The Birth: Part 2

After waiting for almost an hour while they gave my wife and epidural they finally came and got me.  I went through an area that looked like a janitor's closet and into the operating room.  Dr. Harris was cracking jokes while I marveled at the technology.  The room was full of computerized gadgets.  When I made mention of them the doctor laughed and said they just keep them here to impress customers.

I sat down by my wife and stroked her dark brown hair.  She looked very scared and her arms were stretched out both ways.  Marie said she felt no pain, which was good.  There was a large blue drape that separated us from the actual surgery.  It happened very quickly.

Once they removed the baby they held it up over the drape for Marie to see.  The new child burst into a scream when she laid eyes on mommy which caused the whole room to break out into laughter.  This time I didn't get to cut the cord or hold the baby.  Little Katie was whisked off to the side of the room where the baby station was located.

Two young female nurses went to work on the baby right away.   They cleaned her, weighed her and asked for the time of birth which was 1:45 am.  I got up from my seat after kissing my wife and went to count fingers and toes.  She was beautiful!

Katie was smaller than Taylor, coming in at 6 lbs 9 oz as compared to Taylor at 6 lbs 14 oz.  But Katie was different.  She was very quiet.  Her cries were so dainty and soft!  Not like Taylor who even woke up people in the waiting room.  She was very pretty with little of the mess that is normally associated with birth.  Her head was perfectly shaped.

The nurses took the baby and told me that I needed to go with them.  I again went and touched Marie (there was no way to hug or hold her) and left with the two ladies.  In the baby area they told me that I could remove the hot and sweaty scrubs.  This room was very warm (for the new baby) and had three nurses.

The nurses set about cataloging my daughter like a science experiment.  Really, they treated her like a lab specimen.  The cold and uncaring way that they handled her kind of worried me, but they made it seem so normal that I didn't crack any of their heads open.  They pricked her foot and made her bleed.  This doesn't seem like much, but they poke her with the same size pin that they would poke me with, so if I scaled it down it would be like a 10 penny nail going into my foot.

Then they gave her an injection.  Well, not right away because the nurse dropped the first B-12 shot and broke the needle so we had to go get another one.  Then we measured her at 19 inches long.  After that they started running a countdown of dimensions and checks, all of which showed that Katie was a good fish that could be mounted on the wall instead of being thrown back.  One check didn't fair so well and that was blood sugar.  It seemed to be a little low so the nurse gave Katie a small meal of Infamil baby food.

The tiniest nurse and I went into another room and gave Katie her first bath.  She protested much.  Now she is all clean and ready for her mommy.  Where is mommy?

It took another 45 minutes for mommy to come out of the operating room.  I'm glad it did because Dr. Harris did a great job with the stitches.  She was woozy but ready to see her pretty little child.  We rolled her into the recovery room and I waited until they had her hooked up and under a heat lamp.  She looked like french fries at Mcdonald's.

We reunited the baby with her mother.  Mommy was tired and drugged but wanted to feed her baby as soon as possible.  I was tired but happy and did what I could to make Marie comfortable.  She was so tired she could barely hold the baby.  We put her in a small rolling crib.

About 3:00 am a nurse brought me a Coca Cola which was the best beverage I've ever had.  It perked me back up and gave me the energy to help Marie to her room.  Another nurse pushed the baby and I carried the bags.  How Marie was still awake was beyond understanding.

...continued.

The Birth: Part 1

It was Thursday night, April 8th, 2010.  Friday will be a day off for me.  While I had not planned to take Friday off, something kept gnawing at me to so.  Finally I just said I needed to be with Marie and left work.  My to-do list is still long and we have two doctor visits one of which is my wife's pre-op at the hospital.  The grass needs mowing and I needed to get groceries and cook a few things.

We go to bed at 11:00 pm.  I slept upstairs in the master bedroom so that I could get up early and get Taylor ready for school.  Marie slept in the guest room downstairs so that she could sleep in tomorrow.  She thinks I snore.

At 11:30 pm Marie came upstairs and woke me up.  She told me that she thought we might be having a baby.  I picked up my Blackberry and showed her that she was wrong because it is scheduled for Monday and I laid back on the pillow.  She quickly picked up my 3" thick book on steam locomotives and smacked me in the head with it.

"I don't think you understand.  We may be having a baby."
"What do you mean maybe?  Don't you know?"
"Well, I'm having some pain down below..."
"Guess we should not have had pizza like you wanted..."

"Scott, this pain is different."
"Ok, sweetie...let's go to the hospital!"

I called some friends of ours to see if we could drop Taylor off, but couldn't get them on the phone.  They had drop in visitors and were probably still out and about.  So I called our neighbors.  They saw that it was me and picked up.  Quickly they agreed to take Taylor for us.

I got dressed as quickly as I could and went to get Taylor ready.  She had been asleep since about 7:30 pm.  Marie was trying to get ready but was having water problems.  I went back to the room to check her and she was on her third pair of panties and had a towel wedged between her legs.

"How do you feel sweetie?"
"I think we are having a baby."
"Darling, your water broke.  We are definitely having a baby tonight."

I took Taylor across the street and made sure she was ok, then ran back to the house and loaded the car with our bags.  It seemed like hours but we were out of the house before midnight.  Marie threw towels all over the car seat and I put on my driving gloves and helmet.  We would be at the hospital in record time.

The cool spring air felt good on me as I cracked the window and started the engine.  I had a full tank and we were buckled in.  Trying to be gentle and drive fast is tough.  I did NOT want to have a baby in the SUV, that is for sure.

We hit the highway and I cranked it up to 85 miles per hour.  While I wanted to get there fast, I did want to arrive alive.  We passed one guy who did not have any rear lights.  This is rural Georgia and many of the natives don't maintain their cars and drink a little to much in the evening.

We arrived safely at the hospital without being stopped by the police.  That was God's handiwork because I would have been stopped twice any other time.  I parked in the unloading zone only to find that they close the doors to the Women's Center at 9:00 pm.  This would have been nice to know before hand.  We entered through the emergency exit.

The Women's Center was quite busy.  Apparently whenever there is a storm (which we had earlier in the day) the babies like to come out and see what is going on.  We were the first C-section and Marie was dilated to 5 centimeters when we got to the prep room.  Lucky for us Dr. Harris was already there and ready to go!  Sometimes we get lucky and tonight seemed to be the night.

Marie was in severe pain now but was still not yelling.  There were people everywhere and finally I found a small corner of the room to stand.  They still kept shoving me here and there.  All I wanted to do was to hold on to Marie and give her comfort but I couldn't get near her.  They covered me in blue paper clothes and sat me in a chair in the hall.

I sat in the empty hall for almost an hour by myself.  Occasionally a member of the cleaning staff would come by and say "first baby?"  The fact that they all asked the same question meant that I must have been looking very nervous.  I was nervous.  Having a baby is one thing.  Having Marie cut wide open to take it out is another.  With my fingernails being gone I went looking for a drink of water, finally having to stick my head under a hand washing faucet.  I was drenched in sweat.

Part 2 tomorrow!