Becoming a Papa

August 24, 2003 12:45AM - Sleeping Soundly
Meanwhile my wife is in the bathroom wondering why she is feeling crampy. She is debating if she is having contractions.

August 24, 2003 2:45AM - Contractions?
This has got to be it and of course it happens at 2:45AM. My wife thinks she is having contractions, the first thing that goes through my mind are all the things on my to do list that I was supposed to finish before this happened (like tinting the windows on my wife's car, having the credit card paid off, and making sure all my clients' networks are stable).

Time to focus now, let's time these contractions and see if they are real, are they regular? Are they intense? How far apart are they?

3:15AM
These are real, averaging 1 minute in duration and about 2 minutes apart. That sounds pretty quick but my wife is not screaming at me yet. Do I even remember what they taught us in class? Let's call the mid wife.

OK, so the timing of the contractions do not matter, if your wife can still talk to you during one and she is not either moaning, crying, or passed out then it is not really time to go to the hospital. What was the class for again?

4:45AM - Let's go to the hospital
OK, now my wife is in pain, she is not in agony yet but they make her uncomfortable and she wants to make sure we get there and get the anesthesiologist called in before her contractions become unbearable. I get to drive to the hospital. Woo hoo! Reality check, driving to the hospital with your wife in labor is nothing like I imagined it would be.

5:15AM - Only 2.5 CM?!?
At this point the only thing I can think of saying is "2.5 down, 6.5 more to go honey!" so I keep my trap shut. It is looking like even though my wife is uncomfortable (I guess more so now that she is getting a pelvic exam) we are going to be heading back home, but at that point her water breaks just at the end of the exam. Now we are admitted to the hospital and the 24 hour time clock begins. The hospital here will do everything they can to make sure the baby is born within 24 hours of the water breaking even if they have to perform a C-section so I know now, whatever pain my wife is experiencing the longest it will last is 24 hours... right?

Since we are being admitted they start outfitting my wife with all this monitoring equipment. This includes a baby heartbeat monitor that is strapped to the underside of her belly. It is kind of like a sonar device that can pick up the whooshing of the baby's heart. As soon as they hook it up you can hear the heartbeat amplified through a speaker on the monitor. The monitor also displays the approximate beats per minute which is graphed on paper as it slowly rolls out of the machine. They also connect a contraction monitor. This is a little paddle they strap to the top of my wife's belly and it has a little pressure button sticking out of it. Supposedly when my wife has a contraction, her stomach tightens up putting pressure on the button. The amount of pressure on the button is then graphed on a different piece of paper and is used to monitor the frequency, duration, and intensity of each contraction.

5:30AM - BIG Contractions
Her contractions have really picked up in intensity and now she is in real pain, this big pickup is due to her water breaking (I guess it is a great way to induce or speed up labor). She cannot talk during her contractions and at that point I hope for her sake it will not take 24 hours. I look over at the monitor and less than half of these contractions show up on the monitor. Also when I go and look at the nurses' station I see a computer that is connected to all 6 birthing rooms and it displays the data from each monitor. This must allow the nurses to monitor each mother's contractions and baby remotely. Well since our contraction monitor is not working I let them know so they can fix it and my wife can get some credit for each contraction. With what they are seeing on the monitor they must be wondering why the heck we came to the hospital so early. Anyway, they come in and adjust the monitor (this happens several time throughout the day).

6:00AM - PAIN
My wife is in pain and has now made sure that every nurse knows she wants drugs. The pain keeps increasing with each contraction and it could take an hour before the anethesiologist arrives after he is called. My wife requests an epidural and that doesn't happen until 10AM. In preparation for an epidural, they start an IV to get her body fluids up and to have direct access to a vein if ther are any complications. We are both concerned about how soon they will get her an epidural since the contractions are still not registering on the monitor. Needless to say the contraction paddle has been adjusted about 3 or 4 times now.

9:00AM - Mother Erdman saves the day!
I am just holding my wife's hand as she is in pain trying to help as best as I can not really knowing what she needs to do to feel better. That wierd breathing thing from class doesn't seem to help and the nurse keeps telling my wife to relax. She says that when my wife tenses up as an instinct to the pain of her contraction it will cause it to hurt more. My wife ignores the nurse, but when mother Erdman arrives she becomes the Contraction Drill Sargeant:
"Now breathe, we got just a few seconds left, relax your arms and legs."
"You are doing just fine, we are going to get that baby out just take it easy"
My mom also brought breakfast!

9:30AM - Enter Joanne, the midwife
Joanne comes in to see Christine, she checks things out and ensures us that things are going well. The epidural is on its way. To further prepare for the epidural Joanne removes the contraction monitor (which never worked to begin with) and uses and internal one. This monitor is a tube that is inserted between the baby and my wife's stomach. When she gets a contraction the tube is squeezed and the pressure is then registered on the monitor. This type of monitor actually works and clearly shows each contraction. This is also the recommended monitor to use for women who get an epidural since now that they are totally numb down below they usually cannot feel the contractions anyway.

9:45AM - Natalie and father Erdman arrive
I manage to sneak them in the birthing room between Christine's contractions to say hi.

10:00AM - Christine: "I Love the Anesthesiologist!"
My wife has recieved the epidural. She now lays calmly on the bed.
The Anesthesiologist asks, "How was that last contraction?"
My wife replies, "What contraction?"
I think it might be smooth sailing from here. Family are welcome to stop in and say hi, my wife even has something to eat for lunch. Whenever my wife mentions this part she says, "It was like a party."

12:30PM - Time for another exam.. 8CM
At this point they say it may take another 2 hours. Since my wife recieved an epidural it usually slows things down. I take this moment of peace and sneak home for a 2 hour nap.

2:30PM - 9CM
My mom calls me and has me come back to the hospital. Feeling refreshed I look forward to becoming a papa.

3:30PM - 9.5CM
Still not there yet and obviously things have slowed down more. My wife is instructed to wait until 10CM dilation and at that point she will also get an urge to push. They recommend for her to rest and to try to take a nap.

5PM - time to push
Even though my wife doesn't have the urge yet our midwife tells her that it is time to push.

5:45PM - Midwife: "I can see the head!"
It is at this point that my wife's IV starts to leak blood. So while my wife is pushing the nurse is trying to reset the IV. This is not a good time to hear the nurse say, "S#1T!" either. Finally the IV is fixed, my wife is tired and hot. The midwife tells us that this is the last part, "Let's get tha baby out!"

6:20PM - That is a long head!
The midwife has me look just when the head is crowning (popping out)- eww I know, but at the time it was not that bad, but now that the situation is over I would agree. Anyway I could see this little round thing popping out and I knew that babies had cute little cone heads when they were born so I expected that, but this cone just kept coming. I was looking for any sign for the cone to end, like ears or a face but the cone just kept coming. At this point I was begining to doubt that it was the head but I had no idea what other body part this could be. Finally, there was the face and the whole head was out. This baby's cone was HUGE sticking out a good 3 inches opposite his chin.

It is at this moment where things get really wierd. The baby's face was expressionless as if he was asleep or hibernating. There was no movement in his eyes or lips and his skin was pale white. Not to mention there is this deep red line going up his forehead, it is from the contraction tube that they inserted earlier.

6:20PM - The baby is born!
Seconds later he was born and instantly like by the flick of a switch he was awake and crying. This was the most overwhelming moment, I was a papa, my son was born! Moments later I was cutting the umbilical cord, my wife was nursing and my sister was taking all sorts of pictures.

We also dontated the baby's cord blood. Right after our son was born JoAnne pulled out the donation sack and inserted a needle into the umbilical cord after it was cut and drained all the leftover blood. This blood, along with a sample from the mother (for testing) is then sent to the lab where the baby's T-Cells are extracted and used to possible help other people with diseases who can benefit from matching T-cells. This program is free and it was not too inconvienient (just do your paperwork early).

6:25PM - Its not over yet
The placenta is delivered and there is major blood, the midwife aggressively massages my wife's stomach, this makes her uterus contract and shrink which stops the bleeding. (I must admit, I took a picture of the placenta, Eww gross. I do not think I ever want to look at that picture now.) I get to wash the baby and witness his first shot (of vitamin K). They also weighed and mesaured him. He came into this world at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 21" long. Well it is over, after a scenario like this, newborns are supposed to sleep for like what, 24 hours straight? I hope so, my wife needs the rest!

9:30PM - Moved to a different room
It must be a full moon or something, all the birthing rooms are full and pregnant women in labor are flooding in like an epidemic. I am hoping the spend the night with my new family but am warned that it is very likely we will get a roommate, in that case, I will have to buzz off.

August 25, 2003 1:30AM - Crying baby
He is so little you are scared to hold him at this size. Why is he crying?

3:30AM - Miconium??!?
What the hell is this tar, thick glue stuff? How can something like this come out of a living being?!? It looks like something from the La Brea tar pits. I bet this stuff is flammable and possibly explosive. Lucky for us it doesn't smell.

4:30AM - Here comes the roommate
Well now I go home. I worry for my wife leaving her alone in this wierd place with a new responsibility. I pray things go well.

Well that is it, the first 26 hours of the birthing story. Just typing it wears me out.

A peak into the future from this point...
From many of the baby showers we wre able to stock up over 700 diapers. Whenever I told that to somone, they would say that 700 diapers would last us about 3 months. Well that is about right. Our kid goes through $40 worth of diapers a month. There is plenty of crying and we both long for the day when he is more devoloped. You know, that point when he smiles, knows how to work his hands, and can play peak-a-boo. If sleep could be sold by the can, I would pay a $100 per jar for my wife. She is so tired. He gets fed every 2 hours in the day and every 3 hours at night. That means she must get up every 3 hours and feed then change him (all this takes about an hour) leaving her 2 hours left to try to sleep more before he is hungry again. I help occasionally with the feedings but each feeding I do from formula or pumped milk only buys her about an extra hour, because by then she starts lactating anyway and wakes up from being sore.

10/5/2003 - Stinky! We paid the price for having a babysitter feed him formula. He didn't like it at all and threw up a lot (I guess he is used to breastmilk and it was probably even more of a shock because it was the soy kind of formula). Not only are we running into stinky diapers since he had onlyone meal of formula be he is at that stage where he only poops once every 3 or 4 days. And when that day comes, there is no diaper on this earth that can contain it all. And he is literally lighter, you can feel it when you pick him up.

10/20/2003 - This just in... We got our hospital bill. To have Jacob cost $13,700! I would hate to see how much it would be if Christine got a C-Section.

Having a baby is tough. I thank God for getting us this far.

Check out the Baby pictures.

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