Double Digits, part I

We went to her ob-gyn appointment on Wednesday the 14th as we were supposed to. The due date had arrived, except there was no sign of labor. None. Instead of being rushed to the hospital, as I had envisioned would be the case, we were able to take our time getting there. The doctor examined my wife and everything appeared normal.

"Okay," she said as the appointment was coming to an end. "Barring any sudden bouts of labor over the next seven days, I'll see you back here next week. Be here at 06:30."

We nodded our heads in acknowledgement as we walked out the door, thanking the doctor for all of the excellent care and advice that she had provided us over the last nine months.

As I helped K into the car, she leaned over to me and said, "I can't wait for this to be over."

Once I had sat down behind the wheel and fastened my seat belt, I reassured her that indeed it would be over in seven short days. Then the fun would begin for both of us.

Sure enough the next seven days were as uneventful as we'd feared they would be. We made sure to get to bed early on Tuesday evening because we knew the next day would be the most eventful day of our two and a half year old marriage.

After munching down a quick breakfast, we headed for the hospital. it was 06:00 and I was still trying to get the sleepers out of my eyes. The roads leading into downtown Nashua had not seen the bulk of the daily morning congestion that is a happy combination of commuter traffic and local residents heading out for various work destinations. It was a pleasant and otherwise uneventful ride and we arrived at the hospital in 18 minutes. Plenty of time to find a good spot in the hospital's adjacent parking garage.

After K had been successfully checked into her room, which would also double as the birthing suite, a nurse came in to take her vitals and that of the baby. Within 20 minutes the sac was broken and pitosin, thru an IV bag, was pumping through her veins. So far, so good - everything was normal. The baby's heartbeat was strong. The nurse gave each of us a chance to listen through the stethoscope and we could see the EKG readout on the monitor and on the printed pages being spit out below.

We were not sure how long the pre-labor stage would last, so we made sure to bring the essentials: plenty of reading material for each of us, a deck of cards and a cribbage board.

Around 08:00 the doctor came in to make sure K was comfortable and even asked how I was doing. She listened to the baby's heartbeat and checked the dilation of the cervix to see how much progress was being made. She reassured us that everything was fine, and estimated that by early afternoon we'd have a new addition to our family.

Long before now we had decided on a boy's name and a girl's name because we did not know, did not want to know, the baby's sex until it was born. Coming up with a suitable boys name was easy, since I had always wanted a junior and K had wanted to use her father's name, since he had no sons of his own. Compromise here was easy. I would not get my junior, but both her dad's name and my first name would be used. The only question was which would be used as the first name. The order we decided on, coincidentally happened to be the name of a restaurant in downtown Nashua.

Choosing a girls name proved to be a much more formidable task, because each of us liked different names and didn't like the other's suggestions. There were no commonalities. We bought a book of baby names, as most first time parents do, and went through every name at least twice, if not three times. Then it happened: when we put this particular combination of names together it clicked. We looked at each other with that knowing look - a sensation I'll never forget. The look that both of us knew made sense, as if that combination of names was already hers and we had just temporarily forgotten it.

For a first child, knowing the sex pre-birth is not really that important a piece of information. The most important thing we were concerned about was the health of the baby and did it have the proper amount of limbs, fingers and toes. The baby's room was done in neutral greens, so that boy or girl, we'd be prepared.

As the day progressed onward, there was little or no change and contractions were few and far between. I can't even tell you how many laps around the maternity floor we made that day, with the intent of helping the labor process along. We probably walked over two miles, slowly pushing the mobile IV stand along as we went. In between laps we played different card games and made good use of the cribbage board. Between the two of us, we read most of the magazines lying around and I read at least one of the books I had brought in its entirety.

Meals were brought in for both of us, ordered from a limited cafeteria menu. K even got to take a nap as I flipped through the television channels. As the morning became afternoon and the afternoon became evening there was little progress to report after each examination. Steadily throughout the day the nurses increased the level of pitosin flowing through the IV hoping to speed up the process.

Around 22:30 the doctor herself came in and checked K out. All of the necessary vital signs were normal but she was only between 7 and 8 centimeters. Labor pains were there but not as frequent as you like near the end of the pregnancy. She still had more than two cm to go. The doctor made the announcement that if no significant progress was made by midnight, then K would need to have a Cesarean section. I could see the color drain from her face, what color there was left, anyway. She had so badly wanted to deliver her first baby vaginally. At some point during the proceedings, the anesthesiologist came in to administer the much sought after epidural. When it began to take effect, any discomfort K was feeling was gone.

To be continued...