A glimpse into my military life

The day started out pretty normal for me. The day before Halloween 2010. My son had slept pretty good because of our busy day of crafts for a friend's Halloween party, and a day of shopping for daddy's care packages. I wasn't feeling very energetic, so decided I'd rest my 38 week pregnant body for the day. I'd been having Braxton hicks for a long time, so didn't think too much about them. Keagan and I went on with our day, playing, and eating as normal. Later in the evening, I started having pain in my back. I was afraid that if I went to the hospital, I'd just get sent back home, like I had with my previous pregnancy. I decided to take a bath and drink water. I don't know about you, but that is what I was always told to do if I thought there may be a chance I was going into labor. Well, bath didn't help, so I decided to go for a long walk.

Yes, the pain increased. My son fell asleep in his stroller during our walk, so I went over to my friends house who happens to be my neighbor. After a conversation with her, she convinced me to leave my son for the night and go to the hospital. I walked back to my house and packed Keagan's back pack full of clothes and snacks, and went back to her house to drop it off. I tucked him into bed, he was still asleep, and then I was on my way. I drove to the hospital on post, and parked near the emergency room. I didn't want to walk super far to labor and delivery after all. I got there, and checked in, sat in the waiting room. When the nurse came and got me, she took me to an exam room. They hooked me up to all the monitors, and when the dr came to check me, I was already 5cm. Wow, guess I really was in labor! The dr said they were going to admit me. At that moment, I was excited, scared, and sad all at once. I started to tear up because I knew my husband wouldn't be able to be here with me to welcome our new child into this world.

The nurses asked me if I wanted them to help me by going and getting my bag from my car, I told them no, I could go get it. I went out to my car and got my bag that was packed with clothes, a camcorder, and laptop. I stopped in front of the entrance, called a couple people including the Rear D CO, asking him to send a Red Cross message for me. Except for, a few minutes later when I went inside, and got a text saying that Red Cross had informed him that they don't send message for labor, only for emergency or after the child is born!!! Great, now my husband will have no clue that his child is about to be born! Well, here I was, in the hospital, alone. I pulled out my laptop, put up a status on my Facebook, and a message on my husbands page. All my hopes were that he would get online and see that, and be able to talk to me. Instead my husbands friends got online, and saw it, and were doing everything they could to get a hold of him and let him know. With the luck I have, he was still in transit to get where he was suppose to be. I was admitted at 8:30 PM. After hours of sitting there with an iv in my arm, and not being able to rest because I was waiting for that little sound on my laptop to go off letting me know he was online. I was starting to lose hope. Around 1:30 AM I got my Epidural, and around 2:15 AM they broke my water. Well here it was. I was going to birth this child alone, without my husband, but my friends on Facebook were there, and my friends texting me. Well, to my surprise, at 2:30 AM, my husband gets online! Oh thank goodness!  I progressed through my labor, and enjoyed my husband's company. He had borrowed a friends computer that had video, so we got to talk and see each other. He may not have been there physically, but he was there for me mentally, and coaching me through the labor. I am so thankful for technology. He was there for me when my epidural stopped working for about an hour and a half, that I had no idea what was going on. The nurse came in and checked me and I had tears rolling down my face. Needless to say, they came in and fixed the epidural. This was at about 6 AM that it got fixed. 6:30 AM I was announcing to my husband that he had a baby girl. We got to visit as a family until about 7:30 AM. It was so nice to have that technology available to us, so that even with the distance, my husband was still able to be there with me during labor and delivery.

Kali Michelle 10/31/2010 6:33 AM 6 lbs 18 1/2 inches