birth day

if this picture looks familiar to you, its because i posted it on cody's birthday 2 years ago. i got a special request from my oldest daughter, mandi, to post my children's birth stories so here goes. my doctor for this, my fourth and last pregnancy was dr. haupt. i really would've preferred to stay with the doctor who monitored me and delivered my two previous children, dr. segal, but he wasn't listed on our insurance. dr haupt gave me a due date of nov 2, to be delivered by c-section. on the morning of nov 1, after sending mandi (11) and danny (9, almost 10) off to school, i was vacuuming the front room when i decided that i needed to lie down, i was feeling something strange going on. kyra, who was 20 days away from turning 4, and i went into the bedroom and got in bed where i probably read some books to her. i don't remember that specifically. soon i started feeling something that i can only describe as pulse beats against my cervix (i think). i got out of bed and when i stood up, my water broke and kyra said "mommy's peeing her pants!" and i replied, "no, i'm not! i'm having the baby!"

i don't remember the exact order but i called kevin who worked at trw in san luis, 35 miles away, and then i called my doctor. dr. haupt told me to get a ride to slo, that kevin should not come home to get me, he could meet me at the hospital. kevin needed something to do so i asked him to call the schools where danny and mandi were, to give them permission to leave as they were going to the hospital with us. i think i called kevin's parents who would meet us at the hospital to take care of kyra. i took a shower and got dressed. the neighbor i asked to take me to the hospital couldn't find her car keys and if i remember correctly, her husband had to come home from his work to give her his key. just a minor glitch. we drove to the middle school where mandi was and donna, my driver, went in to get her. they brought the sign out sheet to me and then we drove to georgia brown school to get danny. the first thing danny said when we told him we were going to the hospital was "i thought we were going to the hospital tomorrow!" i told him the baby decided to be born today!

we got to the hospital without any further delay and met up with kevin, walt and laverne, my in-laws. they took kyra and immediately went shopping.

we checked in and started the prep work. i won't go into detail about that because i'm sure you probably don't want to read about it. one other person who was planning on being there was my sister, teri. she was in nursing school and needed to see a surgical procedure and asked me if she could be there. she was called out of her class at cuesta college and wasn't sure if she should leave but everyone urged her to go. she joined us as they were going through the surgical prep. she almost missed the delivery because she left to get something to eat! Teri did make into surgery in time to observe everything she was supposed to.

everything went well and when the doctor announced its a boy, i started to cry. dr haupt held his head by mine and then handed him off to kevin to talk him into the nursery to measure and weigh him and do all the other stuff they do to newborns. when it came time to give him a bath, danny and mandi joined with kevin in the ritual. this is the only picture we have of cody on the day of his birth because in the rush we all forgot to take cameras!

I love you so much, Cody and i'm so glad you are part of our family!
P.S. i almost forgot the best part. i wasn't there but was told about it later--when danny first saw cody, he introduced himself "hi. i'm danny, your big brother".