Moore Information: Jarod Andrew Moore

Jarod Andrew Moore
December 22, 2011
9:37 p.m.
8 pounds, 3 ounces
21 inches long
Beautiful!

A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night with contractions. They were strong but not consistent. I was only 35 weeks along but I had given birth at 35 weeks with Kayla. Alan was in Washington DC on business (he wasn't supposed be traveling at all--in case I went into early labor like I was!) I called him at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time in a complete panic. The hotel clerk rang Alan's room a couple of times but Alan wasn't waking up. I finally told her my situation: I was in labor with my fourth child and my husband was clear across the country and I really needed to speak to him. She asked me if I wanted her to go bang on his door but I told her just to call his room one more time. He finally woke up enough to answer. I explained what was going on and he said he was getting on the first flight home. (We just had a discussion the day before about Alan trying to get home early since he finished his meetings early but it was going to cost $500 to change his ticket. He couldn't justify spending that kind of money even if it was the company's money just to fly home one day early.)

I had called my mom and asked her to come over to stay with the kids while I went to the hospital to check things out. Alan told me the soonest he could get to the hospital was by 10:00. "Do whatever you have to do. You don't have to wait for me," Alan told me. I was completely torn - I wanted this pregnancy to be over but it was still too early for him to be born and I didn't want to give birth all by myself. The nurse decided to give me a shot to stop my contractions and see what happens. Well, it worked. I even made it home about 30 minutes before Alan got home.

Today, Thursday, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon but after being up all night with inconsistent contractions I called the office to see if I could come in a little earlier to see if I was really in labor. Dr. Linnerson said to go ahead and go to the hospital whenever I was ready. I called my mom and had her come over to watch the girls for me while Alan and I headed to the hospital. I told Dr. Linnerson I had to have this baby today or I had to wait until next Wednesday because Christmas is in three days.

Once we got to the hospital I was determined I wasn't going to leave until I had this baby out of my stomach and in my arms! I was 37 weeks but he had been measuring large so I knew he would be healthy enough. I wasn't quite dilated enough for the nurse to admit me so she had me walk around for 45 minutes and see what happened. I barely made it down the hall - I was in so much pain. I tried to walk around as much as possible but after about 15 minutes I couldn't do it anymore. I almost crawled back to Triage. The nurse checked me again and said, "Okay, let's do this!" We were going to have a baby! I was ready for the epidural, I was ready to push, I was ready to hold my baby in my arms, and I was ready to go home and have Christmas with my family!

Dr. Alpernin (the doctor on call) came in to check on me. (He delivered Ashlyn four years ago.) He could tell the baby was ready but he wanted to wait until the baby broke the bag of water on his own. Dr. Alpernin kept telling me that he was not going to break my water especially since they were treating me for Strep B and wanted to get as much antibiotics in me as possible. He decided to check me one last time before he stepped out and changed his mind completely. "Yeah, we're going to go ahead and break your water. He's ready NOW!" Hallelujah! He broke my water and started to push about 10 minutes later and after a push and a half out came this beautiful baby boy!