That's Why It Is Called Labor

Friday evening was pretty par for the course. Jess and I were at a going-away party for a coworker of mine doing normal things like eating pizza, ogling over iPhones (mainly me) and playing with our host's kid's Thomas the Tank Engine train station. For being 39 weeks pregnant Jess still got around very well and never seemed hindered by this growing baby.

Saturday morning around 4:30am she woke up to some contractions, and then I woke up to Jess telling me about contractions. She had felt them before, but these were consistent all morning. We called the doctor around 9am who suggested we go to the hospital to just get checked out, and thankfully we did some things we've been meaning to do like pack a bag for the hospital, install a car seat and clean the house. We really didn't think much of it and took our grocery list, shopping coupon and appetites for the fun last weekend (including lunch) we would have as parents. Looking back, "fun" might not be the adjective I'd use to describe everything . . .

The nurses got her suited up in a gown with broken ties in the back and checked for any signs that a baby might be on the way. After initial measurements we were going to walk around for a bit: no changes probably meant come back later and big changes meant baby's coming. First things first, we got a second gown to avoid giving a show to Floor 5 and then, sploosh! (that's called onomatopoeia), her water broke and it was time to get comfy.

Comfy during labor is easier said than done, however. The sheer physics of it all imply massive pain even if everything goes right! The nurses put us in a room and gave us many options to distract from the pain - shower, exercise ball (shaped more like an exercise peanut), walking around, a fancy bed - but that's all it was, a distraction. It can't be sped up (safely) and it only gets harder. I tried to be helpful and soothing, but at one point all we could do was wait for the next contraction to come, sitting in silence and thinking about nothing and lots of things at the same time. To put it a different way, the amount of time I had to read my Sports Illustrated went down as the intensity of the contractions went up. That's why it is called labor.

 Jess is one tough cookie though, that's all I can say. All that pain, that I was helpless to do anything about, and then baby Hugh came out. Really amazing that this little guy who we've been waiting on for 9+ months finally was here. It was suddenly obvious that Hugh was a person in the world, I was a father, Jess was a mother, and we never did this before! At least the hard part is over, right?

Later.