Saturday, October 06, 2007
The beginning of parenthood and my favorite little man
 It started Friday night, the Cubs beat the Reds, and the Brewers lose to the Padres giving the Cubs their first NL Central Champion since 2003. Afterwards I decided to relax next to Sonya on our bed and take in another episode of Survivorman. Near the end of the episode Sonya yelps and tries to get off our bed while water is exploding out of her body. It was like dropping a water balloon onto the ground. We then knew that the approaching boy was near so we called her mid-wivery group to let them know. The answer was hold tight until morning and keep track of contractions, which was starting to happen now and then. The one odd thing about her water breaking was that it was dark brown and yellow too. We knew that this could be merconian (fecal matter) that the boy emitted inside the womb. So we called back again and they told us to leave and come straight over.
We packed around midnight and left our place under a full harvest moon. When we arrived the place was a madhouse of nurses trying to accommodate a record breaking birthing evening. Sonya and I got a room and the first step was to listen to the heartbeat. The nurse tried to find it and failed and this went on for several minutes. Sometimes she could get it, then it would go silent. Sonya started to fret and another nurse walked in and decided instead of looking down near her pelvis, to try up near her chest. Spot on. The baby was frank breech and perhaps why the water burst so hard was that Julian decided he wasn't coming out head first (I don't blame him ;) ). The breech paired with merconian equaled C-section within 1/2-hr. The doctor came in and said that Sonya needed a spinal block. A spinal block means the needle goes all the way into the spine, thus paralyzing her from the chest down. This was something beyond even what Sonya wanted. She had been fretting even the talk of an epidural, but now she needed something even more intense. We talked about it and said that it was meant to be this way and that there was nothing we could do at this point but make sure he came out w/o complications.
At around 2am Sonya went in for her spinal block while Suk Hi and I waited in the recovery room. About 15mins later one of the nurses ran in and told me to come to the operating room. I was fully fitted in gear and sat at the front of Sonya with a tent blocking the view of her stomach. Sonya was shaking in part because of the anastesia, but also nerves. She was afraid and I grabbed her hand and started telling jokes and talking about events of the day while the anesthesiologist would say we have 10mins alone before the baby arrives, then 5mins, then finally down to 1min. Then they told me to stand up if I want to see my son. I stood up, looking over the tent at Sonya's stomach cut open and the boy was quietly squirming. Probably the most amazing of moment of my life to date. Nothing close could compare to this. They then moved him over to the heat lamp and began cleaning him off and then the cry banged out and I clapped. I stood up and walked over to him. I started by saying hello and talking to him. Funny cause it was almost like he was thinking, "I know that damn voice somewhere?". The only problem was that the nurses took way too long to hand over Julian to Sonya, but eventually after measuring and weighing him, he came into my arms for a second and then straight to Sonya. Everything was fine and shortly later we were all wheeled into the recovery room.
Because of the record load of births we could not stay in that room, we had to move at around 7am into another room with a mother and new infant and share it. Our space was only large enough for Sonya's bed, the bassinet, and a chair for me. I had already been up all night and now I had a chair to cut some Zs, which did not happen. The good thing about where our hospital is, is that it's only a mile from our place, so I did frequent stops back and forth to get and drop things off. Also my mom, grandma, aunt and uncle were on their way after leaving at the crack of dawn from Bedford to be here on his birth date.
We entered the hospital around midnight on Sept 28th (Friday) and stayed until Monday Oct 1st in the afternoon. Sonya was moved once again on Saturday night into a bigger room so that I could actually sleep there, but even with that sleeping in a hospital sucks. I think showering was the only bit of relief from staying up 48 hours and sleeping on a cot that looked 30 years old. But I would say one thing, it was nice staying there a few days as Sonya got good treatment by the nurses and was able to talk to a lot of people on caring for Julian and herself as well. She was pretty sore and on Motrin during the whole stay and I probably needed something too just for being worn out, but I toughed it out. :)
Today marks Julian being a week old. Sonya's mom and dad have been here since the Thursday before his birth date and Julian is getting used to the house, breastfeeding, my pinky, changing diapers, Lewis, funny smells, and peeing straight into the air. He had a checkup with our wacky pediatrician and he got the stamp of good health. He's been a good sleeper (knock on wood) and last night slept from 9:30p till around 8:30am after I woke him up. Sonya's been around the clock breastfeeding but last night he wasn't hungry for 5 hours. We have his bassinet in our room and glider chair and changing table too while her parents are here and it's working well. His afternoon involves eating, sleeping, crapping loudly, peeing, head exercises, and now stroller rides in our hood.
I love him so much and I'm proud of him.
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