Birth from a Grandparent's View Part II

-- If you haven't had the chance to read part one of this post, I hope you take the time now --

The long break between part one and part two of this portion of our blog wasn't NEARLY as long as Wednesday night at the hospital waiting for Alakai to finally arrive. The helicopter fiasco was a tiny diversion in our time at the hospital.

Thirty minutes after we settled back in to watch more Grey's Anatomy on the laptop, Matthew sent me a text message telling me that Anna was just about to get her epidural and that once the procedure was done, I could come back to see her. When I got back to the birthing room Anna was propped up on her bed all grins. No more pain! Although she was smiling, tension was flowing off the two of them in waves.

Matthew said that Anna had been in hard labor for about an hour when the announcement about Life Flight came over the PA. While John (YO) and I were having a great time with the whole situation, Matthew and Anna were panicked. The announcement shook them up, certainly, but the mother in the room next door was delivering her baby amid screams of pain caused the two of them to worry about just WHO the helicopter was coming for. Not very reassuring when you are trying to calmly deliver your first child. Thankfully, their wonderful nurse Theresa was able to calm them and explain the situation to them.

Finally free of pain, the sound of screaming women and whooping sirens, they were able to relax as Anna entered the last phase of dilating. Theresa shut the lights out and told them to get some sleep as she and I left the room. By this time it was around 3:30 in the morning. Sleep came in short fits for both of them as you never really can rest while waiting for something monumental to happen.

I walked back to the waiting room and to my very patient husband who was still fiddling with the computer and writing his own blog entry. Shortly after I arrived, Theresa walked into the room holding a cup of tea and told us we should try to sleep as well. Whatever! YO and I are great at all nighters! She resigned herself to the fact that we were going to wait up and decided to visit with us instead.

I've had some wonderful nurses in my time, but Theresa was absolutely exceptional as a birthing nurse/coach. She was funny, gentle, kind, knowledgable and loved her job. She also took a liking to our family, as we did to her. In fact, I plan to create a scrapbook for her to fill with her own pictures as a thank you for how much she meant to us. We got to know her not just as a nurse, but as a single mom of three, a new resident of Silverton and a person who seems to love life. I'm thankful and blessed that we got to spend time with her.

Another hour and a half passed by after she left the waiting room when we received a text from Matthew saying that Anna was fully dilated and ready to push. It was shortly after 5 AM. Time to get up anyway, so I phoned my son Jeremy and told him it was nearly time. He and my daughter Beth arrived to wait out the last hour or so with us. Hour or so? Yea right.

Anna pushed for an hour. Matthew tells me that she did such a great job; he was so very proud of her. But birthing is rarely easy and Alakai was coming out with his face turned to the side rather than down as it should have been. Because of this, he seemed to have wedged himself in the birth canal. (Funny that during birth we call it the "birth canal," but at other times it can have such disgusting names.) Not only was he wedged, but in fetal distress; he had a bowel movement. Now that seems funny when you think about it, however, imagine bodily waste floating in the air you breathe. If it comes close to your face and you have no way to avoid it, you're going to breathe it into your lungs. Much scarier when you look at it that way. Now I realize that babies receive their oxygen through the umbilical cord, but some of the amniotic fluid does go into their lungs.

As far as we were all concerned (including Anna's parents, John and Kristen) it was time to open her up and TAKE him out. Rather than do that, the epidural was increased and Anna was told to rest for an hour. We paced. We drank coffee. We all tried to lighten up the situation with quiet laughter. We took bets. Matthew joined us in the waiting room for a few minutes and went back when it was time to try again. And then we heard nothing.

YO had to leave the hospital, exhausted and concerned, to go to work for the day. He'd put in a full night and hadn't had one second to rest his eyes or his brain. I've no idea how he made it through the day. But he did. At 9:38 AM I received a text message that said "we have a baby boy! don't come in yet."

Alakai gave them a scare when he was born. He didn't want to take a breath. Our first instinct as a parent is to rush in and take over. Matthew had the good sense to stand by Anna and allow the physicians and nurses do their work. Finally, a breath, a cry. Nine pounds five ounces and 21 inches long... Alakai left his mother's womb to join us. It was after 11 when we were allowed to finally enter and visit the newly formed family. I was thrilled! Nearly "high" on the emotion of the night and the arrival of my grandchild. My son and daughter-in-law's child. That little bundle of love and stress and happiness. I hear they both cried when they met him. The tears this time were not the tears of fear that Anna shed in my bedroom 8 months earlier when she told me she was pregnant. I cried too.

The family is now home for their first night alone. I've let them know that I will have the phone on me at all times if they have any questions. I'm sure they have a long list of numbers they can call if needed.

Thank you for sharing this with us. As far as the goal portion of this blog goes, our goal is to be wonderful grandparents not only to our new grandson Alakai, but to Emma and Conner as well - our grandchildren in Illinois. This whole experience made us both long for the United States to shrink so we could be closer to the rest of our family. We've decided to do what we can to make that happen by keeping in closer contact with Laura and her children through snail mail and by purchasing those webcams. We don't want to miss out on a thing!!

Thanks again for taking the time to read!

Birth from a Grandparent's View

Working toward our goals as a couple the past couple of days has really gone by the wayside. At least in the formulaic sense we laid out for ourselves. For very good reason, certainly. And in truth, part of our goal quest was to draw us closer to each other and to being the people we know we were meant to be, so I feel as if our goal reaching was exceeded rather than stunted.

I have an amazing husband. Those of you who know me have heard me say that many times, I know. What you may not know is that he chose to stay with me at the hospital all night long, wide awake, worrying, rejoicing, laughing and allowing me to be the emotional wreck I had to be throughout my son and daughter-in-law's birthing ordeal. And then, when morning arrived, rather than call in sick he hugged and kissed me goodbye and went to work. As exhausted as we both were, when he got home from work tonight, he drove to the hospital to visit the new family and hold Alakai as I snapped picture after picture. I am blessed, and loved. As he is greatly loved in return.

Alakai took his sweet time in finally arriving. 9 pounds 5 ounces of baby is proof of that! Anna's doctor finally decided it was time to induce her on Tuesday the 17th of March. St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, we were put off till yesterday morning as there were so many walk-ins ready to give birth Tuesday. So we spent one more night resting and waiting. Once again, at 7:30 AM Wednesday morning, we were told there was no room at the inn and to try back at noon. Finally, after a long morning of waiting, Anna was admitted to the Silverton Hospital Birthing Center at 3 PM. Even though I know from four of my own births that birthing can be a very long process, I wanted and needed to be there for the whole experience.

Oh how beautiful Anna looked! Smiling, light-hearted, joyful. And Matthew looked so strong and responsible and full of anticipation. Anna's contractions were light enough to come across as a hug across her belly. I'm sure neither of them fully understood how long the rest of the day or night were going to be! We can only share rather than impart our experiences to our children. I was happy and excited for them, yet scared to death of what would come.

They broke Anna's water in the early evening hours, which did finally bring on stronger contractions. She spent much of her time sitting on a large hippity-hop ball with no handle. How boring is that? If they would just put a handle on those things, the moms-to-be could bounce their way up and down the hospital corridor in childlike glee. Shoot, if they'd had any extras around, that's what I would have been doing!

Around 9 PM the doctor decided it was time for a pitocin drip to kick the contractions into high gear. It did the trick, that's for sure! But Anna was a trooper and a poster-child for laboring women. I'll never forget standing in front of her as she sat in a rocking chair, gently gliding back and forth through a strong contraction watching her calmly breathe deeply with her head laid back and her eyes closed. She brought her baby boy into the world without fighting the pain ravaging her body. I, on the other hand, brought my first child into the world kicking and screaming!

I left the hospital room to allow Matthew and Anna the privacy they so needed to bring Alakai into the world. My husband, children and I spent a lot of time in the waiting room or wandering the corridors to keep ourselves occupied. Matthew would routinely send me a text message to let me know how Anna was doing.

Shortly after midnight, my children all went home to sleep, knowing there was still a long wait for birth to finally happen. I urged my husband to go home and sleep as well, so he would be rested for work in the morning. He stayed.

My husband is funny - in many ways. One of his peculiar "funny ways" is the fact that he can't make up his mind. When I asked if he wanted to go home he responded "oh, I don't know." I knew then that he would stay with me throughout the night. Sometimes I just go ahead and read his "oh, I don't know" to mean, "I'm sticking with you." We lamented the fact that we couldn't get online to play Mafia Wars... couldn't even watch videos on Youtube! We felt quite disconnected! However, in preparation for the long hours to come, I added 10 episodes of Grey's Anatomy to my laptop. So, we scrounged up coffee, commandeered a small waiting room, moved the furniture around so we could put our feet up, and enjoyed hour after hour of my favorite show. What a trooper he is!

At 1:30 AM a booming announcement went out over the PA system: "Life Flight will be landing shortly in our parking lot. Please remove all vehicles parked in front of the Birthing Center to make way for the helicopter." The announcement was repeated in multiple languages. Being the camera happy girl I am, I grabbed the camera while he moved the car. What ensued after we did our part, was something right out of a Saturday Night Live skit.

Two cars remained in the parking lot. A red sedan of some kind on the hospital side of the median, and a white Honda Accord on the other side, overlapping the landing pad. As we stood outside waiting for the arrival of the helicopter, a police sedan pulled up at the end of the landing pad, a ways away from the Accord. The two officers got out of the car, walked to the Accord and used their maglights to shine up and down the sides of the car. The both of them huddled together and began to scratch their heads. Really. Then, back to shining the lights on the car, huddle, scratch heads. Within a few minutes, a firetruck showed up and 5 firemen piled off the truck and walked to the car. There was a civil servant huddle for a moment, someone popped their gum, and more heads were scratched. I, of course, snapped pictures. Firemen look really cool at night when a flashbulb is involved!. I'll have to post a picture to prove it. All of them turned my direction after the flash, and then continued to shine flashlights on the car, huddle and scratch.

Five minutes into this odd situation, a hospital administrator walked out the front door on his cell phone, mumbling about the cars. He marched over to the huddled civil servants, and began to pace from one car to the next, booming commands into his cellphone. And yes, all the while, the policemen and the firemen continued working out the problem huddling, flashlighting, and scratching their heads. An exhausted physician walked out the front door wearing scrubs and demanded to know if he would be able to drive his car out of the parking lot. Once he was assured he could leave, he glanced at the Accord encroaching the landing pad and said testily "The helicopter can't land with that white car parked there." Now, I'm not the most diplomatic person when humor is presented. I snorted out a laugh. The doctor turned to face me, his evil physician's eyes glaring at me, and stomped (yes, one can stomp even while wearing blue booties) back into the hospital in a huff. His huffiness caused YO and I to laugh even harder.

Finally, the helicopter was within sight. One more time an announcement went out over the PA system, and two sheepish men came out and moved their vehicles just in time. Head scratching done, the civil servants wandered out of the way to allow the helicopter to land. We were rudely ushered back into the hospital so as not to be covered by whatever the helicopter would kick up during it's landing.

I will share the last half of our eventful night tomorrow. My husband's snores are beckoning me to join him in blessed sleep.

Alakai has ARRIVED

One goal down!! After an extremely rough night of it, Matthew and Anna have a 9 lb 5 oz healthy baby boy who happens to be 21 inches long! He was in the birth canal long enough that he has a cone shaped head with lots of black hair! Mom and Dad are spending some quality time with him right now; grandparents, aunts and uncles are waiting in the wings for the first glimpse. I sure do appreciate all of you. I am looking forward to a long nap and a good blog this afternoon sharing the crazy night we had! Thanks for checking in to follow along with the progress. - Grandma Dawn