The Life and Times of Louis & Amber - Childbirth 2

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the previous post. Obviously I wasn't in my right mind. Apparently the pain medication I was taking for the delivery was getting to me. Actually, Mama Maggie O'Tool would be proud - neither Amber nor me took pain medication other than the local she received right before the baby came. I guess that spoils the big announcement. Yes, we had a baby boy, officially to be named Drake Thomas O'Tool. He weighed in at 4.17kg's and measured 55cm long. As you can see from the photo, a large portion of that is in the nose. It is the famous O'Tool trademark. I'm really quite pleased about it. Hopefully as he grows it will get flat on the end just like mine. A few months back Meredith actually asked me who bit the end of my nose off.

So, back to more information on the delivery. As common as childbirth is on my side of the family you'd think it would be old hat by now, but every time another one joins the crowd there is a mad rush to hear all the details. I'll spare you most of them, but to satiate the appetite of who long to know, I will fill in a few of the highlights. We went to a checkup on Monday morning and the doctor told us the baby would be there by Wednesday, but just in case, he wanted us to schedule an appointment for Thursday morning. On Thursday morning he told us he was leaving town for the weekend on Friday afternoon, so he wanted us to come in Thursday night so he could monitor Amber. At 9:45pm we left our apartment and headed downstairs to drop Meredith off with Brian & Lois. Halfway down the stairs Amber stops and says "my water just broke" Fortunately, it was just a small leak, so we weren't slipping and sliding the rest of the way down.

We arrived at the hospital around 10:15, and by 11:00 Amber was feeling her first contractions. These were relatively minor (I know, easy for me to say) but they were light enough that she was able to catch a couple hours of sleep. My contractions were also light enough for me to sleep as well. About 4:00am the nurses came to check on Amber and that's when the adventures described in detail in a previous post took place. Serious contractions started around 5:00, and by 6:00 our conversation died down and it was pretty much just me talking to her.I couldn't really tell if I was being more irritating, or if it was helping, but she never told me to knock it off, so I just kept yammering away. At about 6:50 the doctor showed up and did a quick exam, telling us that Amber was 5cm dialated. At 7:15 he came back and checked again, and it was at 9cm. He told us that there would be a baby delivered within half an hour.

Around 7:30 Amber started getting the contractions where she had to push, but they made her wait for a few contractions. Finally, she put her foot down - figuratively of course, because they don't really like you're feet to be down when you're delivering - and she told them she was going to push.It took 4 good contractions with her pushing, but the Drake finally popped his little head out to meet the world. About a week ago I spoke with Maggie on the phone, and she gave me some tips on what to say to help coach Amber through. I figured with the vast experience my mom has with this sort of thing I would follow her advice. On the third contraction, I broke out the patented Maggie coaching techniques, and for whatever reason this made Amber laugh. So I guess it accomplished the objective of taking her mind off the pain. Apparently I need more practice.
Anyway, for those of you who need some brushing up on your metric conversion tables, the measurements are as follows: 9 lbs. 3 oz. and 21.5 inches long. Not the cutest baby in the nursery, but we'll keep him. Hopefully he grows out of it like Meredith did. I was never so lucky.

Through the whole thing Amber was really a champ. The doctors and nurses were impressed with her demeanor. And I found out later that she really did appreciate me talking so much, so that's nice to know. I'm also happy to report that I am recovering nicely. So is Amber.