Blazin Beckett {Chapter Three}

You can find the Prolouge HERE. Chapter One HERE. Chapter Two HERE.

Chapter Three. {Close Those Legs, Girrrrl!}

So, there we were. Back at home. Every stinkin male in my house was asleep. Including the dog. You would think that AT LEAST the dang dog would sense what was going on. Don't they say that dogs have this crazy innate sense? Like some can sense when someone is about to have a heart attack? And some are used in therapy to help people heal? And on and on. Well not our dog. Ohhhhhh no. Maverick was all sprawled out and as whacked out of his mind in sleep, as my husband was.

So, onto the previously mentioned tutorials. "Laboring at Home for Dummies"  Basically, the entire trick here is to be so confused by the fact that you know you are in labor but that the medical community has sent you home because you are not in labor that you become entirely unsure if you really are in labor. 

So, you lay your head down on the pillow, let your eyelids become heavy and drift....away.....into....WHAM-nope guess not-there's another contraction. Pretty much like a sledgehammer to the midsection and back. No sleeping here I'm afraid.

Then take a bath. Then go lay down. Then get throttled by the sledgehammer-like contraction again and promptly get up to lean over the bed and groan. Then do that a little louder to wake up your precious, living in sweet dreamland bliss of a husband. Hear him snort. Realize you don't want anyone or anything looking at you or talking to you so just give it up and let him sleep.

Then you proceed to the couch to watch CMT. Nope. Can't lay down. Then go take a shower and start to get ready for church. Just for the heck of it. You never know right? So...by the time you are ready to go,your little boys start squeeling and running up the stairs to greet who they hope will be their tender,loving ,gentle and sweet mother. Instead........they got a bear. So you get the point. And I got the point. I WAS in labor.

I will just fast forward the parts where I call the hospital. {becuase I don't want them to kick me out again but i really thought this could be it} Request the hospital people get their dang epidural people ready STAT. Call my sister in law to request my brother return to our house. Glare at my husband for eating not ONE, not TWO, but THREE hard-boiled eggs! And grab your pretty trench coat.By the time my brother arrived, I knew this was getting SERIOUS.

9:06 am- pulled the Subaru out of the drive-way.

Got on the road and realize we are having a blizzard. On May 1st. We are having a blizzard on May 1st?

Get halfway to the hospital and call the hosptial again. This time I am slightly yelling. "OK.....pant pant pant...nurse.......there is NO NEED for the triage room. Just get the epidural person up in the room NOW!". And the nurse says, "ok, just breathe and get here".Exit the freeway and pull up to the stoplight. Enter the poor old couple who witnessed the EVENT. Described HERE.

Again...still swearing at my husband to go through the blasted light. Husband still avoiding eye contact.

For good reason.Got a few more blocks. Starting to rip more clothes off. Seriously, I don't know why I did that? I was REALLY REALLY hot. Like hotter than I 've ever been.

Then get to ANOTHER red light and CA-BAM! There she blew! Perhaps one could say. My cup runneth over? The damn broke? Or, we could just get right down to it and say that my water broke.It would have been extra neat if this had happened in our nicely leathtered seated minivan instead of our hard to replace fabriced Subaru. But, it did. My water broke in the car. And that's not even the exciting part.

Now onto the "What To Do When the Lid Blows Off the Cooker?!"

Doot doot doot- doot doot doot doot. {that's me dialing up the hospital again}

The same nurse picks up the phone for the third time. So we knew each other by then.

Peggy: Labor and Delivery. This is Peggy.

Me: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Peggy, my water just broke....AND SOMETHING IS COMING OUT!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Peggy: Ok, ok, just calm down. Just keep breathing.

Me: I can't breath! Something is coming out of my body! I'm pushing! I can't stop pushing!

Peggy: Ok, DON'T PUSH! Whatever you do, DO NOT PUSH! Ok, you are going to have your husband just drive straight to the ER! Drive into the garage and we will meet you there.

Me: GET THE EPIDURAL PERSON READY!!!!

9:24 a m. 

We pulled into the ER garage and see 10 people and a gurney waiting for me. I rolled out of the Subaru and onto the gurney. They race me up to the 4th floor. 

Me: Pant, Pant, Pant, gasp for air. Scream. Epidural. Pant. Pant. I need the epidural now!

Nurse Bobbi means business: No, honey, I'm sorry. There's no time.

9:26am. Arrived to our room.

Me: still screaming. and pushing. and begging for some pain meds.

Nurse Bobbi means business who is now screaming back at me: SHANNON!!! Look at me in the eyes!!!!!!!! Close your legs and stop pushing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: silence. {gulping} 

Nurse Bobbi means business: You do NOT need to push. The baby is right here. Your body will do this for you. Just breath. Ok, guys get the delivery kit ready. The doctor is not gonna make it.

Derrick walks in the room. And grabs my hand.

And pop! Out HE flies!

9:37am. Beckett Cullen Heick enters the world.

Me: get him over here, get him over here!

and there we were. snuggled together just like we had been the previous 9 months. except in this moment..................we snuggled in reverse.

The end. Stay tuned for a few closing thoughts on Beckett's Blazin Birth-story.

Blazin Beckett {Chapter Two}

Chapter Two. {It Was a'Simmerin!}

Where we last left off, we were returning from the hospital, not with our baby but with our 2nd baby's gallon of whole milk. The third baby was still all shoved up in my baby cooker. But what we would soon find out was that baby cooker was about to blow it's lid!

So, here's the slightly shorter version of what happened at the hospital:

We waltzed in there at midnight that night, ready to get the party started. And apparently, I walked a little to brisk and with a little too much of a spring in my step. Because the nurses that saw me walk said they could barely tell I was pregnant from the front (with my black,cotton, button up, tie in the front, super cute, from Target maternity trenchy coat jacket). They said, normally when a girl is in labor she walks in waddling. And I was just walking normal I guess. Sheesh. Sorry. I didn't know that was  rule here.

Anywho, I knew I was gonna have that against me when the nurse had to call the doctor.

And for those of you who don't know how this goes, let me educate you a bit.

You go into the labor. Or you think you might be going into labor. You to to the hospital. Straight to Labor and Delivery. You do not pass go. You do not collect $200. You just go. So...you get up there. You tell them you are there. A nurse takes you back to the "triage room". You de-robe. You strap on a super tight elastic horrific looking band all over your belly. They shove a heart monitor in between it and your ginormous belly. They throw you up on a bed. They turn on your TV. And they leave you there like a beached whale gasping for air. FOR AN HOUR.

Ok, I forgot to mention, they do let you put on a super flattering hosptial gown. Good thing!

So, they do come back and check on your from time to time but for the most part. The point of the"triage room"  is this: Check Cervix | Monitor your contractions | Check cervix after an hour for any changes     Then they call the doctor and report the information and also I'm guessing they report your state of mind and how you are acting. Like:

A. are you screaming and acting like you are dying of pain.

or

B. are you just chilled out in the bed watching a little Kate and Prince Charming get married biography on A&E with your husband. Apparently, the latter of the two, is not the way to prove you are in labor.

And we did do that. We watched Prince Charming and pretty little Kate Middleton's love story. And I contracted and grabbed the bars and tossed and turned but I watched the dang show and I liked it. So sue me.

After an hour, although I was contracting......THEY.SENT.ME.HOME. 

The good ole cervix hadn't changed enough I guess. Clearly, I wasn't very good at proving to them that I was in labor. 

But I was. Oh yes, I sure was. Let's just say the lid was a'simmerin!

So, we packed up and headed back for home, wondering what the deuce just happened. And what we were supposed to do next. I guess it was getting time for Derrick to roll up his sleeves and snap on some latex gloves. 

{Later we would joke that maybe Derrick should always keep a spare pair in the Subaru...just in case}

So we rode off into the dead of night, let's say around 2am, and headed back for our home front. And on the way, Derrick suggested that we stopped at our favorite local grocery store to grab Chase his beloved milk for the morning. You see,were out of milk and one of the big things we were worried about when we left my brother to sleep on our couch and be there in the morning to help the boys was......." Oh No! Chase is out of milk!!! What will Aaron do!" It's  not a pretty sight to see Chase out of milk. So. we. stopped.

Derrick actually asked me if I wanted to go in with him. 

And while it sounded oh so tempting to labor in a grocery store. I passed on the invite and rocked out my contractions in the car. 

Back home we came. Sent the brother home because he is only 5 minutes away. And off to bed we went. Correction. Off to bed Derrick went. 

In the next Chapter we will cover a couple of how-to-manuals, called Laboring At Home for Dummies and What To Do when the Lid Blows off the Cooker! 

In the meantime, let's enjoy a few more shots of Beckett's first days of getting loved on. 

Blazin Beckett {Chapter One}

Chapter One. {The Preliminary Hours....and a hot date}

Derrick and I don't get to date too much these days. Really, it's our fault. We need to work on that.  Dating is really an important aspect of a marriage. I HIGHLY recommend it. Having little ones certainly makes it more of a challenge. But it's one of those things that for a little work and preparation (finding a babysitter) has a big pay-off. I.e,. Healthy Marriage, a break from the little loves, fun-ness, adult conversation, the list goes on and on.

So, on the eve before Beckett's swift arrival, we were so blessed to have one of our church and small group friends offer to watch our boys so we could go out on a date. (THANKS JENELLE & ANDY) And we just don't turn offers like those down. So, we dropped off our boys and headed to our favorite restaraunt, Qdoba. I know...it's sad that that is our fave but hey, who can pass up queso burritos EVER! Not us. Plus, it's a bit lighter on the old pocket-book and we know we have loads and loads of diapers to buy!

The lovely dinner of spicy, mexican goodness (plus extra hot sauce) was followed up by an amazing idea by my one true love. The conversation went something like this.......

me: "ok, that was good, so now what are we gonna do?"

(so let me interject a question here...do any of you love birds out there ever get a chance to go on a date and it's such a rare occurance that you don't even know what to do with yourselves?   well, that is normally us)

hubby: "hmmmmm, hey, when was the last time we went to Barnes and Noble  alone?"

(ok, let me interject here again....so while some of you may be calking your heads a bit, readjusting your eyeballs, and thinking...seriously? Barnes and Noble? the guy suggested Barnes and Noble?!....just relax.Barnes and Noble was like one of our favorite pre and post marriage activities. I can't tell you how many cups of creamy filled coffee we injested while studying together late into the night..........ok, he was studying..............i was reading some  trashy magazine or a book about the latest diet craze. those late nights hold a lot of pretty neat memories for us. and i really puffy hearted this idea)

me: "wow! we haven't been to barnes and noble alone in like YEARS!" 
in fact, the last time I was at Barnes and Noble alone was HERE. But the last time we were at barnes and noble together was with the boys. and the closest that gets to romantic is when i have to ask my hubby to grab a  wipe to get the smeared booger off Chases's sleeve. Seriously, it's that romantic!

So, we sat down at a little cozy table, grabbed about 20 baby name books and went to town firing names back and forth at each other. It was a lovely little segment in time of kidless bliss. One of my favorite moments was when a poor mom kept running by us chasing her not-listening little toddler. I just kinda smirked, looked at my husband and whispered...."aren't you glad that's not us right now?"

After adding a few more names to our list and realizing it was almost bed-time for the kids, we rode off into the sunset in our big eight passenger mom-mobile chalk full of car seats. Got the boys home, filled with ice cream and off to bed with just enough time for us to watch a movie. And this is where the action began. And I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about my contracting uterus.By the end of the movie, the contractions were coming regularly enough and made me uncomfortable enough that I knew I was in labor. However....it wasn't horrible pain yet, I just knew it was the real deal.

Or so I thought.

So, we called my big bro who high-tailed it over to our house at midnight so we could go have ourselves another little human.  And out the door we scurried.

Surely, one would think that the next time we return home would be two days later with our newest little bundle of sweet baby goodness.

That would have been a little too uneventful for this birth story, however.

Instead, we would return not two days but two hours later with a puzzled look on our faces and a gallon of whole milk.

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Stay tuned for Chapter Two so I can share what happened why the gallon of milk?

In the meantime........here are more photos of little Beckett's first few hours and days of life. 

Blazin Beckett {The Prolouge}

Welcome to Beckett's Birth Story.  Told in sections becuase it will be way to long for me write in one post. Thought hat might bore you a bit. And I don't like to bore you.
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{The Prolouge}

So there I was.

Bent over the passenger seat of our Subaru. Rocking. Panting. Screaming at my husband to go through the D#*!N red light. Burning up and tearing my black maternity jacket off and whipping it into the back seat.

There my husband was. Staring straight ahead. Avoiding any eye contact with me at any cost.

(He had learned that a few hours earlier when he accidentally caught my eye while he was peeling what seemed like his third hard-boiled egg of the morning. All the while, I'm over by the couch crying and panting and rocking and whining in agony. The stare he got from me over that third egg, was not pleasant. I'm sure had our little boys not been in the room at the time, something would have flown across the room. But, I just glared and focused on my breath. And he figured out that he should just not look at me until we were at the hospital.)

And there they were. The poor older couple who pulled up next to us at the red light. Probably on their way to church. Peering across the lane, into our car with a horrified look. They must have been wondering what on earth was going on right there in the next lane. A lunatic of a woman, tearing her garments off and flailing about. If they could have seen the size of my belly, they would have known. But I'm pretty sure they couldn't see it. They were sitting too low in their sedan. Instead, they just looked in. Eyes as big as pancakes. Horrified, I'm sure.

My husband avoided eye contact with them as well.

Then the flippin light FINALLY turned green.

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Stay tuned.....Chapter One: {The Preliminary Hours} is on the way.

In the meantime....enjoy a few little Beckett's Birthday Goodness photos. I'm sure he will love these when he's older.....I'm sure.

Gotta love that dark, curly hair.


And those ink-stained toes.


And those cheeks. I might eventually eat those cheeks.