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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
