Weekend Dream Vacation

Brian and I recently enjoyed a romantic weekend getaway in a private suite at a five star luxury hotel in fabulous downtown Des Moines. Our friends Mark and Aupreille graciously offered to stay with Cumorah so we could enjoy some quality couple time.

Ok, so maybe we weren't entirely without children for the whole vacation, and maybe our private suite was constantly being invaded by nurses and medical machinery, and maybe our luxury hotel was a hospital, and maybe Brian was still studying for a good portion of the time, and maybe I was in labor for half the time. But he's counting it as a vacation, and I guess I can't really blame him. Compared to our experience at the maternity ward at Kaiser in Sacramento where I labored in a shoe box and recovered in a little curtained off corner of a room shared with two other women (and all their guests), Methodist in Des Moines was definitely luxury. We had a huge beautiful, sunlight filled private room equipped with a TV (we didn't watch), a stereo, mini-fridge, desk for Brian to study at, cot for Brian to sleep on, a whirlpool tub (I didn't get to use), and a large room service menu. I was able to labor, deliver and recover all in the same room. It was really rather pleasant, aside from the general discomfort of childbirth.



The dream vacation began on Saturday, May 3rd at seven in the morning, my usual waking time. Brian had just gotten up and I rolled over not wanting to get up yet. That's when my water broke. Just like with Cumorah, quite the gusher, no mistaking whatsoever what just happened. I called to Brian, "Honey, I'm really sorry but I think my water just broke." He came in took one look at my soaked pajamas and said, "Yes, it did. We're going to the hospital." I was really sorry because he had two big exams on Monday that he was supposed to study for all day. We took our time getting ready. Again like with Cumorah, I wasn't actually in labor yet. So I took a shower, we had breakfast, we finished packing the hospital bag, got Cumorah all ready for the day, called Aupreille to tell her I would be missing my baby shower that morning and to ask her to watch Cumorah. We finally got to the hospital around 10:30am. After a short stint in the triage room, we were escorted to our room. I was put on Pitocin right away to give labor a kickstart. I'm glad they did it right away this time. I wasn't much looking forward to another 27 hours of labor. I put off having an epidural for a little while. I hated how numb I was last time, it was too heavy and I couldn't even move my legs. I also felt like I hadn't ever really experienced what labor was like. Our room was peaceful. I was relaxed, listening to classical music and finishing up Rivers hat. Brian was studying, and every minute and a half or so I felt kind of uncomfortable and remembered that I was in labor and going to have a baby. It started to get more and more uncomfortable and I would just relax my way through the contraction and then it got to the point where I said to Brian, "Well, that was a nice experience. I think I'll have the epidural now." So a little while later the anesthesiologist came and did the most wonderful job making me feel warm and tingly and comfortable, but not completely numb. I could still feel when I had contractions and I could still feel when the baby was right there ready to come and I had to call the nurse, and I could still feel when to push. It was fabulous. After the epidural, things went really fast. I went from a 3 to a 6.5 in no time and then just a little while later I was telling Brian, "I think we should call the nurse, I think the baby is coming." He said, "Nah, you can wait another 20 minutes when she said she was coming back to check in." I waited about twenty seconds and said, "No, I don't think so, we need to call her now." She came and said, "Oh, yes that baby is ready." And all of the sudden our room was flooded with more nurses and equipment, and eventually the doctor. Two pushes later, Rivers was in my arms. What a nice vacation.