I think I should begin this story on the morning of November 10, 2010 when I woke up having had a very strange dream. It involved a young girl who was pregnant but wasn't prepared for it. She was a single mother, but not by choice. My friends and I were helping her prepare, we tried to encourage her by telling her that everything would be alright. We had a baby shower and tried to help her find a place to live. The strange part was that the father of her baby was a hooved animal and it was like it was totally normal to be pregnant from a hooved animal. I wasn't sure what specific animal it was, just that it had hooves.
Later that day, I had a doctor's appointment and found out that I was pregnant! Something that I had come to believe would never happen. Joy!!!
A week later discovered that I was actually 13 weeks pregnant. I realized that day that I was the pregnant girl in my dream because my baby was going to be born under either the Aries or Taurus birth signs, both represented by animals with hooves.
Over the next months, I came to see many more ways that I was the girl in my dream.
It was finally Spring and I was full of baby.
For a couple of weeks before my baby was born, I was getting calls and text messages from people asking me if my baby had come yet. My Uncle Tom called me on the 17th telling me that I had 2 days to have the baby because he wanted my baby to be born on his birthday. I laughed and told him I would do the best I could.
It was April vacation, and my sister Abby had the week off from school. We had plans for she and my mother to be with me in the delivery room, and we were all very excited about my baby.Easter was coming soon and we had fun dying eggs. I put a couple of silly eye stickers above my stretched out belly button and took pictures. It was funny!
My belly looked like a giant egg, so I convinced my mom and Abby to use our face paints to paint my belly like an Easter egg. They painted it all white and added blue zigzag stripes across the middle. I am pretty sure that was when our spell was cast.
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Mom came with me for my doctor's appointment that day. The doctor checked me and said I still wasn't quite ready. Then he hooked me up to a machine to monitor the baby's activity. The baby wasn't moving much and the monitor wasn't showing much activity. I remember the doctor came in at one point and said my baby was a "poopy baby." We weren't sure what to make of that.
I had to just lay there hooked up to these machines while the doctor came in occasionally and seemed disappointed each time. Meanwhile, Mom was taking pictures of me with her phone and posting them on Facebook with statuses about how she thought they were going to induce me that day. She had a similar experience with one of my siblings.
One of our long time friends who happened to be Taurus, commented on her Facebook status, "Wait Little Bull, wait." She wanted my baby to be a Taurus like her and we were still in the birth sign of Aries. Soon after, we began using the nickname, "Little Bull" for my baby.
I believe those words may have helped to solidify our spell.
The doctor came in and said that he wanted to admit me to the hospital because he wanted to see more activity and if there wasn't more they would have to induce me. Mom was getting excited but I was just annoyed because somehow I just knew that it wasn't going to happen that day. We wound up hanging around a hospital room hooked up to monitors and waiting for an ultrasound technician who never came and they eventually let us go home because my baby's activity was fine and we were rest hungry and annoyed.
Just like my instincts told me, it wasn't the day.
I continued to get calls and messages from friends and family asking if the baby was coming yet. My Uncle Jim asked my mom if the egg hatched yet.
People were giving all sorts of advice on how to make the baby come, teas to drink and foods to eat. The most common advice was to walk. So, I walked and whole family got involved. During the 2 weeks before my baby was born, we all went down to the town green and walked a few laps around together. It was fun. We walked almost every day except for Saturday the 23rd, the day after my due date. It was rainy and yucky that day and nobody wanted to go out in that weather. So we just hung around the house. We needed to find a new way to be physically active, so my Sister Abby showed me how to use Wii fit. We took turns doing the obstacle course and playing different games. We were jogging in place, jumping, golfing, bowling and hula hooping. I guess it was a pretty hilarious sight to see a 9 month pregnant girl doing all of those things. Especially the hula hooping. Mom said she wanted to take a video but didn't because she was afraid I would be embarrassed. In retrospect, I wish she had for the memories and so I could laugh at myself.
We stopped playing to eat and then went our separate ways. I was watching TV downstairs with mom and Abby was upstairs in her room. I eventually got bored and texted Abby to come down. She came down in a flash because she thought that I might be I labor. We laughed and said no that I was just bored and wanted to do more Wii fit. We continued with our jogging and jumping for a couple more hours. I think it was 11 o'clock when we finally stopped. We got ourselves into our comfy clothes and got ready for bed. Well, actually couch. I wasn't comfortable sleeping in my bed anymore and mom and Abby decided to sleep on the couch with me for the past couple of nights to keep me company. We had recently gotten a new couch that was a large sectional big enough for the three of us to sleep on. It was fun.
We were all getting comfortable. I had some toast and was just settling down in my spot when I felt a gush and suddenly shot out of my seat across the room! Mom asked if my water broke and I responded, "Um, I think so."
This was definitely it.
Dave was asleep upstairs and mom figured we probably still had quite some time, so she decided to take a shower. Ha! When she went upstairs, she told a sleepy Dave that my water broke and she was going to get in the shower. He thought she was joking and went back to sleep. When mom got out of the shower, Dave found out it was no joke and sprung into action.
We had to go to the emergency room and they admitted me immediately. I have never had such quick emergency room service.
Eventually mom and I found ourselves walking in circles around the corridor of the labor and delivery wing until they made me lay down to get hooked up to monitors so they could monitor my contractions and my baby's activity.
Next, they gave me Pitocin to speed up my contractions. I seriously doubt I will ever have another baby, but if I ever do, I think I will say no to Pitocin because it made my contractions come non stop with hardly any breaks in between. They were relentless.
I sighed loud moaning sighs with every contraction. My mom and my sister took turns shoving their fists in my back to help relieve the pressure.
I didn't want to have an Epidural, but I wound up giving on to that eventually because I was so exhausted and I couldn't take it anymore. The Epidural was like a blessing and a curse at the same time. It was such a relief because it took the pain away, but on the other hand, I am confident that it negatively affected my ability to contact the right muscles when pushing.
My baby was face up, which they say is "Facing God", but I like to say, "Facing Goddess."
Well, that also added to the difficulties of our labor and delivery. Doctor Finch wanted me to wear an oxygen mask because she was concerned about my baby being under stress. Delivery was rough on both of us.
The rest of the people in the room were having their own little party. While I was resting between pushes, I heard my doctor say, "I pick things up and put them down." Everyone laughed. My mother had told the nurses and Doctor Finch about how we call the baby "Little Bull" and how it was even more appropriate now that we were under the birth sign of Taurus. Every time I leaned in to push my baby out, there was a room full of women chanting, "Come on Little Bull! Come on Little Bull!"
After almost 18 hours of labor in complete exhaustion, I finally I heard the words, "It's a Boy!" and seconds later I was holding my screaming baby for the first time. My sister was in tears, my mother was sobbing and I felt relief and joy. It was the most magical day of my life.
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