Birth Story from Raegan's Mom

I woke up to my alarm October 4, 2005. I probably even hit snooze a few times. As I began to wake up I noticed a pain in my back that seemed to last for 20-30 seconds and then would disappear. It would come back a few minutes later. Luckily I knew enough to know that this is probably a contraction but thought they may be Braxton's Hicks. Well that is until I started timing them. They were coming pretty regularly.I told Joe, who was at this point making breakfast, that I probably need to go to the hospital. I called my doctor's office and got their after hours service.

The woman took my name and told me the doctor on call would call me back. It wasn't even 5 minutes later that Dr. Cromartie called me back. I told him my symptoms and he said to come to the birth center and they would check me out.So off to the hospital we go. I threw up twice on the way to the car and had some really strong contractions on the ride to the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 8:15am and had to go to admissions to do some paperwork. I do have to say the woman seemed to be moving pretty swiftly to get things taken care of. God bless her. We were done there a few minutes later and to the third floor we go.We finally found the room we needed to go to. It was a small examination room and the nurse was waiting for us. The first thing I had to do was pee in a cup. That was really difficult. After that she strapped some monitors on me. One for baby and one for me.A few minutes later the doctor comes in and checks me. I'm 6-7 centimeters dialated and the monitors definitely show I'm in labor.

Since I was scheduled for a c-section that's what the plan was. Soon after this the room got really crowded. The nurse put in my IV, two nurses from JCJC worked on a catherter(sp) while the anestegiost(sp) quizzed me about if I smoked, drank or did drugs. heh. All the time I kept thinking "I'm pregnant! Even if I did any of those things before I wouldn't be doing them now!" Another woman came in with paperwork for me to sign. Some of it had to do with Raegan. The doctor checked me again and I was 8-9 centimeters. Time to go to the operating room and get Raegan!

They wheel me into the OR, I move to the table. The nurse had given me something in my IV to make me sleepy because I kept wanting to nod off. They put up the blue curtain and I remember the anesteiglost(sp) given me something to drink and then I remember the oxygen mask being firmly held onto my face. Next thing I remember is a nurse asking me if I wanted to hold my baby..:)Raegan was born at 9:21am...I keep saying it was like an episode of ER...in almost the same amount of time!