Aiden

The day I had Aiden seemed like any other. I didn't start by having contractions, it started with a routine trip to my midwife. I went into the office, chipper with my pregnancy fuel, sat down on the sterile sheet and waited for Susan.  The office was a bit busy that day so I settled into a nice magazine and enjoyed the silence. Susan came in and asked the usual questions, how are you feeling? Headaches? Contractions? Baby moving? All checked out perfectly. She than checked my cervix and stated with minimal enthusiasm "your 1cm still, would you like me to strip your membranes." What this mean is that the midwife sweeps her fingers between the bag of water and the cervix. The idea is the stimulate labor, possibly by irritation or sending our hormones to augment dilation. I decided why not, I was a few days post dates and thought, this isn't to invasive, I was started to hit that uncomfortable stage and was getting a bit nervous that I would go into labor and the guys would miss his birth.
The day went on and I became a bit crampy, I called the guys and said they should probably come and spend the night, just in case. They did, before they arrived I decided I should probably go to the hospital. The cramping had increased to contractions and they seemed to be coming frequently. Now you may be thinking, "This is her 8th baby, she should be pop that kid out." I wish it was that simple. In fact Aiden was my toughest birth.  When Presley and Michael arrived I was still feeling jovial between contractions but as the night went on my sense of humor did as well.
My kids came to the hospital thinking that they would either A. watch the delivery or B. come in soon after but keep an eye on Oscar to the guys could be present and not worry about him.  A little of each happened. The kids would come in and out until labor became intense, at that point Tommy and Sam kept Oscar while Brittanie who was a pro at this (she was with us when I had Sam) stayed and watched the main event.  I became dilated slowly but surely, when I became 10 cm and was ready to push I thought to myself, "ok, your almost there." I pushed for what seemed to long in my experienced memory. The guys looked as if they were standing in the middle of a four lane highway, stuck out of fear of being hit.  Tom standing by me, as always my calm in the middle of chaos. When I finally got to the point where Aiden's head was crowning, I overheard his heart rate on monitor. I'm not sure if I wasn't a nurse already if I would have noticed but I did. My heart rate increased as I heard his plumet.  His head was born, all I had to do was push the rest of him out. Not coming, I looked up and saw our OBGYN doc on call, the midwife Sue must have called her in. That's also not a good sign. I could not push the rest of him out. I looked at Tom and screamed, "Get him out".  I have never said that.  I again looked over at the guys and they looked like they were going to vomit or run.  A couple of pushes after that point, and some major manipulation he was born. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his tiny body, it was literally like a rope holding him up. He cry'd right away, as did the whole room. Sue put him on my chest, this amazing creature that looked exactly like my two older boys. He nursed soon after delivery, looked up at me as if to say, that was rough huh?