Joshua’s Version of the Birth

I don’t update here nearly as often as I should, but I figure Crystal does a pretty good job at keeping this blog updated as to what is happening with us. In any case, my beautiful wife asked that I write my story of Jonathan’s birth for posterity.

Tuesday night I took Crystal to the hospital so they could give her some medication to prepare for the induction the following day. To my great surprise, Crystal told me I should go home and get a good night of sleep to prepare for tomorrow and had her mother (Tricia) stay with her at the hospital while I went home and slept in our bed.

The next morning I got up, ran to get some flowers and balloons my Crystal, then a quick stop at Panera and into the hospital. They checked Crystal’s dilation and since she was far enough along they began giving her the inducing medication through her IV. She didn’t seem very comfortable from that point on, but the contractions were definitely getting stronger. Crystal tried to get some sleep and at some point Tricia and I were playing cards just to pass the time.

Dinner was approaching, so Crystal told me to go ahead and go get some food, so I went out and as soon as I got to Quizno’s I noticed I had missed three calls from Tricia and one from Crystal. My voicemail said to get back to the hospital, so I skipped the food and ran to the car. I waited for what seemed like an eternity at the time to get out onto the street to head towards the hospital. Of course every light was red on the way back as I went. I got back to the hospital and there were about five people in the room with Crystal all busily doing whatever it was they were doing. Crystal was on oxygen, I was worried I had missed something, but it eventually turned out to be nothing special, the baby just hadn’t responded well to the forced contractions.

I stayed with Crystal mostly from that point and about an hour or two later the hospital staff had her begin pushing. I felt mostly useless in the entire situation, all I did was hold Crystal’s head and foot while she pushed. I also fed her ice chips from time to time as she pulled away the oxygen mask. The birth took about an hour and suprisingly, it felt like that. It didn’t seem longer or shorter than it actually was. I saw Jonathan’s head slowly work its way out and when the head was all the way out Crystal gave a final push and everything else came out very quickly. There was a big emotional high seeing him for the first time. Crystal had this connection with him for nine months, but to me all I got was an ultra sound and a kick on Crystal’s tummy once and a while. Crystal was ecstatic to see him when they placed him on her stomach, I cut the cord and then they took him away for a short bit to get him cleaned up. I got to hold him, which was exciting and scary all at once.

Every day since then has been a blessing and I’m very glad he is now part of our life.

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