A Little Early

About 30 minutes after birth and a quick cleaning... he quietly squeezed my finger the entire time.  

When my wife woke me up in the middle of the night saying that she still wasn’t feeling well I did my best to comfort her even though I was still half asleep. Having just been to the hospital, her flu was something that needed to be watched but sometimes my wife can be a little more overzealous in her monitoring. However, even having been woken up a few times before and still suffering from a week long lack of sleep, there were a few words that my wife uttered that immediately got me up and out of bed… “I think my water just broke.” That will wake you up faster than the strongest cup of coffee the world has ever known.

After another call to the doctor to let them know that we were coming in, we packed everything up, jumped in the car, and made our way back to the hospital. We were still in shock by the quick turn of events but there was an odd calm in the car despite the bitterly cold winds blowing the snow all over the roads. By 5am we pulled up to the labor and delivery entrance to Bryn Mawr Hospital. Not surprisingly, the doctor confirmed what we had suspected, what my wife had surmised an hour prior and we knew that the by the time the day ended we would have a small addition to our family.

With family already beginning to arrive, we were escorted into the operating room where I was able to peek over the curtain and see my son being born. As many of you know, when your child is first born they look like a cross between an alien and a miniature member of the blue man group but that doesn’t make you think twice about wanting to reach over and hold him. At 9:14am our son, John Louis, was born and our priorities forever changed. If only the post office delivered packages this early we would never have a problem with the postal system again.

Unfortunately, since my wife was diagnosed with the flu less than 24 hours prior, we are confined to gowns and masks for the duration of our stay in the hospital. With that said, that hasn’t deterred us from holding him every chance that we have had today and just looking in awe at the beautiful boy that we have brought to this world. Now the real work and the real worry begins as I hope to be a good father in addition to being a good husband. However, the second that I saw him I knew in that instant that I would do anything for him.

Happy Birthday My Beautiful Baby Boy!

Valentine’s Day Flu

After a long week for both me and my wife when sleep seemed more like an option rather than a requirement, we headed out to dinner at the local Cheesecake Factory on Friday night. Seemed appropriate since we were coming from her mom’s house and this was the place where the three of us would commonly meet. After the experience we had (it takes talent to mess up a plain well done cheeseburger three times in a single night) it is safe to say that we will not be returning.

The rest of the night was about as uneventful as we could expect. Not easy as we are heading into the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy which has a certain effect on her demeanor which is compounded by the other emotional events that are swirling around our daily life. But it was the weekend and while we didn’t have any particular plans, trips, or even gifts, we were till going to do our best to enjoy a final Valentine’s Day before the baby arrives.

We had our weekend planned out to both take a few moments for ourselves but also to spend some much needed time with family. When we got up on Saturday morning those plans quickly changed as my wife could feel the very beginnings of a fever beginning to surface. All the plans that we had were immediately thrown away and we focused on doing our best to relax and spending a day at home.

By the early afternoon my wife wasn’t feeling any better so we gave the doctor a call to determine what our next course of action should be. Given the fact that she is 38 weeks pregnant it really wasn’t a surprise when they told us to head to the emergency room and get checked out. Hours, numerous tests, and a few naps later and we were finally told that the flu shot that sent her to the same emergency room in October didn’t work.

Once we were able to jump through all the hoops we were finally able to head out the door just as the snow was beginning to pick up. Of course, since it was now nearly eight at night there was only one pharmacy near our house which was open and able to fill the scripts. Four pharmacies and a quick Chinese food take out later and we finally made it home around nine. Everything seemed to settle down and we were both looking forward to sleeping in. That was the thought until my wife began waking me up in the middle of the night saying that her temperature wasn’t going down. It was going to be a long night but at least I didn't get stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for eight hours like I did last year.