Jeremy’s Wild Ride (Ryan’s Account)
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Jeremy’s Here!
We knew by 22 weeks that this baby was going to be a different experience, but we had no idea just how wild this ride was going to be! For those of you that are just finding out, Jeremy is here! Sorry we weren’t able to let everyone know, but as you’ll read, it has been a frantic, frantic experience. Here’s the normal stuff:
- His name is Jeremy Michael Miller. He’s named after two of my favorite mission companions, because I was named after two of my dad’s favorite mission companions.
- He was born February 27, 2008 at 19:19 (7:19 pm) at IMC Hospital in Murray, UT. We were scheduled to have a C-section at the University of Utah Hospital on the 29th but I guess Jeremy just did not want to be a leap year baby!
- He has dark hair and maybe blue eyes!
Our Crazy February
Beth’s belly the
Saturday before
Jeremy’s birth.
To do this story justice I would really need to go back quite a ways, but let me just sum up our crazy February:
- On Super Bowl Sunday Kimberly got sick and I went out to get some prescriptions and got into a fender bender (as I write this, we still do not have our car back).
- We made on offer on a house early January and were trying to close on it as soon as possible so we could be settled for when Jeremy came. Week after week we were told, “We should close this Friday” and week after week it got delayed.
Which brings us to this past Monday. We finally closed on our house and after signing a truckload of papers, I set out to load a truck full of our stuff. There was drama about whether we’d get the keys that day. There was drama about loading verses getting everything into boxes. There was drama trying to get help on very short notice. There was drama getting installers and deliveries from Best Buy. Basically from about 9am Monday morning I was running! By Wednesday, we had all of our furniture in our house, we had most of our boxes at least in the right rooms and were getting blinds for all our our windows.
Very fortunate for us Beth’s parent’s got in Wednesday afternoon. They helped with some of the unpacking and installing the blinds. In the afternoon we went to Lowes because there were a few that needed to get trimmed and we wanted to buy a garage door opener. It was getting later and so we decided to go out to eat at Red Robin in Provo. As we waited Beth went to the bathroom and started having some contractions. We called the hospital to see if we needed to go to the hospital and they told us they would have our doctor call us. While we waited we decided we needed to just either go home or check into a hotel in Salt Lake City. While I went out to get the car, Beth had a very strong contraction. She told me it was so painful she had to sit and couldn’t talk. That’s when it was decided we needed to just go to the hospital. Lucky for us, we were with Beth’s parents and were able to leave Kimberly with them.
The Mad Rush
Our route: Provo to Murray in traffic!
We leave Red Robin at 6:20 pm and Beth is in pain. I’m flying up the 15 hitting 100+ mph whenever I can, but there’s traffic (not rush hour, but still more than we wanted). I have my hazards on, I’m high-beaming, I’m honking to get people out of the way. Beth is screaming in pain, telling her body to stop, on the phone explaining to the people that she’s in labor and we’re on our way, pleading with the baby, “Please stop…you’re hurting Mama…hold on until we get to the hospital!” The fear and panic of a father and a husband sets in more than I’ve ever felt. We had discussed the scenario of us not being able to make it all the way up to the U of U hospital with our doctor. Basically we had Utah Valley and then American Fork and then IMC and then University Hospital. Well we past American Fork and Beth’s contractions basically dictated that we’re stopping at IMC.
I pulled into the drive up, threw it into park, ran in and asked for a wheelchair because my wife is in labor, ran it out to her, rolled her into the delivery area and got the nurses attention. It was a little frustrating (ok very frustrating) to get in there and for them to almost casually ask, “So what’s going on?” Duh! They got the point when Beth screamed in pain. They rolled her into a delivery room and asked her to change into a robe. They kind of guided her to a restroom for decency but Beth doubled over in pain and I tried to help her with her clothes. I tried taking her tops off with her bra still attached, which doesn’t work. That’s the only time she hit me. Once she got into the gown the got her onto the bed and went about checking her dilation, calling doctors, asking questions. They also gave Beth something to slow/stop the contractions. Beth was struggling, yelling “I can’t breathe!” One of the nruses got right in her face and said, “You have to! This is for your baby!” Beth focused and started breathing like they were telling her. I was telling them that we needed a C-section because he has Spina Bifida and his sack is too big! It took a few times of me telling them and them I guess confirming on our records that they did indeed need to do a C-section. Soon they took her off to an operating room and shuffled me in so I could put in cover-alls. She’s moaning, I’m frantically fumbling to get on these stupid shoe covers! When I get into the OR, Beth is on a table and they are starting to prep her: IV, disinfectant, spinal etc. As they put up the sheet between her belly and her head she starts to panic, “I’m not ready! I can’t do this!” The anesthesiologist gave her the pain medication and they tested if she could feel it. They pinched her and she asked, “Where was that?” We all cheered and chuckled. Once we knew she wasn’t feeling they started the c-section. It wasn’t very long. I stood up in time to see Jeremy as he came out. My first thought was, “That’s a big boy!” He was very blue and covered in slime. As they passed him through to the NICU, I saw the sac on his back. So we left Red Robin at 6:20 pm and he was born at 7:19 pm.
Jeremy just after delivery at IMC
I stayed with Beth while they stitched her back up and watched as they stapled her belly. Soon they said that I could go see him. I walked into the NICU and was surprised to see him laying there without any life support, no clear boxes, no breathing tubes. He did have his back wrapped in gauze and saran wrap.
