The day my son was born (from my blog)

This is a post from my semi-irregular blog (http://bebfoo.livejournal.com)

Pauline and I now have a third member of the family, little baby Cosmo, born July 14th 2006 at 9:47pm MDT. He weighed in at 8lbs 2oz, was 20.5" long, and had a 14.5" head. Labor was induced two weeks early due to the Doctor's concern about Pauline's rise in blood pressure. This decision was made on Tuesday, and labor scheduled for induction starting at 7am that Friday. She was already 3cm dilated at that time, which the Doc hoped would make for an easier labor. We went home and got our items packed and ready to go (clothes, snacks, CDs for listening/relaxing, car seat, etc.)

After a rather sleepless night Thursday, we left for St Luke's hospital at 6:40am, and after waiting around for about 30 minutes we were taken to the Labor and Deliver room where Pauline was started on a IV drip of Pitocin (aka "pit") to start the labor. Within an hour or two, the contractions started. They were mild at first, and grew stronger thoughout the day. The Doc ordered a slow "ramp-up" dose of Pitocin to help ease Pauline's contractions (some docs will dose poor women with large amounts causing extremely intense and painful contractions with no time to adjust). After a few hours, the nurse told us we were being moved to another room since the one we were in was in the mostly unused wing of L&D. That was a minor annoyance, but the new room was larger and closer to the nurse's station. (The room we started in had some weird electrical problems that the nurses have attributed to a ghost that is said to frequent it and play tricks like pushing the nurse call buttons, etc. We didn't see any such ghost. :)

At around 9 hours into labor, the contractions were coming every 2-5 minutes, and getting stronger and more painful. Her cervix was still only around 4cm dilated, which the doc wasn't happy about, hoping she'd be more like 7-8 (final labor w/pushing and delivery can't begin until the cervix is dilated to 10cm). Pauline had opted a "wait and see" attitude regarding pain meds, but the hours of exhausting contractions, lack of solid sleep the night before, and her cold (caught the week before) was making her think about something to ease the pain. She requested Stadol to start, and it kicked in quickly and took the edge off, as well as allowed her to dose off between contractions. It also made her rather dopey and she said some amusing things like "this drug is like codeine and something that doesn't let me touch my tongue to the top of my mouth" and other such things which were amusing to me and the nurses. The stadol wore off about 1.5 hours later, and the contractions had gotten a bit stronger by then. Doc came in and checked and said things were still not moving quickly, and dilation was only 7cm or so, and that labor could last 2-6 hours more. This news prompted Pauline to request a epidural. A nurse anesthetist came in and did the epidural which took about 15 minutes. When they work, it takes only about 10-15 minutes more to numb the pain in the lower half of the body, but unfortunately this one didn't work and 20 minutes later Pauline was still in lots of pain during the contractions. All the while I was trying to help where I could: getting water and ice for Pauline, massaging her sore back, holding her hand, etc.

This was going on close to 14 hours of labor, and Pauline was exhausted. To make matters worse, little Cosmo was not moving down into her pelvis much (he was at "0 station" still), he was in the less ideal posterior (spine was rear-facing, head front-facing) position and his heart rate was dipping down to 85-90 during the contractions (normal fetal rates are 130-180), caused by distress of having his head rammed against the pelvis and cervix for 14 hours, poor little guy!) Doc said she'd try a few more contractions as well as manual/hand dilation (don't ask, but I can say it looked extremely painful) or she said they would have to do a C-section, but Cosmo was only at +1 station and Pauline was still only 7.5cm dilated. It seems his head was too big to fit out Pauline's pelvis, at least since he was posterior facing.

Two more contractions, Doc Caplinger said "OK, let's do it!" and within minutes there were a buzz of nurses and other staff running around in the room, getting Pauline ready for surgery. I made a quick call to my brother Jamie to have him alert everyone of the update, and a nurse yelled "get into this, NOW" and tossed me some scrubs, a mask, and booties to wear right as they rushed Pauline off to the OR (about 200' away). They told me to grab my camera and sit outside waiting while they prepped for the C-section. That was the longest 25 minutes of my life. I was worried about Pauline, and about Cosmo, and while I knew C-sections are very routine (1 in 4 births in the USA are via C-section), it was still nerve-wracking. I paced frantically, and tried to shoot photos through the outside OR windows into the scrub room. I watched as other nervous and/or happy looking fathers and family walked past down the hall. Finally, after what seemed like hours a nurse came out and sent me into the OR.

Inside were somewhere around 8-10 medical staff, including Doc Caplinger, Doc Lovelace (who Dr. Caplinger requested assist, as they often work together) and me . They told me to sit in a stool by Pauline's head. It is all a blur to me now, and all I recall is Doc Caplinger making the incision the moment I sat down, and within about 3-4 minutes (Cosmo's head was being pulled from Pauline (I snapped a photo the moment of birth, 9:47 MDT) They immediately began suctioning out his airway, and within another minute his whole body was out, he was starting to cry (as was I!) and they had him moved to the cleanup table and 3-4 nurses were cleaning him up (rubbing off the white waxy vernix) and doing his APGAR test (he scored a 8/10 at 1 minute and 9/10 at 5 minutes, so a healthy little baby!). They then weighed and measured him, swaddled him up and let me hold him for the first time. It's hard to explain the feelings I was going through, but as tears of joy streamed down my face I told Pauline "that's him, our baby!". He was crying and likely confused about the unfamiliar noise, lights and sensations outside the warm comfy womb. But he was healthy and beautiful, and that few moments ranks up as the greatest of my adult life. I have heard other fathers say the same, but had no idea until I experienced it myself. It may sound cliche or cheesy, but it was a magic moment. (HERE is a photo of me holding him in the OR, smiling ear-to-ear) While that was happening, Pauline's was being stitched up. A nurse then led me with Cosmo on my arms down the hall to a recovery room to wait for the NICU nurses to come inspect him. But since they were busy elsewhere, I had the fortune of just being able to hold Cosmo for around 20 minutes. I rocked him in my arms, kissed his forehead, and whispered to him how happy daddy was to have him out and healthy. Our first father-son quality time together, less than 30 minutes after he was born. A very moving experience for me! Eventually, the nurses came to check him out more, put antibiotic ointment in his eyes, etc. They gave him a clean bill of health, and let me hold him again until Pauline was wheeled down from the OR and finally got to hold her firstborn. Cosmo slept like the proverbial baby, and mom and dad, both exhausted (Pauline more-so!) rested and waited for transfer to the 8th floor maternity ward room where we were to spent the next 4 days (unknown to us at the time). Pauline's Mom, sisters Kristin & Katherine, and my brother Jamie all came in to meet little Cosmo, and we then moved upstairs to try and get some rest.