RSSHow Fatherhood Began for Me
Comments (0) Being a father was something I really looked forward to for nine months. One night in July of 2003, my wife kicked me out of my bed for excessive snoring. She was ready to pop and in no mood to hear my house shaking snorts, grunts and gasps. So being the wonderful husband I am (I was actually annoyed but happy to leave the room after the six elbows to the side), I left the room for the comfy couch!
Here I am in lala land and I hear a faint voice saying “Mike, I think my water broke”. I jumped up and ran to the bed.
I placed my hand right in the middle of the spot and smelled my hand for pee because we all know pregnant women cannot always hold it. IT WASN’T PEE! So off we go to the hospital and yes we were all packed already. Fatherhood, here I come!
Once at the hospital, the anxiety really kicks in for me and my wife is not having contractions but since her water broke and she tested positive for strep, they begin to induce labor. Approximately 12 hours or more pass before she can have an epidural. After multiple epidural injections and a total of 22 hours of induced labor, my wife was instructed to push by the doctor. My wife begins pushing and her mother is in the room to help keep her calm. During the 2+ hours of my wife pushing, I am routinely asked if I want to venture out from behind the safety of the bed and sheets blocking my view to witness the birth of my child. I of course answered: “NO THANK YOU!” each and every time. Since my mother-in-law was allowed in the room, my wife really wasn’t the nasty mother giving birth but rather calm given the situation. She was truly unbelievable because by the time my son Nicholas was born, approximately 25 hours had past!
25 Friggin Hours!
As soon as my son is born they immediately laid him on my wife’s chest. They ask us for his name in which we quickly said “Nicholas Edward” (named after each grandfather) and my mother-in-law blurts out in the middle of this “Do you have a hat for this kid?”. Ok…let me explain this: Since my son was in the birth canal so damn long and a suction cup was used, his head was misshaped with a big purple lump on top! Anyway, my wife is of course sweating and tired so my mother-in-law asks me to get my wife a towel wet with cold water. Unfortunately for me, the sink was located in such a position that I would have to walk across the front of the bed. I was not doing that so I began to move my wife’s bed away from the wall so I could squeeze behind it and my mother yells at me. I stated my case, she called me a few choice words and tells me to go the other way.
I thought about it for a few moments and said to myself “you can do this, just do not look anywhere but at the sink”. I began to walk slowly towards the front of the bed, keeping my eye on the sink to my left. As I round the corner of the bed, I see a blur of red and then I slip! In the middle of the slip, I noticed a steel tray on a table
Imagine 5x this amount, if you are not a father....Uuuggghhh
with what looked like grape jelly in it (it was of course the placenta). It looked like someone took a big bottle of jelly and emptied it into a baking pan.Yes, my knees got weak and a nurse grabbed me and helped me to the sink. I toughened up, got the wet towel and walked to my mother-in-laws side of the bed! Hahaha.
The doctor then notices that my son isn’t breathing easy and they rush him off to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It turns out that one of his lungs was surrounded by fluid causing difficulty breathing. The fluid disappeared after 2-3 days and he was released.
It was truly an amazing experience. I was as happy as any one man could be. I was of course ignorant of the fact that this little baby would be relying on my wife and me for everything.
Fatherhood had certainly entered my life, full force!
