I’m half asleep and yet the 4 hour nap I just took really feels like more than enough. The last couple of days have been a blur. Bringing Baby Grayson into the world is one of the events in my life I will never forget.

Everything started at 2:30 when I woke up to an empty bed. My wife had already been awake for about an hour trying to decide if the contractions were worth waking me up over. Once I was awake we started timing them using Contraction Master I don’t know who the man is that made this brilliant site but it makes timing contractions as simple as pressing the space bar on your computer. Once the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 1 minute long I hit the speed dial button on my cell to call the Dr. He said to head over to the hospital.

The next few hours were filled with getting hooked up to machines that monitored mom and baby and checking progress. I was under the impression once you started going into labor tha the baby is just a few minutes away. I have watched too many tv shows of people giving birth in taxis and other less than steril environments. I guess situations like that do happen but for the most part giving birth for first time moms can be a long process.

The nurses at the hospital were very accommodating . They really went out of their way to make sure that mom was comfortable and that we both knew what was going on. One of the nurses we had was shadowed by a trainee and  we got a quick labor and delivery 101 class. It was nice to hear about all of the next steps and get a better understanding of the delivery process.

The baby is ready

The nurse made it very clear to my wife that when the baby was ready to be delivered there would be a very prominent pressure like she would have to poop. When that happens the baby has dropped into position and the pushing can begin. At about 5PM my wife made it clear that the baby was ready. The nurse called our Dr. who was in the hospital with another patient at the time and said he would be ready in about 10-15 minutes. Mom to be decided not to do any pushing until the Dr arrived. About an hour later the Dr. came in saw that the baby wasn’t crowing yet and left the room. Since most first time moms spend about an hour pushing their first baby out, he felt he was early and wanted to see some patients further along.

Within a few minutes my wife made it clear that she felt she was holding the baby in. We called in the nurse to see where the baby was and she said we could start pushing and the Dr. would be in soon. The next few minutes became a blur. I know there are many details I’m missing and maybe my wife can clarify. The next thing I remember is seeing th top of the babies head. Really tiny at first like the size of a quarter. As mom pushed more became visible. The nurse was helping coach through the contractions and once there was a lot of baby head showing she tried calling the Dr.

Where is the Doctor?

The nurse first tried calling him on the phone. Then she walked out of the room. I had a small moment of panic with my baby being born and no nurse in the room. She came back in a minute later and hit the call button on the bed. A voice came over the intercom. Our nurse asked for another set of hands since she was the ONLY person in our room. The baby was coming and our Dr. was MIA. She explained to us that the labor and delivery dept was busy today and that there were a lot of babies being born at the moment. As everyone tried to stay calm, the Dr. walked into the room, saw the baby coming out said “Ready for a birthday party?” and took his position.

With each contraction he gave the instruction to push and with every push the baby started moving out. Watching this take place was surreal. 15 minutes later out came baby and I was overcome with emotion.

Baby Delivered

Once the baby was delivered I broke into tears. Both mom and baby were doing alright. My biggest fear was that there would be some complication during the delivery and something would happen to one or both of the most important people in my life. Seeing both of them doing well was a great relief.

I missed the part when some other nurses came into the room. The nurses cleaned him off and let mom hold him for a few minutes before taking him to the warming bed next to us. Then I went out to a lobby of family members and let them know mom and baby were doing well.

I went back into the room and spent a while just staring at him. All naked and squirmy. The nurses were taking him temperature, getting his weight and doing a series of other tests to mak sure he was alright. I looked over at my wife and she looked good. Other than the obvious trauma of giving birth, she was doing well and we exchanged a few words and smiles. We were parents. Turns out about 7 other people became parents also.

After labor and delivery they were going to move us into our recovery room. They put a device on the baby like a LoJack and explained that if it was removed with, tampered with or if the baby got too close to the doors the hospital would go into lockdown.

Thankfully the baby sleeps a lot. I took note of many of your suggestions and some insight from the nurses and relaxed as much as possible. Thankfully the nurses did a great job coming in and taking care of him on a regular basis through the night.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!