Here's his story...

THE birth Story of Parker Jeffrey born July 1, 2009

As you already know I was due June 24th with Baby Townsend #2 aka "Sheldon". Sure enough June 24th, 25th, 26th, etc all came and went. Sunday night June 28th I started to get a few "twinges", nothing formal, just a few mild Braxton Hicks contractions. Later that evening about 10:30ish the contractions started becoming more and more consistent and I thought the baby could be on his way sometime the next day. Sure enough just about 11 pm things started happening - not much to be hospital bound, perhaps a contraction about every 15 minutes for about 30 seconds. Pending the progressing situation we called in for backup in the Colby watching department and Nanny and Pal were on their way. Scott turned on the tv, settled in to watch a movie, and we waited for things to progress. Around 1ish I rolled over in bed trying to get as much rest as possible thinking we'd be up all night for sure. Well, I guess it was a major false alarm because I woke up the next morning and there certainly was no baby in bed with us and I had not labored and delivered in my sleep.

Bummer.

This is a test, this is only a test - was the joke of the day.

Off to my regularly scheduled doctors appointment Monday morning. Now the week before I was 2 cms dilated so what could it be this week? Maybe I was 7cms and he was going to send me across the street to the hospital to deliver this baby. No such luck. Yep, I'd progressed to 3 cms, but heck I'd done that with Colby too so no big deal. Because I was overdue they hooked me up for my nonstress test and again said all was ok. Baby was happy as a clam...

Again, we waited.

Our poor backup crew had come down for nothing. Oh well, guess it was an excuse to get out of a day of work for Nanny. So, Nanny headed home and Pal decided to stick around, play with the Colbster and be here "just in case".

Thus you read the next days worth of activities Here and here as we attempted to move the birthing process along by bumping the baby out on the boat. Still nothing.

Tuesday rolled around and I was now officially 1 day away from 41 weeks pregnant. 1 Week overdue. A bit tired of waiting and of getting up to pee and just ready to have this new member of our family. Not uncomfortable really, but bored with the wait, I suppose you could say. But again, nothing. All day, nothing. Did the usual during the day, a bit of emailing, some blogging, a lot of playing with the Cman and the typical stuff.

Just about dinner time, I started to feel that "twinge" again. I certainly wasn't going to get my hopes up with 1 Braxton Hicks contraction each hour lasting like 10 seconds. I'd already gone through that same gig on Sunday night and it resulted in Nu-ting! So cheeseburgers and some potatoes on the grill some nice lemonade and here we were again, another meal - at home! That jokingly became our marker, yep, still having a home cooked meal = still no baby.

Colby got his bath and I put him to bed after reading The Little Red Caboose... he's been on a train kick the last week or so... and lights out for the little man as usual. Having given the Colbmeister a bath and seeing how relaxing it was for him, I figured I might as well treat myself to a nice warm bath too. Why not, no plans for the night, as usual when waiting for a baby to arrive, so tubby and a good book here I came! ahhhh ....

Hmmm, I can't get into this book tonight for some reason. Hmmmm, there's those twinges again. Except this time they were a little more frequent. Maybe every 15 minutes for like 30 seconds. Definitely nothing to write home about, but a sign that within the next day I'd probably be having this baby.

And of course I couldn't miss our usual Tuesday night tv extravaganza, The Deadliest Catch, so I made sure I was relaxed, in the pjs and cozied up on the couch by then. Still having some contractions and by now they were becoming more and more consistent. I eagerly let Scott and Pal know I thought that this time it was "for real". No more false alarms! Pal gave Nanny a ring and told her she probably wanted to head back to CT for the night.

I thought for sure that things would happen similar to when Colby was born. Contractions got more consistent, we gathered our things, totally nonchalant and headed to the hospital. I had done as the doctor ordered and called when I hit the 5-1-1 mark (contractions every 5 minutes lasting 1 minute for 1 full hour). Sure enough with Colby's labor we checked in to the hospital just after noon and he wasn't born until 8:30 pm. I'd told myself I had no desire to sit around like that this time and so was going to stay home as long as I could stand it. (Ha, little did I know we might just make it!)

Ok, back to The Deadliest Catch. During the show (which is from 9-10 pm to give you perspective on time here) the contractions were becoming much more frequent and beginning to last much longer. I told Scott to grab his watch and a scrap of paper so we could start tracking things and get an idea of how long we might be here. Trying to focus on the show and not on the contractions, I tapped him on the leg at the beginning and end of each contraction. He noted the time, I in my mind had convinced myself that they were only happening during the commercials... ahhaha yeah right. (I didn't see his notes until we got home from the hospital - let's just say that things were already progressing well into the 5-1-1 range and we should have probably been making the phone call to the doctor.) But, I wasn't rushing off to sit in a hospital bed and be strapped to machines and Scott knew that totally wasn't my cup of tea. Plus, I kept telling him that they were still bearable so he didn't think anything of it. I'm the one going through it so I should know whether I felt things getting too serious to be at home.

Just after the show I decided to head upstairs to lie down. I figured I might as well do my best to get a little rest seeing as I would probably be up most if not all of the night in labor. At this point I was figuring somewhere around 5am would be when we'd be going. I was sort of dreading that call in the dead of night to my doctor. Poor guy would have been woken up and I reeeeeally didn't want to do that. Oh well, guess we'd have to wait and see. So here I am up in bed, doing my best to relax and things are definitely getting more and more serious.

I called Scott up and told him that he might want to gather our things together. I'd been timing the contractions and now I was just about 3 minutes apart and definitely about 45 seconds long. Within minutes of 11pm, I felt the worst ick feeling ever and yep, TMI, I vomited. OK so that was my Q that we needed to call the doctor and start our way to the hospital. When I was in labor with Colby the very same thing happened to me when I was at the hospital - at that point with him I was 6 cms and went from 6-10cms within 30 minutes of vomiting - yeah I guess I should go then because who knows if I'd follow the same pattern. Heck this time was so much more speedy I could be 10 already! So call to the doc... he said he'd meet us there!

At 11:30ish we had the car packed and said C - Ya to Pal who was holding down the fort with Doug, a sleeping Colbster while waiting for Nanny to arrive. It's funny (looking back now it is, wasn't then), while making our way out the door, I had a contraction at the kitchen counter... had to stop, 1 at the laundry room door... had to stop (side note: this is about 10 feet away), 1 at the hood of the car, had to stop (umm yeah maybe 15 more feet)... and alas we were driving. It actually felt good to have the window down and fresh air on my face. And yes, it is a good thing Pal stuck around after our false alarm or we would have been delivering this baby at home as Nanny didn't get there until at least 15 minutes after we had left for the hospital. You do the math!

In our original plan as we chatted earlier in the contraction process, Scott and I said it would be nice to swing through CVS on our way to the hospital and grab some lip goo (aka chapstick in a tub) on our way because we were out and my lips and his too were in dire need of some goo. Yeah, let's just say as we got in the car Scott happily decided to pass on the trip to CVS and go directly to the hospital! Good call on his part!

So hospital bound we were, park the car and head in toward the maternity ward. It's quite a walk from the ER entrance (which you have to use in these late hours) to the maternity ward, but anyone who knows me knows there was no way I was taking the wheelchair route. Besides, walking is good for labor, right?! Down the hall, stop for a contraction, a little further, another, into the elevator, and yet another, we made it. 12:02 am I walked into the maternity ward triage area.

Jessie was going to be my nurse for the evening and yes, I eagerly told her I was looking for the epidural! I think I might have even prefaced telling her my name with the word epidural. I changed into my lovely "gown" and was hooked up to the monitors at 12:10am. After the usual check-in questions and determining I was already 6cms I was moved at 12:31am to my room. And again, walk to the room from triage, stop for contraction, this time a lot more pressure... ughh I fully intended on the drugs, but at this point was quite aware this was probably not going to happen.

Let's just say things happened a weee bit quickly from here. Into bed, back on the monitors, the baby nurse arrived and started prepping, all things happening at once, all while I know this is happening very quickly now. Alas the nurse came to take my blood work so that they could order the epidural - duhhh we already knew by this point the epidural was so not happening. And yes, time to get this kid OUT!

As I had my right arm out giving blood for my labwork, I knew it was go time. Interesting sight I'm sure, I was in the midst of it so didn't really care at that point who was poking and prodding and where. And now I hear Jessie call, on her nifty calling contraption, down to the nurses station... ummm, if you see Doctor L. you might want to send him down... NOW!

YEAH NOW I was thinking too.

Now might definitely be good...

Now...

is push time.

And with 2 big contractions and pushes Parker Jeffrey was born on July 1st 2009 at 12:43am by my labor and delivery nurse, Jessie, the baby nurse (sorry I forget her name), and Scott! That's correct, my friends, my doctor missed the entire thing. He made it in time to deliver the placenta several minutes later, guess we'll give him a little credit since that's half the delivery.

No time for drugs, no time to take the bed apart, no time to wait for the doctor, just a few nurses, my fabulous husband, and this baby who wanted out right then, oh yeah, and me!

See 2 sets of nurse hands... no doc!

12 minutes after being moved into my room.

33 minutes after checking in to the hospital.

Less than 3 hours from first real contraction start to finish.

Jessie being the sharp as a tack nurse that she was even had Scott cut the cord.

7 pounds on the nose. A bit different than his big brother!
20 inches long.

Parker and I got checked out and given a thumbs up for a job well done. Healthy baby boy. Healthy mommy. Let the nursing begin! And boy it hasn't stopped since :) This kid eats like a horse.

Now that's a baby story. And a much preferred way of delivering. Knowing how fast it actually was going to go, I probably wouldn't have asked for the epidural to begin with. Things went quite quickly from nu-ting to sum-ting and really there wasn't but a short time when the contractions were soooooo over the top to the time he was born.

After a sponge bath for the newbie, we settled in and enjoyed the weee hours of the morning just mom, dad and Parker.

Meet Jessie....
definitely an angel on her shoulder for getting us through a healthy birth minus Dr. L!

And there you have it. Parker has a story for life. Brought into the world 1 full week after he was expected but when he was ready... he was REALLY ready.