The End, The Beginning: Part I

Sorry to keep you waiting; but I just changed a dirty dirty diaper and now have a brief moment to tell you the rest of the story of your birth!

Your Mom contracted regularly throughout the wee hours of the morning. She was such a pro: no tears, no screaming, great breathing.

By 4 am your Mom was 4 centimeters dilated.

By 5 am your Mom was 5 centimeters dilated.

By 5 am your Mom was SOOOOO tired that she decided to get the epidural.

With the epidural administered by 5:10 am, your Mom felt "so much better" (She told me as a huge smile grew across her face). The labor would continue, but your Mom wouldn't feel the contractions.

Around 5:15 they wheeled in a cot for me to sleep on, and your Mom and I all decided to get a little sleep. I told you that I would get to SEE you in the morning! I wrote this in my BatJournal (yes, it's a journal I keep that came with the Dark Knight DVD):

"It's 5:15, and we are going to catch a little shut eye now. We will actually get to SEE you in the morning. As your mother dozes off to sleep, I'm in awe of what she's done and I can't wait to see what she'll do next."

At 8:30 in the morning we woke up and your mom was 6 cm dilated.

At 10:30, your Nannah came up and brought me two bagels to eat. Nannah stayed with us for the rest of the time.

At 11:30, they gave your mom a drug called Ptosin to help get you down into position.

At 12:43 the nurse returned from lunch and confirmed that your Mom's water had broken!

At 12:45 she confirmed that your Mom was 9 cm dilated and that your head was on her cervix. She estimated that you'd be here by 2:30!

I wrote: "HIGH FIVE! Holly is Smiling Big! You Dropped!"

At 1:02, your Mom reported feelings of pushing downward between her legs. Contractions push the feeling lower and lower.

At 1:35, Mimi and Pops arrive. Holly is given more epidural. There is no relation between these two events.

At 2:14, Your Mom dozes off. She can't keep her eyes open, but is in pain.

At 2:25, an anesthesiologist gives your Mom a drug that makes it feel like a cold trickle down her spine, numbing the spine pain. The nurse tells us that she's not even thinking of starting pushing for an hour.

At around 3:00, Mimi and Pops and Aunt Sham visit us in the Labor and Delivery Room. Aunt Shamsy brought your Mom flowers!

Then your Uncle Joe comes in too. But, he's quickly rushed out because at...

At 3:26 pm the Nurse says "Let's Push Out a Baby! It's Go time!"

Very exciting, and famous last words. After an hour and a half of hard, wonderful pushing and your Mom nearly popped her eyeballs out of her sockets, you had progressed to two clicks below crowning. You were sunny side up (meaning face up), making things a little bit more difficult, since babies are supposed to be born face down. But your Mom still pushed like an ace, your Nannah and I holding her legs and coaching her through it. I only got yelled at once, Hollywood style.

The nurse kept telling your Mom to bring her chin to her chest, and your Mom kept not doing that. So in between counting and cheering and encouraging I would say "Chin, Chin, Chin, 4, 5, 6, Chin, Chin, Chin."

After about 20 minutes of that, between painful contractions, your Mom looked at me and said:

"DON'T SAY CHIN!"

But anyway, after an hour and a half of pushing, and ups and downs of being told that the nurse didn't think this was going to happen and that she DID think it was going to happen vaginally, she called in Dr. Bertrand (Dr. Hagood wasn't on call; Dr. Bertrand is super awesome).

Dr. Bertrand took a quick assessment, saw the bruising and swelling from all your Mom's pushing, touched your head and pushed you all the way back up into your Mom's belly with no effort. The pushing and labor wasn't getting us anywhere.

Dr. Bertand told us matter-of-factly: "look, you can push and push for 4 or 5 more hours and this baby might come out vaginally, and could cause damage to Mommy and Baby. We're doing a C-section."

So, around 5:00 the started prepping your Mom very quickly for the C-Section. And within minutes she was swept away into another room, and I was told to put this dorky outfit on and wait.

So I put it on...

And I waited... ready to dive into action

7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - Happy New Baby!

So, as it turns out, those Friday contractions were right on! I don't want to spoil this for you, but, you were born on February 27, 2010 at 5:51 pm in the evening! A full week ahead of your due date, but right on time-- because we just couldn't wait to meet you any longer.

It was a pretty interesting Friday evening and Saturday morning leading up to that big event though.

Your Mom and I were pretty convinced that the contractions would be slow and infrequent through the weekend, so we went ahead and had dinner and played games with your Godparents on Friday night.

All through dinner, your Mom had infrequent but pretty powerful contractions. But, when we asked her if we should go home, she said "No, they're not that bad." As it turns out, they WERE pretty serious, but your Mom really, really wanted to go to Pink Berry.

She enjoyed her fro-yo and then we retired back to Casa de Weinstein for some Boom Blox (that's a video game on this antique called a Nintendo Wii).

Around 9:00, your Mom decided that the contractions were getting close enough together to warrant doing some timing. At that point, I started a page in my journal keeping track of the contractions.

The rest of the evening and the next 20 hours or so went a bit like this:

Contractions at :

• 8:45
• 8:56
• 9:06
• 9:17
• 9:29
• 9:37
• 9:48
• 9:51
• 9:55
• 10:00
  

Etc, etc, etc...

As the contractions go closer and closer together, we started to realize that this was actually going to go down...and soon.

So your Mom managed her contractions while I became a whirling dervish and cleaned the kitchen, finished packing THE bag, getting pillows together and keeping a list of the contractions.

I also took the last known picture of your Mom pregnant with you in the wee hours of Saturday morning, making it officially the 39th week picture.


Not too shabby, considering that we started out like this, on week 8:

As February 26th turned into February 27, your Mom called the doctor to tell her what was happening. The doctor recommended that we stay at home as long as possible to be as comfortable as possible. We abided...and tried to hang on as long as possible.

So we tried to get some sleep. I blew up the air mattress and we turned out the lights. With each contraction, I'd turn on a flashlight, note the time and watch in awe as your Mom muscled through. This lasted for 2 contractions.

Then we decided to watch some TV, and coast through the contractions. This lasted for 2 contractions.

Concurrently, around midnight your Mom started rating the contractions with Tourrettes-like finesse :

12:33 was "BAD"
12:44 was "getting stronger"
12:59 was "Worse! JESUS!"
and 1:10 am was "Jimminy Christmas!"

At 1:24 am we left for the hospital. I hit every bump on the road accidentally. But, I drove safely and we got there safely, if not a little painfully.

At 2:18 am we were checked into triage unit and it was confirmed that she was dilated 3-4 centimeters.

I asked the nurse if we were admitted to the hospital. She said "Definitely."

So, off to Room 7 we went, where your Mom was hooked up to machinery and continued having stronger and stronger contractions, all without medicine, as per her wishes.

How does this story end? Well, we already know the beautiful end result.

But for the thrilling conclusion, you'll have to tune back in later.

To be continued...as we waited for you:

It's Week 36, and you've got class!

Wow. It's week 36 already! That's the beginning of your ninth month! Just about 4 weeks to go, but theoretically, you could come as early as next Saturday and be considered full term!

But we're keeping our fingers (and legs) crossed for a March debut! But, if you come in February, we won't think you're any less cool!

We celebrated the beginning of your Ninth month in a classroom in the basement of the hospital in which you'll be born.

It sounds boring, I know. But it was anything but boring!

Your mother and I learned so many cool things about labor and pain management and delivery and what happens next!

There's a lot to learn here, dude!

Your mom and I learned some breathing techniques to promote calm (but none of the hee-hee-hee-hooooooo lamaze stuff you see in the movies), I was taught a couple very simple massage techniques (one using a pool noodle) to help your Mom's back, your Mom learned a couple stretches and exercises to help lull you into the right position and loosen her hips. We learned about the magical uterus!

We learned all about different ways to cope with the pain, fear and anxiety about labor. There are tons of things the partner (me) can do to help your Mom work through early labor before we get to the hospital.

Apparently joke-telling isn't one of them.

The teacher had all the women in the class put a clothes pin on the most-sensitive part of their ear and keep it there for one minute. The partners weren't allowed to interact with them at all. The clothes pins stayed on for one minute.


Then we tried the experiment again, but this time, the partners could interact. So we held hands, I played with her hair, did some shoulder massage and told some really awesome jokes.

Your Mom initially thought that she preferred the version Without me! Because, apparently, I was annoying. But, then she learned that the second clothes-pin-on-ear segment lasted for TWO minutes! And she thought it had gone by as fast- if not faster- as the first one.

Turns out I'm not completely useless (much to our collective dismay!).

But, I learned a lot of obvious things too: don't argue with Holly during labor; don't tell her to do things she's already doing (breathe!); don't ask her stupid questions (apparently there are such things!), and don't tell jokes just because I'm nervous. But, I can still be funny if the moment calls for it. I think it was foolish to leave it up to me to determine when that moment may be!
We learned alot about Drugs. Most of our lives they teach us to "Just Say No" to Drugs. But for pregnant women, there are several options to help manage the pain of labor. One is a Narcotic (called an Analgesic) one is an Epidural (which sends pain medicine directly into an area in the spinal column). Before this class your Mom was thinking of being completely drugged up the entire time. She was operating under the axiom that, with today's technology, a woman doesn't need to feel any pain in the labor and delivery.
And that's true! The epidural can be administered so well that the Mother can't even feel contractions. She has to put her hands on her belly to physically feel for them to know when to push!
After seeing these videos and learning more about the options, your Mom has changed her mind. She wants to try to go as long as possible without the drugs. In effect, she wants to feel some of the pain! But, when she's no longer satisfied with her ability to cope, she'll get the druggy druggy drugs.
But her philosophy on the pain management has changed. Your Mom's idea is that a woman shouldn't have to feel any pain that she doesn't want to feel!

At the end of the class, we got on a tour of the facility to see where you will actually be born! We saw the Labor and Delivery rooms (we're definitely requesting one with a jacuzzi in it!) and our Private Room where you, me and your Mom will stay for about 48 hours after your birth.
We also got to peek into the nursery and see two newborn baby girls. They were under an hour or so old, and way bigger than I thought they'd be. Or way bigger than I thought you will be! It's still amazing that a creature that size is inside your Mom's womb right now!
It's even more amazing to think in about 4 weeks we will all be back at that hospital, in those rooms and finally, you will be here!
I watched a little animation at the end of this blog that shows how much you've grown (from a poppyseed or smaller to a watermelon). I must admit, though I didn't cry or get teary eyed, I knew at that moment that when you arrive, I'm most likely going to cry. This was re-confirmed for me while we were sitting in the Private Post-Birth Recovery room where the new family of three will be reunited for the first time. I daydreamed about you, me and your Mom sitting there together. And I knew, again, that I'm going to be so happy to see you, to finally meet you, that -yup-there will be some old fashioned waterworks going on.
But, hopefully I don't cry like a baby. Because, at that point, you'll officially be a baby- instead of a fetus- and crying like one will officially be your job!
Oh, and for the record, I didn't last for 15 seconds with the clothes pin on my ear.