Love at First Sight

As if to prove me wrong, a few moments after I put up the previous post, my wife Amy went into labor.

At first we counted out the contractions using Contraction Master, a free online program that tracks how long and how far apart the contractions are. The midwife told us that once they are less than 5 minutes apart and last longer than a minute, we should call her. It did not take long.

The labor progressed and I was doing everything possible to help Amy. The Hypnobabies, she said, took the edge off the pain, but it unfortunately failed us in its claim. However, she blames herself, saying she didn't do enough of the home exercises to really establish a powerful sense of hypnosis. When it came time to push (transition), I was having to remind her of the basic techniques constantly. It felt terrible and awe-inspiring that my wife had to go through something like that. And never once did she ask for drugs or an episiotomy. I'm very proud of her.

The baby was crowning for the better part of an hour, and after 17 hours of labor, we had a daughter. It was amazing how frightened I suddenly became when she was unresponsive and not breathing. The cord had been tied around her neck so tightly, the midwife couldn't get it loose. Her shoulder was also caught. She was limp and blue and all the two of us could do was try to encourage her to breathe. 2 minutes and a 911 call later, she started to breath, but it was slight, labored, and erratic. I went from abject fear to love and jubilation so many times in such a short amount of time that I was nearly sick.

In the end, Adelaide was born at 6:56am, 22 inches long, 8 pounds 10 ounces of cuteness. She burbles and coos a lot, sounding remarkably like our cats. Her skin is amazingly soft! She stops crying whenever I pick her up - a daddy's girl already.

Now Amy and I are exhausted, but have to take care of this little life. She cries, but hasn't needed changing yet, and isn't very good at breastfeeding. I hope and pray that we get enough sleep to function properly soon. I will probably be taking at least this week off from school, though if I find some spare time, it will be spent looking for a job.

Ah, the joys of an unemployed father.