On Friday afternoon, June 1, your brother and I went over to Aunt
Jackie and Uncle Eric just take a swim in the pool. They had just left
for their first night at ACC and the sun was sparkling on the top of
the pool. It has gotten too hard for me to take the pool cover off
with my belly, so that 6 block drive over to their house was much more
alluring.
My belly was quite big and the weightlessness of the pool felt
fantastic. It had been a very hectic day at work – the first time all
pregnancy that I had skipped lunch. Which was crazy. We had a great
swim and were wrapping up. I was standing near the stairs when I felt
a swoosh of water on the tops of my thighs and wondered if the Polaris
jet had brushed past me, though it was nowhere in sight. "SURELY my
water didn't just break" I thought.
I got out and monitored the situation but stayed pretty calm. Jackson
got out of the pool and sat next to me on some towels and we dried off
for a moment on the step to the garage. Your dad was at a happy hour
for his company – the location of which I didn't know – so I went to
get my phone to text him to at least figure that out. Well... My phone
had lost service and was locked. It would have been better if the
battery had just died. I have been having troubles with my phone for
the past week or so but this was the culmination. It was in
accessible. To make matters worse, I had told Jackie and Eric to go
ahead and lock the house up when they left, not that there was a phone
inside and I could have called them with, anyway. But I walked over
checked the door nonetheless.
I remember vividly taking a deep breath, still uncertain of if I was
about to go into full-on labor or not. I'd been having contractions
for months, so nothing new there; but if my water had just broken, it
could be "GO" time and quickly. Especially since subsequent labor and
deliveries happen in half the time of the prior (or so said Dr.
Seeker). I watched Jackson running carefree on driveway, just the
other side of the hedges with that evening sun still seeming to
sparkle as he popped in and out of view through the leaves. These
felt like my last few moments before he was thrown into upheaval, not
really understanding the logistical change up of not only the hours
and days ahead, but impact on the weeks and months, too.
I was loading Jackson into the car and my swim suit seemed to have
dried off. So right as I was feeling a little less sure that my water
had broken, I felt a stream of water trickle down by leg. The
tell-tale sign I was waiting for. And yes, I was having contractions.
We got in the car as my anxiety soared. What do I do? It was rush
hour so getting up to St. David's seemed impossible, I didn't know
where Joe was and couldn't get in touch with him, I wanted to stay
calm as to not alarm 2-year-old Jackson, not knowing how long I'd have
before we'd be in full-on labor (between the modified bedrest I'd been
on, the contractions, my water breaking and this being my second)...
AND that I'd skipped lunch! How could I have skipped lunch! BAD
TIMING. I couldn't go into labor with diminished energy. They
wouldn't let me eat once I got there and it could be a long haul...
this was NOT good. As my anxiety was starting to hit the roof, I
started reminding myself to stay calm and relax my body as much as
possible. ha. yeah, right. I was sitting on a towel driving
homeward, but not sure it that is where I'd end up.
That's when it happened, driving north on Jefferson a song started
playing on the local station with a beautiful guitar riff. It
instantly felt like the theme of a journey. And just like that, I
relaxed. Completely settled into knowing everything was going to be
alright. It was a slow, relaxing and empowering song with a
beautifully smooth voice; I was able to notice the shadows and
glistening sun through the leaves of the trees on the front windshield
of the car. It was almost meditative. I kept driving past our street
and looked through the Randall's parking lot for your dad's truck. He
knew I was hungry from before my phone dying so I knew he was going to
the grocery store to pick up dinner of some sort after the happy hour
but didn't know when or where. While I suspected Central Market, the
parking lot would have been to hectic and crazy to try to find him.
So I headed home, hoping he'd be there soon. We got inside and
thankfully he pulled up moments after with bags full of food for a
huge dinner.
I told him what I thought had happened in the pool but that my
contractions had slowed back down after the car ride. He promptly
started dinner and poured me a glass of cabernet. One of very few I'd
had throughout pregnancy. We had a delicious dinner and all went to
bed.
The vast majority of the next day was spent doing that horrible task
of getting a new phone. Despite the contractions I was having in the
AT&T store, we waited forever, were then sent to the Apple store, back
home to back-up data a different way after some settings were changed,
then back to the AT&T store. By evening I was exhausted but
thankfully had a new phone that worked. I knew that once you arrived,
that task wouldn't have happened for who knows how long and I did not
want to be without connection to the family and friends, without a
phone/video, etc for your birth and first few days. I was laying on
the couch and thinking of that amazing song and wanted to know what it
was so I pulled up the computer and low-and-behold: they had a log on
their website of the songs and times they were played. There it was:
"I'm Getting Ready" by Michael Kiwanuka. I started to pull it up to
purchase the song and -completely wiped out- couldn't do anymore, so
slowly climbed the stairs and went to sleep.
I wasn't sleeping very well for the contractions and finally woke up a
little before 3am with a substantial, take-your-breath-away kind of
contraction. Started to drift back off to sleep and had another so I
checked the clock. Had yet another one 7-8 minutes later so I slipped
out of bed to get my phone to start timing them. I was breathing
pretty hard through them and your dad noticed and woke up. We held
hands through the next few as I breathed it out. I hoped to stay
calm, comfortable and at home as long as possible to let labor
progress. Eventually I got out of bed to take a shower, knowing it
might be awhile before I could take a shower and dry my hair again.
This is when your Daddy started to get a little frantic (much like he
did when I was in labor with your brother, but not as extreme). My
bag was already packed for the hospital but I had a request. For some
reason this obnoxious song was stuck on repeat in my head and that
would not do. I could not bring you into the world with that
xylophone and Gotye lyrics gloating through the ether. I asked your
Daddy to go down stairs, turn on computer to purchase and transfer
onto my phone the song that would already be pulled up. While he did
this, I continued timing contractions. I got out of the shower and
called the doctor on call. I already knew that Dr. Seeker was in
Dallas that weekend so we would be getting someone else in the
practice. I had just had contraction 7-8-7-8 minutes apart and she
told me if we didn't hurry up and get there, there wouldn't be time
for an epidural. So I finished getting ready to go and we called Aunt
Jackie at about 4:20 to come stay with Jackson. She apparently
grabbed her keys on the way to getting her phone and I swear within
about 10 seconds, she was standing in my bathroom. I floated around
pretty relaxed for a few minutes until your Daddy and Aunt Jackie got
antsy and we loaded into the car. As we pulled into the dark and out
of the driveway, I reached for my phone and turned on the song. Peace
and calm filled the car as we drove up an empty MoPac in the dark.
The song ended. It was silent. I put the song on repeat. Ahhh...
We got there, checked in and I was checked. Before long, I was
escorted to an L&D room - I requested Room 1 if it was available,
since that was the room Jackson was born. And we got it! After IVs
were started and we settled in our room, I was ready for a little
music wanted to turn on some music and there was nothing I could think
of that I wanted to hear other than... "I'm Getting Ready." and so it
was on repeat for the next 5 hours or so. As various hospital nurses,
techs, insurance people entered the room, they would all comment on
the relaxing and lovely music and ask who it was. My favorite was the
hospital intake/paperwork woman who said with panache: "It sounds
de-licious in here!!" After a few hours, I realized that it might be
driving people crazy, so I preemptively apologized saying that there
was nothing else I can imagine hearing right now. Around 10:30 I was
ready to change it up and after all, I had made a playlist for your
Birth Day so we switched over to spice it up as I "labored down" and
got ready to start pushing. The playlist included "Good Golly Miss
Molly" by Little Richard, "Miss Molly" by Bob Wills & the Texas
Playboys "Baby of Mine" and "The Lucky One" both by Allison Krauss,
"Heavenly Day" by Patty Griffin, "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder,
"My Girl" by the Temptations, along with some more Melody Gardot
("Over the Rainbow" and "Les Etoiles,), Bob Marley ("One Love/People
Get Ready," "Three Little Birds," and "Is This Love"), Louis Armstrong
("What a Wonderful World," and "La Vie en Rose") and U2 ("Beautiful
Day," "Walk On," "Peace on Earth," "If God Will Send His Angels")
among others. We jammed for awhile but after pushing a few times, I
asked to change it back to "I'm Getting Ready" because I wanted to
know with certainty exactly which song was playing the moment you were
born.
And so it was. You came into the world making your first kitten-like
cries with your theme song playing in the background.
Sent from my iPhone
Countdown to Number Two
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