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WAHMIt was May 1, 1997 and my parents had already been awaiting my arrival for weeks. The doctor had told them I would not wait until May to join the world, yet I had other plans and no one was going to rush me. But, boy, did they try! Mom jumped off the couch, ran up and down stairs, did jumping jacks, and took many walks. She really wanted to see what I looked like!
Well, finally I decided to let her see me. On May 4, 1997 at about 5:30 AM, I began to tell her every three minutes that I wanted out! At about 6 AM she woke Dad up and told him we'd be going to the hospital that day. I don't think she knew how fast she needed to get there because Dad had to tell her they were leaving right then. We all arrived around 7 AM and they put Mom in triage.
Thinking this would be a typical first-time delivery that would take a very long time, the nurses made Mom wait an hour, then they had her walk around the hospital, and finally, they sent us to Labor and Delivery. Once there, I decided to surprise everyone again, so I started stepping up my efforts to enter the world. I guess it worked!
At about 10:10 AM, after the doctor had gone home thinking I wasn’t coming yet, my mom was more than ready to push. The nurses, in shock, called the doctor back to the hospital and once he arrived, Mom started pushing. I don't think it was very easy for her because she didn't have an epidural (since I was coming too fast), and she also did not want to talk to Dad during all this! However, she did want to talk to Dr. Scott because in the middle of pushing she asked him if he could please SMILE! He did, along with everyone else in the room. I suppose she caught them off guard.
Well, Mom kept pushing and I kept coming. At 10:46 AM, after an episiotomy (that my mom didn't know she had received until the next day!) and just short of four hours in the hospital, I made my grand entrance. I weighed six pounds, ten ounces, and was 19¾ inches long with a full head of dark brown hair. Mom and Dad named me Joseph Ross, and the rest, as they say, is history!