More Funny/Interesting Stories About The Delivery

Saturday evening before I delivered I got a phone call from some people we know who tend to be big talkers, big advice givers, basically generally annoying. They wanted to come over and visit.

The wife is a nurse. I said to O., "Don't tell them I'm in labor", he said, "I was just going to say the same thing to you." Wouldn't you know that she's the nurse we eventually called and she got us into the hospital and stayed with me the whole time so I at least had someone to speak English with in the middle of the night while I was in labor... "Can you see the head yet????"

Another thing, O. never does anything alone. This was his first labor and delivery (my mom and dad did the other 3, O. stayed at home.) So, of course he needed his support group around him. They don't let fathers (or anyone) in the delivery room here with the mothers but he was outside in the waiting room -with our entire staff. I think there must have been about 15 men there getting eaten by mosquitoes and drinking chai in the middle of the night while they waited for me to deliver.

At one point I said to the girl who delivered the baby that I'm going to shout. She said, 'Everybody does." Heh heh heh she hadn't come across me before, I've been told by maternity staff that I'm loud. Still, I pushed on, "You're going to want to close the doors." I glanced back toward them, closed, but there was an unfortunate 2' X 4" opening at the top of the door. I thought, "Not good."

O. and others later told me that at my first shout all the men in the waiting room ran outside and down the steps and into the parking lot. (I was in the back of the hospital on the 2nd floor). Every time I shouted the nurses, etc. would say, "Close your mouth, don't make any noise, bear down." I tried, I really did.

The men said they could hear me shouting clear out in the parking lot.

By the end when I didn't even care to try to obey the nurses anymore and I just let it out, O. and my brother-in-law came rushing all the way back to the delivery room. That's when they heard the baby cry.

Apparently, P. let out a big cry at first and they all though she must be a boy to have such a loud cry (Hadn't they learned anything from the loud woman shouting only moments before?) Typical.

Well, I'm not ashamed of being loud, I think these men should have some idea what we women suffer through to give birth to their children.

Ok, one last story. Both of my sister-in-laws' husbands were there when I delivered. One is a pastor and one a truck driver. Both of them came home and separately told their wives "When I heard Bhabhie (me) crying while the baby was being born, I started crying myself."