Harris's Birth Story

I'm a planner. So it's not hard to imagine that a C-Section fits perfectly into my schedule planning. You set a date, you show up on that scheduled time and date, they open you up, out comes the baby and three days later, you're home. You can get everything ready that you need before hand. Errands? No problem! Bags packed? No problem! Guests coming into town? No problem!

We were all set for our scheduled date on Wednesday, March 14. Not only was it Pi Day (you know, 3.14) but also the birthday of Albert Einstein. Fantastic - this kid was bound to be a genius.

Keep in mind I've never experienced labor before. Harper was a scheduled C-Section due to her omphalocele so they took her at about 38 weeks. So Tuesday night, I headed off to a Junior League meeting. We were selling some items from Fete so I picked up a box that I knew was a little too heavy for me. About an hour later, I went to the bathroom and noticed some bleeding. Minor panic, quick call to the on-call OB, gag reflex when told it was probably my mucus plug (sorry, I know it's part of the beauty of the birthing process but couldn't they have called it something a little more attractive?) and back home to tell husband I was losing said mucus plug (gag).

That night, I started having what I now know to be contractions. I woke up on Wednesday morning and continued about my day with no other issues. At about 9pm on Wednesday night, the contractions started back up again. I started timing them but they were only 10 minutes apart. I was told not to head to the hospital until they were 3-5 minutes apart and were "take your breath away painful". So after no sleep on Wednesday night, I went into a little bit of panic mode, packed a bag, made a grocery store run, got in to see my hairdresser since I had a Friday appointment set up and managed to take the girl to story time at the library and open gym, all the while having contractions that were getting stronger by the hour. By Thursday night, I was beat and had another sleepless night.

On Friday morning, I had a doctor's appointment scheduled at 9:20am with my OB. Jared was totally convinced that this baby was still coming on Wednesday as planned. He left for a breakfast meeting with plans to meet me at the doctor just in case. I dropped the Squirrel off at day school and headed in for my appointment, contractions and all.

When I walked in, I told the nurse that I thought I might be in labor. She asked about the pain and timing and I let her know I was fairly uncomfortable. She, nonchalantly, said she'd let Dr. Cox know and would be right back. Dr. Cox strolled in, checked things out and said, "Oh yes, your headed straight to labor and delivery. Your about 3-4 centimeters dialated. Otherwise, you'll be in full blown labor within the next couple of hours!"

If I could have recorded the phone conversation that followed with Jared, I would have. After a few expletives, having to convince him that I wasn't kidding, and making sure he didn't get in a wreck, we made the decision that he would turn around (he was about two miles from the hospital), head home and grab our bags and meet me in labor and delivery. Mom got the phone call and she headed to pick up Jared so that we could just have one car at the hospital. She stayed with us until Harps finished with school and to get a peek at the boy and then took over Squirrel duty.




By 1pm we were back in the operating room and at 1:20pm, we had a healthy, beautiful, loud baby boy with a full head of hair!








Steven Harris Meabon, named after Grandy, Steven Harris Boswell. Jared and I knew from the minute we started trying to have kids that our baby boy would be named after Steve and that we wanted to call him Harris. Steve has played such a significant and influential role in both of our lives - as a parent, a role model and a good man - that we would be proud if his namesake inherited even a fraction of his example.

So welcome to the world Harris Meabon. We love you so much already!

And for those of you wondering, March 9 is the birthday of James van der Beek and Freddie Prinze, Jr. So I guess if he follows in their footsteps and osis the next teeny bopper, so be it!




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