The due date was December 17th. Right now only one hospital visitor is allowed per mother giving birth, and even in normal times children aren't allowed overnight in the recovery rooms, so we needed a plan for our son. The plan was to have my mom stay with us from the 12th through Christmas. She was going to drive out with my dad and their dog from Minnesota, a 16+ hour drive. The first kid was a day late and I figured five days would be enough leeway. I was wrong.
I wasn't nervous until the week of (Monday) December 7th. Five more days until reinforcements arrived. My wife on the other hand expressed confidence the baby wouldn't come that early. But at 330am on December 9th her water broke. Before I woke up at 7am (she had purposefully let me sleep) contractions started too. When she informed me of the situation, my immediate reaction was simply 'Sweet Jesus.'
By then she'd already called a friend in Minnesota and arranged for her to fly here on a morning flight. The friend would arrive a little after noon. The re-jiggered plan was to drop my wife off at the hospital at 10am, because she needed to get started on antibiotics, and wait until our friend arrived before I joined her.
That plan didn't last either. Shortly after dropping her off, the contractions shortened from ~five minutes apart to three to two in rapid succession. After an hour, I was arranging to leave our son with the neighbors until our friend arrived. And back to the hospital I rushed, arriving at noon. We heard over and over that commonly subsequent children progress through labor more quickly, but our first go-round lasted 30 hours and that was the only data point I had. This time was not comparable.
With Covid I was expecting to be stuck inside the hospital after entering. So when I arrived I brought an overnight bag. I found my wife still in triage though almost immediately we were moved to an actual delivery room. I'm glad I made it and that we got a room, because labor continued to accelerate. It was also fortunate her negative Covid test (taken on admittance) came back quickly, for she could remove her mask. Within another hour transition was in full force and our son was born at 130pm. That was 10 hours from water breaking to delivery, and less time with ongoing contractions. He (it's another boy) wanted out right away. I'm very proud of how well my wife handled it all, she's apparently a baby-making machine.
The stay ended up being two nights, which is typical. There'd been some hope we could avoid the second night but the hospital pediatrician wanted to keep him. And that was fine. No one at the hospital, from the nurses to security, seemed to care when I left the building a few times, which was a surprise and really nice. I could bring back something better than hospital food and coffee for my wife and get out of that little room. I even got to sleep in my own bed the second night, instead of the uncomfortable little couch.
Both mother and child are doing great and we're rediscovering what it's like to care for a tiny one, though with a birth weight of nearly nine pounds he wasn't actually itty bitty for a newborn. Our friend stayed another night after we got home, and now my parents are here after making the drive on the original timeframe. It's really great having help right away, especially with an overly emotional toddler dealing with a huge life change. Now we get a few months with my wife off work and figuring out how to handle the evened up parent-to-child ratio. Even more nerve wracking is the thought of me handling both kids myself come March. Gulp.
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