Happy Birthday, Liam!

These past few days have been unbelievable. It's gone by so fast. I'll try to recount the details, though it's all become a blur. The details are probably exaggerated... but that's the way it should be, right?

Monday, 2/16/2009
We woke up early enough to make breakfast and enjoy our morning before our scheduled induction. By the time we leisurely woke, showered, gathered some last minute things, and made breakfast, we only had like 10 minutes to eat.

Labor
We arrived at the hospital at 9am, checked in. Blood pressure had been high the past couple weeks and though not high enough to warrant an emergency, the docs felt it was time for the little dude to arrive. We induced around 10:30 or so. Started with cervidil. But made little progress. Tried another around 3pm. No noticable progress. At 6pm, we put in a Folly Bulb and started a small dose of Pitocin. The next two hours were really tough. Kristen not only started some strong contractions, but the pain from the Folly Bulb was even more painful than the contractions themselves. So there was no letting up of the pain. After a couple hours of "experiencing labor" she elected for the epidural. We no doubt expected to get it, just thought it might be later. Around midnight the folly bulb came out, K was dilated to 5cm, long and thick, and the bag of water broke. At this point we thought we would make some progress. All night we upped the pitocin, and continued to experience strong regular contractions. By 11am the next morning, we hadn't made any change. The uterus just wouldn't open up. Blood pressure was still high and the doctors said that if the uterus wouldn't budge after 10 hours of those contractions, it wasn't going to change. After 2 minutes of disappointment, we quickly changed the mood to excitement. They wheeled Kristen off to the OR.

The Wait
While the staff prepped Kristina and the OR, I had to wait in the labor room and change into my disposable OR scrubs. I rushed to change into my Beastie Boys jump suit, just to have to wait around for the nurse to come fetch me. Those 10 minutes might have been the longest of my life. Scared, overwhelmed, nervous, anxious, exited, repeat. Over and over again like 30 second contractions. Finally, "Dad, can you come with me..."

Delivery
I arrived in the OR, K was already strapped down, surrounded by what seem to be the best team of RNs, MDs, Anesthetists and assistants in the world. I sat in the Daddy chair. Which, I noted immediately that it's the only chair in the room without wheels and had a back. That OR room floor has seem countless tough guys fall to their embarrassment and I wondered what my fate would be. K was under plenty of meds and reassured me she couldn't feel anything. She had a smile on her face much of the time. I couldn't help but look over the curtain. I watched the entire procedure with the curiosity of a 10 year old. Liam was delivered within 10 minutes, it went by so fast. Dr. Parks put her arm, up to elbow, into K's uterus, found his napes and asked the assisting Dr. Laura to push on the top of K's stomach. She counted backward from 3 and in the blink of an eye, there he was. Perfect and beautiful. Dangling from Dr. Parks' hands. He cried a little and almost immediately opened his eyes. He had a huge cone shaped protrusion 5cm in diameter (the same 5cms that K was dilated) on the crown of his head. It wasn't for a lack of trying on his part that he couldn't navigate the uterus.

I walked to the exam table where they weighed, measured and printed him. I couldn't help but tear up. He was aware, calm, grabbing my fingers with his (his fingers are long enough to surround my index finger). He's perfect. 6 lbs, 9 oz, 21 inches long. He's tall and skinny just like his dad. Those moments that I spent with him right there, were the best of my life. All of the fear and anxiety I had just 20 minutes earlier were gone. I kept up the jokes with Kristen, making sure she was involved in all of those moments as much as she could be. She was stuck over on the table, the remainder of the procedure took an 45 minutes but it all went by so fast. I walked back over to Kristen to comfort her. Dr. Parks showed off her placenta, it looked great, or so she said. To me it looked like a bloody purple and red biological mass. I thought about cracking a "placenta recipe" joke at the time, but decided against it. Dr. Parks pulled out and examined her uterus, which again apparently looked good. To me, it looked the same as the placenta, until Dr. Parks pointed out K's ovaries. Those too apparently look good.

As soon as K was sewn up, the curtain dropped, queuing Liam and Mommy's introduction. I enjoyed that moment almost as much as my introduction. All of our worries were in the past. K looked relieved and proud. To this point, Liam made some noises, but hardly cried. Dad produced more tears than Liam.

Before we knew it we were back to our room. I got back into my street clothes and went to notify the grandparents. As expected the grandparents were excited and relieved. We all came back to the room to get acquainted.

Ever Since
We've moved up to the 9th floor. Where we've all learned to breast feed, jump out of bed at a moments notice, sleep in 45 minute increments and tolerate a barrage of researchers claiming we're great candidates, nurses, assistants and everyone else taking blood, BP, temp, etc... It's been a lot of work, but honestly, we're doing great. K's a great mom and frankly it's coming easy for me. It's early, and we both know it's going to be hard. But we can take it. And we will.

Liam is now cocked and loaded!

Yesterday, Kristina and I were ready to deliver Liam. We had prepared ourselves for a C section, mentally and physically. It wasn't ideal, but honestly we were ready to meet our son. We woke up early, dressed, left a couple bags by the front door for my mom to bring to the hospital with her in the next couple hours. Then we marched off to the hospital. Yep, that's right, we walked to the hospital. It's about a 20 minute pregnant walk. We took pictures. We talked like this was it. This was how delivering babies should be. Relaxed, happy, no painful drive to the hospital, none of that. We'll be done in 2 hours. How exciting!

We arrived at the the 5th floor and told the nurse we there for a scheduled C-Section. She looked in the scheduled folder but couldn't find our file. She then looked in the "possible C-section" folder and there we were. She announced, "Oh you're not schedule, just possible C-section." We responded, "oh he's been breeched for the last month, and he was head up in our appointment yesterday, we're here for a C-section." She then walked us to our room. She said, "This will be room you'll deliver your son!" Kristen said, "Not for a C-section, right?" Nurse, "Well no, but we'll do an ultrasound first."

2 minutes later we were looking at an ultrasound of Liam's head, inside K's pelvis. K and I looked at each other as if we both said, "oh no! Now what!??!" We thought about inducing. Beside the fact that it's against hospital policy to induce before 39 weeks, (we were 38 weeks and 6 days) being our first, it may be in upward of 48 hours of labor. We couldn't do any labor at home, and as long as she's at the hospital, she can't eat. None of that sounds fun.

So we walked home, heads down and little nervous. We've since been preparing ourselves for a vaginal birth. I think we're ready, but seriously, we don't know what to do with our time. We'd cleared our schedules for this little dude. What do we do now?

Are we really ready for this?

Liam is still sitting in a breeched position. At the last ultrasound, he looked like he was stretching his quadriceps. So, if nothing changes between now and Friday, Liam will be born February 6th! Still, as excited as we are, Kristen is incredibly uncomfortable and constantly complaining about pains in various parts of her body. She has occasional contractions. They usually happen when she's pretty active.

A question that keeps replaying in my mind (and more so in Kristen's) is, "are we ready for this?" I think we're as ready as anyone ever is. I keep hearing that no matter how prepared you think you are, the first months are an incredible shock to the system. No one is more aware of this fact than Kristen. She's constantly nesting: cleaning, making lists, shopping, tell me to do lift, make and paint stuff. But really, I think we're ready. For about 2 months now, we've been in a position where we could bring him home to a house that's ready. His room has been in some state of ready, we have all of the necessities (or at least prepared to send the grandmas to Babies R Us with a credit card), house has been scrubbed clean a dozen times this month, etc... But still the question haunts us. I think being "ready" so soon is somewhat hindering, because in these last weeks, we're kinda stir crazy. We're probably wasting money on stuff we don't need, and most of all, the days are passing so so slowly. Any suggestions on how to spend the next 4 days?

So, today, while waiting on Liam to make his move, we took Lita to the park. Between the last month being quite cold and snowy, and K being barefoot and pregnant, we haven't given Lita and QT. So Lita got to run around off-leash, followed by a trip to Petsmart. I'm hoping a little extra attention this week will make next a little easier on Lita. Now what are we gonna do to make it easier on us?