest of the story from there is basic stuff. I pushed for 25 min and little Cody was born. After he was born his heart rate was completely normal and everything's been great since. Dr. Weber said afterward, "I'm not sure why you're little guys like to give you such a hard time during labor, but everything is fine now."

And it is. Everything is great and he's perfect! :-)