8.8 lbs, in the next hour, vaginally? I don't think so!

We begin where we left off...March 18 in the early AM Anne had had no change. When Nurse Talley gave her the exam she broke Anne's water. It looked horribly painful. She didn't warn Anne so she would be as relaxed as possible.

They started Anne on the second half of the induction drugs. Shortly after Anne began to experience severely painful contractions about twice a minute. They seemed to come in twos. I could see them start on the monitor then Anne would begin to tense up. After about 45minutes, it was obvious she would need an epidural. We had talked about natural birth but when they said Conner might be 9lbs + we rethought that idea.

Its interesting what pain will do to you. Anne had in her mind that the pain was somehow caused by being in the hospital. She would very clearly and very seriously say,"I'm sorry, I just can't do this." She would then say,"I've got to go." and would try to get out of the bed. One of my hands was being squeezed off while the other was trying to gently hold her down. I don't think she would have actually left the room but I think she would have gotten out of the bed dragging all of the IVs and monitors with her.

Once they administered the epidural, her pain subsided and she dozed off. We both slept for a couple of hours. It was a great calm before the storm.

After a while Nurse Talley came in and gave her an exam and said that she was progressing well. She told the other nurses to set Ann up and get her started. She was then called away for a set of twins being born next door. So begins the pushing process that lasted about 2 hours. About an hr and a half into it, one of the other Dr.s from the practice came in, looked at Anne and said, "I predict an 8.8 pound baby to be delivered in the next hour vaginally!" then he walked out. We were very excited not to need surgery. Anne continued to push. You could actually see the hair on top of Conner's head.

About 20minutes later, Nurse Talley returned. She spoke with the nurses who had been helping Anne. When she heard what the Dr. had said she looked a little confused. She gave Anne another exam and then asked if the Dr. had just looked or "put his hands in there." When the nurses said ,"he just looked," she laughed and said , "go get him, he needs to do an actual exam." A few minutes and an exam later he was apologizing. He said he misunderstood the nurses and thought Anne had only been pushing for 30min. He then explained that there was no way that baby was coming out that way. Anne was amazingly calm about the whole thing.

Then things got a little surreal. We were told someone would come in and bag up our stuff and take it to our recovery room and that we would never be separated. All of that went right out the window when they decided to do a C section. I was told I just had a few seconds to gather all of our stuff that was spread all over the room and give it to our folks waiting in the lobby...

...but we don't have anyone in the lobby? I quickly called Penny and Gretchen who were there in a flash. They had me run to the surgery room suit up then wait in the hall for what seemed like an eternity.

A nurse came out and said, "Lets go there daddy, mommy needs you!" and she rushed me to the surgery room.

When we entered, the nurse put her hand on one side of my face I am assuming to shield me from what was happening to Anne. She led me to her head. I guess they had started cutting and were not sure how I would react. Once at Anne's head I realized she was a bit out of it. There was a curtain up so that Anne and I could not see what was happening and there was an anesthesiologist at her head as well.

After a few minutes the Dr. said,"Mike...come over here. Just as I stepped around the curtain, a head popped out of an incision in Anne's belly. There were about 6-7 people standing around and everyone acted surprised. Someone yelled out, "Look at the size of that head!" Another said, "Well I lost, I said 9.1". It all happened very fast. I don't even remember seeing the umbilical cord. He almost immediately let out a little cry. I looked back at Anne and she heard him too. She kept asking, "Is he alright?" and finally the Dr. said, "he looks great." I don't think Anne heard him so I walked to her head and said he was perfect. They took him to a little station and a few people worked feverishly to clean him up and get all of the fluid out of his nose and mouth. He peed on one of them.

Once clean they brought him for Anne to see. She was trying to kiss him but couldn't really move.

I was told to go with the baby and that "mommy would be along shortly." When I looked over at Anne, she was getting sick and they were starting to put everything back in where it belonged. If you are faint of heart, it was not a sight you would want to see. There was a nurse who was counting bloody gauze pads that were hanging from a rack. I guess to be sure none were left inside? Anne started to cry and asked me to make them stop. It was heart wrenching. I was so torn, I didn't want to leave my wife on that table, but I had an new responsibility as well.

When they weighed him, everyone was surprised. 9lbs, 14.5 oz. That's a far cry from the predicted 8.8lbs!

The next few hours were a bit of a nightmare. I went with Conner to the NICU. They took him into a windowless room and said that he would be back in a couple of hours. They were going to need to monitor him and give him some glucose because he was so big. I guess big babies have a tendency to lose a lot of weight after birth which can be very bad. I wasn't sure where to go but a nurse finally showed me to the recovery room. They said Anne would be up in about 30min. She had to go to OR recovery for a little while to be sure she was stable.

3 hrs and a couple of visits to the nursing station later, I still had not seen my wife or baby! I was getting really worried. Penny and Gretchen came up to the room to wait with me. Sitting in the room I hear a familiar voice and it didn't sound happy. When I stepped into the hall, Anne was being wheeled along and she was furious. Apparently she had been left in a scary OR recovery room by herself for three hours. No one was checking on her, no one was comforting her, or telling her where her baby was. At one point the "transportation" person said, "Well ma'am... you're jus gonna have to get over it." Nice... there's some real customer service for you.

Once in the room the nurse was quick to get Conner to us and then all was well in the world.

It just so happened that Anne's brother Jonathan , his wife Kate and their son had just arrived. Anne had had her fill of strangers poking and prodding her. We asked that Kate (who is a nurse) come in to help Anne start breast feeding, instead of the nurse on call. It was nice to share that with family instead of a total stranger.

Anne was pretty tuckered out...although I can't for the life of me figure out why. The nurses were great. They would check in and take vitals on Anne and Conner every so often. I was able hold Conner all night except for feedings. I was also blessed with the opportunity to change his first few diapers (which isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be). He was absolutely beautiful.

I didn't think it possible that I could love anyone else as much as I love Conner's mom; until the first time he gripped my finger. At that very moment, nothing else in this world seemed to mattered.