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Dads & Dads-to-be
RockyTopVols
member
Birth Stories
RockyTopVols
member
Tell me your birth story from your fatherly POV.
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Re: Birth Stories
My birth story, or rather, my wife's is pretty tame... but long, I'm warning you now.
We were scheduled for a c-section on a Monday. Here is the timeline.
Wednesday before c-section date: My wife started contracting, at least stronger than before to where it started to get out attention.
Thursday before: Doctor told us to call when contractions hit regular 5 minute intervals, which occurred around 7 PM. We call, they said head to the hospital. On a side note, we chose to deliver at the same hospital my mother works at (she works in a different unit, but knows the docs and nurses). We didn't tell anyone we were going because we didn't know if or when it was going to happen. Apparently, one of my mom's co-workers saw us come in (she recognized us from wedding photos my mom shared), so about an hour in, we get a nurse knocking on the door asking if it is OK if my mom got an update. Well, at 3 AM they tell us to go home, we weren't progressing enough. I had to work Friday morning... well, since when we got home, the second my foot hit the master bedroom, the alarm went off, I called the boss, told them what happened and they said don't worry.
Friday: Contractions continue, at one point progressing to 3 minute intervals. We call Friday night, they essentially say we could come in but chances are they'll send us back home again. At this point, my wife says she'll have the kid at home, she's done with the hospital.
Saturday: I go to work, as per usual. At 7:30am I get a call from my wife that goes a little something like this.
W: "My water broke"
Me: "Are you sure?"
W: "Oh yeah, I'm sure"
At which point, I leave the store I was working in (and by leave, I mean lightly jog out the door) and drive home. I was so frazzled, I forgot to clock out until halfway home, so I sent an e-mail letting them know. (I already called them right after getting off the phone with my wife so they knew I was leaving). I get home and pick up the bags and wife and head to the hospital. We made the phone calls to get everyone to the hospital as I was heading home. We get there, sit in an observation room for a while, she gets hooked up to monitors, gets checked into the system and everything. Finally, they get ready to take her into the operating room. Here is where it SUCKS to be the dad. While they take her in to get prepped for the c-section, they leave the dad in a room, by himself. In this case, it was one of the recovery rooms. The room was dark except one light in the corner on, no one in or out of the room, just myself, alone, in a chair... left with my thoughts and worries. It may have been 15-20 minutes, but it seemed like hours. Had a little conversation with God to ask everything to go well and both wife and child to be OK. They finally came and got me and took me to the operating room. At this point, my wife was laying on the operating table all gowned up, the curtain was already in place. I sit up by her head...I can't see anything south of her shoulders where the curtain is (which is probably for the best). I try to keep her warm by rubbing her arms while they get the final things in order. The doctor tells us they are going to start and it flies by...next thing I know they say "Here he is!" followed by "Big boy!". They show us him for all of like 20 seconds really quick, then take him over to the incubator and get him cleaned up. He didn't make a sound... we knew he was ok in that he was moving, but he didn't cry. My wife couldn't hear him, so she was worried as can be. He finally started to cry as they cleaned him... they measured him and read his weight off in kilograms, which at that point they might as well have been speaking martian... followed by the conversion of 10 pounds 1 ounce. While I was making sure he was OK, they were sewing her back up. Next thing we know, we are in the recovery room.
Like I said... long, but a happy ending.
Not far behind you!
I know, right?! I just finished packing our hospital bag. I assume you're also a mixture of nervous and excited and terrified?
A normal response. I know I had those feelings... the terrified is mostly "Am I going to be a good dad? Is everything going to be OK with mom and the baby after delivery?", or at least it was for me.