Izabella's Birth Story

I was already 11-weeks pregnant, when I discovered that I was going to be a mom. My husband works 7-12's, so he was not home much. I gained a lot of water weight and the baby was cutting off the circulation to my right leg. I had sciatic nerve problems, started to get carpal tunnel and had massive migraines all through my pregnancy.

Then by Good Friday 2005, starting at 2:30 AM I was getting up every 15-30 minutes to urinate. I called my husband, Kenny, to let him know that I hadn't made it to the bathroom in time and had dribbled down my leg. I was also having cramps in both thighs. Kenny told me to call the doctor right away. My OB/GYN said I had low potassium and needed to drink some water and eat two bananas, which I did. At 5:00 AM my legs were cramping worse; knocking me to my knees, so I called my doctor again. He told me to put heat on my legs and take a hot bath. Again, I did what the doctor said. I took that hot bath and caked my thighs with Icy Hot and with a heating pad. He told me I was not in labor because I had no cramps in my abdomen. By 7:00 AM I called Kenny and told him to come home early because I needed to go to the ER. I could not feel my legs by this time. It takes him 1 hour to get home and another hour to the hospital. I called my mom to come sit with me. I was afraid I would fall, since I couldn't feel my legs. By 7:30 AM I called the doctor again and said, "I am coming in". I called Kenny back told him I couldn't wait and that mom and I would meet him somewhere. We met Kenny, and as soon as he got into my car I said, "Drive and drive fast, something is really wrong!" On the way to the hospital, I had three stomach contractions in the car. I was all over the front seat of my car while Kenny drove 95+ miles an hour. My mom was in the back seat, not saying a word. I thought I was going to wet my pants, so I started taking off my pants. Kenny said, "I don't think that is a good idea." We pulled up to the hospital door, I ran up the steps, told mom to park the car and yelled at Kenny to get a wheelchair. We couldn't get the stupid wheelchair opened, so I'm half in and half out of the chair as he's pushing me to the elevator, which seemed to take forever. When that door opened, I jumped out of the wheelchair and ran to the nurse's station. I obviously didn't have to say a word; the nurses knew something was wrong. They had me lie down in a bed, examined me and said "the heads there!" They had me roll over into another bed and push!! I was there less than ten minutes, and three pushes later Izabella Ann Marie was born. They didn't even know my name when I delivered her. They didn't know her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck because I was not hooked up to anything. The doctor made it into the room after my first push. My mom barely made it into the room. By the time she parked the car and got to my floor and walked in, the head was already coming.

I had always wanted to go natural and boy did I, but not by choice. Both my husband and I went through all of the birthing classes and didn't get to use any of the things we learned. Kenny watched it all and he doesn't even like blood. He said it all happened so fast he didn't even get a chance to think about it.

They say your second child comes faster. If that's true, we're camping outside the hospital!