Sweet Baby James

A few minutes after James was born.

Barry, Ellie and James in the delivery room

James at home asleep

Whew! It's been a long week. James Stuart Pate was born Sunday night at 9:20 ish 19 inches long and 6 lbs 2 ounces. 3 wks early. Sunday was a normal day, went to church, taught my lesson, came home and was looking at cookie recipes for the no-bake cookies I was craving…. at which point I thought perhaps my water had broke, because I started leaking a little bit of fluid. We called the hospital and they told us to come in. (It was around 7pm) my neighbor who was planning on taking Ellie for us, was on vacation so we just brought her(ellie, not the neighbor) along. I wasn't having any contractions so I was 90% sure they would just send us home. When we got to the hospital they checked me out and said my water wasn't broken, but I could hang around for a while, since I was all hooked up to the monitors. After about a half an hour I began having contractions about 4 minutes apart. So they said I was a keeper. I was rather shocked. I told Barry to hurry and call my parents so they could come get Ellie before things got too serious. The nurse called the Doctor. and he said he'd come right in after he fed his horses. One must keep their prioirities straight. The nurse also called the anesthesiologist who was supposed to arrive in 15 mins. The Dr. arrived after about an hour. My contractions were 2 minutes apart then. He said he would come back and check me when the anesthesiologist arrived. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist got called into ER, and never showed. The nurse offered me some pain medicine to "take the edge off." I readily accepted, but it didn't seem to work. Turns out my IV was "inactive",... they noticed that later. Things started to get rather intense, and my parents hadn't showed up yet, so I was very grateful for the natural childbirth books my friend Charity sent me. I didn't want Ellie to be scarred for life, so I didn't make a sound and just tried to relax. She(Ellie) came over and checked on me a few times, but mainly danced around and watched TV. The nurse was out chatting with the other nurse, and the Doctor had gone back to his office somewhere in the hospital, when Baby Pate decided to make his appearance. First, I told Barry, “Find the nurse, I think I need to push". (He didn't believe me, or have the time) The next contraction, I admit, I lost all my focus and self control and screamed "He's coming-out," and after one more contraction he slipped out onto the bed. (They hadn't taken it apart yet thankfully). The nurse heard me and ran in caught the baby and clamped the cord. There wasn't much fluid, so who knows when my water broke. The Doctor came running in a little later and offered to deliver the placenta. So when I say Baby James was born at 9:20, it's rather an estimate, because no one was looking at the clock.
Fortunately everything turned out okay, and there was no complication with Mom or Baby. I am so grateful for that. Ellie seems to be fine, she was a bit concerned for a while and had a few questions, but things seem to be okay. We came home Monday afternoon, being rather sick of the hospital and its’ food. My neighbor who was on vacation returned and brought us our first meal, for dessert she brought us no-bake cookies. So all is well that ends well, and all is well because now we have our Sweet Baby James.