Catherine Susan's Birthday

Well, it is a little bit delayed and there is since more information to share, so I need to get this documented sooner rather than later. I need to recap the events of the day of the birth of our little bundle of joy, Catherine Susan.

Monday, January 18, 2010, Martin Luther King Day, federal holiday and thus bank holiday, therefore, long weekend material, a.k.a. vacation day.
Anyway, before I get into this day's events, lets step back and gather a quick view at a few days prior to the big event. So, we'll come back to this day.

Thursday, January 14, 2010, Angel takes to debating with her parents about not waiting until Tuesday to start the drive down to the ATL. She wasn't exactly certain why she wanted this to occur, but felt the need to voice it. This pressure persisted all weekend, yet Dad was still resistant to change their plans. I wasn't told about this at the time, but she also told me that her pressures increased in frequency and intensity as the weekend progressed.

Saturday, January 16, 2010, like some less intelligent people, we purchase a new living room furniture set. Who in their right mind buys brand new furniture just days before expecting the birth of your first newborn? Well, for those that know how/where we obtained our previous furniture and saw the last condition of the stuff, the purchase does stand up to logic. Anyway, while we were browsing the furniture showroom floor, Angel was having contractions/pressure and had to take a few breaks so that she could persevere thru her body's activities. We then spent the night with Alison and Micah and had what we now know is our last adult fun night that we'll get kid or babysitter free for a very long time.

Monday, January 18, 2010, the big day. Well, since it was a holiday, I was able to sleep in a little bit longer than usual. My day started somewhere between 10 and 11. I woke up to being informed that Angel has been in labor for several hours; since 6AM to be exact. so, the obvious question was how long do the contractions last and how frequent are the coming. She could only take a guess. Therefore, I grab my laptop, fire up my Excel clone, OpenOffice Calc. With this, I was recording start and end times. Using some cell calculations I was getting the duration and frequency. I may have done this for an hour or so and realized that this was really going to happen. Once we leave the house, we'll be home with our brand new little one. Also, Mom & Dad would be here soon and Angel had already called them to let them know and they both left work immediately and started the drive down. With that realization, I was suddenly in a crunch to get the house ready for them.

While I was mopping the floor in the common bathroom, I hear a yelp and then an excited "OMG, my water just broke." This was at 12:20 PM EST. The amount of shock and haste in Angel's voice, I had to take an even keel with my response. The only thing I could think of as a response was, "That's okay, clean yourself. up and then get ready to go. Take your time [this is not a timed event]".

Once we got ourselves ready to head out and in the car, packed bags (including laptop and attempted to grab the camera) and moving was when the gears started turning about what was forgotten. At about the time that we got to the red light at GA-78, I realized that we had forgotten something. Angel was on the phone with Dana and suddenly I'm driving in reverse and heading back to the house. She was not happy because she wanted to be at the hospital already. However, I figured that it was going to be beneficial enough to go back since we were so close.

When we get back to the house, I grab the forgotten parcel, the exercise ball. our birthing class demonstrated that the ball would be a great tool to help provide alternate positions for the birthing mother to use to find comfort. Anyway, once I get the ball in the car and am sitting in the driver's seat but had not yet spun into correct position with my feet still outside. I was tying my right shoe and Angel starts to yell at me to get it moving and that she didn't care if I had an untied shoe. So much for calm, cool, and collected.

In quite the display of irony, I drove in a fashion quite atypical for myself. I was calm, defensive and relatively law abiding. Atlanta recently passed a super speeder penalty for excessive speeding. Therefore, I was sure to remain below that threshold because those fines start at 4 digits. Anyway, as I'm driving a cool 80 MPH to the hospital, Angel is trying to coax me to drive faster. I was having none of that. She even suggested at one point that I blow a red light. Speeding is one thing, but a red light is a whole other world of trouble and risk. Needless to say, I didn't do that either.

Once we get to the hospital they start handing out all the paperwork. Ironically, we had already filled this paperwork out and submitted it to the hospital but they made us do it again anyway. You should have seen Angel trying to fill out these forms while having contractions, it was such the pitiful sight. Well, eventually we get into the triage station for her to be looked at. From this point on, the nurses kept pushing the point of staying in bed. This is in stark contrast to what we were told we would be able to do in our class at this very hospital. At about 2:00 PM EST, Angel is given her IV and admitted. At this point in time, she's measured to be an advanced 4cm dilation. It was also at about this time that she enters into Active Labor and quickly decides that narcotics alone are not worth it and requests her epidural. Shortly there after, she's taken to her birthing room.

Once we arrive to the birthing room, we query the nurse about all of this pressure to stay lying down since that posture is not helping with the back pain or enduring the contractions. The response we get, and was a plausible one was that since her water broke, a prolapsed chord becomes a concern. Therefore, her vertical movement would be severely limited.

At approximately 4:00 PM EST, the epidural arrives. Shortly before the epidural was administered, she was measured again and was showing at 6cm and station was at a -2cm; this made the staff quite pleased with her progression. The epidural must have been like a dream. Once it was in full effect, she went soundly to sleep. The computer monitors indicated that though she was mentally sleeping, her body was very well at work. I'm not going to repost the pictures so you can look at them later, but there were some pretty severe contractions that didn't even attempt to phase her.

Somewhere within the 5 o'clock hour she was inspected again and was found to be fully dilated to the 10cm mark. Ironically, the baby still wasn't ready to come and was still at the -2cm station. The nurse wanted to wait until at least the zero mark was reached, but Angel's body was too strongly saying otherwise. The last measurement taken was the -1 station before real pushing progressed the process quickly. It wasn't very long until the doctor was called for and suddenly we were delivering a baby.

Many things were a blur at this point. I recall the baby crowning. I recall many more hands appearing into the room. I recall Cat being placed on Angel. I remember cutting the chord. I recall the baby on the warming station and her wailing bloody murder. I recall the placenta finding its way into the pan. I recall the doctor administering stitches. I recall hearing numbers thrown left & right; Height/Weight/Date/Time/Agar score. Just because I heard them doesn't mean that I caught them. It wouldn't be until later that I would know the details.

I had maybe thought that things would have gone into a slow motion or extended detail experience. Instead, I discovered that everything stepped into fast forward. Not much really returned to focus until we were alone in the room and I'm holding my new bundle of joy. Everything had gone picture perfect. Mommy's healthy and resting, baby's healthy and resting, and Daddy is clueless as to what he's supposed to do. Although, that feeling doesn't hang around for long.

Mom & Dad reach the hospital in a record time for a trip from PGH -> ATL, 10.5 hours. The 5 of us hang for a while and I escort them to the house. I had to stick kitty; an activity which required several hospital->home round trips to be taken during our stay at the hospital. It is Wednesday afternoon when we are heading home for the first time.

So, will you all welcome our bundle of joy to the world?





Catherine Susan
DOB: 20100118
Height: 19.5"
Weight: 6lbs 15oz

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