Your arrival began at approximately 2:40 am on July 3, 2008 – missing my July 2nd due date by just hours. I got up to go to the bathroom for the second time that night, no doubt. Over the course of those last several months I had gotten quite skilled at peeing in the dark – still half asleep, so needless to say I was a little confused when, upon climbing back into bed, I felt a slight gush of warm wetness, well, you know, down there.
Had I been so out of it that I didn’t notice that I wasn’t finished going to the bathroom and just peed my underpants?
Slightly more aware, I walked back to the bathroom and proceeded to sit down and finish what I had started, but what followed was certainly not the last little trickle of unfinished business that I was expecting.
“Um, Matt? It’s time to go. I think my water just broke.”
With nervous excitement we prepared to go to the hospital. I was pleasantly surprised that any contractions I was having at that point were virtually undetectable (except for the periodic gushes of amniotic fluid that were soaking my bottom half), which only fooled me into thinking that this labor thing might not be so bad after all.
An hour later, we were check in at the hospital and getting settled in to our delivery room. The nurse verified that my water had indeed broken, however, I was only one maybe two centimeters dilated. Per doctor’s orders, I was started on Pitocin to help speed up the process, and it worked like a dream.
Two-ish hours later I was dilated to 4 cms and the contractions were getting increasingly more intense.
“On a scale of 1 to 10 what is your pain at?”
“Oh, maybe a 4 or 5.”
“Well, at 4 you can have an epidural – did you want to get one now?”
“No, it’s not bad enough that I need one yet. Maybe just something to take the edge off?”
That was a terrible, TERRIBLE decision, as what transpired was the worst two hours of pain I have ever experienced in my entire life.
Not more than a half of an hour later and no pain meds on board, I decided my contractions were getting bad enough that I didn’t care to feel them anymore; I had “labored” long enough. My nurse called for the Anesthesiologist, who, at that time was right outside my door but had just gotten called to an emergency. He told her that he would be back momentarily.
“What the hell is taking him so long? Isn’t there another Anesthesiologist they can call? Shit, here comes another one…Matt!”
Some time around 8:00 AM (I believe), I finally received an epidural and was feeling much more comfortable, but it was only temporary. I began feeling my contractions much more than I though I was supposed to be feeling them with a paralytic on board. Matt called me out on my Billy Badass (as he put it) tough guy act and asked that the Anesthesiologist come back and evaluate why his drugs weren’t working. Well, apparently I was just sitting up too high and was propped too far over on one side to let gravity do its thing, and after getting me properly situated, I felt absolutely nothing and it was heavenly!
An hour to an hour and a half after that, the nurse checked me again and to everyone’s surprise, I was fully dilated; time to start pushing. It took a mere set an a half of the push routine (deep breath in – push for ten seconds – exhale and repeat two more times then rest, and that’s a set) before she was crowned and it was time to call Doctor Gibbens in for delivery.
“She’s got lots of dark hair.”
“Really?”
“Here, give me your hand. That’s your daughter’s head.”
“Oh, my gosh!”
At 10:27 AM, without so much as a peep, Kendal Claire Lehnert was born into this world, and my world, my heart, my soul, was changed forever. While I may forget what the weight of her tiny body felt like when they laid her on my chest and I folded her into my arms for the very first time, or exactly what it was that I said to her, I will always remember that feeling of never knowing such miraculous joy, such wondrous love as I did in that moment.
