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Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Sam i am, an introduction...

It all began with a couple of dozen needles, strategically placed.

Thursday, September 25 was the beginning of it all, and when I say "all" I mean more than I ever thought possible...a son, a mother and father, we are no longer Sarah and Jason -- but now 3, now a family.

So, the needles...that Thursday (3 pm) Sarah decided to speed our pregnancy along a bit (we were almost one week past our due date) nothing drastic just a few acupuncture treatments to help begin the labor process. It didn't take long, a bit after dinner and we found ourselves in the middle of the "is this it" conversation. Well it was "it" and we hit the road to Presbyterian Hospital.

FIRST STOP, Triage, all is well and the excitement is rising. Upon leaving triage, Sarah was 1.5 cm dilated and contractions were 4 min apart. Long ways to go still.



STEP TWO, settling in to our labor and delivery room. This is when Sarah and Sam decided to get things rolling. Contractions...contractions....and more contractions. Sarah worked harder during these contractions than I thought possible. 9 hours of natural labor, and only dilated to 4 cm, we decided that an epidural (7 am, Friday morning) would help the process along a bit. After receiving the epidural our doctor broke Sarah's water. This helped move her along and she transitioned fast to 8 cm dilated. Another hour or so of labor (around 10 am) and she finally hit 10 cm dilated! Everything was progressing beautifully and the doctor predicted that she should deliver by lunch time. 11 am rolls around and we get the green light to push that baby out....15 minutes into pushing and....what....what's that? Wait....please stop pushing? Well the doctor had an emergency next door and decided we should hold for an hour. WTF? Well by this point Sam was in a +2 position, I could see his little head, full of hair, and he was ready to go! So we paused for an hour, during which the epidural began to wear off, re-dose epidural, not really working, re-dose epidural, not really working but what the hell. Green light again to push. Sarah is working her butt off at this point, her endurance and strength are unbelievable. By now I am so worn out its ridiculous...and I'm just the support....her physical and emotional strength through this whole process was truly amazing.



Well we pushed for a solid 2 hours, and Sam just didn't seem to want to move anymore. The docs thought either his head had swollen a bit or maybe he just found a weird position. Whatever the case he wasn't budging. Our options were to try a vacuum pump to assist in pulling him out or a C-Section. After much debate (doctor decided that Sam had most likely inherited his daddy's noggin circumference) we decided the C-Section was the safest/smartest route for us to take.

STEP THREE begins, with prep of Sarah, me suiting up and family getting sent to the waiting room. With a C-Section, only one person is allowed in the operating room and there is a bit of prep needed for anesthesia. As I suited up they left me in a recovery room to prep Sarah, noting that they would be back in 5 minutes to take me back. 5 minutes later the Doc came to me and said....plans have changed. Turns out that anesthesia could not get the new epidural to work, meanwhile Sarah was in a great deal of pain....no meds anymore.....no support.....and constantly getting poked. Due to the anesthesia "problem" they would have to put her totally out with general anesthesia.

Well....when doing a C-Section under general anesthesia, no one but the docs are allowed in the OR. None of my sweet talking made any difference, they wouldn't even let me peek thru the door. I did insist on going back right then to have a quick chat/hug/kiss with her, but I only got a minute. At this point they "reassuringly" sent me back to the recovery room to wait, assuring me that they would bring out Sam in 5 to 10 minutes.

ROUND FOUR, the longest 25 minutes of my life. I anxiously waited in the recovery room, not 30 paces from where my whole world was asleep on a table, going thru one of the hardest and most traumatic experiences she and Sam had ever been thru. I wish I could say it was easy and exciting but that was definitely not the case. This was, emotionally, the hardest and longest time ever to pass for me. I couldn't help but imagine every thing possible to go wrong. 25 minutes felt like and unending torture on my patience, my sanity and my heart.

ROUND FIVE, time to breathe again. Well finally they brought Sam out to me. Through a bit of prodding at the Doc I find out that he was born not breathing and basically not alive, due to the general anesthesia, thus the delay getting him out to me. All is fine when he gets to me and I get the OK that Sarah will be out soon. All was good again.



Oh yeah, after the surgery was done, the anesthesia docs finally figured out why Sarah's epidural failed....it wasn't in her back anymore! At some point during labor the line dosing the epidural pulled right out of her back. So instead of checking to see why all the multiple doses never worked they just keep on dosing. Hmmm, am I missing something here?



WRAP IT UP and send him home. The rest of the hospital stay went well and pretty much as planned. Few snags here and there, but things get better and better each day. I must say that we never could have done this alone our family and friends were great and your support got us thru it all. Pegi, Bob, Mom, Dad, Jeff, Sarah, Matt, Sarah, Alyson, Bryan, Denny, Niki, Marg, Brad, Ang, Rob, Randy, Beth, Vicky, Jeremy, Lucy, Adam, Child Life, Blume Clinic, Rob, Sarah, The Grandmas, and everyone else....I (we) owe you so much your support is amazing and its what makes this all possible. I know I'm getting cheesy as all hell but I just can't imagine doing all this without you all. Thanks.



Oh yeah.....forgot a few important details:
Time of birth: 4 pm
Weight: 8 lb, 10 oz
Length: 21.75 in