Our grand plans of the birth of our second child began by scheduling a time where we would go in and Allison would be induced into labor by the miracle that is modern medicine. The scheduled time was at 5 o’clock in the morning. At first I was unsure what Allison meant when she said “in the morning”. This was so early to me and I thought that she must have been confused and that pregnancy had finally stripped her mind of all intelligence. Who does anything at 5 o’clock in the morning?! She assured me that she had not lost her senses and that we would have to be at the hospital at 5 o’clock in the morning.
At four o’clock in the morning, our alarms started to sound, stirring us from our, at best, fitful sleep and started what would be one of the longest mornings of my life. Since both Allison and I are “planners”, the car was of course packed, everyone was told when and where they were supposed to be and all we had to do was get the womb to the hospital. We arrived a little before five and the receptionist said that we would be placed in a room, but the storm from the previous had thrown every other pregnant woman in Tarrant County into labor evening (I assume from the change in barometric pressure) and they were a little busy at the moment. Three hours later (8:00 am), the interim nurse (Candice) came in and informed us that our “real” nurse was busy trying to catch a baby and that she would be starting Allison on the pitocin. At this point, I didn’t care who gave Allison the drug, I just wanted someone to start this ball rolling. I had spent the previous three hours thinking about how much more rested I would have been if we had just been granted another hour of sleep, not to mention three!
Now that the IV had been hacked into Allison’s arm and the pitocin was flowing, surely this would be the beginning of the baby. It was the beginning, just a little slow beginning. After about another hour of waiting, the doctor (Dr. Fielder) came in to explain the plan…”labor, labor, labor, push, push, push… baby”. I’m very glad he included the “baby” in the plan, when he was first explaining, I was unsure if we were going to have a baby or a bowel movement!
After significant “labor, labor, labor”, the doctor, along with our “real” nurse (Suzette), came in and broke Allison’s water around 11:15 am. There was no turning back now. We were going to have a baby today!
The contractions were coming with more frequency and I’m assuming intensity, so it was time to get some relief. An epidural for Allison and a hot dog for me. I won’t go on and on about the hot-dog, but it was the best hospital cafeteria hot-dog I have ever eaten. I got mine with chili and cheese and French fries, too! Oh and another doctor (Dr. Carpenter) came in and gave Allison the epidural around 1:00. It looked like she was as happy with that as I was with my hot-dog.
At around 1:40, Dr. Fielder came in to see how close the plane was from landing and much to our disappointment we had not progressed to the degree that the pain of the contractions had. Allison was only dilated to 4cm, 80 percent effaced (we started at 2 cm and 50 percent, 6.5 hours earlier). We were determined not to let the supposedly little progress daunt us. We were going to get this plane on the ground. Thankfully I had a pair of orange coned flashlights and started waving them in the air.
The air-traffic control must have worked because the next time the doctor checked (3:30) Allison was dilated to 8cm. He simply mention that there was another couple in labor next door and that we were in competition to see who could deliver first. Allison must be very competitive, because less than two minutes after the doctor left the room, she said we needed to get the nurse back in here because “something had changed”. The nurse came back in the room and checked her and she had gone from 8cm to 10cm, in two minutes and Allison was definitely ready to “push, push, push”.
The nurse told her to hold off pushing until she got the room ready. Suzette made one phone call that set all wheels in motion. It was amazing how quickly our little room changed from a waiting room into an action room.
Allison started pushing and really only pushed for probably 10 minutes, before the nurse told her to hold off. She said the doctor usually wants to catch the baby and so she would go and get him. After the doctor came in with him the accompanying pomp and circumstance, the pushing resumed. Within about 20 minutes of first starting pushing my son, Collin Andrew Kitchens burst into this world.
Collin weighed 8 pounds and 0.4 ounces and was 21 inches long. His color was good and his head was full of hair, just like his brother. It was almost like a mini-version of Caleb was in the room. I’m sure that Collin and Caleb will join forces and gang up on their poor parents, before we know it.
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