Saturday night 03/17 Mia had a play at school and Marisa's parent's were arriving from Ohio. Due Date 3/21. We dropped Mia at school and picked up her parents at the airport, and then went back for the play and after party. Got home around 10:30p. Go to church Sunday morning 10:15a mass. I see Marisa writing things on the bulletin. I figure great, another list of things for me to do today to get ready for the baby. About 30 minutes later she hands me the list and I see it is timings for contractions. The book says you go to the hospital when you hit 4-1-1. That is contractions are happening within four minutes start-to-start, the contractions last for at least one minute, and these conditions have existed for one hour. She was at 4-1-0.5. Fr. Leo is going to town with a super long mass for RCIA and some other stuff, so we bail right after communion. Get home and Marisa calls the doctor. I read the book and it says the partner should eat a good meal at this point. :-) So I have Grandma Strong make me a big breakfast and start chowing. Doctoar calls back and says go to the hospital. 3 minutes later Marisa is ready but I am still eating. Oops. Finish up, I load the car (we had packed a month ago), we take a couple pictures, and go. Get to hospital at 12:41p. Contractions so far are not big deal (from my point of view). Marisa can talk while they are going on. As soon as we get checked in and go to our little area in the room, Marisa has a strong contraction (12:52p). Very painful, can't talk and can hardly stand. Nurse checks her and she is 1 cm dilated. We're pretty bummed because she was 1 cm the week before before contractions started! Nurse says go home but Marisa says doc said don't go home, so nurse says walk around for 90 minutes and she'll check again then. Strong painful contractions continue about every five minutes. Marisa can't even get up from the table, and nurse is being a little nasty from out at her nurses station telling other nurse like we can't hear "she is SUPPOSED to be out walking." Another nurse comes in looking for a cell phone left by a previous patient and she is much more helpful with some positions to try to alleviate the discomfort. Turns out Marisa knows this nurse from Mia's delivery 8 years before. So that was a bit of a boost to morale. We go walk and every four minutes or so we get the painful contractions [I love how I say "we" :-) ]. After 30 minutes we are back in the room and Marisa is in a lot of pain and can't really get off the table again. I can't comfort her at all, in fact they say a laboring women's senses are heighted and sure enough, Marisa couldn't get near me because my deodorant was too over-powering for her! And massage was out of the question, didn't want to be touch other than for me to squeeze her hand REALLY hard (I was afraid I would break bones and her fingers were turning blue at times). And she HATED it if I said "You are doing great." Nurse says OK let me check you in 15 minutes. She checks at 2:15p at Marisa is at 3cm already. She says OK you are going fast, that is why it is so painful, lets get you to Labor and Delivery. We had made lots of plans for this, expecting 8-20 hours in L&D, I had all my snacks ready-- pistachios, cashews, granola bars, otter pops (aka Flav-or-Ice), change for the vending machines, ipod with speakers, massage oil, etc etc etc. Swim trunks in case she wanted to labor in the bath or shower. We had practiced all the different massage and breathing techniques that would calm her.
Anyway, 2:15p we're at 3cm being admitted, contractions getting more and more painful. 2:30p we get to our new room, contractiosn VERY painful, get IV and nurse checks her. Now at 6cm! Nurse calls for backup nurse to prep room since usually they have hours to do this, calls Anesthesiologist for Epidrual, calls OBGYN. 2:50p Marisa gets narcotics to "take the edge off" the pain. Contractions continue to escalate in terms of pain for next 32 minutes. 3:02pm epidural is in and Marisa can't really feel contractions anymore. 3:15p OBGYN arrives and measures her at 8cm and breaks sack. Notes meconium in fluid (means the kid has already taken a dump and concern is when he comes out he'll take a deep breath and suck it into his lungs). I had read a little about this and couldn't remember if it was a big risk or not but didn't want to talk about it for fear of upsetting Marisa. He says they'll deliver the head, then quickly vac the kids mouth to make sure he doesn't inhale. Doc says he doesn't know how much epidural will slow things down so no telling how much time is left. He goes next door to watch March Madness (Marisa tells me I can go with him or turn it on the TV there in the room). Marisa is getting thirsty but due to epidural she can't drink, only can eat ice chips. She asks Anesthesiologist if she can have her Otter Pops. He says no. But she can have one right after birth. But we had never brought the stuff in from the car. Marisa says go get my Otter Pops so they can put them in the freezer so I can have one later. I point out the book says "During transition DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PARTNER FOR ANY REASON!!!" She says "Am I in transition?" Nurse confirms since she doesn't believe me. Transition is 7cm to 10cm. But I go anyway cause things seem pretty calm. 3:50pm. I go to the car, call Mia and Grandma Strong and Grandpa Long for updates as I go to the car. Checking back in at security when my cell phone rings at 4:05p. It is Michelle the Labor & Delivery nurse. She says Marisa is pushing and I better get back there fast! 4:07p I am back in the room and Marisa is pushing. I only missed one push. Can already see the top of the baby's head. Seems like no big deal because Marisa is so fresh and not in pain and not tired at all. 4-5 more pushes and the head is out and they do the vac and within 30 seconds more the whole baby is out, 4:19p. I couldn't see the vacuum part because the baby was facing the other way so I was still trying to pay attention to that aspect of things so forgot even that we didn't know if it was a boy or girl! Nurse says "You see that Steve? Tell Marisa!" But I am still worried about the meconium and kid isn't crying yet, the quickly cut the cord and rush him to the table a few feet away and I think do some more cleanup. Marisa says "You didn't get to cut the cord." Doc says "Oops sorry." I just wanted them to do what they needed as fast as possible so didn't mind. Go over to the kid and he is already crying and sucking his left finger to calm himself. I keep asking Marisa about them setting the baby on her chest to feed right away because that is what we always saw in the videos. But they did all the cleanup first. Marisa took one of my three cameras from me and starts taking pictures and videos while she is still being worked on. The doctor was amused. He was in the middle of stitching a small tear she had and she had him stop for a picture. It is definitely and interesting perspective! She asks for a phone to call Mia at 4:30p. Hang out a little with the baby and before we know it 30 minutes later, knock on the door and in strolls Mia to see her new baby brother, 5:10p. Grandma says Mia literally pushed her out the door after grabbing Grandma's purse for her.
That is pretty much it for the delivery story I guess. I almost missed the birth of my first born son over Otter Pops. Marisa was amazing and it was all so fast. Miguel played his role perfectly too. :-) Wasn't much at all for me to do but take pictures, and I didn't do a great job of that as it went so fast.
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