It all started with a wake up call from Krissy at around 1:30am on Wednesday morning, April 1st. Krissy sat up in bed complaining of back pain and stomach cramps. I'm not going to lie, I really thought she just had indigestion, and at the time wasn't worried or assuming of anything. As time went on though, her stomach continued to hurt. About 3 hours later, she asked me to time her "cramps," just in case. The first time was 15 minutes between them. The second was 18 or so minutes. I thought to myself, "Yikes, what's going on here?" After timing them for a couple hours, I realized that something more serious was going on, but we both decided that it was not serious enough to act on it. Besides, it still could have been the extra large pepperoni pizza from dinner. I had also, only hours before, written a blog post about how cool it would be if Little Bean was born on my birthday, April 4th. I obviously was not ready for the arrival of a baby.
After having only slept a couple hours that night, Krissy and I both decided to call in sick for the morning, so we could go to her doctor's for an impromptu checkup. Just to reiterate how unprepared we were, Krissy and I decided not to bring our hospital bags. We didn't want to be "that" couple who goes to the doc, just to be told that she has an upset stomach. Besides, it was April Fools Day! What a sick joke it would have been to us to think we might be in labor and then not be.
By this time we got to the doctor, Krissy was wincing in pain every 3 to 5 minutes. A girl in the waiting room, who had just had a baby, took one look at Krissy and said, "What are you doing up here? You need to be downstairs [in Labor and Delivery]." We saw our doctor at around 9:30am. She checked Krissy and announced that she was 3 centimeters dilated! This caught us totally by surprise. She told us to go home get our bags and head downstairs. If you know me at all, you know what a complete wuss I am when it comes to anything medically related. I get really weak around blood, pain, needles, and the like. Basically, not someone who you would think would be calm and collected when he finds out that the pain his wife is feeling is the early stages of labor. Well, to every one's surprise, I was a rock in the early stages. Probably due to a combination of excitement, nerves, and a desire to get Krissy to feeling better.
We arrived back at the hospital at around 10:45am, and were admitted into the room at 11:00am for what we both thought would be a very, very long day. From my understanding, labor progresses at about 1 cm per every two hours. With that math, we still had around 14 hours left to go, which would put us at a 1:00am delivery on Thursday morning. That would not be the case...
Krissy's parents arrived around 12:30pm to help and provide support. Many thanks to them for being there. This allowed me to vacate the room from time to time, just to gain a perspective on all that was going on. In the room, my amazing wife fought every contraction, moaning louder as they got more and more frequent. From time to time, she would get a little aggravated with us cracking jokes (we were just trying to lighten the mood), and would tell us to "Please shut-up!" At least she was kind enough to say please. She was actually less foul mouthed then I thought she would be. At around 3:00pm, the doctor and nurse ordered an epidural to relieve her pain. Krissy's parents and I left the room, one to prevent me from passing out, and second to probably prevent them from doing the same. I talked with my Dad on the phone in the hallway, and he could hear Krissy moaning loudly, before they administered the good stuff. When Krissy's parents and I got back in the room around 3:30pm, the doctor took a measurement and said that she had progressed to 5 cm. Basically right on schedule for my 1:00am delivery prediction.
Unknown to us, things were going to progress very quickly! Due to the fact that things were only moving "on schedule," and we all know that births aren't determined by the woman's progress, but more by the schedules of doctors and nurses, our doctor decided to break Krissy's water at around 3:45pm. This was one of those times I got a little weak in the knees. Seeing only a little fluid come out wasn't so bad, I just wanted the pain to end for Krissy. She had been dealing with the uncomfortable feelings of labor for nearly twelve hours. I must say though, only a couple of hairs had gotten out of place on her head. I've only experienced one birth, but I'm sure she was the most beautiful birthing mother ever. Back to the water breaking. Just to check things again, at 3:50pm her doctor took a measurement. Holy crap! Krissy was at 9 cm!!! The doctor was a bit taken back. She hadn't seen a first time momma progress so fast. I told everyone I had to take a pee, and literally ran out of the room. Splashed some water on my face, looked in the mirror and told myself that now more than ever was the time to "man up!" for Krissy.
As soon as I got back it was pushing time! Krissy was getting positioned, and the nurses were preparing the bags. Just to quote Drake Fowler, they were preparing for the "smelly, messy miracle." Krissy began pushing at around 4:00pm. Her doctor had left for a quick meeting across the street and was immediately called back. Krissy did such an amazing job! She pushed her heart out! She never even looked winded. Midway through I even asked her if she wanted to have more kids. That's how easy she made it look! Besides the birth of Will, the big talk in the delivery room was the "flying gravy." Let's just say there was some fluid under pressure behind Will that exploded 10 feet across the room as he was halfway out. In all of 20 minutes, five of which was waiting for her doctor, Krissy made it though the most miraculous event of our lives, and gave birth to our little blessing at 4:21pm.
For those keeping track, that's only 5 hours and 21 minutes of time spent in the hospital during labor. Not too shabby for a rookie Mom!
Our immediate reaction to seeing Will was that he had the biggest most observant eyes we had ever seen on a newborn. Where most babies keep their eyes tightly closed, Will keep looking around the room none stop, trying to take it all in.
Soon after the birth, they took Will off to the nursery for measurements and tests. He did such a good job! All the other babies cried and cried, while our little guy just laid back staring with his big eyes back towards the nursery window. Will had a little trouble breathing at first, which kept him in the nursery a little longer than we would have liked, but soon he was back in our arms ready to start our family.
I am so proud of Krissy, she was a super patient! She never complained, she made it look so easy (even though I know it wasn't), she just stayed focused on the job at hand. She is the most incredible person I have ever met! I am more in love with her than I have ever been. Thank you Krissy for all that you have done for us over the last 9 plus months. I love you!
Walking around the room before the fun begins
Quickly finding out that rocking eases the mind
Will meets his Momma 
Proud Momma
Wow! What a woman, how am I supposed to do that? Yikes, this is getting scarier and scarier! It is so good that you were able to write this all down! Congrats! GREAT JOB to all three of you!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Krissy and Ben!
ReplyDeleteHe's a real beauty!
Stephanie LaPointe