Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Love at First Sight Part 1

Wow. I am a father. It is such a wonderful feeling. It is also extremely scary. I had hoped to have all of this written a couple of days ago, but Jack's trip to the Special Care Nursery has put everything off. I will try to catch up as quickly as I can!
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Friday night was pretty normal. Kate was tired but she said that she felt better than she had in a while. We relaxed on the couch, watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and made a lengthy to-do list for the next day. This list, along with my little "contest" here on the Blog, worked as a nice little jinx for Jack to come.

Kate woke me up at 7:00 Saturday morning saying that she might have been having contractions since 5:30--and that her water may have broke but she was not sure. Since she was not sure if anything was really happening I took a shower and started puttering around the house. We decided to call the Dr. to find out what to do, and she said Kate should go to the hospital to get checked out "just in case."

I was so sure I was ready to go and had made sure to have the bags packed and everything in place for when it was time. I was positive I was ready. I mean, Kate would have killed me if I had forgotten something. So I grabbed the bags and we got in the car.

The gas light was on. I was out of gas.

How do you tell a woman who is probably in labor and therefore having contractions and in pain that you have to stop and get gas on the way to the hospital. Since there may be children viewing this site, I will not repeat what she said to me. But to say that I received evil looks and some acid remarks would be an understatement. This may rank up there as one of the dumbest things I have ever done.

But we made it in plenty of time. They admitted Kate to Triage and almost immediately it became clear that she really was in labor. Her contractions were getting closer together and it became clear that her water had broken. This was about 9:30. By 10:00 they had her in a room and was starting an epidural since she was already dilated to 5 cm. By noon she was fully dilated and it was time to have the baby. I will leave out the...gooey details but the pushing lasted for two-and-a-half hours. The epidural worked well as Kate felt nothing the entire time. For those that are unfamiliar with the birthing process, all of this is pretty quick for a first timer.

During the entire process I had three things that kept going through my mind.
1. The birth scene from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. ("Here is the machine that goes 'Ping!' And here is the most expensive machine in the hospital.")
2. It took every ounce of my willpower to not do a little cheerleader routine. The delivery nurse kept intoning a rapid-fire "Come on Kate! pushhimoutpushhimoutpushhimoutpushhimout!" To which I really wanted to yell "Push Him Out! Push Him Out! Waaaaaay Out!" complete with hand gestures. Since the Dr. and nurse would have most likely kicked me out of the room if I did this, I restrained myself.
3. Damn. I am glad I am not a woman.

To be continued...

A tired, but happy, Mommy with her Boy.

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