Everyone has been anticipating the ‘birthday’ post, but to be honest, I don’t really have a blogworthy story. Even if I embellish a few parts, it really wasn’t anything to write home about (no pun intended). We went to the hospital and 12 hours later, this little alien was given to us to take home. Jack, I’m sure, would tell the story a bit differently, but that’s what happened in a nutshell.
Jack was a champ. No stories of screaming, hand crushing, blood, guts, fainting, etc. There was about a 4-hour window of pain, but that’s it. I think if any advice is to be given from a first-time birth experience, it would be: don’t be a hero, get an epidural as soon as possible. Don’t even hesitate for a second, just do it!
I actually had a lovely evening. The little guy decided he wanted to come out right smack in the middle of the Bruin’s Stanley Cup parade, so we know this kid’s a sports fan/athlete in the making. Not the most ideal time to be driving into Boston with record-setting crowds watching the parade, but we got to the hospital around 2 in the afternoon. After a few hours of my witty jokes and one-liners, I was sent out to get some dinner. I’m assuming Jack wasn’t hungry at all, but if she heard one more Knocked Up quote, she was most likely throwing me out the window. Someone had to lighten the mood, ya know?
I walked down the street and found a Boloco, which has the best burritos. I thought for a second, ‘hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t have a 2 lb burrito sitting in me when I watch a human being spill out of the guts of another human being,’ but I couldn’t pass it up! They’re so good! I sat outside in the sun, watched people walk by and ate my ‘classic mexican’ burrito with extra guac. It was a very enjoyable dinner. My ‘last supper,’ if you will!
After a few hours in search of chicken noodle soup for Jack, I figured it was time to head back. I have to be honest, the thought of the baby being there when I returned crossed my mind once or twice. Would I be upset if I missed the birth? Tough one. It might be worth missing the actual birth to miss the hours of misery that lead up to it. But I’ll stick by my word, it was not miserable at all! Like I said, I had a lovely evening. At this point, I’ve already eaten a nice meal alone, got some sun, walked around Boston, listened to my iPod, had an ice cream cone (true story) and found Jack some dinner.
For the rest of the night, I watched the entire Red Sox game and the Bucket List. Yes, Jacky was lying in the bed next to me in excruciating pain, but this is Mike’s Marathon Blog, not Jacky’s. I can’t speak for her! I don’t want to assume how much pain she was in or how much she wanted to murder me. If I had to throw a numeric value on both, I would say on a scale of 1-10, a 12 for the pain and a 2 for how much she wanted to murder me (again, I can’t speak for her!). The 2nd number may have peaked at 6 or 7 when I was calculating how many babies our nurse had delivered in her lifetime, but other than that, I sat quietly.
We were both resting in a completely dark room when the nurses came in to deliver. When I say resting, I actually mean Jack was resting (this is after the epidural, of course!) and I was completely passed out. I awoke around 2 a.m. to a full house of nurses, doctors, bright lights and pure chaos. I was sitting on the edge of my cot wondering if I had to get up or if this was just some sort of nightly procedure. The nurse standing over Jacky quickly snapped her fingers at me and said, “hey dad, baby time!” Holy flipping shit! This was it!
Note to all future dads: experiencing the whole birthing process while ¾ sleeping is the only way to do it! Actually, I felt like I was half drunk, half sleeping. Everything was a blur after I sat up on that cot. It’s just like trying to remember ‘the night before.’ I can sort of remember things, but I’m not 100% positive about anything that happened. Jack could tell me that there was a unicorn in the room with us and I would have to believe her. Do I remember a unicorn? No, but it absolutely could have been there!
To be continued…………….
Thanks for sharing, love reading your blog. Congrats to you and Jacki, wishing you all the happiness in the world and keep the blog coming.