Warning: This is a narrative version of the story. If you would like the Cliff Notes version, check the previous post.The wedding party was in town, and wedding happenings were in full force. Weston, my brother, and Adrienne, his fiance, were to be married on Saturday. Friday night, Gran called me and asked if I would bring over the inflatable bundle of bed. I agreed, reluctantly. I was already snuggled into my home and ready for a restful evening. You know how it is.
Anyway, I took the bundle of bed to Gran leaving Jen to rest in slumber on the couch. I visited with Gran for about an hour or so. After my visit, I returned home at about 12:30ish to find Jen on the computer replying to an email from a friend who had sent a list of "things to get before you have a baby." After finishing her email, we hit the sack.
At 2:30, Jen woke me up to "come look at something." I was assuming it was the mouse that has been ransacking our pantry for the past week, but that was not her concern. It seemed that her "bag-of-fluids" had ruptured.
I called the hospital and explained to them what I was looking at. I said that the mouse was a bit bigger than the last mouse we found and...wait, no that is not what I told them. I actually don't really remember the conversation. I remember...I remember feeling a bit nuts. We had no bags packed, no baby stuff, nothing! I ran through the house for about the next 20 minutes gathering things we would need for our trip to the hospital.
When I finally looked at what I had gathered, all I had were the toothbrushes. So, with toothbrushes in tow, Jen and I got into the car at 3:30am. Jen had her first contraction as she waited for me to unlock the car door. Into the car went Jen, and off we went!
On the way to the hospital, we had one last name conversation figuring that we only had a few hours to make a decision. How right we were!
We pulled into South Sacramento Kaiser Hospital at about 4:00am. Jen and I walked into the hospital and up to the 2nd floor. When we got to Labor and Delivery, there were 7 people ahead of us. Jen took priority due to the "water-bag" thing. I was taken to the admitting nurse to give her the needed information while Jen was escorted to her womb room.
I was in with the admitting nurse for about 20 minutes and joined Jen the room at 4:30am. For the next 45 minutes, Jen and I breathed, panted, moaned, and did all the things they told us to do to get a head rush to make you forget about the pain. Well, it worked for me (head rush was great!), but Jen was feeling pretty uncomfortable.
Finally, at 5:15am, Nurse Peggy and Dr. Sheppard exploded into the room (Ok, they just walked, but I am trying to create some tension...feeling tense? I was, and so was Jen's uterus!). So, the medical staff were in the room. Jen was finishing off a particularlly tasty contration, and Dr. Sheppard did a quick exam.
"Wow! She's ready. You're ready to push, Jen!" said Dr. Sheppard.
"I'm not feeling ready," replied Jen.
"Hunny, you want to do this," interjected Nurse Peggy. "That's what you're here for!"
I just kept breathing and keeping up the head rush.
Jen began pushing at 5:30am. She is so kind to let me believe that I was such a great help. I counted during pushing, breathed with her through contractions, and made motivatioal mini-speeches like, "You can do it!" and "Go, go, go!" and "What the heck?!" I thought they were pretty convincing, and I am very fluent at counting to 10, but really, it was all Jen!
Well, I was running out of mini-speeches and was just about to start recycling them, when Mason's head became visible.
Jen hunkered down for one more push.
At 6:02, Mason was born. Jen and I both fell into tears as they placed him on her chest. I knew this would be an exciting moment, but I was overwhelmed with the emotions washing over me. I am not a good enough writer to describe the feelings of those first moments with my family. What I can say is this: All happiness in my life will be measured against that moment. The moment I first met my son.
