Tylor Midas Connor

Tylor Midas Connor was born on May 24, 2011 at 10:24 pm. He was 3.606 kg at birth and 54 cm, for everyone in the US that’s 7lbs 15 oz and 21 inches.
He was in a hurry to arrive and one-upped his brother (who was born on his due date) by showing up an hour and half before his due date. I had worked all the prior week so was scurrying around trying to get all those last minute things done (dentist appts, grocery shopping, hair appts). I had thought my last few weeks of work would be easy going and I could come in late, leave early and take care of my to-do list. Well that didn’t come close to happening, on my last day in the office I was there until 7 because I still hadn’t packed up my boxes. That day while running a few errands I had some mild cramping but didn’t think much of it. Steve was scheduled to be at a work dinner so my Mom (who had arrived on the 21st) and I were on our own for dinner. I was giving Jaydon his bath before bed when the cramping started getting to the point that I would have to stop and take notice. Steve’s dinner was canceled (which in retrospect was very good sine my Mom had no interest in attempting to drive the roads of Doha to get me to the hospital and Tylor wasn’t waiting around) and with Steve able to focus on Jaydon I think my body decided it was ok to proceed into overdrive – Steve noticed me leaning against the wall and suggested that perhaps I should go pack a bag for the hospital (another to-do that hadn’t happened yet). I agreed it was a good idea thinking that we’d probably head out first thing in the morning. During dinner the contractions continued but I was so hungry that I really just focused on eating between them. Steve was trying to convince me that they were coming close enough together that we should head to the hospital. I argued with him saying I didn’t want to spend the night walking the halls of AL-Ahli, I’d much rather be at home. He finally decided to download an app that times contractions to convince me otherwise. They were coming every 2-4 minutes but only lasting 30 sec to 1 min. Once dinner was finished we finished packing our bags and that when the very painful (and much longer) contractions started. By this point Steve had stopped timing them and was in full speed get me to the hospital mode. I, however, still thought we had plenty of time and made sure that we called a neighbor to get Jaydon to school in the morning and called the hair salon to cancel my appt for the next day. Finally, a little before 9pm we were on our way (note he was born at 10:24pm). I had never realized how many speed bumps there are on the quick 10 minute drive to the hospital but they were agonizing. We showed up at the ER and Steve found a wheelchair for me – which I refused telling him I was just fine to walk – then another contraction came and I decided the wheelchair was ok. They wheeled me up to the delivery ward and examined me. I was already at 5cm so they rushed me to the labor room. By the time they hooked up the CTG and got the IV in I had decided that it was time to come back to reality and get the epidural. The nurses said I needed 2 bags of IV fluids before the epidural and they had just started the first bag. Luckily my doctor came in and said I was fine to receive it before the fluids so they rushed a request for the anesthesiologist. When he arrived I was in regular, very painful contractions. He was quick to get the catheter in my back but once it was in the nurses realized that they hadn’t prepared the epidural syringe with the medicine in it yet. They went off to do that and at this point my contractions were getting easier not only because the doc had added a ‘top-up’ (as he called it) to the catheter but, because it was time to push. By the time they got the epidural syringe ready Tylor was already on his way out. Steve said that when he was born the pediatrician nurses weren’t even in the room yet. I do recall at one point asking the doctor if we should try and wait an hour and half so that Tylor could be born on his due date too – she looked at me like I was crazy…