August 18, 1999 -- The night before the birth, at around 9:00 PM, I got to thinking. I was four weeks away from being due to have a baby, so I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and get a suitcase packed - just in case. So I proceeded to do just that. I put in clothes for the baby, clothes for the mommy, and clothes for the daddy. I even put in some playing cards.
Soon after packing the bag, I found myself in bed with my husband, ready to fall asleep and be that much closer to my due date. Steve rolled over and asked a question about pregnant ladies' waters breaking, and I said, "Oh, it doesn't matter. We don't need to worry about that. The statistics say that only like 15% of all labors start with waters breaking. Good night."

HA!

August 19, 1999 -- I was sound asleep at 5:45 AM when I felt a warm gush of SOMETHING leave my body. My first reaction: "Oh, great. The baby kicked my bladder and I peed in the bed. Here I am, 18 years old, and I PEED IN THE BED. Steve is going to kill me!" So I got up and went to the bathroom, praying Steve wouldn't roll over until after I got back. Soon after, I realized that I had NOT peed in the bed and something crazy was going on!

So, I went in to wake up Steve. I said, "Steve, I think my water broke." And he said, "No it didn't. You probably just peed in the bed." And I explained that I hadn't, and we went from there.

So, I called my 24-hour nurse-line that is provided by my insurance carrier. After 20 minutes of talking, they told me to get in touch with my hospital and they would get me in touch with the doctor on-call. So I did that and then I waited until 6:35 AM when the doctor finally called me. By then, I had begun feeling some tiny cramps in my stomach - much like very small menstrual cramps. The doctor said to come on in to LABOR AND DELIVERY. We were going to the hospital.

By the time I got to the hospital (about 7:15 AM), I was feeling some wicked contractions and tests showed that they were two minutes apart and I had already dilated to 2 centimeters. The lady checked me out and said the baby's head was WAAY down there. Yowch. The nurse explained to Steve that we weren't leaving without a baby. That was the weirdest feeling in the world. We weren't going home without a baby. Wow.

So they wheeled me to my delivery room and there I writhed in extreme pain until about 10:15 AM. I'm not kidding, folks. Labor hurts. By 10:15, I was dilated to about 4-5 centimenters and the angel that you people call an anesthesiologist came in and gave me the most wonderful thing in the world - an epidural. From then on, I could still feel the contractions mildly, but they were NOTHING like they were before.

By about 11:20 AM, the once-mild contractions gave way to some big time pressure and more pain. I thought I may have been laying on my epidural the wrong way, so I sent Steve to get a nurse to check me out. She looked at me and said, "No wonder you're feeling pressure. You are already at TEN CENTIMETERS. LET'S START PUSHING." Whoa. I wasn't ready for that.

So I pushed a little and the baby's head crowned. It surprised her how fast I went, so she called the anesthesiologist (aka the angel) to juice me up for delivery. The doctor was called and at about 11:50 AM, it was time to deliver the baby. I pushed about three times before I heard someone say, "Oh, look at that cute little face!" I sat right up and said, "WHAT?!? YOU CAN SEE A FACE?" Sure enough, I took a glance and there was a head. A blue head. Wow. That is the moment where the whole thing became real. That was the little thing that had been kicking me for so long. That was the heartbeat that I heard at every doctor's appointment.

I was ready to get that baby out and meet it.

So, with one more good hard push, the rest of him was out. I heard the cry, watched Steve cut the cord, and was the only one in my body all over again. Noah Stephen Baker was born at 12:15 PM on Thursday, August 19, 1999. Four weeks ahead of schedule, and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.