Laken Gabrielle

by Heather D. Edwards
( WV USA)

OK. So the newest Edwards member is a bit impatient. I guess she was just anxious to be the first granddaughter on my side of the family. She was born in the front seat of the van. Here’s how it happened.
At 8:49 am I had my first contraction. They came every 10 minutes apart so I waited the hour required and then called my doctor. She said to come into the office and they would work me in. All you mothers know what that means! So Jon loaded the boys up and we all headed to the doctor’s office. When we got there the contractions were still coming every 10 minutes. We sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity but was probably 45 minutes before we got called back. The nurse tried to hook me up to a machine to monitor the contractions and her heart beat, but they were too faint for their equipment. So they decided to take me to an examination room so the doctor could perform a cervical exam to see whether the contractions were real or Braxton Hicks contractions. Again we waited. The contractions started getting stronger and were now 5 minutes apart, so Jon went to find the nurse to tell her. She said they knew and would be there in a little while. We waited some more. The contractions got even stronger still and came 2 minutes apart. Jon went to find the nurse again and was told the doctor would be there in a few minutes. Still we waited.
Finally the doctor came to the room (after around 45 minutes to an hour of waiting in the room), did the exam, and told me I was in labor, (DUH!) 8cm dilated, and 90% effaced. They told me to get dressed and head a few minutes away to the hospital. Jon went ahead with the boys to get them in the van and bring it up to the front of the clinic. As I walked from the exam room, through the waiting room, and to the front doors, I had 3-4 more contractions. (Remember the contractions were coming about 1-2 minutes apart) Passing through the waiting room I must have scared the heck out of the first time mothers waiting to be seen.
I finally made it outside and as soon as I did I felt the urge to push. I tried all I could not to but my body had other plans and my water broke as Jon was pulling the van up. I was standing bent over a newspaper box trying to wait out the contraction and a nice, grey haired, British gentleman offered to call an ambulance. As it would have taken longer for the ambulance to get there than for Jon to drive me, the gentleman grabbed one of my arms and Jon grabbed the other and they helped me get into the van. Luckily, Jon had some forethought and put a black trash bag on the seat first. I was still trying not to push so I sat straight up in the seat and felt her go back in a bit.
Jon drove me to the hospital, with me complaining the whole way to go faster, even though he couldn’t due to traffic. We drove up to the Emergency Room door and Jon ran in to tell the nurses that his wife was having a baby and he needs help getting her out of the car. The nurses came out, took one look at me, and said that I wasn’t going anywhere. They actually asked why I still had my pants on. (If I hadn’t, Laken would have been on the floor!) While they were cutting my pants off and laying the seat back down, they sent Jon back into the ER to tell the doctor to “get his butt out there NOW!”. As soon as they cut my pants off they told me she was crowning and a few pushes later Laken Gabrielle Denning Edwards started crying. (She had a good set of lungs on her, too!) The time was 12:30pm. They put her on my chest, cut the cord, and took Tyler’s fleece jacket off the back seat to wrap her in until they could get some blankets out there.
After Laken was taken inside and up to the maternity ward, the EMT and one of the nurses stayed with me so that I could deliver the placenta too. Then they put me on a stretcher and wheeled me up to the recovery room.
During this whole time, Nathaniel and Matthew were sitting in their car seats in the back of the van watching their DVD player. I’m not sure what they saw or what they will remember, if anything. Jon told me later that after parking the van, the boys went up to the Maternity Ward to await my dad picking them up. While they were up there they were able to see Laken and watch the nurse clean her and perform the tests, as they did all this in the windows of the nursery.
While I was in the recovery room the nurse called my doctor to let her know how I was doing and she let me talk to her also She apologized to me, telling me that if she’d know how uncomfortable I was, she would have seen me sooner. (Let me remind you that Jon went to find her twice!) So she told me that she would pay to have the van detailed.
So that’s how our last child, finally a girl, made her way into our lives. All is well and my recovery time was much shorter than with the boys. This is due mostly because there were no stitches to heal, no drugs to come off of, and no IVs. (There wasn’t time for any of that!) Laken is a healthy girl born at 12:30pm weighing in at 7lbs, 7.4oz, and 20 inches. Technically she was preterm, but only by a few days.