This is Luke writing.
This morning at 2:00 a.m., I woke up to Andrea awkwardly getting in bed after a trip to the restroom. I had seen those movements before . . . "Are you in labor?" I asked. "Yeah, I think so," Andrea said, "but let's wait 45 minutes or so before we do anything just to make sure."
45 minutes later the contractions were still coming and we decided to ready the troops. I called the Wright home and Mom picked up and said "hello?" and I said "Good morning," and she said "yaaaay!" ---I'm doing a little too much detail here, I'll speed things up---
Around 4:00 Mom and Dad Wright arrived. Dad was staying at our apartment to take care of Peter and Mom was coming with us. Andrea felt like we should get on our way to the hospital, so we quickly gave her a blessing and headed out.
We arrived at the hospital near 5:00. Andrea had been having contractions all the way there but hadn't made a peep, so I was worried that somehow things had slowed down. When we got to the parking lot I said "Do you think we ought to walk around a bit before we go up to get admitted?" She said yes, so we walked back and forth down a long deserted hallway for the next 45 minutes or so. I could tell that the contractions were getting stronger, but I still didn't think they were being very productive because Andrea was so in control.
Near 6:00, she told me she would like to go up and see where she was at. I was doubtful that she was very far, but she's the one doing the work so I didn't argue. We checked in and as we were getting her into her gown before she was checked, she said "I can't do this. I want an epidural."
That was weird. Andrea is pretty pro-natural childbirth and all of the sudden she was ready to toss it out the window. I don't think I minded. Heck, it would be easier for me to watch if she wasn't in pain . . . but do you let your wife just give up her ideals like that? I asked her "so . . . what am I supposed to do, say "great" and get the epidural, or is this something I should be a tough guy about?" She said she didn't know and then we went out and got checked.
Now get ready for this:
The nurse goes "Woman, you're at 8cm!!!"
aaaaahhhhh!!! Neither of us could believe it! How on earth could she . . . the last time it took like 16 hours to get that far . . . and now after 4 measly hours during which Andrea had not made a sound, she was at 8cm.
Needless to say, that boosted spirits and we didn't need to talk about the epidural anymore. We moved into the delivery room and she labored on her side for like a half hour. She looked like she was sleeping. Then the midwife showed up and had her labor on a ball for another half hour. At this point, Andrea started to . . . breathe more loudly. After that, the midwife said maybe she should rest on the bed for a while. Then they broke her water. Andrea continued to make deep breathing noises . . . I was wondering if we had just plateaued or what. Were we just going to be at this stage for another 5 hours or something? It didn't seem like the really big contractions were coming from what I could see.
We helped her through some heavier contractions by pushing her knees/upper legs perpendicularly into her pelvis. She said that helped quite a bit. She still wasn't screaming though.
After 15 minutes of this, the midwife checked her and calmly said "well, I think in three good pushes we'll be done."
Excuse me?
EXCUSE ME?
You've got to be kidding me! She hasn't even screamed yet . . .
Well, we leaned Andrea up on a squatting bar, and then she had 3-5 big pushes. She did scream at this point ;) We keep chuckling about how she screamed "HELP!" during one push (It's so sad, but for some reason it's so funny!)
Anyway, that was it.
It was done.
Max was out.
After 6 hours it was all done. And here is Max:
And look at this baby! 8 pounds 9 oz, 20.5 inches, and completely beautiful!
