Journey Inside My Mind Blog: Out She Comes! Part 3

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Out She Comes! Part 3

We had taken "Lamaze" classes at Miami Valley Hospital about a month before Keisha was to be born. It was good for us, especially since this was our first child. One of the big reasons we chose to have Keisha at Miami Valley was the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). That hospital was the only one in the area with an NICU.

I cannot remember if there was a full moon that day or not, but there were so many women in labor when we arrived that there was no room for us in the regular triage area, so they placed us in a high-risk maternity room. The main focus at this point was to see whether or not Jennie was, in fact, in labor:

So we waited for a little while, chuckling about the fact that so many other women were giving birth today at the hospital, too. Jennie told me that she definitely would like to have the baby while we were already at the hospital, so we were hoping for the triage nurse to see things that way, too.

When the triage nurse finally came, she took a sample of the fluid that we thought would indicate that Jennie's water had broken. She determined that it was amniotic fluid, which meant that, yes, Jennie would be having the baby. The hospital staff then led us to a "birthing room," and Jennie was given some Pitocin to help start the contractions.

We also called the two women she wanted to be present: Cindy and Sue. Jennie had been at Miami Valley when Cindy had given birth to her daughter Emiko. Sue was a close friend from church.

Then, I had to make another important phone call. Jennie and I had decided that living in the apartment we had in Fairborn was going to be too expensive once we had Keisha, so we were searching for another place that was cheaper. She had made an appointment for us to go see an apartment in Dayton for the afternoon of the 17th. I called our future landlord and left a message, saying that we would not be able to make the appointment because we were, um, having a baby.

When Cindy arrived, she told me I should go get something to eat, because Jennie was going to be okay for a little while. Miami Valley has a Wendy's restaurant inside, so I went there.

to be continued...

Entire series: