Alex's birthday

I knew from almost the start of my pregnancy with Alex that he was going to be early. We lost his twin early on, and they told us that we had a 30% chance of him not making it, 30% chance of being a preemie, and 30% chance of everything being okay. Alex came early.

I saw Dr. Dan on the Monday before he was born for a routine check up. He told me that, at that point, if I went into labor, he wouldn't try to stop it. At this point I was also to start seeing him every week. I tehn went to work. The next day I started to lose my mucus plug and on Thursday I knew I was in labor. I went to get my lunch and I felt contractions start. I called Pat on the phone to have him start timing them. I was bummed out as I thought I'd miss my baby shower the next day at work.

I went home from work, stopping at the Ace Hardware on Ygnacio Valley Road to get some screws to repair the mirror we were putting in Alex's bedroom. I got Rick, then we picked up a pizza. Meanwhile, Pat and Chris had taken Pupper, my dog, to the vet to find out what was wrong with him. They decided to run tests on him. Around midnight I knew I had to go to the hospital. When they put the monitors on me, they told me I was in labor. I got to walk around the ward for an hour, and when we had no progression, they gave me a pill and sent me home to sleep.

The following morning went just about the same, so I decided to go to my office shower, and to collect my final pay check. I said good bye to Rick, my boss of 5 years and we went to my mother's house. Pat took a limb off her maple tree while I lay on the couch in the living room. They took pupper down to get his test results and decided to have him put down. Then we went to Sears to buy a preemie outfit for Alex.

When we went to the hospital for the third time, I was ready to cry when they sent me home. Contractions were 5 minutes apart with still no progression. Around 12:30 that night I woke with a start. I felt my water start to balloon out and I barely made it into the bathroom. I screamed for Pat. We got into bed together and the first big contractions hit. I didn't know how big they could be. We headed for the hospital where they could no longer turn me away.

I tried to labor in the shower but Alex was sunny side up and I had bad back labor. After several bouts of nausea I finally agreed to the epidural around3 in the morning, only after demanding a c-section NOW. The nurse laughed at my demands. I managed to rest until about 5
+ when it was time to push. I was given an oxygen mask because my O2 levels were really low. It took about an hour to get him out. He was given oxygen and then passed to me. He barely weighed 5 pounds.