Sunday, August 30, 2009

A surprise, then another surprise, then the reason our three year old son will need years of therapy

After Trevor and Sariah drove away to begin their new life together, we started with the clean up of the reception.
My boys were all carrying the wedding gifts out to our van (we were bringing them to our house to store them until they returned from their honeymoon) My visiting teachers were in the kitchen washing all of the plastic ware, and I was wiping down the plastic tablecloths on the tables then folding them up to be used again.
Trevor's mother came up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told her that the Relief Society would love to use these tablecloths for their Christmas dinner or the Birthday Social. She rolled her eyes and told me that we should just throw them away because that's why they're called disposable and that she was sure that my ward Relief Society could spring for a few new ones if they needed them. I started to tell her that she didn't have a very frugal attitude when she grabbed the stack of tablecloths and wadded them up, I reached over to get them from her and BAM! I had a huge contraction.
I doubled over in pain. I must have scared her because she came over to hold me up, then it happened. My water broke. All over her new custom-dyed-to-match-her-dress shoes.
I wasn't sure which one of us was more surprised. I still had several weeks until my due date, and I always went past my due date.
Trevor's mother screamed, which caused everyone to come running into the cultural hall to see what was going on. I started to tell LaMar that my water had just broken (strange that I felt the need to mention that as at this point it was pretty obvious) when I was hit with another contraction.
After being present for the birth of most of our children he recognized what was going on and told one of the boys to bring the car around to the front door of the church.
I really wish he would have specified that he wanted one of our boys who actually had their driver's license to bring the car around. Oh well, I guess that's why we have car insurance.

LaMar held onto me until the contraction stopped then tried to help me walk to the door. He asked me if I'd had any other contractions today and I informed him that I had been having them all day. It was only then that I realized that they had been getting closer all night. I guess I was just so busy with the wedding that I didn't want to admit that I was having that many, but I wasn't worried because I always go past my due date and........
BAM!
I had another contraction. I told LaMar that we weren't going to make it to the hospital, in fact, I didn't think we were going to make it to the car!
We were right next to the Relief Society room, so LaMar helped me inside.
By now, quite a crowd had gathered. I heard Trevor's dad tell Trevor's mom to go inside and help me. She said "What in the world do you think I would do?" and he said "You're a woman, you should know what to do!" And she screamed back at him "Our kids were born C-Section you ninny! I have no clue how to help her!"
She came walking in anyway, still carrying the wad of plastic tablecloths. By then, all the ladies from the kitchen had heard the commotion and came in to see what was going on.
All I could say was "Baby! Now!" It was time to push. I was rather befuddled as none of my labors had ever progressed this quickly before.
One of my visiting teachers grabbed the tablecloths and laid them under me on the floor. I heard someone calling for an ambulance on their cell phone.
The next thing I knew, a sweet lady came in and said that she was a retired midwife and could she help? I had been through this many times before, but I will say that it was certainly a blessing that she was there.
Now, I won't get into all of the details here, but all I will say is that this was the fastest I had ever delivered a baby. Someone had grabbed a set of towels from the wedding gifts and Jo the midwife wrapped up the baby when he was born, and handed him to me.
Right then, we heard a small voice say "Wow mom! That was cool! Can you do that again!" we turned to look at three year old Mosiah standing in the doorway. I guess he saw the whole thing. Jo looked at Mosiah, and said "She's a beautiful baby! Your mom a great job!"
I looked down at our sweet little baby Sam and it took me a moment for her words to sink in.
"Um, no" I told her, He's a boy.
Jo laughed and said that most boys she delivered had.............well, you know what they have, and that she was most definitely a girl.

I took a peek myself, and sure enough, no boy parts.
I said "HOLY CRAP LAMAR! HE'S A GIRL!"
Just then, I heard the ambulance drive into the church parking lot. This was a good thing because LaMar had turned pale and looked as if he was about to faint. This whole thing was such a shock to him. Not the fact that the baby was a girl, but this was the first time he had heard me use that strong of language. (and in the church, no less!)
I was feeling great and just wanted to take the baby and go home, but the paramedics strongly suggested that we go to the hospital to get checked out and so I relented and LaMar rode with me and the baby in the ambulance. I will admit that it was kind of nice not to have to finish helping with the clean up of the wedding.
After the boys all got to meet their new sister, we left to go to the hospital.
On the way LaMar pointed out that we couldn't very well name our new daughter Sam and I agreed. We finally came up with a name we agreed on, and after an overnight stay at the hospital, we brought home our sweet little Emma Eve Pearson.

3 comments:

Jo said...

I am so glad you "came out" with your story. Due to patient confidentiality, I didn't feel like I could say anything unless and until you did. Thank you so much LaDawn, it has always been a dream of mine to "catch" an emergency baby and little Emma was a perfect fulfillment to my dream!
It is so weird how our lives intersect, with my oldest son knowing your new son in law. Give that sweet baby a kiss for me. I want to post a link to your story on my blog, so send me an email if it isn't okay. lakotajo2 at msn dot com. HUGS!

Jessica G. said...

And no baby pictures? You are just getting crueler with each post!
(And is it too un-Christ-like to say I'm so glad you got her shoes wet?)

Nikki said...

That is an incredible birth story! I'm so glad you got another baby girl. And what a blessing! On the day your baby girl starts her new life!