Flashback Friday! *Guest Blogger Edition*

With Jack's Birthday this week, and me being pressured several times to tell this story, I thought it should be told by someone who can truly give the story life.

Today my Guest Blogger is none other than the talented writer L. Shanna

So Sit Back and enjoy The Story of Jack's Birth from one of my best friends eyes:

Picture it:  January, 2006.  Beijing, China.  I am in my mid twenties and my boyfriend and I are lounging on the couch surfing the internet on a particularly cold and smoggy afternoon.  We are still adjusting to life in Asia and missing home terribly, when an email comes in from Heidi.  It is her birth story—Jack’s birth story—and one of the best emails I’ve ever received in my life. 

I read it the first time to myself, doing what I always do when I get an email from Heidi—I pictured her reading it to me, complete with her voice in my head.  (This is very important if you are a friend of Heidi’s since she, like the Chinese, puts great emphasis on tone.)  I was laughing so hard that L stopped to ask me several times what I was doing.  I shushed him quickly and told him I’d tell him in a second.  When I was finished, I told him to sit back, picture Heidi’s voice as I read, and listen:

I starting feeling funny on Wednesday.  Like Crampy.  I had had lunch at the Fish market with my Aunt Ann and told her I felt like I had bad gas….
 She looked at me and smiled and said that that was no gas….
 She was right.  I did not know it but by that night my contractions were 15 minutes apart…..
 I called labor and delivery at 11pm, they told me to watch the time and to take two Tylenol pm and call them when the contractions were closer together…
 By Three am I could not sleep through the cramps I was feeling.  Cramps that came about every 6 minutes….  So I got in the tub.
 Clay woke up when he heard the water running.  He came over to the tub to see if I was okay and he sat down and stared at me.  I told him to go back to bed, because labor takes forever and he would need his sleep since he was still going to work (he was scheduled for OT and we need the money)…
 He went back to bed and I sat in the tub for what seemed like forever.  I finally got out and decided to hop in the shower and shave my legs… - just in case today was the day-  When I got out of the shower my contractions were 4 minutes apart…..  I still figured I had a long way to go…
 I waited until 6 am and called Aunt Kathy to tell her that I thought today was the day.  She had plane tickets by 6:30 and was on a plane by 8 that morning.  I called my Mom and she was on her way from Dobbins in minutes.
 Then I called Gram.  We had both had scheduled hair appointments for that day, mine was at 3 hers was at 7, so I told her to come and pick me up…
 I was not sure how labor was going to go and I did not want to have roots for the next six weeks.  So off I went with Gram to get my hair done.
 My contractions as I sat in the chair stayed at 4 minutes apart until we left….  Then they hit about 3 minutes…. I figured, I still had time, so I told Gram to stop by the other salon I go to and I got my eyebrows done…..
Then I headed home.  I walked in the door, sat on the couch and waited.  My mom showed up, then Kathy then the contractions got closer and closer….
 I called the advice nurse and told her I wanted to wait to come in….when I could not talk to her and threw the phone at Clay during a contraction she informed Clay to get me in there asap.
 So after my mental “ I don’t want to do this “ breakdown in the kitchen off we headed to the hospital. 
 My water broke in the car….  It is the strangest feeling….  Like there is a water balloon in your crotch and somebody bursts it….
 Then the pain really started.  I could barely walk to the elevator. 
 We got into admitting, and I was at 6 cm.
 By the time we got to the room, I was requesting drugs.  Quite firmly.
 Finally I got my epidural.
 I got to the hospital at 12:30, I had my epidural by 1:45 and Jack came out at 3…
 I was pretty lucky.

And that, dear readers, is how a birth story is told.  When I was finished reading it to L, we were both laughing so hard we could barely see.  Once we caught our breath, L’s first words were, ‘Read it again!’

Over the past six years I have referred to this email several times as evidence of why Heidi needs a blog.  Now, finally, she has one.  She also has two beautiful children and a wonderful support system that appreciates her ability to tell a story. 

What she doesn’t have are roots or messy eyebrows.   The girl’s got priorities.