It turns out that Julianne had gone from 1cm to 4cm's in about 2 hours.. very quick so now I'm thinking this could really happen anytime.... They check us into a birthing room around 2am and strap Julie up to all the monitors... the contractions continue to intensify. Julianne's original plan was to deliver naturally, but her judgment got the better of her. She figured that she had already been up for over 16 hrs so far, and if she couldn't get any rest, she might be having to push the baby out without rest for over 24 hrs, so she elected to opt for the epidural. I was pleased with this decision because it was already difficult to see her dealing with the pain of her contractions.
One problem.... the anesthesiologist was in emergency surgery and could not administer the epidural for some time. 2 hrs later (around 4am), he appeared and inserted the enormous needle into my wifes back. Shortly after, we both nodded of to sleep.
That morning, Julie was re-examined, and was only at 5cm's... (for the uninitiated, 10cm is the target to start pushing) They added some medication to strengthen her contractions, and figured that we'd be around 10cm's around 2pm.
Deanne, arrived around 8am to support Julie so that afforded me a few more hours sleep. Julie's mom and auntie Pansy arrived around 10am and the gallery increased. My mom, arrived around 1pm, and we were still waiting for the final act to commence.
Around 5pm, (24 hrs after the initial regular contractions) it was 'go' time... time for the first push. Julianne was focused like a marine... she breathed strong, pushed well, through all the pain and discomfort. I thank her endlessly for this as I wouldn't have been able to deal with the experience of her crying in agony as i heard from several other birthing rooms later that night.
At 6pm our baby boy Tabata was born...
He weighed in at 7lbs, 12 oz.
As you can see, the newly minted Grannys were there to get in on the action shortly after.
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