They say that life happens fast. Anyone who challenges that statement need look no further than the story of how Christian Michael Stearle burst on to the scene...
If I'm telling the whole story, then I should go back to Wednesday night (the 20th) where it all started...
Keisha had been experiencing contractions all day long for the past several days, but they were not very consistent nor were they very powerful - more annoying than anything else. On Wednesday night that began to change. Although the contractions were not very strong, they became very consistent. We took this as a signal to get the party started!! Keisha had gone out of her way to plan all of the events that had to take place prior to us hitting the highway hospital bound. While she called her mother (to come watch the boys) I loaded the truck with cameras, purses, pillows, diaper bags, car seats, etc. Then we waited. Mimi arrived, and we waited more. Around 11pm we all decided to go to bed, and we waited more. When Thursday morning came around, Keisha and I looked around our bedroom and came to the realization that there was no baby there yet. False alarm!
Now on to Thursday. Keisha was experiencing the same annoying contractions all day long again, and I think she was starting to get discouraged about the thought of potentially having to put up with them for another full week (her due date was March 29th). For the record, I can't say that I blame her. I have said many times that I do not envy one single aspect of what women go through during a pregnancy, and I hold firm to that opinion! However as a guy, at least in my experience, pregnancy creates a very helpless feeling because there is often little that I can do to help ease her discomfort. We had made note of the contractions, but nothing seemed to be different from the night before. My truck was still about 75% loaded with all of the goodies that we would be taking to the hospital, so in my mind we were still ready to roll at a moment's notice. I was planning on waking up at 4:45am on Friday morning to work out, so around 8:30pm I was looking to hit the sack. I no sooner got in bed and closed my eyes when I heard steady, rapid breathing to my right. The time was 8:30pm, and Keisha was finally having her first REAL contraction - the kind that she wasn't even able to talk through. Knowing what that meant, we started the clock. About 7 minutes later came another one. About 8 minutes after that another. At the end of the fourth contraction just before 9:00pm, Keisha texted her mom and told her to get ready. My phone rang almost immediately and it was Mimi on the other line - "Do I need to head over there again??!?" she said. "Probably a good idea" I told her, after letting her know that she had plenty of time to take a quick shower before heading towards our house... After all, Keisha's contractions were still 7-8 minutes apart. About 3 minutes later I was back on the phone with Mimi telling her to skip the shower!!
I loaded the rest of the bags in my truck and we hit the road Southbound to Johnson around 9:30pm. Keisha's contractions were getting increasingly intense at this point and were coming about 5 minutes apart. We navigated our way South on I-540 through the wind and rain and pulled into the seemingly deserted Willow Creek parking lot. After parking the truck, we made the agonizing, contraction-laden walk into the ER entrance. Time of arrival - 9:45pm.
Now both Keisha and Dr. Gorman had prepared me for this moment, and I still have visions of July 26, 2010 dancing through my head (the night Ethan was born). As we walked in the door I made eye contact with the nurses on duty behind the glass and said "It's baby time!" while pointing vigorously to Keisha's midsection. As we rounded the corner to enter the triage area, I immediately blurted out "she delivers babies extremely fast, and she wants an epidural so please start all the necessary blood work immediately." If looks from a nurse could kill you would all be reading my obituary right now. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves" she said. "First we need to get her on a bed to see if she's really in labor..." as Keisha is doubling over every 3 minutes in a heap of tears and hyperventilation. In a bed in the triage unit of the Willow Creek ER - 9:50pm.
The nurse discovered that Keisha was dilated at 5cm and began hooking up all of the baby heart rate sensors. While I was hammering through paperwork, Keisha's contractions had basically turned into one prolonged event with very few (if any) distinguishable breaks. I got the feeling that the nurses were moving with a slight sense of urgency, but could clearly tell that they were all under the impression that we had more time here that we really did. Nurse disappears. Shows back up with paperwork - a couple minutes gone. Shows up again to check her dilation - still 5cm - more time gone. Another nurse shows up to take bloodwork - 5 more minutes gone. Then Keisha's water breaks! I rush to tell the nurse who had stepped away and she returns to discover that she is now dilated to 8cm. CRAP! NO TIME! GOTTA GET TO A ROOM! Gathering clothes, bundling up wires, wheels up on the bed and heading to a room - 10:20pm.
Once in the room, things really started moving fast. It was Ethan's delivery all over again! We wheeled Keish next to her delivery bed and helped her make the trek to the other side between contractions. Nurses were flying all around the room getting equipment and materials ready for our little guy. The one thing the room was missing - the doctor. I heard our head nurse call for Dr. Seale at least six times, each page going out with increasing urgency. "Dr. Seale to room 21 for delivery." "Someone go find Dr. Seale and get her here for delivery!" "Page Dr. Seale now to room 21 for delivery!" But alas, no Dr. Seale. Our head nurse, Christine, checked Keisha one more time and said "good news, bad news: you're about to have that baby, but you have no time for an epidural."
Keisha had already arrived at this conclusion in her head when we darkened the doors of the ER, so she digested this news in a very stoic manner. Our nurse also wasn't going to let the lack of a doctor in the room stop us from getting this baby out either - insert Dr. Thys. Dr. Thys is a first year resident who has just recently started his program in Northwest Arkansas. He has assisted in the delivery of approximately 50 babies, but he has never been captain of the ship - until Thursday night! "Dr. Thys, we need you to deliver," said Christine, so Dr. Thys began to suit up. While he was gearing up the nurse was taking Keisha through her final takeoff checklist: Circuit breakers in - check. Power to 30% - check. Flaps to takeoff - check. The actual checklist sounded much more medical than that, but this is basically all I heard. After another painful contraction, Keisha blurted out that she needed to push and the nurse agreed. "Dr. Thys, you need to get over here NOW!" she commanded. Dr. Thys assumed the position, then after a brief break in Keisha's contractions, Christian Michael emerged after one very long, very hard push! Time of birth - 10:41pm.
Christian Michael Stearle was born on Thursday night, March 21st clocking in at 7lbs. 7oz and measuring 20in. long. 10 fingers, 10 toes, 1 healthy set of lungs! After cutting the cord I went into my usual post-birth routine which involves sobbing over our new baby boy as the nurses get him all cleaned up and checked out. About 5 minutes after Christian was born, Dr. Seale showed up! Where was she you ask? Wendy's of course!! Having not even stopped all night long to eat, Dr. Seale did something she never does - stepped out of the hospital and drove a very short distance down the road to grab a quick sandwich. When she left, all she was told was that there was some lady who was only dilated to 5cm in triage. Little did she know that Keisha is the baby delivering equivalent of Speed Racer! It seemed fitting that on this cold, windy evening amid the rain and sleet that the one thing that kept our doctor from delivering our baby was a Frosty! Everything with the delivery went perfectly fine (although I'm sure Keisha would argue that "perfectly fine" would have included some intense waist-down numbing agent), and I was once again impressed with the professionalism and skill of the Willow Creek nursing staff. Everyone was great, and we even got to help our favorite resident physician log his first solo delivery in the process!!
As I type this last paragraph, we are approximately 3 hours from checking out and taking our new baby home. Keisha and I have laughed several times today about how far we've come in this crazy game we call parenting. When Jackson was born, her and I just assumed we'd live at the hospital where people were there to help with everything! "How can they let us leave here? We don't know what to do with this thing when we get home!?" Now 5 years and 2 more kids later we're doing everything we can to just stick out the mandatory 24 hour waiting period before we're cleared to leave.
Once again I find myself in awe. In awe of a God who created life and decided to bless me over and over with happy healthy little ones. In awe of my wife who once again rose to the challenge of carrying our child and absolutely knocked it out of the park. In awe of my responsibility to raise this perfect, innocent little baby boy in a way that will hopefully make the world a better place.
I honestly love my life.
One week after Christian was born, we lost our beloved kitty Hobbes. At a time which should've been so happy and joyful, Ryan and I were heartbroken. Ryan and I got Calvin and Hobbes about a month after we got married - almost 11 years ago. Hobbes was the sweetest, most loving cat you could ever imagine. He tolerated our kids so well and was really starting a very close relationship with Ethan. It broke our heart to lose him. I won't go into the details about what happened, but he left us way too early - years before his time. If you live in NWA and use The Cats Clinic, I suggest going somewhere else. We will never EVER go back to that clinic and truly believe that they are partially responsible for why our sweet kitty is no longer with us.
