A Baby Story

Now that things have settled down a bit, I thought I would share the story of Xander's birth.

On Tuesday May 26th, the amnio showed that little Xanders lungs were in fact developed, and the doctor called the hospital and said we would be coming in that night to begin the inducement. There were a few problems, however. As the nurses put it, Stacy is a tough stick. It took seven tries to get the IV in her arms. It wasn't until the anasteseologist was called that they were successful. Stacy spent the night with cervadil to thin out her cervix, and went on pitocin on Wednesday morning, which is used to induce labor.

All day Wednesday, the contractions came and went rather quickly, but she didn't thin out or dialate past one centimeter. So at five o'clock, they took Stacy of the pitocin, and she could relax until nine. Wednesday night, Stacy was put back on cervadil with the hope that another twelve hours would do the trick. The next morning, the nurse felt that she was a little thinner, and she was put back on the pitocin.

The doctor came in around noon, and said that Stacy was dialated two centimeters now, and that she was thin enough. Without telling us, the doctor broke her water, and things spiraled quickly from there. By two, she was at four centimeters and in came the epidural which took four tries due to my wife's "hard stickiness." Around four, she was getting sick to her stomach and everytime, she would dialate a little more, until now she was at 9 1/2. At this point, the doctor was called and by five thirty, we were pushing.

Joining me in the delivery room were my mother and Stacy's mother. Not having daughters, my mom was thrilled to be included. Truth be told, she was as much there to be a part of it as she was there to be sure I didn't pass out, or else she would have had to Moonstruck me. "Snap out of it!" Xander was a sweetheart, even while he was on his way. He gave Stacy nice two to three minute breaks in between contractions for her to rest up before pushing again. I did as much as I could at this stage holding her leg back for her, but apparently I was not doing this well, and I was subsequently replaced around six by a nurse. Finally, after only about forty minutes of pushing, our little Xander arrived!

Being the queasy person that I am, Stacy's mom did the honor of cutting the cord, which I was told was incredibly thick. While Stacy was being cleaned up, I had the pleasure of watching them clean up my new little man, measure him, and weigh him. Then, finally after nine months of waiting, I was able to hold my son in my arms!

For me, this experience was not at all what I expected. There was no screaming, no cursing, no passing out. I stayed up as high on her body as I could and managed to stay on my feet the entire time. As for Stacy, she was a trooper and as strong as I have ever seen her. I had never been so proud of my wife.

Hopefully, you will continue to come back to this site as Xander grows. I will update as often as I can so that you can, in some way, be with us as we embark on the adventure that is parenthood!