Shannon's Story

April 7, 2011 - Shannon Elizabeth Sponseller's birthday

This is possibly the most amazing story of my life so far. I can honestly say I still don't believe it all happened the way it did. I find myself replaying the day over and over thinking if I had waited just five more minutes to leave school, Shannon might have seriously been born in a car or in a parking lot. And if anyone would have told me that I could deliver a nearly 9 lb. baby without an epidural I would have thought that they were definitely crazy. But that's exactly what happened! So here's Shannon's story, one that she will be hearing about for the rest of her life!

It all started on Wednesday the day before Shannon was born. After a night of tossing and turning with mildly painful contractions, I woke up at around 4:30 am with a very painful contraction. I started walking and tried to lay back down but I was definitely very uncomfortable. I woke Jeff up saying that it was time to go to the hospital. We both started going through the motions of getting ready and putting the bags here and putting the camera there. I decided to take a quick shower and the contraction stopped. We were still planning on going but decided to sit and start timing the contractions. They never came, the entire day passed without one more contraction. I felt slightly foolish because I had taken the day off work and basically sat at home watching TV all day all because I had one painful contraction.

Wednesday night I started having my usual braxton hicks contractions that I had been having for a few weeks prior. They lasted all night long and were mildly uncomfortable by the morning. I woke up and got ready for the day just like any other day. I did notice that I was having contractions but they were still very mild and didn't seem to have any sort of regular timing so I decided to consider them braxton hicks. I got John up and we had our normal morning routine as well. By the time I got to school I felt like it was going to be a normal day.

Throughout the day I was still having contractions and decided to google it. After going to a few different websites I self-diagnosed myself with false labor. By 1pm I started giving myself a hard time thinking if I can't get through these false labor pains without a little deep breathing I'm going to have a pretty hard time once the real contractions start. At 2pm I went to the bathroom and found a little blood, this made me nervous so I decided to call my doctor. They told me that I should go straight to the hospital, which actually annoyed me because I thought "this is just false labor and it's going to be a waste of time and money going to the hospital". I called Jeff, who was still at school, and told him it was time to go to the hospital. I asked him to drive home first to get the camera "just in case" and our bags. My friend Fran told me she was going to drive me to the hospital and quickly got me out the door and into her car. It was now about 2:25 and I started timing my contractions on the clock in her car.

"Oh there's another one" they were now about 4 or 5 minutes apart. I still was not convinced I was in labor, which looking back I want to say to myself  "HELLO!?!?!?! Crazy woman, go directly to the hospital, do not pass GO, do not collect $200, go go go!" . The last time I looked at her clock it was 2:49. I have to say that Fran was great, she remained calm the whole time and was really a great companion on this crazy ride.

I was checked into the hospital at 3:05 and brought back to triage almost immediately. The nurse there was amazing. I warned her that "I don't do well in emergency situations" and she assured me we weren't in an emergency situation, that everything was going to be just fine. I was already saying that if this was the real thing I definitely needed an epidural and talked with her about my IV placement and things like that. She then hooked me up to monitors and asked me a million questions. Jeff finally got to the hospital as they were checking me. I was already 5cm dilated and the nurse said that we were definitely having a baby today!

This is when life went into fast forward. We were told we were going to room 12 and on the way there I had a holy moly contraction where I had to grip the hand rails and hunch over in pain. We got into the room and Jeff sent out the following text:
"We are admitted to the hospital.
We are in a room.
Will keep you updated.
Baby is NOT imminent" at 3:41pm.

I remember having to spell the word imminent for him and thinking to myself  "Oh this baby is definitely imminent". They took my blood and told me I would have to wait at least 30 min for the epidural which seemed like an eternity. At this point the contractions were coming fast and furious one melting into the next with only a minute or so of relief in between. I started becoming less pleasant and more demanding of some type of pain relief. They brought me the paperwork on the epidural and started explaining things and I grabbed the pen, signed my name and demanded the pain relief and fast. I was standing up at this point, another contraction started coming and I couldn't stop my body from giving a little push. I was told to "lay down right away, on your side and to try and curl up" so that they could give me an epidural or a spinal, not sure what the difference is but apparently someone was in the room and ready to give me some pain relief.

I literally had no control of my body at this point. The contractions were consistent and my body was pushing, there was nothing I could do. I was screaming, I mean really, really screaming. "I can't do this" "I need something for the pain" "Help me" "I can't do this" Jeff was told to sit down while they attempted to give me the epidural but since that option was out I screamed for him. Jeff was there holding my hand and I pushed again and my water broke with a burst. At this point the nurses started moving quickly. Oh and I have failed to mention that while they had called for my doctor to get there, he was not there yet. There was no doctor in the room or on the floor at the time. Once my water broke I don't even think I had to push again, Shannon was being born and I let out one final scream that Jeff has likened to "that one woman, Jamie Lee Curtis, in the movie Halloween right before she is killed."

Shannon was born at 4:05pm, only one hour after I checked in. The amazing nurse who was right there with me through it all reminded me to open my eyes and watch my daughter being born and I will always be thankful for her. She never left my side and kept me as calm as she possible could under the circumstances. I watched Shannon come into this world and they handed her to me, she was purple and crying and perfect. They took her to check her and weigh her, she was 8lbs. 13oz. and 21 inches long.



My doctor finally showed up about 15 minutes later, looked at us and said "I was on my way, I promise!" No one could believe how fast everything happened. They handed Shannon back to me and took care of everything else that you have to take care of when a baby is delivered. I was in shock, I was holding my beautiful little girl who I had delivered without an epidural and faster than anyone could have predicted. It didn't seem real for a little while. Jeff sent out the following text at 4:15pm:
"Shannon is here!!!
No epidural or doctor in the room.
It happened so fast.
Everything is awesome!" 








 

Everyone was shocked that she was born so quickly. Our phones were buzzing and beeping with sweet messages and congrats and many with "wow" and "that was quick!"

Only a few hours later it was time for big brother John to come visit. I knew he was going to be shy and I was a little nervous about how he was going to react to it all. He came in and didn't like seeing me in the bed all wired up so he stayed with Daddy and looked at Shannon. John did well but I knew he didn't like being in that room that night. It was a nice quick visit that went better that I had predicted.



Here are all of Shannon's first visitors on her first night.


We spent the next two days at the hospital and had lots and lots of visitors! It was wonderful to have everyone come and meet our little princess.



The next time John came to visit he was much more excited. He brought Shannon a very special gift of little tubby toys that he opened and showed her one by one. He climbed right up on the bed and was very interested in looking at Shannon and talking to her. It was wonderful. And here is our first photo as a family of four. Our happy little family . . .
 

Mommy and her babies . . . life doesn't get better than this!
 

And finally it was time to go home! John came in his big brother shirt (the one that my mother-in-law bought for me when I was pregnant with John) and was excited about bringing Mommy and Shannon home.



Shannon was not as happy about it . . . she calmed down quickly right after this.


Proud Daddy with his little girl, I just love it!


Since we've been home life has been great. Shannon's not even a week old and yet it seems like she's been here forever. I have a feeling like this is it, this is our family, we are all here now. Life is great!