Caroline's Birth Story - Part 1

Written through the eyes of one proud daddy!

I apologize in advance for being wordy, but we wanted this to serve as a record of all the little memories from this experience so that we will never forget them.  So bear with me as I try to recall all the important and humorous moments.

Everyone thinks they are ready.  Everyone has an ideal plan of how things will happen.  Rarely does it ever pan out that way.  Whether this is your first child, second child, or in the case of the Duggars, your nineteenth, everyone has their own unique way of preparing for the birth of a child.  Some people are uber-planners, some people are more laid back and go with the flow.  No matter your preparation strategy or how many times you have done it before, it is always a surprise when it really happens.  For those that know both Lynsey and I, you know that she is the super organized person that has bags packed, the checklist made, and plans laid out well in advance, and me, well, I have to ask her what shirt to wear when I need to look presentable, much less think about the items I need to carry with me to hospital.

Needless to say when Lynsey awoke around 1:00 AM on the morning of May 28^th, neither of us were expecting it to be her water breaking 9 days prior to her due date.  Those things always happen at the some of the most inopportune times, and usually in the wee hours of the morning.  Regardless, our plan was to have Lynsey’s mother come to our house to watch Mason while the two of us went to the hospital.  So, when Betty arrived a few minutes later, we lined the seats of the car in case of additional water leakage and headed for the hospital.  We have moved since Mason’s birth to a home further from the hospital, so I had to step on the accelerator a little harder, but we made it there no problem.  Mason later awoke to confusion with neither Mama nor Dada to get him out of bed, but did great and showed his Grammy where his breakfast could be found.

Perhaps the last baby bump picture?

There must have been something in the air that night because the first thing that each of our nurses said was how busy it had been that night.  I get being busy, but the proud parent in me wants this to be the special day for our daughter only, and she shouldn’t have to share her birthday with other babies.  How quickly I forget that thousands of other babies are being born at the same time.  The second thing that each nurse asked was how many times Lynsey had been pregnant.  More on this later.

With much anticipation, Lynsey waited on our nurse, Tracy, to check and see how much she had dilated.  Regrettable she was only at 2.5 centimeters, which was unchanged from her regular out-patient appointment three days prior.  So you Moms know what that means.  WALKING.  I wish I could come up with something witty, funny, or even remotely entertaining about describing our next hour, but the best I can do is to say that they did a good job painting the halls, and had some appropriate artwork distributed throughout the corridors.  My personal favorite, that seemed to be around every corner, was a nature scene with water pouring over a rocky cliff and gushing to the crystal clear reservoir below.  How appropriate given the onset of labor that brought most women there, including us from about 2 hours prior.  We returned to our room, with an oversized bed and tiny guest chair and awaited our nurse to evaluate the situation and determine if we would be admitted to the hospital.

Come back tomorrow and see if we got turned away and sent home or continue on with the rest of the birth.