(Note: the previous day’s daily blog post will come tomorrow, when I am back home. I am at the hospital still on my wife’s PC.)
SUNDAY—I get up on 4 hours of sleep and head into work at the Den. We’re extremely shorthanded, so my boss is there on overnights (her usual shift is 8-4pm) so she’s looking forward to the next 2 days off as she gets labor day off paid! So I punch in early so she can take off and I start working on returns and pricing tranny DVDs (no lie). At 7:40 or so, the wife calls and says “Uh, are you alone in the store? Please tell me you are not.”
“Uh, yeah I am. We’re short handed remember? Why do you ask?”
“Um, I think my water just broke.”
“Are you shitting me? Really?”
“Uh yeah, I got up thinking I peed, but there’s shit gushing out of me right now! It won’t stop!”
“Uh, okay.. I’m uh.. I’ll call someone and get the fuck outta here. I’ll be right there!”
I hang up and call my boss, rewaking her up and telling her the situation. I tell her I’ll call Megan or Jenny in early. A call to Jenny gets no answer. I call Megan who answered quietly.
“Mmmm Hello?”
“Megan! Its Adam! My wife’s water just broke and I gotta get outta here! I’m gonna close the store and hide the keys.”
“Um, I’m fishing dude!” My heart sinks.
“Well, remember we are closed till noon on Sundays, so you won’t have to be here till around noon anyway.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right! Cool then man. Just hide the keys where I told you to and I’ll be there at noon.”
I thank her and hang up. Punch out, race outside to hide the keys to the porn shop in their secret spot and head like fuck home! I get home to find Kelly with towels in her crotch and water still dripping down her legs. I start frantically running around like Dick Van Dyke going “Okay, um, pack a bag, uh… diapers.. do we need our computer? Uh.. oh shit!” But we pack and head into the hospital, where we are wheeled right in. We are set up with a room and a nurse who gets her all ready. One quick check and she’s only dialated 2 cm. So we decide to wait a bit. And wait. And wait. And wait. At one point, I head down for breakfast. Then Lunch. I come back, still nothing. They introduce pitocin to start the contractions getting more regular. Contractions start coming and luckily, we get epidural around 4pm. She stablizes and calms down. I meanwhile, lay on the floor beside her and try to sleep to no avail. Nurse shift change happens again and again. Each one thinking they are going to be the one to help us deliver. But not today. We drift on into the night with nothing. Constantly, I’m on the phone with parents, friends, etc informing them of every change. And they are constantly calling me back! I yi yi. I even call work and give my boss the sad news that she’s likely going to have to come in on her paid holiday off to work for me. She’s totally understanding though.
The wife’s parents drive in from Detroit and stay at a nearby campground. They come in to visit and after a while, leave. At that point, I leave with Ted to go score some food and stuff from the house. Poor Kelly still cannot eat. So I get back after the hospital lobby closes and I am forced to walk all the way around the building to the back of the place through the emergency room, where all sorts of people are bleeding and dying. I get scooted in and walk the long journey back through the hospital to the front area where my elevator is. I get inside the room and plug in our portable DVD player to let Kelly enjoy some Family Guy. I lay down, reading some of my Warren Ellis book and sleep for about 30 minutes to an hour. I wake up and toss and turn till around 12:30am, where I finally move back next to Kelly on the floor, who is sleeping soundly up in her bed, oblivious to the pain thanks to the drugs! I finally fall asleep, waking up about every 20 minutes when someone comes in to check something. At one point, I was out solidly, even when the Anesthesiologist (spelling, I know) came in, I didn’t hear him refill her Epidural. I was out till the early morning.
MONDAY (LABOR DAY)---
I wake up around 6:30. We get checked we’re only dialated to 4cm. I was assured in my head that we were likely gonna have to do a C-Section or something. Just to get this thing going. But they checked again at 8 and the cervix was completely gone! In other news, the epidural had ran out! The decision was made not to restart it, because not having it was helping her. Now she was confined to having to give natural childbirth, with all the great pain and burning that went along with it.
So a couple more hours of laying around and mommy Kelly was starting to feel the burn, and the urge to push. So our NEW nurse and I held up her legs and helped her push. After about two hours of some pretty intense pushes, the contractions started at their peak and we really got down to business. Kelly pushed through the frustrations of not having it over with already and just hunkered down deep and pushed with everything she had. Finally, we got to see the head. A few more pushes and the doctor joined in. Somehow, Kelly got the head out. I was surprised of how chubby the cheeks were as his head emerged. But I was right there, seeing the whole thing go down. Right after that, Kelly gave another deep push and the doctor yanked him out for good. The time was 12:39 when Scotty entered the world.
The first thing I noticed was that he looked like a purple ET. Also, the umbilical chord was HUGE! I always thought it was thin and redder. But it was white, thick with a thick blue vein down it. The doctor held up the chord and wanted me to cut it, at first refused. But she persisted and I did it. Took me two cuts the thing was so huge! He got plopped up on mommy and we finally got to hold him for a brief moment. The relief in Kelly’s face was awesome to see. They took him to clean him off and take care of mommy’s clean up as I just stood there dumbfounded at what I just observed. I even teared up a lot. I held my wife’s hand, simply amazed at what she had just done. Incredible. Indescribable.
Shortly after that, Ted shows up, then Kelly’s parents. We don’t get to hold him today, as he’s being observed for his breathing, since he’s early. But I sneak into the nursery area and take some pics and take them back to grandma/grandpa Kuczewski. I convince them that we probably won’t get to hold him today and that staying an extra day really wouldn’t be a good idea. I then offer the chance to come down to their house for the day in a couple weeks. With that, I walk them and Ted out, leaving Kelly to answer the myrid of text messages to her friends. She’s quite rested and comfortable and feels fine. She even gets to eat a meal after suffering 38 hours without food!
I say my goodbyes to the in-laws and Ted and I head for home for some more staples. I post a myspace bulliton and answer emails and grab some necessities, including our laptop, which I am typing on now. Then Ted and I head to Burger King, for a Daddy’s Meal! (I haven’t ate since 6pm the previous day!) Ted and I sit there, really not saying much. My mind buzzing still from the extremity of what I just observed. We get back to the hospital, where Kelly has been moved to a new room in the nusery ward. Ted, Kelly and I shoot the shit and she orders dinner from the hospital. Ted takes off as I am trying to upload the pics I took earlier to my blog and emailing them around to people. I also update myspace and answer tons of emails. (thanks all of you!)
I get a surprise text message from Mark Walters, who is rocking at Dragon Con this weekend with Mark Brooks. They took time from their awesome con day to text me a congratulatory message! I was really stoked by that. Thanks guys! You’re “kind of a big deal” in my book!
I head down to the café to get the wife some Diet Cokes and a couple cookies. The wife eats her meal and we just share the computer. I take a shower at one point and so does she. We spend the rest of the night just chatting, watching Family Guy and going to see Scotty periodically throughout the night. I pass out around midnight.
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