Nah, I don't want to get smacked around. I am a total wuss. But I will use the words morbid, and gag inducing.
Anyway, this is a story about karma, and being careful with the wishes you make.
For most families birth begins with the water breaking, or some other physiological gisn of things to come. Not with us, oh no! We are the type of family that likes to heroically overcome all odds (with a a little cost to our combined sanity, of course).
For us the story began, when a hapless Walgreen's worker has lost The Awesome Wife's prescription. The prescription was not the most urgent one, and they gave us an option of picking it up at the 24H Walgreen not far away, if we call the doctor and ask for a new one. We've decided not to do that, the due-date was couple of weeks away, and the new drug's only difference was that it could be flushed out of the system within twelve hours, instead of twenty-four of the original.
A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE!
Because, you see as we woke the next day The Awesome Wife declared that it's time to go to the hospital. Well, we don't panic. We rarely do. The Little One got dressed, we drove her over to school, and relatively peacefully went to the hospital.
The admission was simple and fast. Very soon we settled in and started to wait. Various nurses came and went, couple of doctors visited, even the med students of the lowly scrub variety paid visit, but were promptly send on their way.
The thing is, that everyone one told us that the delivery is coming soon. Remember that medication, we didn't switch? Without going into deeper detail, the side effects from it forbid the use of epidural procedure for pain relief. That definitely threw my wife into panic.
Anyways, we are at the hospital at 8:30 AM, the medication flushes out of the system by 10 PM, and every medical personal in the hospital tell us that we are going to be done by 12 PM.
Well, 12 PM has gone by, then 3 PM, then 6PM, and nothing happened. Nurses and doctors changed shifts, we have befriended the whole medical stuff, and still nothing happens. Then all of the sudden its 10 PM. Induction and epidural are a go!
The doctor tells us that we should be out now by midnight. As shallow as it may sounds, I wondered if the baby was going to be born on the same day as Michael Jackson's death.
The baby was in no rush. Then came 2am, and 3am, The Awesome Wife was ready to go, but the baby decided to take a break.
The epidural levels had to be brought down twice to help push. The baby, finally, came out after only three pushes, around 6 o'clock in the morning.
These thirty or so minutes have registered as snapshots in my brain, I don't have a clear continuous memory of them. Baby's head. My wife in tears. Baby on the weighing station, gurgling. Nurses jumping around. Doctor smiling.
I know the moment is no way about me, but there I was standing in the middle of whirlwind, a bit detached from reality trying to calm my wife, take pictures of the newborn, and talk to nurses/doctors at the same time.
I've been to delivery room before. I coached my wife through the first one, the feeling there (although it has been almost five years now) was a bit sterile and businesslike. This time around (in a different hospital) the feeling was more midwifey and homely. Can't explain it.
Well, there you have it. Without the morbid details.
Anyway, this is a story about karma, and being careful with the wishes you make.
For most families birth begins with the water breaking, or some other physiological gisn of things to come. Not with us, oh no! We are the type of family that likes to heroically overcome all odds (with a a little cost to our combined sanity, of course).
For us the story began, when a hapless Walgreen's worker has lost The Awesome Wife's prescription. The prescription was not the most urgent one, and they gave us an option of picking it up at the 24H Walgreen not far away, if we call the doctor and ask for a new one. We've decided not to do that, the due-date was couple of weeks away, and the new drug's only difference was that it could be flushed out of the system within twelve hours, instead of twenty-four of the original.
A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE!
Because, you see as we woke the next day The Awesome Wife declared that it's time to go to the hospital. Well, we don't panic. We rarely do. The Little One got dressed, we drove her over to school, and relatively peacefully went to the hospital.
The admission was simple and fast. Very soon we settled in and started to wait. Various nurses came and went, couple of doctors visited, even the med students of the lowly scrub variety paid visit, but were promptly send on their way.
The thing is, that everyone one told us that the delivery is coming soon. Remember that medication, we didn't switch? Without going into deeper detail, the side effects from it forbid the use of epidural procedure for pain relief. That definitely threw my wife into panic.
Anyways, we are at the hospital at 8:30 AM, the medication flushes out of the system by 10 PM, and every medical personal in the hospital tell us that we are going to be done by 12 PM.
Well, 12 PM has gone by, then 3 PM, then 6PM, and nothing happened. Nurses and doctors changed shifts, we have befriended the whole medical stuff, and still nothing happens. Then all of the sudden its 10 PM. Induction and epidural are a go!
The doctor tells us that we should be out now by midnight. As shallow as it may sounds, I wondered if the baby was going to be born on the same day as Michael Jackson's death.
The baby was in no rush. Then came 2am, and 3am, The Awesome Wife was ready to go, but the baby decided to take a break.
The epidural levels had to be brought down twice to help push. The baby, finally, came out after only three pushes, around 6 o'clock in the morning.
These thirty or so minutes have registered as snapshots in my brain, I don't have a clear continuous memory of them. Baby's head. My wife in tears. Baby on the weighing station, gurgling. Nurses jumping around. Doctor smiling.
I know the moment is no way about me, but there I was standing in the middle of whirlwind, a bit detached from reality trying to calm my wife, take pictures of the newborn, and talk to nurses/doctors at the same time.
I've been to delivery room before. I coached my wife through the first one, the feeling there (although it has been almost five years now) was a bit sterile and businesslike. This time around (in a different hospital) the feeling was more midwifey and homely. Can't explain it.
Well, there you have it. Without the morbid details.
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