After about 20 hours of labor, being at nine and half centimeters for some time, and having a fever of 106, the doctor decided to take me off the epidural to speed up the delivery. I have never experienced such intense and excruciating pain in my whole life! My back felt as if it were being torn from my spine. Actually, I think that would have felt better because then it would have been all over. The pain kept coming over and over again. When the nurse said, “You knew it would be painful,” after I was screaming “I can’t do this,” I wanted to head-slam the bitch. I don’t think she had kids. After about an hour or so of my screaming bloody murder, the doctor tells me to quiet down a little. I think I was scaring the other mothers on the ward. That made me want to rip the doctor’s skull off, so I screamed louder. I think she thought she needed reinforcements, so she called in a midwife. I’m not big into the midwife scene, but I have to tell you, she knew what to say and do, because everything began to progress after she came in. I got the encouragement I needed and she knew how to rip my vaginal open to let Aden’s big head come through. In the end, getting Aden out as quickly as possible was the right thing to do. Dammit.

After it was all over the nurses told me I was the only vaginal delivery in the hospital in two days. How was I so f*%*#%g lucky?

~M

Aden and Michele at hospital

So no matter how many times you read the line in all the parent books, “child-birth is an amazing experience difficult to fully grasp” it still does not put the magnitude of the experience into perspective. I have had two highly emotional moments in my life, one was the loss of my father and now the birth of my son. Although both experiences are on different emotional levels, one sad and the other happily intense. I do not mean to bring a heavy levity to the delivery but it was numbing to me. As a man, you are worried about your wife and that your baby will be OK and then when the baby is born it is a whole order more emotionally intense. So there I am standing between the respiratory therapist on my left and my wife on my right. I am waiting for my son to breathe his first moments of life and then the doctor is doing her work on my wife to start her recovery. In that moment, the 3-5 minutes it took for my son to breathe, it felt like 30. I was happy that my wife looked completed relieved once the baby was out but because of the long labor my little guy had a rough time. I am glad my wife comes from good stock because my son is well. The delivery is an experience I will never forget. Man could never do what a woman has to do for childbirth. My last thought is that my wife is an amazing woman and she is stronger than I could have ever imagined.

~K

I was pretty hopeful last night as the exam brought on some pretty strong stuff, not contractions, just pressure. She tried to scrape the membranes to get things started but he is still too far up. This waiting is driving me nuts. I know Kevin is getting anxious as well. At this point we just want to get the show on the road. I don’t think we are very patient people. My due date is Saturday. I really did not want to go beyond my due date. All my friends were early. It just isn’t fair.

Staying home has been good for my mood and my ankles. I don’t seem to swell up as much as I do when I’m at work. I think it is because I get up and walk around more. It has been nice to stay home and work on some projects that I never seem to have time for because I am too tired. Everyone says there will be no time after the baby comes. At least this endless waiting will be over.

~M

~K

I find it amazing how much advice I’ve been given since I have been pregnant. The latest trend in advice is recommendations on what to eat/take to make the baby come out. So far it has been steak and broccoli, mexican, anything spicy, anything that will create a bowel movement, and my personal favorite, castor oil with soda. Apparently, these have all worked for women trying to push their labor along. I will know I’m in bad shape when I go shopping for castor oil.

~M

To make myself feel better I went to get my hair cut as well as a pedicure. My hair looks great, but the hard part is keeping it looking so good. I never seem to have the hour to blow dry and straight iron my hair. I think it always surprises the hairdresser how long it actually takes to blow dry my hair.

Kevin wants to get a pregnancy picture done of us with my belly. I am not sure how I feel about that. I feel like I look my worst but it might be nice to preserve the moment especially since I am feeling like I do not ever want to do this again. Various women have told me that you forget the pain but there must be a hormone or a drug they give you in the hospital that makes you forget everything. One friend who just had a baby had a caesarean. She loved it! Didn’t feel a thing.

~M

I am looking forward to those first moments with my son, Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas. I know he will be so young but the mere fact he is in our lives will make those occasions young again. I cannot pray enough for a healthy, happy baby.

My wife is feeling the aches and pains of pregnancy every day. I hate seeing her in this much discomfort. I want to apply the classic guy thing and say, “you have a problem, tell me so I can fix it”. In this instance I know I have to rely on our doctor and God to get us through the coming final weeks. I hope that modern medicine can relieve most of the pain and discomfort she will go through in the coming weeks.

-K

~Life as Dad