|
At this time, Isabella, Suzy, and I would like to introduce the newest member of our household: Malachi Xaviar Lower. He
was born at Providence Hospital (barely--I'll explain later) on March 8, 2005 at 7:35 a.m. He weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce and
was 22 inches long. Color is good, cry is good, sugar levels are good, he is a natural at latching on, no jaundice, passed
his hearing test.
Now for a little history and detail on the birth (nothing graphic; Rated G). When Bella was born, Suzy's water broke about
9pm, contractions started about 3am, and Bella was born about 9am. So 12 hours from water breaking to delivery and 6 hours
from the start of contractions to delivery. Suzy's water broke a second time at 5am on March 8, 2005. She told me her water
broke. We saw what time it was and, remembering Bella's situation, we agreed to go back to bed and get a little more rest
to prepare for the big event. Well, at 6am, her contractions were coming pretty strong and lasting a minute, so we left for
the hospital. Well, first we left for the baby-sitter's which is about 30 minutes away. Dropped Bella off and headed towards
the hospital, which is another hour drive.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Detroit area, many of the major east-west
streets are named after miles away from the center of Detroit. For example, 6 Mile is the East/West street located 6 miles
north of the city center. The rap star Eminem has a CD entitled 8 Mile. As before, this E/W street is 8 miles north of the
city center. 8 Mile is also the city limits (south of 8 mile is still Detroit). And as indicated, 6 Mile is a mile away
from 7 Mile, which is a mile away from 8 Mile.... Anyway, the hospital is on 9 mile. At about 6 mile, Suzy starts yelling
at me that I need to hurry up because she feels the baby's head coming. So we have about 3 miles to get to 9 Mile, plus the
time it takes to drive down 9 Mile to the hospital. Well, we make it to the hospital, but barely. I pull up to their emergency
room entrance, get out of the car, and go to Suzy's side to help her out. She says she can't stand up. I ask her if she
wants a wheelchair. She says yes, so I go in, get a wheelchair and come back out to the car. A security guard comes out
to help me get her into the wheelchair, but she says she can't move, that the baby is crowning. The guard goes inside and
grabs some medical personnel. They bring out a stretcher. The one nurse wanted to cut off Suzy's pants and deliver her right
there in the car. Instead, we pushed her onto the stretcher (a nurse got in the car and pushed her shoulders, another nurse
and I grabbed her hips and lifted and pulled, and the security guard grabbed her feet and pulled). She ended up backwards
on the stretcher. Once on the stretcher, the nurse told me to go park the car in the emergency lot, then to come back. So
I go and park the car and walk back to the ER. When I entered, another security guard had to inspect my 2 bags and I had
to go through a metal detector. I'm not sure where he was trained, but I'm guessing in a molasses factory, because he moved
in SLOW motion. When I was finally deemed okay to enter, I asked him where my wife was. "Labor and Delivery."
So I walk quickly down the hallway to the elevators, take it up to the third floor, down another hallway, and to the desk.
They asked if my wife was in labor. I told them yes. They told me she was delivering in the ER--back where I just was!!
So this time I ran back down the hallway to the elevators. I hit the down arrow and took the first elevator that came. Wouldn't
you know, it was an up elevator. So we go up and stop at the 4th, 6th, and 7th floor. As we descend back to the 1st floor,
we also stop at the 6th, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd floor before finally making it to the first floor. I run back down the hallway,
to the ER, where they lead me into the trauma room. I walk in and see her on the stretcher with about 10 hospital staff around
attending to her. I am standing by her head, so I put my hands on her cheeks and am looking at her upside down, ready for
my important role as "coach." I start to tell her how beautiful she is and how proud I am of her and how she is
doing a great job, when one of the nurses says to me, you can see your son over there if you want; the doctor is just delivering
the placenta now. Turns out, she gave birth about 30 seconds after she got into the trauma room. According to Suzy, the
doctor didn't really deliver the baby, just caught it and signed his name; Malachi came out that fast. She delivered while
I was parking the car, so even if I didn't have to mess with all that other nonsense, I still would have missed the birth.
Some
of the nursing staff was attending to Malachi--wiping him off, taking blood, checking oxygen levels, putting ID tags on him,
all the meanwhile waiting for an incubator so that he could be taken up to the third floor. Suzy had two nurses stitching
her up from her tear. Just a small tear with one stitch. After about 30 minutes, they brought our baby over to us to see
before taking him upstairs. Since they didn't have a scale or measuring tape in the ER, we would have to wait until he went
up to find out how much he weighed and how long he was, but the nurses were saying he was a heavy baby, probably an 8 pounder.
They took him upstairs while we stayed in the ER a little longer so Suzy could get an IV placed. They called down with the
weight -- 9 pounds, 1 ounce!! They jokingly told her she didn't give birth to an infant, she gave birth to a toddler! Eventually
we were taken upstairs to the third floor as well, but we wouldn't get to see our son for another few hours. It wasn't until
about 10:30 to 11am that they finally brought him back to us. After that, he was with us in the room for almost the entire
time we were at the hospital... only for a few tests did he have to leave us. Before we went to bed last night, they told
us that in the morning, he was going to have a hearing test and get circumcised, then we would be free to go. We were hoping
to be out of there early. Didn't happen. We ended up leaving about 1:30 (after lunch was served, so we stayed for lunch).
Overall, it was not a bad experience. Our first child was born in the ABC unit. We were hoping for our second one to be
as well, but it didn't happen. But we now have a son.
|
