That turned out to be a lie but now wife is feeding baby and I have a few minutes. So. The ordeal.
Tuesday morning we woke up at 6:30 or so and Michelle calmly informed me she was feeling contractions. Not crazy ones but definitely contractions. Breakfast was normal, I even timed my farts to join in the fun. Turns out there is no pattern to those. We did our normal routine, went shopping, went for lunch, all the while contractions, regular and manageable. We even watched Hellboy II which I really enjoyed. Cool villain. But by the afternoon we decided to call in our doola. Dula? Doula? However you spell it it means someone who helps and advises us in the childbirth process. In this case my aunt. She sat with us for a while and said that when the contractions got to the point where they lasted 30 seconds and were coming every four minutes or so we should head to the hospital. So we did.
They sent us home, since there was hardly any dilation.
A few hours later it was even worse so we went back.
They sent us home.
The next day.
And it just kept getting worse for Michelle. I got five hours of sleep but she didn't. Her birthday and she was in hard labour the whole time. I don't even remember when we went to the hospital for the third time. Sometime in the afternoon. Even then they couldn't do much as she just wasn't dilated enough. But the sympathetic nurse let us walk around for an hour and then she would re-examine her. So we did, and Michelle threw up from the pain. Finally the nurse declared she was 4 cms which might have been a fudge but whatever. We were in. Right away she got set up with an epidural and that made a huge difference for her pain. But even with oxytocin there was not much progress and another 12 hours or something went by. Finally her ob-gyn came and said it was time to do a c-section- baby was facing the wrong way and was stuck. Michelle welcomed it but it turned me into a mess. They're gonna cut my wife open! My baby is stuck in there and not coming out any other way. Not much sucks worse in the world that I've ever known than that.
But you know what? Less than an hour later Pallas was born and Michelle was fine.
Pallas was more or less healthy but swallowed some maconium or myrconium or whatever you call it so they whisked her away to the brand new neonatal intensive care unit where she had to spend her first 24 hours in a cool Viper-like canopy.
There she got fitted with some wires and leads and sensors and even a cylon toe! But she is not a cylon. She looked a little like a mountain gorilla when she was first born because her head was all coned up from getting stuck but that went away. And her little rancor arms too!
Anyways, so we spent something like 5 days in the hopital. Mom had wires and Pallas had wires and it was sorta scary, but it was nice to have so many amazing nurses looking after everyone. Even the first poo meltdown was rescued by a nurse while Michelle and I watched slack-jawed in shock and awe.
We're home now and thanks for all your support!
But you know what? Less than an hour later Pallas was born and Michelle was fine.
Pallas was more or less healthy but swallowed some maconium or myrconium or whatever you call it so they whisked her away to the brand new neonatal intensive care unit where she had to spend her first 24 hours in a cool Viper-like canopy.
There she got fitted with some wires and leads and sensors and even a cylon toe! But she is not a cylon. She looked a little like a mountain gorilla when she was first born because her head was all coned up from getting stuck but that went away. And her little rancor arms too!
Anyways, so we spent something like 5 days in the hopital. Mom had wires and Pallas had wires and it was sorta scary, but it was nice to have so many amazing nurses looking after everyone. Even the first poo meltdown was rescued by a nurse while Michelle and I watched slack-jawed in shock and awe.
We're home now and thanks for all your support!
