And you exist! Well, you’ve existed for a week, but I’m sitting down to write this now because well your existence has been fairly time consuming. We should probably start with the whole you being born process. Depending on your age when you read this you’ll be super grossed out by the next statement. Your Mom was about w39d5 (It was a Wednesday) and she was really really ready for you to be born. We walked up the giant hill by our house to get Starbucks that morning and she said “Today is the last day I walk up this hill while pregnant”
We get home and I start working for the day. Bare in mind by this point your mom has had lots of irregular contractions and the previous Saturday we went to the hospital because of some bleeding (turns out it was nothing) Around 2pm, we were like lets get this shit on the road so we did some um vigorous exercises… Things started getting a little weird after that but still no strong movement. Around 7pm your mom started doing some crazy invert couch stretch exercises, think butt up and hands on the floor from the couch. I felt like things may start moving soon so I panic went to the grocery store and bought some weird things. The main thing I remember is getting blue cheese. Your mom wasn’t allowed to have this all pregnancy and I was like shits about to get real we better have this on stand by… As you tell I’m really good at prioritizing.
Around 9pm your mom went to sleep, and I felt I had been sedentary too long so I started up some Beat Saber and started rocking out to the new Fallout Boy DLC. Around 20 minutes in I heard a “Alex!” turns out your mom had been yelling for me and I didn’t hear her till she came down. “My Water Broke!” Bear in mind I was still in the “VR” environment, so I almost fell down in shock. Actually, now that I think about it I was playing Sugar from Maroon5 and had an “SS” streak I had to give up on… the sacrifices I make.
We immediately made some phone calls. Decide not to wait to see if we should go to the hospital and just start throwing our overnight bags into the car. We hop in the car and the song that’s playing on the Radio is 50 cent “In Da Club” it was magic. Literally heard: “Hey Shorty Its your birthday, we’re going to party like its your Birthday” Just wow… So I’m about to pull out and your mom is like “Wait!” apparently we had to wait till it wasn’t 10:13pm anymore cause 13 is unlucky… After waiting several hours… or possibly seconds? I said F this and changed the car clock. I feel like that counts.
We drive to the hospital, luckily low bridge has no traffic, get on I5 of course we hit traffic. They close I5 North that night /sigh, always listen to your GPS. It was like “AVOID I5” and I was like shutup GPS its 10pm. Luckily it was one exit and the ride to Swedish was uneventful, well besides crazy slow cars. Maybe they weren’t normal speed and I was the irrational one. We’ll never know. We pull in to the parking garage, I forget to turn of the car fortunately Kate reminds me and we run up and check in to Triage. From this point things going pretty standard. Your mom is a 7/10 for pain, and only 2cm dilated. Since her water has broken they do send us to a permanent birthing room. We’re in this for the long haul now!
This is around 11pm. We get checked in, I get our stuff and be bunker down for the night. Your mom’s pain is getting worse and worse, and my uselessness remains pretty consistent. My main job was assuring your grandparents that everything was fine. I eventually fell asleep while your mom was walking around and throwing up from pain. Yes I know dad of the year.
Around 3pm your mom wakes me up and asks me on her thoughts of Epidurals (I had been trying to convince her to take one for months) We sleepily encouraged her and talked about how Leanne got hers like immediately entering the hospital. From this point on things got a bit more steady, your mom was still in a lot of pain but was managing. Around 8am the doula was like F waiting, I’m coming to the Hospital, which was the exact right time to do it.
I go get starbucks and breakfast (yes still husband of the year) cause I haven’t eaten in probably 16 hours, your mom is still forbidden from food, which was kind of BS. When I get back the Doula is there rubbing your Mom’s shoulders and back and saying very comforting things. There’s just a constant stream of doctors and nurses. Everyone’s checking everything. Your heartbeat was totally a rock star this entire process.
Around 11:30 the Doula looks at your mom and says “Do you feel ready to push, you look like you feel ready to push, lets try it out” Screw waiting for the doctor lets do this! Honestly I think she was right, the doctors were dragging their feet, running all over the place not giving your mom any attention. Doula was definitely reading the room and could tell your mom was ready. So your pushes. It was a lot. The next hour was a bit of a blur. Legs bent and pulled back, counting to ten three times while pushing. I help your moms head and counted. She pushed like she’d never pushed before. Each round was a little more. You slowly worked your way out. We say tiny bits of your hair, then more hair. You were so close! Your mom puked from all the pain which we think gave the final bit. After than it was two more rounds and BAM you were born. They pulled you out wrapped you in a blanket and put you on your mom’s chest. You’re so small, and a bit purple (totally normal)
You let out your first and I started to tear up. Three years of our lives had led up to this moment and to finally see you exist and breathing was just amazing. I have a beautiful recording of your mom talking to you in these first couple minutes. She talks about how happy she is to finally see you. She’s so tired but just this most serene look on her face.
The rest of your birthday is a blur. The doula teaches your mom how to breast feed in the first ten minutes. She grab you shoves her on the boob and is like eat. Honestly you were such a champ and latched on immediately. Your blood sugar was just low enough to be concerning so we had to obsessively have you checked before each feeding while we were trapped in the hospital for the next 24 hours. You were born at 7lb 1.1oz and 19 inches.
They put us in a very uncomfortable suite and told us to get some rest, and then proceeded to come in and do test after test on you and your mom till we left. Your mom got the epidural and wasn’t able to use her left leg for almost the next 24hours. It was concerning but eventually she recovered thankfully. We were a bit worried.
I learned how to swaddle and how to change a diaper. I was really bad at and it then (and still as I write this 😊 ) You also had the grosses black tar poop ever. It was everywhere and you wouldn’t stop. Also your head was all coney and it was hilarious. Finally they let us leave and I managed to stumble us home with no sleep. Your mom and I were completely exhausted but we finally had you all to ourselves! Of course you didn’t care how little sleep…