According to the United States Department of Labor website, Labor Day is "a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers." That’s awesome. One thing those workers have in common? They all have a mother who went through labor in their own right.
This year, in honor of Labor Day, we're going to talk about the other kind of labor -- the kind that gives life. We bring you 10 real life military labor stories to keep you laughing, shaking your head and being impressed by the resilience of military mothers.
10 Hilarious Military Labor Stories
Lizann shares, “My third baby was born in the middle of a deployment… during a hurricane. Then, there was a tornado warning. The base shut down and the hospital lost power. So, there was no food. It was by far my hardest hospital stay after birth!” You can read her full story here.
Randi guarantees you’ll never look at all-you-can-eat breadsticks and salad the same way: She had her third baby in an Olive Garden bathroom. “Yes really,” she promises.
In labor for over 20 hours, when she got to her doctor’s office, he said she wasn’t ready yet. “The doctor pats my shoulder patronizingly and says, ‘There, there, dear. I know you're anxious to be done with this but you're not in active labor.’ I leave the OB office sobbing that, ‘I KNOW I'm having this baby and why won't anyone believe me!’ My husband suggests we go have a ‘relaxing’ dinner at Olive Garden. We get there, I excuse myself to go the bathroom, deliver my own child and leave by ambulance.”
As if that wasn’t enough, she tells us, “When Baby Four was due and there was a deployed husband, the plan was for his leave to give him one week with the other three kiddos and then me be induced to prevent another awkward venue for delivery. I left the OB office with instructions to, ‘Have your husband take you straight to the hospital.’
I drove myself home, then drove myself to the hospital. I reached the Red Cross and got a call from my husband with instructions to, 'Close your legs and hold it in,’ until he could hop a plane from Cuba. He's in my ear saying this while there are orders to push from the nurse. Baby girl apparently didn't hear Daddy and had other places to be. She was in my arms less than an hour after I was ‘gowned up,’ and Daddy (miraculously) met her the next day and got two weeks together before leaving again.”
Caitlin went into labor within an hour of her husband coming home from a 6-week underway. “Our son was born six hours later,” she shares. “Dad made it home just in the nick of time!”
Megan’s husband was able to get a call out from the ship while she was in labor with her first. She recalls, “He called at the exact moment our son was born and was able to hear his first cries. They met two months later.”
Dannielle’s first born was delivered at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. Shortly before she went into labor, the staff was needed in an emergency c-section in the next room. “They were short staffed on a holiday weekend and my baby wasn’t waiting,” she tells us. “Hubby and the nurse delivered him as several doctors came running in wearing camouflage scrubs five minutes too late. I’ll never forget the doctor walking up behind my husband holding our son at my feet and saying ‘I’ll take that!’”
Becky and her husband, a Navy pilot, named their first born after the planes flown out of Atsugi, Japan in World War II. “We were stationed there at the time,” she explains. “My husband is a big history fan. Jack was the American code name for the Japanese Raiden fighter.” Jack Raiden definitely has a great story to tell about the history of his name.
Mandie delivered her first while her husband was deployed, but he was definitely there for their second baby. She tells us, “I was screaming so loudly (I didn’t have an epidural) that he almost passed out. I’m sure he wished he was on deployment again.”
Ali’s first son was born six weeks early in a Japanese hospital in the midst of a typhoon on the Navy’s birthday. She shares, “My husband and I had met in Japan when we were both stationed there about 5 years previously, so it was exciting to be back where our relationship had started and deliver our first child there too.”
Lacy delivered in the operating room with two friends, both military spouses, at her side, and her husband on FaceTime who was in port in Dubai. She still considers it a 100% attendance rate for her husband. “We had 4 kids in nine years and he never missed the birth of a baby. Deployment just got in the way this last time!”
And me? My husband was home for the births of both of our babies, and just in time. I found out I was pregnant with our first five days after he left for Iraq, and he made it home the week before she was born.
Whether you spend the extra day off work by the pool or doing yard work, take a minute to raise a glass to our great American workers, and our great American mothers. Cheers!
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