Welcome To The World, Parker Ann!

As I woke up Sunday morning, I realized 2 things: 1. I had forgotten to sleep with my TMJ mouthpiece in; I had a headache and 2. I was a Ya-Ya! The second thing, made the first thing sort of irrelevant. I had been at the hospital awaiting my first grandchild's birth the day before for 20 hours! The wait had been worth it...Parker Ann was here in the world with us and I am sure that my life will never by the same.



From the moment that I found out I was to become a grandmother, I was thrilled! This was a 9 month "event". From furnishing the nursery to purchasing every cute outfit across the country. Literally everywhere I travelled, cute baby items called out, "buy me"...and I did! Needless to say, as the big day's arrival neared, my excitement grew to unbelievable proportions.



Saturday was an early and VERY long day. My daughter-in-law was to be at the hospital by 4:30 that morning to be induced for labor. I knew that the day would be long and had no intentions to be there too early; I didn't want to have puffy eyes in my first photographs with my grand daughter. My husband, however, had other ideas. I had things thought out...I needed to make sure that I wore a cute outfit AND make-up today...I needed to look good in those first photos. Well, after "hanging around" my bathroom door and threatening to leave me at home, Robby pulled out the big guns. He said, "We need to go. She is already at 4 cm. When they arrived at the hospital, she was already in labor." OK...I admit, that DID put me in high gear and we got out of there quickly.



Upon arriving, we found Justin and Sarah settled into their room and everything was quite calm. I thought, maybe this wouldn't be a long day after all. She was almost half way there and things looked pretty good. The nurse came in to examine Sarah and we left the room. When we were allowed back in, I excitedly asked my son how far she was dilated now. He held up 2 fingers. Was I somehow confused? Could you go backwards? That's when I realized that I had been had! In Robby's haste to get to the hospital early, he had LIED to me! Oh well, we were there now, we may as well settle in for the day.



Settle in, we did. Justin has a huge Labor Day sale coming up, so we decided to stick over 2,000 address labels on postcards to be mailed out for this event. Robby worked at this task like he does everything else...FAST. I inquired why he was working so quickly since we had ALL DAY. With this task completed fairly soon, I wondered what other" fun" thing he had planned for us to do. Actually, he sent Ryan and Caitlin to Books-A-Million to purchase him some reading material. It was then that people began arriving. Friends and family filled the waiting room.



It was around noon and there was still no progress with the baby...she was still only 2 cm. dilated. How could this be? This was not the pitosin drip that I remembered. I decided to ask the nurse when she entered the room again. She informed me that the doctor "eased" her patients up to the full dose of the "drip". How humane! I wish they had done that 28 years ago. Then the doctor came into the room to inform the mother-to-be that she would monitor her progress and not check her again until she started having some pretty good labor pains. And thus, the day continued.

More people began to show up and the waiting room could not hold another person. The longer she was in labor, the more determined everyone there was to stay until the birth. Perhaps around 6:30 in the evening, although Sarah was still apparently not having much pain (she was reading a book!), the doctor poked her head in to check on her. It was at this point that things began to speed up...or so we thought. She broke her water and IMMEDIATELY the book was thrown down and she was in some REAL pain. Justin went from playing around and laying on the couch being bored to alert status and sitting in a straight chair by Sarah's bedside. When the doctor check a little while later, she was actually NOW at 4 1/2 cm. We were on our way to having this baby girl!

The anesthesiologist came in and administered an epidural...and then Sarah went to sleep. I couldn't believe that...asleep? Wow! BUT I watched the monitor closely and the contractions continued to increase in intensity and were now coming closer together. It was after 9 p.m. by this time. No one who had been waiting with us all day long was about to leave now; not even my 82 year old mother. She was actually having someone make her a new pot of coffee at this hour. Playing with I-Pads, cell phones and watching a football game, we tried to busy ourselves while we waited. THEN, we were told that they were about to prepare her to push. YAY!!! It was so very close now.

I went back into the room one last time to check on Justin and Sarah and let them know we were right there supporting them all the way through this thing. Justin looked at me and said, "I have to go to the bathroom." "OK...so go," I said. There's a bathroom right over there", I pointed to the corner of the room. "I CAN'T go in HERE. The nurses and doctor are about to be in here." I looked for only a nanosecond at him and relied, "Then go...go FAST...down the hall!" And he RAN out of the room. Almost as soon as he ran out of the door, the nurses came in and began readying the room for the delivery. OH NO!...Where is Justin? I started to worry that he wasn't back yet. Sarah had still been dozing and I calmly explained to her that he had stepped out to go to the bathroom, but would be back very soon. Much to my relief, he DID finally return. It was now time for me to step back outside the room for the remainder of the delivery process. It was around 9:30 p.m.

Valerie (Sarah's mother), my sister and I all stood in the hallway waiting to hear the sound of a baby's cry. We waited...and waited...and waited. And then, a nurse came out and said, "We're just going to let her rest for about 30 minutes and then try to push again." UGH! It was almost 10 p.m. now. I was getting constant text messages from friends everywhere, requesting an update on the birth status. My eyes were DEFINITELY going to be puffy in those first photos. She sent us back to the waiting room and told us she would come get us when it was time to try again. I looked at the time on my watch...and several of us snuck back around to the door on our own in 30 minutes; we knew those nurses weren't coming to get us. And then we heard a cry...had our baby finally arrived? NO! It was the baby in the room next door. So, we waited some more...Caitlin stuck her ear to the door and heard counting...1,2,3, PUSH! Still nothing. By this time, almost everyone from the waiting room was standing in the hall outside the room waiting to hear a cry. It was around 11 p.m by this time. And then...there is was. The softest little cry. That was our baby. What we had been waiting for all day...and for 9 months; Parker Ann Rogenmoser was here at last.

I have been a mother for almost 28 years now. However, I now set sail in uncharted territory. What will this grandmother thing be like? What will my duties be? Will she adore me as much as I adore her? I don't know the answers to what the future holds or what to expect. I do know one thing, though...I loved Parker before I even met her. And now that I have held that tiny little miracle in my arms, I am quite sure my life will never be the same.