at 5:14 a.m. on july 17, 2009, we welcomed Patricia Grace into the world. She was 7 lbs and 15 ounces of pure beauty (and I'm not biased).
my delinquency in blog posts have been noted but if you were keeping track, rebekah was due in early july - as as we approached the 'due date', mommy and daddy tried everything to get her to come out including, but not limited to, evening of primrose oil pills; ingesting castor oil (which produced the predicted, but not the intend, result; acupuncture; incorporating nipple stimulation into sex; etc.
finally, labor started on july 16 (the night before) around 7 p.m. - mommy was out walking in the west village and daddy was playing golf
at 10 p.m., parents and grandma got home and the contractions started getting stronger and closer apart
at 11 p.m., the water broke and rushing out come a thick green/brown substance, easily identified as meconium - we called the midwife who advised us to head into the hospital - contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting for 1 minute
11 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. - driving from east village to midtown - usually fast - except when President Obama is in town
12:00 a.m. - arrived at the hospital and checked in no problem - unfortunately we were already late so our planned delivery in the birthing centre was out of the question - more on this later - anyway, the meconium would have disqualified us anyway - mom was hooked up to fetal monitor (which wasn't the plan) but things were looking ok - initial assessment was that mommy was five centimeters and moving quickly
12:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m. - Primal Screams - the only way I can accurately describe the sounds and scene as mommy bravely prepared for the next contraction, and handled each one more and more by herself - no pain meds and no epidural - we told the care givers not to offer any pain medications and they were good about keeping to our requests
4:00 a.m. - 9 centimeters and mommy started pushing - the description of the pain given by mommy in between contractions gave new meaning to the phrase 'pain in the ass' - but sure enough, baby Grace started making her way down the birth canal
5:10 a.m. - pushing for over an hour and there was continual progress but no 'success' - baby's heart beat becomes hard to observe and was slowing - pediatrician is called in and options discussed
5:14 a.m. - mommy bears down and with absolutely everything she had and pushed little grace out - quick check up by the pediatrician - everything looked good - pictures taken, daddy starts picking out the LV clothes and accessories that his beautiful girl will be wearing (immediately vetoed by mommy in favor of common sense)
5:20 - 6:00 a.m. - placenta delivered and mommy stitched up - hard and fast labor resulted in a number of 'minor' tears
6:00 a.m. - moved to the recovery area - daddy was negligent in ordering a private room (we had planned to be in birth center) - 'roommate' informs us that the stitches will soon become 'f*cking itchy - just like an STD' - more advice provided by roommate but unprintable for general public
10:00 a.m - pediatrician visits and forbids us from leaving early - mom and Grace had to stay the night and dad had to leave by 10 p.m.
10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. - sleep, learn to breast feed, change meconium filled diaper, go to pinkberry, repeat
10:00 a.m. (saturday morning) - prepare to leave, wait for test results, go to starbucks, wait some more, and finally, at around 2:00 p.m., family arrives at home safe
epilogue - overall, birth didn't go as planned but was perfect - mommy is recovering slowly but surely - daddy can't believe its so easy to love someone who wasn't even around a couple of days before - Grace is looking forward to meeting all of you
