The Day I Met Bean

I know I promised more details about Pinga and her birth, but before I do that I must start with Bean's. I realized I never wrote his birth story down - it's a good one so allow me to share it with you now.

Bean was born on Tuesday, April 3rd 2007 at 6:13pm. His official due date was April 8th (changed halfway through the pregnancy from April 2nd). The pregnancy was pretty uneventful, except for a minor scare which I'll tell you about next time. The day of his actual birth is where it gets good. The previous night, I had gone to bed feeling a little strange. At the time I didn't know what it was but now I know I was probably in the beginning stages of labor. At 5am I woke up with the same feeling, only stronger. I sat up in bed and Hubby asked me what was up. I replied that I didn't know, but all I could think about was that I STILL had not packed the darn hospital bag that my friend had kept nagging me to do. Then I thought about how Hubby had a dentist appointment later that morning and how he couldn't cancel it on the same day because he would still get charged for it. And then I remembered the epidural release form that had been given to me and I promptly filled it out. Finally, I called the hospital.

"You're not in labor yet", they said. "Call us back when you feel contractions 45 seconds apart and all over your belly." Um, okay then. By this time, I was having a bit of trouble walking but I decided to follow the hospital's instructions. I told hubby to drop me off at his parent's hotel while he went to the dentist and then go from there. I arrived at the hotel armed with a stopwatch and breathing heavily. By 10am I started to cry because I really was in a lot of pain. The in laws suggested I go for a walk along the beach to feel better. No thanks, I couldn't even stand up properly. For the record, my mother in law sheepishly explained later that she really didn't think I was in labor, me being a first time mom and all, and I really don't hold it against her. Hubby returned around that time, saw my tears and demanded we go to the hospital. Before we left I went to the bathroom and let's just say it wasn't pretty. Yes, time to go!

I spent the whole car ride to the hospital screaming in agony and honking furiously on the horn when Hubby stopped to give directions to his parents to go the mall. When we finally got there, I was acting like one of those crazy pregnant women you see in the movies. I was told to calm down, stop hyperventilating and enter the screening room. The nurse freaked out as she declared me eight centimeters dilated and to get me in a birthing room immediately. Once there, I shoved the epidural release form in their faces. Good thing I had the sense to fill it out beforehand!

From here, things slowed down. The epidural caused my contractions to stop, so they had to give me petocin to speed them back up. I took a much needed nap and four hours later the doctor broke my water and I started pushing. An hour and a half later, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that was perfect in every way. Whew. Then it was to the postpartum unit where the real fun began. But I'm not even gonna go there. Instead, I'll leave you with this sweet picture:


By the way, the nickname "Bean" came about because on my very first prenatal appointment they did an ultrasound and pointed to the little speck that was my baby. "It's like a lima bean" they said, so we started calling the baby "Lima Bean", which eventually got shortened to just "Bean." Pretty nifty, isn't it?