Camp's Birth Story

This is the story of the end of my first pregnancy and the beginning of a new life.

On my due date, November 7, 2011, I went to my 40 week doctor's appointment. Dr. Molly told me that it didn't look good for the baby coming on his own. So we made a plan to induce.

Jonathan and I packed everything up in the car, and we headed to the hospital at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, November 9.  I was very excited and extremely nervous. 

We got to the check-in and found out that there were no beds available in labor and delivery, so they told us to call back later that evening. It was kind of a let down, but we knew that Camp would be with us soon enough. Since I didn't have to be admitted yet, we met up for dinner with my family for my Aunt Kam's birthday at the Japanese Steakhouse. Would the hibachi meal kickstart labor???

After calling the hospital back, we were told that they still didn't have any room for us (there was a full moon of course) and to come for admittance at 6 am the next day. They also suggested we call first to make sure they were ready for me. It would be another night at home with no baby, but at least we wouldn't have to be in the hospital for the extra time!

I didn't sleep too much that night, but got up on Thursday, November 10 with a lot of energy and excitement. We got ready to leave the house, and Jonathan called the nurses' station once again. STILL NO ROOM IN THE INN!!! Now it was 5:30 in the morning, we were wide awake, and we had nothing to do. I think we went back to sleep for a while, but a lot of that day is now a blur. After going back and forth with the nurses on the phone that morning, we found out around 8 am that we needed to go in for admittance at 5:00 pm. WE HAD TO WAIT ALL DAY FOR THIS PARTY TO GET STARTED?!?!?

I had been having some mild cramps that morning. The cramps got stronger as the day progressed, but they were never consistent in timing. I thought maybe it was just bad gas. I went for a walk with my mom and brother, but I was uncomfortable with cramping, and I was then convinced that these were actually contractions. They were still pretty random, so we went about our day. Zaxby's for lunch was yummy, but by that time, I was feeling quite bad. All of our parents arrived in town and congregated at our house to watch this girl sitting on the couch having painful contractions. It's not that fun to be in pain and everyone's eyes are on you waiting for something big to happen.

We started really timing the contractions at about 2 pm. Some were 7 minutes apart and some were 90 seconds apart. I decided to take a shower, hoping the warm water would help me feel better. At this point I was doubled over in pain and could barely stand up. Jonathan insisted on calling the doctor to see if we could go ahead to the hospital. "Yes," they said to go ahead and the doctor would meet us there. I wanted to dry my hair, but my concerned husband was not having that. So we left the house, wet hair and all, and headed straight to the hospital.

My dad, the newspaper scoop, got a couple of pics of us on his stakeout. I was crying, in pain, and had wet hair. Not amused.

We got to Trident Medical Center in North Charleston about 3:30 pm and went straight to the second floor. I got setup in a labor and delivery room. Our nurse, Shannon, started my IV with some mild pain meds and helped calm me down. She was really awesome. However, those pain meds were a joke. WHERE IS THE GOOD STUFF??? I suffered through some serious contractions for a couple of hours and finally got an epidural. Well, it didn't full take effect so I could still feel pain on one side. AM I GONNA FEEL THIS WHOLE DELIVERY?! I was really worried and still hurting, but eventually the whole epidural took effect, and I was on cloud nine. I went from 2 cm to 8 cm dilated in just a few hours so everyone was sure this would be an 11/10 baby. The good news was that I didn't have to be induced because our son was ready and willing to come on his own. We chatted and watched some football on tv as we waited for Camp to make some more progress.

Around 7 pm, the nurses started getting the room prepped. Jon asked if we were getting ready for something, and the nurse told him to call our family so they could get to the hospital. It was time for me to play calm, cool, and collected because Jonathan was a nervous wreck. A little while later, our families came to wish us their best and give us hugs before we became parents. Then, they were sent to wait in the waiting room. And they waited. And waited. And waited.

All smiles after the epidural was working.

Finally, about 10:30 pm, I started pushing. I was having trouble breathing, so Jonathan got the job of giving me the oxygen mask every few minutes. He was also in charge of feeding me ice chips. Way to go Daddy-O!!!

Time went so slow at this point. I was not a fan of this part, and I was exhausted. As the clock reached 11:45, I was excited that Camp might hold out until 11/11/11. Don't get me wrong, I tried as hard as I could to move this kid out of the womb, but he must have wanted his birthday to be extra special. Almost two hours of an extremely intense workout later, at 12:18 am on November 11, 2011, John DeCamp Howell was born- 7 lbs 14 oz & 21.5 inches. Life as we knew it would never be the same. Oh, happy day!

Nurse Annie, who took over for Shannon, hands over a sweet baby boy.