Delivered 10 Calves and a Baby, All in a Days Work!

My daughter Sarah was only three months old, when I made the shocking discovery that I  was pregnant again. This blessing was a total shock. I was breast feeding full time and using birth control! I cried the whole pregnancy. I had a three year old and an infant, and no idea how I could possibly take care of a third child too. Ryan my oldest was delivered cesarean, and Sarah was a difficult vaginal birth. I was dreading the upcoming delivery.

I opted for a planned cesarean and had an appointment scheduled for a Friday, a week before my due date. That Monday before, I woke up at 5 am with a labor pain. I had a lot of false contractions, so I just wrote it down to keep track. I decided to have a relaxing bath since I was uncomfortable and awake anyway. Two more contractions, fifteen minutes apart, made me decide this was the real thing. I started to get everyone ready to go, and my husband phoned his parents who would take our children that day, the hospital, and his boss. We were almost ready to go, and my husband was still on the phone complaining to his boss about how much he hated hospitals and how this was going to take forever. I was hit with another contraction. It was sooner than expected and it was strong! I am doubled over in pain and I yell, "Get off the phone!" I tell my husband, "call back your parents and have them meet us on the highway." That would be quicker than driving down their dirt road. We each grab a child, and I grab a bath towel.

Randy buckles Ryan into his car seat, and I can't do anything more than hold Sarah on my lap. We drive the 7 miles to meet his parents. Randy hands off Ryan to his dad and his mom comes around the car to get Sarah. She takes one look at me as a I am breathing heavily and says, "uh-oh." At that moment, my husband FINALLY figures out this is happening a lot faster than he thought. He takes off, flooring our crappy 78 Chevy Malibu, top speed 80 miles an hour. We still have 50 miles to the hospital. I am doing my best NOT to have a baby, but my water breaks. Thank goodness for the towel! I can tell the baby is really low, and I tell my husband, "go to Ephrata. They have a hospital." They did not have an ob/gyn, but my doctor was still 20 miles away. He chose to go to Moses Lake.

We get another eight miles down the road, and I know I am going to have this baby right then. I say something to that point, and my husband responds, "well have the baby then." At this point, I am laying with my head on his lap and my feet on the door. The next contraction the baby's head crowns. I yell. My husband looks over, says nonchalantly, "Sure enough." He pulls the car over, runs around to my door, and it's locked. I pull the lock, slide to the edge of the seat, and the next contraction delivers the baby into my husbands hands. Randy hands the baby to me, which I wrap in the towel and make sure is breathing ok.

Randy roars off into rush hour traffic, and we arrive at the hospital 15 minutes later. The baby is ok and we name this bundle of joy Jeffrey. My husband is bragging to all the hospital staff, "I deliver calves all winter. Birth is perfectly natural. No big deal." He goes home to get the kids and returns later that evening. As Randy enters the elevator, he hears a nurse say to her friend, "He delivered the baby by himself along the road. Says ten calves and baby is all in a days work."

Much later my husband and are talking and I ask him about the slight hesitation between catching Jeff and handing him to me. He admits sheepishly, "I looked for a fence to throw him over to clean out his lungs, but I didn't see one." Thank goodness there wasn't a fence! Jeff is turning 24 this year, and he has continued to wonder and surprise us every year. Happy birthday Jeff!