niblet.us v5.1

On Birth, Babies, and Beyond

April 27th, 2006

I seem to have a rare moment of silence in the house and since silences like this are becoming rare and rather uncomfortable, I decided to fill the void with the sound of my fingers tapping away on a laptop keyboard. The story on how my linage came into the world goes a little like this:

On Saturday the 22nd, Angie and I sat down to watch a movie called “Must Love Dogs” (the title is a bit of a misnomer because there is very little to do with dogs in the movie). Angie had had a pedicure earlier in the afternoon and decided having her feet rubbed felt so nice, she wanted me to do it while we watched the movie. In retrospect, the movie and the pedicure were probably not the best ideas, since they are rumored to induce labor. At any rate, as soon as the movie was finished, Angie felt an odd cramp. I asked if it felt different than the other minor contractions she’d been having over the last month and she confirmed that it was different. Being completely sure of the fact that my wife would at least make it to her due date, I ignored the sensation she’d just had.

During the night, I was woken up several times. Each time Angie expressed having contractions, I wrote it off as indigestion. I slipped in and out of sleep until almost exactly 3 a.m. when Angie finally told me I needed to start timing her contractions. These were the magic words apparently. I wouldn’t say I snapped into action, but I did finally get up. After I realized what was happening, I realized how unprepared I actually was, camcorder still in the box with an uncharged battery, running low on dog food, cell phone half charged with charger left at work, unpacked bags, and obviously my head wasn’t exactly “in the game.” Angie made a few calls to her sister and Hank watched the packing of the bags assuming we were getting an early start on a road trip. Unfortunately for him, he was mistaken.

We got to the hospital around 5:30 in the morning and a quick check confirmed we would be staying; Angie was at 5 cm. We got to our room and Angie got into a nice warm bath to help with the contractions. Since labor is such an unknown thing, especially for first timers and double especially for a woman that does not want any medication, it is difficult to prepare for, so we sat in our room both not believing that the whole process was actually starting and to an extent also ending.

One by one, the contractions started coming and it was time to start using some of the tricks we’d learned. After an unusually long contraction, Angie was checked again and told she’d progressed to 7 cm. Her sister was on her way to the hospital and it seemed like the baby would be born at any moment.

We hit the transition phase and literally blew right through it. The labor was going really fast right up until 9.5 cm. This is where things kind of stalled. I use the term “stalled” lightly though, because this labor compared with the average first labor was going very fast.

Angie tried another position to try to get over the last little half of a centimeter and it worked, it was time to push. Things got really, really intense. After about 15 minutes of pushing, we were told we had a boy. He came out kicking and screaming and looking a little white. He was healthy though, and all of his fingers and toes were there.

It is hard to put into words everything that happened in those 7 short hours in the hospital. The labor went amazingly well, but that is due to a few factors. The first was our nurse, Kriss. She’d had two natural births and was very prepared and excited to help us have a natural birth too. She gave Angie endless encouragement and helped her get into different positions to help progress the labor.

The second factor was Angie’s sister Lisa. She was the photographer for many of the baby’s first photos. She offered her wisdom from her 3 children’s births and generally helped us settle and relax. More than anything though, she made it feel like we weren’t 500 miles from Indiana and feeling close to home is always a comforting factor.

The third factor and probably the most important was my wife. I was really amazed at my wife on such a level it is hard to explain. It doesn’t really need to be spelled out, but I am both extremely proud and honored to be her husband. She handled her labor so well she amazed the entire staff that was helping her and everyone commented how beautiful she looked during the whole labor.

So here I am a four day old dad and I am learning why parenting is the hardest job in the world. I am sure about 15 years from now I will look back and wish for the day when my son just wanted his diaper changed or just wanted fed. Right now though, I am just trying to take things one day at a time. I feel if I look too far ahead, I will be overwhelmed with the weight of responsibility and as someone once told me “Don’t be in a rush to get things done, because someday they will be and you’ll wish they weren’t.”

Entry Filed under: The Next Generation