Lisa's Version

Todd’s birth:

This August Skyler and I experienced two firsts in our marriage. We had our first son, Todd, and he was born on the passenger seat of our car! Talk about getting an answer to our prayers in a way that we were not expecting! We were praying for Todd to be born before his due date. My Mom would be flying down and Skyler would be starting his second year of graduate school soon after that. We wanted Todd to come before those dates, and he did…at lightning speed!

Confession: I thought I would never fall under the category of people who have given birth in a car. I was too prepared! There should be plenty of time to recognize the stage of labor you’re in and be able to drive to the hospital before the baby is born, right? Having a baby in the car did not apply to me.

To understand the story, you have to know what Claire’s birth was like. With Claire, I began feeling contractions around 4am. We timed them all day, went to the hospital around 10:30pm, and she was born around 5am. I had an epidural, so I did not feel all of the stages of labor (which had its pros and cons). This time around I was interested in using some natural birthing techniques from a book called the Bradley Way. With Todd I began feeling contractions around 6am. Thinking it was going to be like last time, we mutually agreed to have Skyler go to work, and I would call him when I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. I called Skyler around noon and Todd was born around 1:20pm. As soon as Skyler came to the apartment we headed straight to the babysitters to drop Claire off. Skyler drove, Claire was sitting behind him in her car seat, and I was in the passenger seat. The contractions were getting more intense, and I felt like pushing, so Skyler made a U-turn and headed toward the hospital instead. I think it was at this time that I knew that Todd was going to be born in the car. I told Skyler to pull over, but instead he drove faster and honked the horn whenever we got around other vehicles. The main things that stuck out to me during that intense drive to the hospital was that it was a bright and hot summer day, I felt sorry for the people around us at the stop lights (I’m sure I traumatized some people that day), at one point I was screaming just because of the adrenaline and trying to cope with everything going on, and it was kind of weird how as soon as he was born everything was calm. Skyler said that he got emotional as he saw Todd being born. When Claire saw Todd she didn’t seem worried anymore and said “baby”. I got to hold him in my arms for a couple of minutes before we drove up to the front of the hospital. Then things sped up again as they rushed Todd to the NICU (since he was born outside of the hospital) and me to the labor and delivery floor. Soon after, Todd was taken to the nursery and I was taken to a recovery room.

Thankfully everything turned out fine. I have had a fast recovery, and we are delighted to have Todd in our family. He is such a sweet little baby boy. This will definitely be one of the stories we’ll tell over and over again! Happy Birthday Todd!
Lisa Hebdon
Written October 2014