Monday, September 01, 2003

Rigby is Born!

Stacy and I had our first son on this day . . . . Labor Day!

Stacy started having contractions early Sunday morning. We opted to stay at home for the first stage. It was rough for her, but she did a great job. Her parents came over and hung out with us for a while. We also got some good ole Formosa Chinese food.

We gave in and went to Erlanger East around 10 p.m. Stacy first was examined at one centimeter and we were told to wait in a room for an hour to see how she progressed. An hour later she was at two centimeters and we were admitted to the Larkspur Suite. Erlanger East has 16 birthing suites. Need I say that they are very roomy and first class?

Stacy went through the night contracting every 5-8 minutes. Stacy's parents and sister, Amanda, were with us the whole time.

Noon time came around and Stacy was at six centimeters time for the epidural. We were told it would be about 10 minutes, but that is an hour in doctor time.

The epidural is a great thing, but Stacy had to stay completely still through contractions while the anesthesiologist put the epidural in. How rough that must have been for her.

Stacy hit 10 centimeters around 3 p.m. and it was time to start pushing. Stacy pushed on every contraction and in various positions for three hours. We were getting no where and learned that Stacy's pelvic inlet was just not big enough for our newborn's head to fit through. A C-section was decided on.

The C-Section began around 7 p.m. and I sat near Stacy's head at the operating table. I was very nervous as this was major surgery. There must have been about 20 people with various tasks to perform in the room. Our midwife took pictures of me next to Stacy and then invited me to look at the surgery to see the baby come out.

What a sight! It was very awkward looking inside my wife's midsection. When the doctor pulled the baby out at 7:18 p.m., I yelled out, "It's a Boy!" and our lives began to change for the ultimate best!

I watched as nurses took our newborn to a table to perform various functions, cleaning, checking vital signs, etc. A couple minutes later, he was in my arms and I took him to Stacy's head for her to be a part of the moment.

I watched as the doctors sewed Stacy up on the inside and outside and then ran a film of flexible "super glue" to protect the incision.

Stacy on her bed and me with newborn in arms made our way to our new room, the Gardenia Room. This room was one of two for mothers who had C-sections. This room was bigger than the first and was tucked away from a lot of the noise and visitors.

I had taken about 80 pictures and around 10 p.m. drove home to post the news to our web site and email the masses.

The first night with our child, Rigby Wilder Gray, was a