“Push! Just a little more!” “No, I have to breathe,” I said to the nurse screaming at me to push. “Okay, you can take a little break,” she said, observing that I was serious about that breathing situation. Although, about half of a second later she was yelling at me again to push. This time however, I actually pushed the whole “10” seconds, or at least what they want to call 10 seconds. In actuality it’s more like 20. After that last strong push, my role in this laboring business was over, with, of course, the exception of healing. The rest was all up to the doctor.

Doctor Bakardjieve was an experienced doctor, so it didn’t take him long at all to get the rest of my beautiful baby boy out and snipped. However then came the afterbirth, and let me tell you that’s the worst part of the whole thing. He took the umbilical cord and wrapped it around some scissors and just kept twirling and twirling. Then, he tugged hard, and I felt an odd kind of pain and it was over with. After he was through stitching me up, I finally got to hold my son. He a full head of curly, dark hair, brilliant blue eyes, and some of the chunkiest cheeks I think I’ve ever seen on a baby, especially on a baby as fresh as he was! I named him Danial Allen after my brother, Jeremy Danial, and my boyfriend/baby daddy, Johnathan Allen. “Seven pounds, thirteen ounces,” the nurse told me. “Good job.” Then she took him from me, put him in his little hospital bucket, and whisked him away to the nursery.

While he was gone my mom told me that he had fluid in his lungs and was contracting, but that was no big deal and that it happens to a lot of newborns. She said the he was probably just getting his shots then proceeded to tell me to quit “trippin’,” to which I replied, “I was unaware that I was “trippin’.” I also took the opportunity to eat when he was away. I convinced Johnathan to go get me some fried shrimp, and I multitasked by munching down and visiting with my family, all of which magically appeared while I was pushing. After a while, the nurse told me that it was time to take a shower and switch rooms. I must confess, the thought of taking a shower, or even standing up really, terrified me! However, I didn’t want anyone to know I was scared, so I just got up and did it. To my surprise, it actually felt really good. No pain at all!

Finally, I got onto my other room they brought me Danial. It was January 6, 2011 and I started my new life as a mother!