Varrah's Birth - David's Account

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all the great gifts and words both through the pregnancy and since Varrah's birth. Every bit of it has added to this most wonderful time.

It all started like any normal morning, I got up around 7AM, got ready, kissed Erika goodbye and went to work. I had been at work for an hour and was away from my desk for a while. I got back to my desk to find an email with the subject, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU AREN'T ANSWERING YOUR PHONE." I quickly looked to my phone and found 8 missed calls, adrenaline started flowing and the thought that the baby was on her way hit my mind.

I called Erika back and after getting scolded for not answering my phone, which was on silent, she told me that she was having contractions and that they were 5 min apart. Before I could finish asking if she had called her Doctor, she told me that her Doctor had already told her to have me come home. I jumped up from my desk and said, "on my way!"

I quickly fled the office and jumped in the car and sped home as fast as possible. During my drive I called my Mom to tell her the news and couldn't get past my nervous laugh/cry to tell her. Finally I got the words out and the excitement started to spread. I reached home and ran inside to find Erika calmly going about her daily routine.

I grabbed Erika and hugged her tightly, "could this be it?" Wait, I still had so many things to do, she wasn't supposed to be here for another week! I told Erika to sit down, take it easy and keep track of those contractions. Meanwhile I would attack my "Things to do before the baby is born List" Over the next hour I cleaned the entire house top to bottom, got laundry taken care of, finished packing our bags and loaded the car. During that time Erika called her OB again because she hadn't felt Varrah move for some time. Hearing that, the OB told us to head to the hospital, and we did just that.

The drive to North Memorial Hospital in Robinsdale was fairly uneventful aside from having to stop for gas, and Erika's ever intensifying contractions. Luckily we made it to the hospital so I didn't have to use my internet knowledge on "how to deliver a baby."

We made it up to the 3rd floor birth ward and checked in to the triage for assessment. By this time pretty much everyone in our families were aware that something was happening and were trying to get a hold of us. Could it be false labor? Or was this really it!?!? The nurses hooked Erika up to a fetal heart monitor and a contraction monitor to see if they could get a view at what was going on.

The machine immediately started thumping at 130 beats per minute sending a wave of relief to Erika and I that Varrah was ok. Just as they were watching the graphs showing the heart beat and contractions the phone in the assessment room rang. "Who knows that you are here?" said the nurse. Confused as to who it could be, Erika answered the phone to find her mom on the other line. We both laughed at the effort that it must have taken to get to that particular phone when we had only been there for 20 min. Erika gave her an update that we were still being assessed.

Erika's contractions were still about 5 min apart, looking over to the wall in the assessment room and seeing a chart with a 1-10 scale for pain levels, I asked her how they felt. She replied that they were about a 3-4. If you ask me she made it look like they were more like 2s. The nurse came and and having been watching the graphs at her station said, "looks like you are having a baby tonight."

Stay tuned for the next chapter in Varrah's Birth! :D I don't want to write to much without throwing in some pictures of our little angel.