The most amazing 24 hours of my life have finally ended. Yesterday morning, I get up to get ready for work. I play hockey late on Mondays, so I'm usually at work around 9 or ten. My wife is complaining of "discomfort", she's been up a few times in the night, not sleeping well. "Is it pain or discomfort?" wife : " Well, it kind of comes and goes." me: "Uh, that sounds a lot like labour to me, honey. How about I start timing it?" Yeah, about 6 minutes apart already. What about all that early labour stuff? My wife is so tough, she slept through most of it!
The rest of the morning is kind of a blur. Scatterbrained Dad running around the house, making sure everything is packed, ok , etc. Wife stops to have contractions every once in awhile. get her to the hospital, and we find out she's between 6 and 7 centimetres already!?!?
So it's off to the delivery room we go (how stupid is it that I have to check in once to see if we're ready to deliver, run downstairs, fill out paperwork, go back to the 3rd floor, only to go back down 10 minutes later, my wife is in AGONY, and do it again for the "official" admitting?!?)
So for a few hours, we go through contractions that range from 6 minutes to 1 minute apart. Baby's doing well, they're positioned correctly in the birth canal, my poor wife is hurting. She wanted a totally natural birth, but decided to try some of the gas. That stuff just made her groggy, so that was it for that.
More contractions, more pushing. She gets a tiny morphine drip, that doesn't do much at all. She soldiers through it, never once yelling at me or swearing. An absolute champ!
Finally, after about 6 hours or so, it's time to push. Nothing on Earth can prepare you for this. You want to help in some way, but you're pretty much useless. A back rub here, an encouraging remark, but let's face it guys, we're doing fata all really. You want so much to take the pain away.
After a good hour of pushing, the most amazing moment of my life happens. A full head of black hair appears. "It's a boy!" says Dr Wagner. I'm overcome with a tidal wave of emotions, I'm crying like a little schoolgirl. My wife is as well. The pain is all but gone, and nary an epidural in sight! Mrs Habby is one tough cookie!
We welcomed David Peter into our lives at 6:38pm on January 24. 7lbs, 15oz. I hope he turns into a crazy two-team loving hockey fan like his old man, but I'll be just as happy encouraging him in whatever endeavour he chooses to love.
It's A Healthy Baby!!!!!
