Gracie

Quick version so I don’t forget the big stuff, and i’ve been pretty much up for 25 hours now.

J woke me up at 4:30. She said “I think we’re gonna have the baby today.” I said “Oh, great.” Then I paused for a minute and said, “are you in labor?” She said, “yes, I am.” And I replied, “oh, good.” Another pause. “Did your water break?” “Yep.”

I was kind of up like a lightning bolt at that point.

J was 4 cm when we arrived. Contractions weren’t regular so they did start pitocin, and starting at about 11 am she started contracting regularly. By 2/3 they were coming every 1 to 3 minutes and increasing in strength. By 5:30 she was in the tub and contractions were nuts. She was at 9 by 7:30, but the baby wouldn’t drop more, and when she finally left the tub the baby started not being happy with any position we could get her in. Pitocin was stopped and started twice, internal monitor was screwed into her head, and we watched as baby was pretty much happiest when J was on hands and knees, and pretty much no other way. By 8:30, with no progression and baby starting to get upset again, we made the really hard choice to go forward with a c-section. She’d been in labor for around 18 hours by that point, really hard and painful labor for about 7 hours, and would have pushed this baby out just fine (I’m shocked she didn’t go for the epidural, the pain she was in, at least from her face/sounds seemed fairly unbearable) but…it wasn’t happening.

Gracie was born at 9:19 pm, she had a cord on the short side that was wrapped around her perfect little neck.

She’s beautiful and has a full head of long, dark hair, and so far seems to have blue eyes.

Our friend E is a champ who was with us the whole time, and truly helped make the day manageable.

My wife? Incredible. Strongest woman I have ever met, I can’t believe how amazing she is.

Gracie? I think I may be in love. I’ve memorized her face and can close my eyes and see her and it’s amazing.