The Stringhams: Baby Luke!

Presenting Luke Dallis Stringham. Born February 10, 2015. 7:51 am. 6 lb 6 oz, 20".

Birth Story:

The week prior to Luke's birth I was feeling terrible. I couldn't sleep at night and was so tired during the day. Morning (aka all day) sickness had returned. I didn't know how I was going to go on like this for 4 more weeks. On Sunday (2/8), Jack suggested we walk to the boat show that was taking place on the river outside of our apartment. We walked maybe a mile looking at all the yachts. On the way home I could barely walk. I felt an intense pain in my pelvis, hips and lower back. I recognized this pain, I had felt it the day before Jackson was born. In fact the way I had felt all week mirrored the way I felt the week before Jackson was born. With the girls it had been different. I had felt a huge burst of energy and an uncontrollable desire to clean and organize. Not this time. My house was a disaster. I didn't want to cook. I was incredibly ornery. I had no energy whatsoever. I felt overwhelmed and I asked Jack for a blessing that night.

The next day I felt a little better. My pelvis still hurt a lot but I decided that after running the days carpools I would really start working on getting the house and laundry under control. When I got home from picking up Hannah from school, I put Jane down for a nap, then Andrea Face-timed me and we talked for awhile while I laid on the bed. Jane woke up and so I hung up with Andrea and went to get her out of bed. I lifted her out of bed and simultaneously heard an audible "pop" and felt warm fluid running down my leg. I wondered if I had peed my pants?! I put Jane down and ran to the bathroom. I was trying to assess the situation but all 3 kids were standing there crying and asking me for various things. "You guys have to go away for a minute, please!" I told Hannah that my water had broken and I really needed her to take care of Jackson and Jane for me. So she gave them popcorn and turned on the TV. It was 4:45 pm.

I went and laid down for a minute and then stood back up, that's the way the books tell you check if your water has really broken. When you stand back up you should feel another gush. Yes, a gush. Actually constant gushing. There was no mistaking that my water had broken. But I was only 36 weeks! I didn't plan on this at all. I was not ready. My house wasn't clean. I had not packed a bag. I didn't even know what to pack in my bag.

I called Jack but he didn't answer. Luckily he had given my his pager number the night before with instructions to only page him in an emergency. I paged him and texted him to come home ASAP. I was panicked because my labor with Jane had gone so quickly. There was so much traffic outside because of rush hour AND the boat show. What if I had this baby in the car? I called my mom and told her what had happened. She tried to help me calm down and figure out my plan. I called a friend from the ward, Tiffany Marriott, and asked her to watch my kids.

Meanwhile Jack got my page as he was completing an injection in someone's eye. It was a Monday so he was working in his clinic, which is always crazy busy. He finished the injection and walked out of the room without even talking to his patient. His other patients in the waiting room started yelling when they saw him leave, "Hey, you haven't seen me yet! Where are you going?" He replied, "My wife's in labor, I have to go!" and ran out of the room. He was also worried this baby would come quickly. He saw a co-resident, Sara Read, in the hallway who was leaving for the day. He asked her to please take over his clinic for him. She readily agreed. She has always been so kind to our family.

Jack began driving home like a mad man. He was weaving in and out of traffic. He got to the bridge that leads to our house and it was gridlocked because of an accident. He began to drive on the shoulder. He was stopped by a police officer and Jack told him, "My wife is in labor, I have to go!" The officer said, "Call an ambulance then, you can't drive on the shoulder." Jack said, "Look I have to be there to help her, let me go." The officer said, "What are you a doctor or something?" "Yes," replied Jack and he showed him his hospital badge. The officer let him go.

He actually got home in record time considering the traffic. Meanwhile, I was having no contractions though my water continued to gush. I calmed down realizing that the baby probably wasn't going to come anytime soon based on the fact that I wasn't having any pain or contractions. I threw some stuff in a garbage sack to take to the hospital and then threw some stuff for the kids in another sack for them to take to the Marriott's house. I didn't want to waddle down the hallway with soaking wet pants to the storage room that our apartment floor shares to retrieve some suitcases.

The kid were excited when I told them that they would be sleeping at the Marriott's house. The Marriott's have 5 kids and our kids adore all of them. Plus they have a trampoline in their yard.

I took the kids down to the car, trying to avoid seeing any of our neighbors. As I got to the car, Jack pulled up and helped me load them in. We dropped off the kids and sped toward the hospital. We were both feeling nervous, still worried the baby would come quickly. Then we realized that we were out of gas! Jack ran a red light and rolled into a gas station just in time before we ran out of gas.

We got to Jackson Memorial Hospital and went inside to check in. This is a county hospital in the middle of an extremely poor part of Miami. Not exactly the nicest hospital I've been to, but we chose it since Jack works there and my doctor delivered there. I told the take-in nurse that my water had broken. She gave me a side eye and told me to sit down. I asked if I could have a towel or something to sit on and she gave me some kind of pad. I think she didn't believe that my water had broken. We waited there for a long time and finally they took me to an exam room where I changed into a gown and laid in a bed. They hooked me up to some monitors and then left me there for a long time again. Finally someone came in and tested to see if my water had actually broken. Yep, they confirmed, it had. But I was not having contractions and they had no rooms for me so I had to just wait in this little exam room for hours. At this point I was starving and uncomfortable, but since I was officially admitted to the hospital they wouldn't let me walk around or eat.

At some point in the night they finally had a Labor and Delivery Room open up. They took me in there and I was surprised at how run down it was. There was not a single chair for Jack to sit in and they told him to go sit in the waiting room outside! I watched tv for awhile, but I was so tired and uncomfortable. I had a contraction here and there, but nothing major. I had thought I could go without an epidural since I had done it with Jane, but I was incredibly nervous to go through that pain again. Every contraction made me feel nervous.

I kept texting Jack to come in but the nurses weren't having it. Finally a nice nurse got him a chair and he came and sat and studied. He kept asking me if it would be OK if he went to work in the ER for awhile since he was bored but I told him no way. Around 5 am, Dr Yasin showed up. He barely said anything to me, but told the nurse to give me pitocin and turn it up high. He told me we'd get this baby out quickly.

I knew this was going to hurt so I asked for an epidural ASAP. They said I'd have to wait because the lady next door needed one first. I could hear her screaming her guts out in Spanish. Apparently she'd come in dialated to a 9, so they told her it was too late for an epidural, but she stayed that way for hours so they were finally getting her one since she was in so much pain. Her screaming made me more anxious.

The contractions got bad quickly. The nurse rolled her eyes at me when I groaned in pain. The anestheisa team showed up and did an awesome job with the epidural. They were residents and probably the only nice people at the hospital that day.

I could feel the contractions through the epidural even though I kept turning it stronger. It dulled them but did not take away all the pain. Around 7:00 am my mom texted to say her flight had landed. She took a cab to the hospital and around 7:30 Jack went down to meet her and take her suitcase to our car in the parking garage. I called him and said, "You don't have time! Get up here now!" He and my mom came upstairs just in time for me to push. Luke was born at 7:51 am. I was so worried he wouldn't be healthy because he was so early, but he was perfectly fine. Just a little small! We are so happy to have our little guy here!