David's story
Wednesday December 9th
6:25am- Brian has loaded up the car and we head out for the hospital. It is cold and pouring rain out. This was one of the more intense drives of my life; the rain was coming down so hard and many of the streets we had to drive were flooding. Thankfully we arrived safely at the hospital just before 7am.
7:00am- Mary and I check into the hospital and they begin prepping her. Vital signs all check out good (she has taken really good care of herself these 9 months). As we wait for the midwife to arrive I pop the Elf DVD into my lap top and we settle in to watch.
8:10am- Mary’s water is broken and we wait for contractions to start (the DVD has stopped at this point. She is already 5cm and 90% effaced! We begin taking a walk up and down the halls in the maternity ward to help the contractions along. Mary puts a little bounce in her step as it seems to help her and I seem to notice the same bounce entering my step just from walking next to her, we have a good laugh over this.
9:00am- the contractions have really been coming now. A little Vitamin Water helps keep her energy up. On a side note, Vitamin Water seems to have a way of being involved in major life events for us. There was a bottle left for us in our room at the Four Seasons during our honeymoon. It made the trip with us to the Dominican Republic and provided refreshment throughout the week. Somehow it seemed to keep lasting like the Hanukkah oil or something. Back to the hospital- I really don’t know what to do with myself at this point, Mary’s contractions are getting really intense as she begins the transition phase of labor, and she doesn’t want anyone touching her. So I sit and watch offering words of encouragement.
11:45am- Mary has been laboring hard for a few hours now and they decide to do an examination. The midwife’s face drops a little as she says, “this baby is breech”. My eyes pop and face drops, Mary takes it in stride. “You know what that means?” says the midwife. “C-section”, Mary calmly says. I can’t believe it. For nine months Mary has worked so hard to have the healthiest possible pregnancy; she worked out regularly, ate right, we went to Bradley method classes for 10 weeks, along with hospital birth, breast feeding, and infant care classes, she has read the books and done the research all to have a healthy natural birth. And now the baby is breech and she has to get a c-section. Yet she takes it all in stride, I am holding back tears, I am a proud husband.
12:00pm- Mary is prepped for surgery and I get my scrubs on. We walk down the hallway we never thought we would walk down and head to the c-section wing. Mary goes in to have her spinal block; I have to wait in the hallway. Apparently it is during spinal blocks and epidurals that most husbands go down like falling trees, I don’t generally have a problem with needles but am ok with waiting, why take the chance. I can’t describe the emotions at this point, they are about to cut my wife open, which is a weird thing to think about, combined with the realization that I am about to meet my son is pretty amazing; a surreal time of contemplation and much prayer.
12:30 pm- I am called into the operating room and ushered to a small stool surrounded by wires and tubes and told not to touch anything blue; everything is blue! I hold Mary’s right hand, tell her I love her am proud of her and that she is doing great.
12:32pm- “there the butt, here come the legs, the torso, there’s the head”, I hear on the other side of the blue curtain, which I am pretty sure I am touching as I hold Mary’s hand. “Time of birth 12:32pm” Cries are heard following a little gargling sound. “You can look dad” I peer around the curtain and see David Scott for the first time. “Tell me about him”, Mary says. “well he’s got lots of brown hair”, “really?” “yeah, actually I think it is spiked like mine!” (chuckles). “He’s kicking a lot, but I suppose you could have guessed that. He’s got little rolls in his arms and legs, you make a beautiful baby!”
12:34pm- “You can come over dad”. And there he was, this precious little guy that we have been praying for these last nine months. I cut the cord, watch him get cleaned up and printed and give him his name, David Scott. We come back over to Mary and she meets him for the first time. This is a beautiful moment, on par with seeing her walk down the aisle on our wedding day and only topped by the first time I see her hold him. Now I am a proud husband and a proud father. We have our first family photo.
12:40pm- David and I go to the nursery for his screening tests. 7lbs 15 oz they tell me. I was off by one, I guessed 7lbs 14 oz the night before. They are doing their tests with him and I go to check on Mary.
1pm- David joins Mary and I in recovery and she holds him for the first time. We are a happy family and spend our precious first hour together there.
Over the next few days in the hospital we spend time getting to know each other. I have to leave Friday morning to take my last final, good to have that behind us. The nurses were great; they really loved our little guy. One in particular, a Hispanic woman, Liliana I think, comes in one morning and says “this baby, he’s so strong, and such personality, maybe he will be a president or something”, not really what I was thinking, but it was sweet. Several nurses and doctors commented on how strong he is, “I could have told you that before”, is Mary’s reply.
We are home now; it is a real joy to be in our home as a family. Thankfully I have several weeks off from school, so I can be home to help Mary through her recovery and we can have a great time growing together as a family. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes we really appreciate them! Enjoy the pics.
We're home!
Family picture
David's first Christmas tree
Don't worry, practice doesn't start until tomorrow
Snuggled up with mommy
He loves mommy's kisses
A much needed nap for mommy and David
