I was 8 1/2 months pregnant. My husband and I decided we should spend that weekend driving along the coast in our 1960 Austin Healy. Once the baby arrived, we would not have this luxury. We had made this trek many times over the years. We would always drive to Half Moon Bay first. There was a small French Bakery we frequented. We left early on Sunday morning, which was Mother’s Day, so we would have the entire day to spend time enjoying the coast. I had expected flowers that morning, but my husband said, “You are not a mother yet!” I had to agree. We got in the Healy and headed to Half Moon Bay. The road was very steep and swervy. It was always scary in such a low, small car. Once in Half Moon Bay, we stopped at the French Bakery first, like we always did. We bought several decadent desserts to enjoy a little later. After exploring Main Street shops, we left and ventured out of Half Moon Bay, heading down the California coast toward Pescadero. We loved this drive. The top was off the Healy, so we could enjoy the sun and fresh air. As we drove along the coast, we could see the ocean, enjoying surfers and kite surfers. Usually, there were Pelicans over the ocean, and occasionally several would fly almost next to us! Pelicans, from a distance, look like small birds, but they are actually quite large.
Pescadero is a very small community, but has several interesting stores. On the drive, there are fruit stands scattered about and the scenery is breathtaking. We had lunch in Pescadero and then enjoyed our decadent French desserts. Back in the car, we drove to several of our favorite beaches. We sat in the car watching the kite surfers. It is an incredible sight to see these surfers, with their kites overhead, maneuver in and out and over the waves of the ocean! We never got tired of watching them. And the Pelicans — I loved watching them dive-bomb over the water for fish.
We spent the entire day driving and enjoying the coast. Our last stop was at the top of Skyline Blvd. We took pictures of each other by the Healy. This was long before selfies! Unknowingly, this would be the last “pregnant” picture of me. We had registered for a special European Presentation at the college that evening. The presentation started at 8 P.M. We drove back from the coast and headed straight to the college. The presentation was in the auditorium, so we had very comfortable movie theater seats. I was very tired, but I figured I could relax and enjoy the presentation. A few minutes into the presentation, I started to shift. I could not get comfortable, and my back was starting to hurt. I chalked it up to being in the Healy all day and eating too many French desserts!¹ As time went on, I kept shifting and my back was killing me! I tried really hard to be still and quiet, but it was very difficult. My husband was very interested in this presentation, so I struggled to get through it. Finally, 2 hours later, it was over. I was in so much pain, I could barely walk. We got home, and I went straight to bed, thinking I had overdone it and just needed rest.
I got in bed, but again, nothing soothed me. My husband gave me a backrub, but to no avail. The pain was getting worse by the minute and nothing was helping. I tossed and turned all night long. My poor husband had to work the next day, so I tried to refrain from moving until I just could not stand it.
We got up the next morning. My husband had slept, but I felt like and looked like Hell! We got in the shower together, and he gave me another backrub. When the water and the backrub did not help, he got very concerned. He asked if I wanted him to stay home. I declined and said I would call the doctor. After all, I was not due for another 2 weeks!
My hubbie left for work. I was absolutely miserable. After another hour of excruciating pain, I decided a hot bath might help. I filled the tub almost full and climbed in. I was getting a tiny bit of relief. All of a sudden, I felt this pressure, and when I looked down, the bath water was full of all kinds of small white particles. I was scared to death! I got out of the tub and called my doctor. I told him everything that had happened the day before and that morning. He started to laugh! He said, ” You, my dear, are going to be a Mommy TODAY! You have been experiencing labor.” I panicked and said I was not ready! He told me it did not matter. Today was the day! I asked how long I had. He said probably 4 or 5 hours. He told me to get ready to head to his office in the next couple of hours.
So what did I do? I had a very handsome doctor, so I did not want him to see me a mess. I fixed my hair, put on my make up, and took out a creme colored pantsuit. I looked and felt beautiful. I thought every pregnant woman did this before delivery! How hard can it be to deliver a baby? I expected my hair and make-up to be picture perfect through the whole process.à As I was leaving the house, heading to the doctor, I realized I had not eaten. I had recently read that it was advised to eat before delivery to help with energy. So, I stopped at Pizza Hut and got a huge coke and a bowl of Clam Chowder. I sat in my car eating the chowder. As I reached for the coke, the lid popped off and drenched me in coke!! I was livid! What was I going to do now? I was only 5 minutes from home, so I headed back home to change clothes. I could not find anything else that fit. I had started having contractions, but they weren’t too bad. I was panicking. The only thing I could find was a dress. UGH! I ripped off my clothes and threw on the dress. I threw the wet, stained suit in the sink in the garage as I left. OMG! I had not even called my husband. I ran back into the house and called. He was in disbelief, but asked if I wanted him to come home. I blew it off, told him no, and told him to just meet me at the Dr’s office. It was about a 30 minute drive for each of us, coming from opposite directions.
I had decided I would drive down El Camino, a main 4 lane thoroughfare, instead of the freeway. Besides, I needed to stop in Redwood City, at a custom t-shirt shop, on the way to Palo Alto. I had designed custom birth shirts for me, my husband and the baby. I had dropped the designs off the week before, and told the store owner I was not in a hurry. I still had 3 weeks? As I was looking for a parking place, the first HARD contraction hit. OMG! I could barely breathe, the pain was beyond anything I had EVER experienced, and I thought I was going to break the steering wheel, I gripped it so hard with a death grip! I let out a blood curdling scream. I tried to remember how to breathe. It passed. I parked the car and headed into the shop. I had just told the owner I needed the shirts. He said he had not finished them, but could quickly. He grabbed the shirts and started working on them. All of a sudden, I grabbed the counter with another death grip, and let out another scream. The man started shaking, and with a shaky voice he said, “Do not have your baby here! You cannot have your baby here! I don’t know how to deliver a baby!” He was trying so hard to finish the shirts, but I was having contractions about every 5 minutes now. Every time, it was the same: A death grip and a scream. He finally finished the shirts and handed them to me and told me to pay him later. He just wanted me out of his shop. I managed to get to the car, and started driving toward the doctor. It was another 15 minutes, at least. I honestly do not know how I got there. I was scared to death of getting in an accident and giving birth on the side of the road.
I made it to the doctor and stumbled my way into his office. Another contraction, another death grip, another scream! He took me immediately into an exam room. I slipped off my panties, raised my dress, and climbed on the table and spread my legs. He had just started examining me, and all of a sudden, a wall of water hit him about waist high and soaked him and his blue suede shoes! I kid you not! Water was everywhere and in a big puddle in the floor. He and I both burst out laughing in total hysterics. We were laughing so loud, the nurses came running in to see what had happened. Now 4 of us were laughing! The nurses skurried to clean everything up. I asked what happened. He said when I was in the tub, I was so anxious that my body sucked up the water. I held that water until my body relaxed, and when I relaxed, it came shooting out. I should have been embarrassed, but I wasn’t. He said he had never had someone’s water break in the tub, and had never been soaked like this! And of course, his blue suede shoes were probably ruined? So this was a first, for both of us!
After the exam, he told me I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. He called an ambulance. The hospital was only about a mile away, but he would not allow me to get back in the car. Right after I left in the ambulance, my husband showed up at the doctor’s office. The doctor told him to high tail it to the hospital because the baby was about to make its grand entrance.
By the time my husband got there, I was already in a birthing room. I was feeling immense pressure and thought I had to pee. As he entered, I was sitting on the toilet. I had my dress hiked up and I was sweating profusely. I screamed at him to get my dress off! My dress had a high collar with a hook and eye at the top, then a zipper all the way down the back. My husband grabbed the bottom of my dress and proceeded to try and pull it over my head!! I was screaming at him because another contraction hit. It was another comical situation. I was trying to explain what he needed to do to get my dress off, and at the same time, having excruciating contractions. He finally got my dress off and I was butt naked. But I DID NOT CARE!
The nurses got me back on the bed and checked dilation. I was at 7 cm. dilated. The doctor had been there shortly after I checked in, and I was only at 4 cm. dilated. He had left 5 minutes earlier to head back to his office because he thought I would be in labor for another 2 hours. Luckily, his office was a mile away. The nurse called him immediately. He had just arrived at his office, but had to turn around and head back to the hospital.
I has gone from 7 cm. to 10 cm. in less than 10 minutes. The baby was just starting to crown when the doctor walked in. It was total chaos! We had also hired a “birth photographer.” I don’t even remember calling her, but she showed up just as the doctor did. I was screaming bloody murder, the baby was crowning, I had the urge to push, but was told not to. Really? The photographer was shooting pictures, the doctor pulled up a stool, between my spread legs, and sat down, the nurses were positioning this huge mirror so I could see myself giving birth, and my husband was standing at my head, holding my hand and trying to comfort me. The nurses told him to stand by the mirror so he could see the birth, and that he would need to cut the umbilical cord.
Just as everyone got into position, I had an incredible urge to push. The doctor told me to give it all I had. With a blood curdling scream and a push, the babies head made its appearance. But the baby was now stuck. And time was of the essence. The baby had both of his little hands against his shoulders, and he was too wide to squeeze out. I remember looking down and seeing the doctor preparing a shot. The needle looked huge and I was thinking “No!No!No! I was scared. He said he was preparing me for an episiotomy. But at that moment, he decided to try something else. He shifted the baby to one side, and one little arm popped out. Then he shifted him to the other side, and the other little arm popped out! From there, a couple more pushes and he was out, and no episiotomy! As the nurses were trying to hand my baby to me, I started shaking uncontrollably. I was so cold and shaking so much I was afraid I would drop the baby. I was not prepared for a lot of this. At the same time, my husband was being urged to cut the cord and he was freaking out. The nurse was massaging my stomach to help with the expulsion of the placenta, and the baby had started to cry. I was completely overwhelmed with all the confusion, and I started to cry.
At that moment, the nurse gently laid our beautiful, precious baby boy on my chest. I will never forget the moment I fell in love with him. I looked down at him, he looked up at me and the tears just flowed. He started rooting and immediately latched on and started nursing. The birth photographer captured that special moment. After we got the picture, we realized our son had also placed his hand over my nipple, at the moment the picture was taken. Seconds later, he had moved it so he could nurse. What are the odds?
The nurse started massaging my stomach to help with the placenta delivery. It hurt, but it really helped. The placenta slid out, and now I could concentrate on nursing and getting to know my newborn. My husband was still in shock at all he had witnessed. After a few minutes of nursing, the nurse wanted to take the baby to clean him up and take his footprints. We had opted for “rooming in” but she wanted to take him to the nursery. My husband was fearful of a mix-up (only in the movies), so he followed her. He watched every move she made. When she returned with our son, he had on his cute little custom shirt! On the front was printed “Babycakes.” That was our pet name for him for 9 months. I also put on my shirt, which said “Mom”, but somehow my husband never got his on, which of course said “Dad.”
After the birth, and everything that followed, things had finally settled down. We called my husband’s parents and told them they had a grandson. They were over the moon! He was and would be their only grandson. Then we called my Mom. She had tickets to come out at the end of May to help me. When I told her I had just given birth, she kept saying”no, you didn’t!” She thought we were teasing her. After going back and forth, she finally said, “well, if it is true, what did you have?” I told her we had a boy, how much he weighed and how long he was. She was shocked, but happy. She finally believed me! Luckily, she had free tickets (my sister was a flight attendant) and could use them anytime. We decided she would come out 3 days later.
By the time everything was taken care, it was past 11P.M. Because it was so late, the doctor decided not to release us. He said he would release us in the morning. My husband was very tired, so I told him to head home. As he was leaving, I told him my cream pantsuit was in the sink in the garage. I asked him to soak it overnight so it wouldn’t be ruined. I would deal with it after we got home the next day.
I don’t think I slept a wink that night. I was euphoric! I just could not get over our beautiful tiny son. He was rooming in with me so I could nurse. I just kept holding him, touching him and staring at him! I could not take my eyes off him. He was so perfect and beautiful! The nurse came in at 6 A.M.and wanted me to take a sitz bath to help with the pain in my crotch. I was hesitant, but then my husband walked in. He could stay with the baby while I took the sitz. We were released around 9 A.M. and headed home with our beautiful tiny baby boy. We got home about 9:45 A.M. We pulled in the driveway. My husband hit the garage door opener, and a deluge of water came pouring out of the garage. The garage was flooded! We had a huge 2 car garage, and it was completely flooded. Everything on the floor was wet! Many items were on a huge table, thank goodness! I was so tired, I really did not care at that moment. I was overwhelmed with the garage, a new baby and no sleep. My husband went around and opened the front door, came out, took our son and helped me into the house. Our bedroom was on the top floor, so we went up, settled the baby in the bassinet, and I crawled in bed and fell asleep in minutes.
My husband went into the garage and started dealing with the mess. What had happened? Well, I told him to soak my creme pantsuit overnight. When he got home the night before, he went in through the garage. He put the stopper in the sink, where my pantsuit was, turned on the water ——- and walked in the house, leaving the water running. He was so tired he did not even realize what he had done. That morning, when he left, he left through the front door, so he still did not know what he had done. The water ran for almost 12 hours! Luckily, it did not flood our house!
What a mess! My husband spent the better part of two days cleaning out the garage. He had taken a week off work to help me with the baby. My pantsuit did finally get washed! And Monday morning before I got up, Jeff had gone to the store and bought me a bouquet of flowers! The note attached read: “To MOM on Mother’s Day, a day late.” And that was the beginning of our life as a family of three.