Team green birth story from DH's pov

   Wednesday night I took the boys to AWANA so they could have fun.  At 8pm when I called home I heard the news I was waiting for.  Contractions! DW was down playing it so I knew she didnt want to get to excited. We put the boys to sleep and went for a moonlight stroll up and down the driveway on a perfect fall night.  When we got back in the house the contractions seemed to be slowing or stopping.  Disappointed we went to bed at about 10:30 to get as much rest as possible because if labor wasn't going to happen that night it would in a few hours at the hospital. 

    Being exhausted from going to work very early to get home early I fell asleep immediately... 10:47 and I am being shaken.  Wake up! Contractions continued to keep DW awake and she headed into the bathroom.  She wasn't sure but the water might have been leaking.  I suddenly knew it was going to happen because requests were being rattled off one after another and I could tell she was excited or uneasy.  Hun-call the doctor, Hun-get my pants, Hun-get the bag for the car.  Ok, which is it? I can only do one at a time darling, and by the way my eyes may be open but I am not really awake.  Its a good thing she couldn't hear my inner monologue.

    DW called the doctor but had to hand over the phone as the contractions continued. We reached their answering service.  I told the operator that my wife thought she may be going into labor and the reply was "Ok?" Seriously lady! I didn't call to chat.  So I told her the doctor on call needed to be notified.  Now I was irritated and wide awake.  What the heck did she think I would call for? Why would anyone call an OB doctor's answering service at night? The doc called back very quickly and said to go to the hospital so we called the neighbor.  I grabbed some towels and wrapped the passenger seat in a garbage bag because I know what can happen if things suddenly get serious.  Its bad enough I drive a mini van but I surely wouldn't want to drive it if that happened in the car.  The neighbor met me in the drive way to take over night watch of the boys. Thankfully our sitter was already set up to come in the morning for the induction, now she?d just be coming to relieve the neighbor instead.

    We made a quick stop at Dunkin Doughnuts because I needed a little kick to keep me going.  I ordered a large coffee with a turbo shot in it because it was going to be a long night.  At 11:15 we were in the hospital and the chart was being filled out and after about a million questions she was checked in and I had a bracelet which stated Significant Other.  Nice, political correctness irritates me to no end.  Its called a father people!  Every thing was going well and we were both excited to realize the baby would be born in the same room that Turtle was.  We even had a CD player this time.  When we were there last DW really wanted to play some relaxing music and every nurse would say they would bring one back but forgot it in the shuffle. 

    After getting all settled in and talking things were progressing.  DW still wasn?t 100% sure if her water broke or not. The nurse, who remembered us from our PTL visits over the summer, ran a test and it showed that the water definitely broke. We were both relieved.  We even talked about how glad we both were this was happening on its own.  Contractions continued to be all over the place though rather in a constant pattern, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 3 minutes, it continued like this though most of the time they were about 3 minutes apart.

    DW was still pretty exhausted since she had been up all day at work and then still organizing rooms at home. She had just finally moved the last of the boys? clothes up to their new room that evening. Each of us were very tired and about 1:30 the nurse convinced DW that an epidural was the way to go so she could rest because she was starting to be in a lot of pain.  This was perfect timing because after the IV was in she started shaking violently.  I knew it wasn't good, that meant contractions were really getting rough.  The doc came in to do the Epi and I held her hand gripping hers tightly because my skin was crawling watching the needle go into the spine.  Oooh, there is no way I could do that.  Time went on and we got a few cat naps. 

     I rubbed her legs in between because things calmed down well after the Epidural and I felt kind of guilty just laying around. Shortly after I wondered if she could actually feel anything I was doing since the epi was in. DW confirmed she could, best of all was the eucalyptus spearmint lotion she could smell.

    DW suddenly got nauseous and I was scared she was going to start throwing up.  There is nothing I hate worse than throw up.  Oh wait its being called a "Significant Other" because 1% might get offended by being called a father.  The fear of vomit and the itchiness and shaking were all good news.  Things were moving along and her skin was hot to the touch.  Even with the epi DW could still feel quite a bit and was certain we were heading into transition. We got her a cool rag for her head and a bucket in case it was needed. DW said she suddenly feel woozy and very sick. DW wanted crackers and I asked Christy if she could have some.  She said not if you don?t want her to start chucking so we settled on ice chips. 

    Our nurse Christy was awesome.  She was very helpful and fun to talk to the whole way.  At 6 am things started getting busy in the room.  They were bringing in all the needed trays and instruments for delivery.  They were unwrapping things and setting up tables and 3 or 4 nurses were running in and out of the room.  She also told me her shift was over at 7 and the baby would be here soon.  She was also going to stay after her shift because she was dieing to find out boy or girl.

    Upon being checked again DW was still stuck at about 9cm. We?re still not entirely clear since there was so much going on but the baby seemed to be really bothered by DW?s position. Even though DW was feeling better the nurse said the baby needed some oxygen. DW was moved to her side and put on some oxygen for a few minutes. The baby seemed to react better after that, because after just about 15 minutes DW was able to move the oxygen away and try some other positions. Thankfully the nurse suggested we try the ?Texas Log-Roll?, apparently that was suppose to help the baby move down and add some extra pressure to finish dilation. We tried for a few contractions on the left side, definitely some more pressure. Then a little bit of time laying on the right side in that position. That did it! We were finally fully in position and dilated and ready to go!

    Shortly after that the next thing I knew the spot lights came on the stirrups were up and I had a leg and DW was pushing.  O' Lord what a sight.  Please let this be over soon and both be ok once they get through it is all I kept praying.  Labor is one of the most violent, out of control experiences I have ever witnessed.  That being said this last one was probably the most controlled one.

    Here comes a contraction! 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10? 3 sets of 10 counts while pushing and DW was doing great.  I could see the head and jet black hair about an inch long.  It was so squashed and the skin all wrinkled up that I was really nervous if the baby's head would be ok.  We started telling DW the head was there and how much more was sticking out with each push.  You could tell this was a strong motivator because she was doing really well.  The head popped out and the doctor was pulling and pushing down really hard.  Suddenly she whipped the umbilical cord around the other side of the head.  After a set of three series of three hard pushes in each one and all that trauma to the head and neck the baby came out.  Just about 10 minutes of pushing and the baby was out. 7:42am and the baby was here, just less than 2 hours after when we would have been starting an induction.  

    I was looking intently at the legs to try and catch a glimpse of what the baby was.  Boy or girl, the waiting was killing me.  Suddenly I saw it, or didn't see it depends on your point of view.  It was a girl! A girl, a girl, a girl! I yelled out so loud I am sure a bunch of people heard me outside the room.  Suddenly my eyes teared up so much I couldn't see anything.  I felt my way over to DW and starting kissing and hugging her.  Our family was now complete and I got my little princess. 

    I wanted a girl very badly and knew it was going to be one the whole time.  Having that confirmed in that instant was the best feeling ever.  Later that evening driving back to the hospital after putting the boys to bed I started thinking about what that really meant.  Being a father to two little boys is really great.  Leading and teaching them is something that I feel comes natural.  God ingrained it to any relationship between man and boy who love each other.  Its natural to teach them how to do something and lead them to manhood.  Now I have a little girl and I feel leading and teaching is only one part of what I am supposed to do.  On top of that I have to model the kind of man that I hope she can grow up and find.  That is heavy.  That is a lot of reality that hit me like a ton of bricks.  That is something I am going to love doing.