The Birth Day

Part 1: The arrival

Yesterday,  September 1^st, we woke up at 3:00 am and were out the door at 3:45 am.  I was surprised to see how many cars and truck s were actually on the road at this time of day.  We picked Stephanie up at 4:20 on the dot and she was waiting outside already.  We arrived at the hospital shortly before 5 AM to find no one there.  It looked like a ghost town.  The only person we saw was a security guard.  Stephanie found an intercom into the nurses station and called them.  About 20 minutes later they send out a clerk to check her in.  Shortly after that, they called her back to the room to set things up.  There Noel and I waited for two hours.  We were both so tired.  The TV was turned to the Disney channel and we watched cartoons.  Finally about 7:15 AM we went back to Stephanie’s delivery room.  There we met her nurse Jennifer who was absolutely wonderful.  She was so sweet and kind to Stephanie and really put her at ease. 

Part 2: The labor

Stephanie came in to the hospital already dilated at 5 cm.  She had been having inconsistent contractions for a few days before.  Noel and I were in the delivery room for her labor, but Noel felt too uncomfortable so he decided to sit in the waiting room for the remainder of the labor and delivery.  At about 8:00 the doctor came in to break her water.  Shortly after that she got an epidural so I went into the waiting room.  A little while later I went back into the room to find Stephanie with an oxygen mask.  They said she had a reaction to the epidural that caused her blood pressure to plummet.  It got so low, she almost passed out and the baby’s heart rate decreased.  Fortunately, she snapped out of it and it went back up.  Her blood pressure remained a little low which made her sleepy.  She spent most of the labor pain free and in and out of sleep.  Every now and then the nurse would come in to check her progress.   Since Stephanie was totally numb, my job was to hold her leg up.  I told her that I was so glad that she could not feel anything because my hands were ice cold. 

Part 3: The delivery

This is where is gets exciting.  The nurse kept asking Stephanie if she felt pressure to let her know.  Stephanie took her oxygen mask off and told me, “I think I feel some pressure, but it doesn’t hurt.  Do you think I should call the nurse?”  I jumped up and told her I thought that would be a good idea.  The nurse came in and checked her to find that she was ready to have this baby.  She called the doctor and started buzzing around the room getting everything ready.  I could tell that she was trying to keep her cool, but could tell this was happening very fast.  I helped Stephanie “get into position” while the nurse frantically said, “where is that doctor??  I see the head!”  Just a few seconds later, the doctor and baby nurses came in and he suited up.   He told Stephanie to go ahead an push when she had her next contraction, which happened to be that exact moment.  The nurse instructed me to take her left leg and push it backwards to help her push.  I gave her some encouragement and with one strong push out came Hunter!  I was totally amazed that it happened so fast!  I saw him come out and it wasn’t nearly as gross as I thought it would be.  I was really surprised  to see all the goo and water.  I knew it would be messy, but that still surprised me.  The doctor quickly wiped him off and confirmed he was a boy.  Then all the sudden, the doctor said “who’s gonna cut this cord?” Then looked at me and said “are you gonna cut this cord?” To which I replied “uh, what…who…me?...uh…sure I can do that.”  Doctor then said “I don’t care who cuts this cord, but someone needs to cut this cord!”  So with a panicked look on my face, I looked at the nurse who gave me the scissors.  I went to cut the cord and the doctor said “No! Not there!  Cut it here?” So then I very gingerly snipped the edge of the cord, which was apparently was not acceptable to the doctor, because he then told me, “you need to open those scissors wide and cut down hard on this cord!”  Okay, I thought, here it goes…. That thing felt so weird and rubbery. I got a little cord goo on me.  As soon as I did this, Hunter was given to the baby nurses to told me to go grab my camera.  I got it, but had to be careful not to step in all the goo on the floor so I tiptoed around it.  What a whirlwind and awesome experience.  The nurses let me take lots of pictures and videos of Hunter screaming.  It was great! Right away, I called Noel and told him that someone wanted to say something and I held the phone up to crying Hunter.  He just love that sound.  Just a few minutes later Noel knocked on the door and he, I and Hunter stood behind the curtain in the room and held Hunter for about 10 minutes.  The nurses were so sweet and took lots of pictures, including our first family photo.  On the other side of the curtain, the doctor was finishing up with Stephanie. 

Part 4: A birthmom’s good-bye

A few minutes later, they finished up with Stephanie and the room cleared out.  This left me holding Hunter and her in the hospital bed.  She looked relieved and not in pain.  I asked her if she wanted to hold him and she said yes.  I gave him to her and looked him over.  She had a big smile on her face and said “hi baby”.  She really wanted to see his hands and feet, so we had to dig the three layers of blankets to find them.  She looked him over and checked him out.  She said that the birth father’s sister just had a baby boy who looks just like Hunter and had the same nose.  She held him for about 15 minutes and I asked her if she wanted some time alone, but she didn’t and let me stay in there.  I had a strange thought of watching some other woman holding my baby.  I knew that he was not “officially” ours yet, but he has been in my heart for a long time.  But as strange as that thought was, even stranger was the total peace I felt sitting in that room while Stephanie held Hunter.  I knew this was going to be the only time she ever held him and needed this.  He started crying and she got teary eyed and said “take him.”  She said she didn’t like seeing him cry, so I cuddled him and whispered in his ear and he calmed down right away.

I am going to pause for now because I am going to go visit Hunter in the nursery.  I will finish up the story of our special day soon.