The Big Day in A New Chapter

So, I have been meaning to write a long entry to put together my thoughts about the arrival of my son. I don’t really think anyone reads this anymore outside of two people, and I’m sure they more or less know how everything has played out. So this is more for me, per say..oh and also because I promised someone ;) .But anyways, here it goes.

The pregnancy for the most part went well, easier for me to say since I didn’t carry the child. But, the doctors always said we were doing great. Tests came back positive, good size, heartbeat, etc. However, my wife was experiencing some nasty side effects like nausea, pain, exhaustion, etc. Doctors said it was a good sign regardless, since it means the body is preparing and adjusting for the bodily changes.

We star during a Monday night. We’re dealing with fake contractions and we’re struggling to tell what is real and what isn’t. After a few hours, things begin to slow down at around 1:00 AM. We stayed up watching random funny stuff online to hopefully lighten the situation and bring some laughter around.

Next day starts and things are OK. Some mild contractions here and there. I had scheduled to see a friend and his wife for dinner and I couldn’t cancel (long story but ill probably write about it at some point.) I picked a restaurant really close to the house in case I had to run back to the house to see my wife. When I get back home with some food at around 8:00 PM, she tells me she thinks its coming. We wait a tiny bit longer and prepare to head to the hospital.

Driving there I wasn’t really afraid or worried. I was concerned about her being properly dilated. They told us over and over to only go to the hospital if she was ready, but its really hard to tell. We got there and they feel like the dilation was not enough. The whole process was awkward because while my wife is dealing with brutal contractions, there is a paperwork lady present. They had to time the contractions properly so she could sign paperwork in between. Awkward as hell but I could tell the paper work lady has done it a million times before.

Our doctor shows up to see how we’re doing and makes a deal with us: to wait until midnight and if my wife has dilated another 2 inches, we can stay. When she said that it was around 10:00 PM and honestly..that wait was brutal. It was really strange to just sit there and waiting. Meanwhile I’m texting friends and family letting everyone know that this might be the day. As a note, the hospital was flawless. The staff was superb and the hospital itself was super clean, modern, and sleek. Can’t complain about the treatment we received.

interlude: As I’m reassuring my wife that everything will be OK, we hear a door slam open outside of our room. “CODE RED” and we proceed to hear a war scream straight out of “Resident Evil.” Everything will be OK.

Midnight hits and they check: had dilated 2.5 so we were allowed to stay. We had to wait another hour while our room was prepared. As we’re walking to the new room, I’m carrying a bunch of crap. My wife starts vomiting into a bag while a nurse holds a bag. I felt like a dumb ass but there wasn’t much I could do. When we get to the room we realized that her water broke during the grueling march down the hallway.

After a bit the epidural guy came and things started to slow down. We chatted a bit with a nurse and started to let our guard down. We got to sleep a bit. At around 7:30 AM my mom showed up to stay with us (room was huge.) 10:00 AM rolls around and the contractions are slowing down so the nurses are pondering what to do. They realized that her water didn’t break all the way through so it is hindering progress. Nurses say they need to contact the doctor so to wait an hour or so. I decide to go down to the cafeteria to eat lunch.

I’m about to take the first spoonful of my Pad Thai when my mom starts blowing up my phone. Wife is in a lot of pain and threw up. We suspect one of the nurses popped the water to speed things along because the doctors were being too conservative. But this is just a theory.

I swallow my food and run upstairs.

My wife was in a lot of pain at this point and it was hard to watch. The doctor’s office is only a few blocks away. The lady had to drop what she was doing and ran over. It was maybe 25 minutes but it felt like an eternity. It was a bit hard to watch my wife cry in so much pain and anguish. Apparently if the epidural stays for too long, it can stop being as effective after a few hours.

Me: So the doctor will be here soon..when the time comes, what do you want me to do? be quiet? say anything?
Wife: Just hold my hand and don’t talk.

Easy peasy.

Doctor finally shows up and the show starts. I feel a bit awkward since I’m just sitting there in silence holding her hand and rubbing her head. I almost felt like I had to tell the doctors “hey! she told me to keep quiet” so they wouldn’t think I was some sort of insensitive prick. My mom doesn’t know what to do so she goes to the corner and starts praying (lol?.)

Once the pushing started, things went by really fast. It only took a few minutes.
My wife had told me ahead of time that she didn’t want me to look. I respected her wishes.
At some point the baby’s head was partially out, the doctor was massaging and it looked like the baby had a Mohawk. I didn’t see it but everyone was cracking up. It felt like eventually the baby just popped out.

Screaming and cheering, the whole ordeal. It was an emotional moment and it made me cry a little bit. My wife got to hold the baby right away and I got to cut the umbilical chord.

When I turned around, I didn’t think of it..but they had taken a bunch of guts, like the placenta, and sat them on a table. It made sense from a medical perspective, to inspect for potential clues about the baby’s health. I was just shocked to turn around and see what looked like something out of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

More to come but that is the more interesting part.