This is Major Tom to ground control...

...I'm stepping through the door...

This is the story of the birth of Thomas Joseph from my perspective, the father.

Sunday night I was working. It was the day after Thomas was due and I had kind of decided that he probably would not be coming until the next weekend. It was past eight, and we were cooking dinner for what would be our last table of the night. At eight thirty, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it was Emily. When I answered, she told me that she had a small leak, and the doctor had told her to come in to get checked out. I had a spoonful of cannelini beans that I had just cooked up in butter and was putting them on a plate to go with the roast leg of lamb entree. I asked her if she needed me to meet her at the hospital or if she was going to call me if I needed to come.

Wrong question buddy.

Of course I was supposed to come get her, and she let me know it (did I really think she was going to be driving herself to the hospital?). I told her I would be there shortly. When I got to the house, I packed a bag really quick and was thankful that Emily didn't scold me for not having it ready in advance.

When we got to the hospital, we filled out some paperwork and were taken to an examination room. They hooked up a fetal heart monitor and took a swab from Emily to test at the lab. It took forever for them to get the results. While we waited, we talked about probably going home and coming back in the future. Finally, the nurse came in and said that Emily's water was breaking. She examined her further and it turned out she was dilated one centimeter.

Basically, this meant mandatory inducement. We moved down to a labor and delivery room and Emily was hooked up to the IV to get her fluids and pitocin. Since it was late, they started her on a low dose of pitocin with plans to bring it up to full blast at six in the morning to get things moving. By six, Emily was dilated about three centimeters. The pitocin was turned up, and she started getting stronger contractions. By eight in the morning, Emily's contractions were so bad, that she had to get an epidural. She had made it twelve hours in her attempt for natural childbirth, but the doctor said that everything changes with inducement, and that there are very few people that would be able to deal with those contractions. It turned out to be a good thing that she got the epidural.

Ten hours later, Emily reached nine centimeters dilated (can you imagine super strong contractions for ten hours?). In fact, she was over nine, on her way to ten. The doctor decided that it was time to do a practice push to see where we stood. Emily pushed through a couple of contractions, but Thomas didn't really budge. The doctor left to go deliver another baby and give Emily a little bit more time to dilate complete. When she came back, they tried pushing again. Still nothing, and still not quite ten centimeters.

The doctor had a conversation with Emily and I (mostly Emily) and explained that Thomas was not going to be coming out the old fashioned way. His bone structure and Emily's just weren't compatible and it was going to be best to do a cesarian section. After 22 hours of labor, we were going to go in a different direction. I went to let all the family know in the waiting room, then came back to get ready to go with Emily to the operating room.

I had to wait in the hall while they prepped Emily for surgery. It felt like it was taking forever and there were no other people there. I fidgeted with my mask for awhile until they finally came to get me. The anasthesiologist talked with Emily and they checked to make sure she wasn't going to feel any pain. After it was determined that she was appropriately numbed, they got started.

Everything went so fast. I thought we would be there for an hour or more, but before I knew it, they were telling me to take out my camera and get ready to take Thomas' first picture. They pulled him out, showed him to Emily and I really quickly, then cut the cord and handed him off to get cleaned up. The nurses had him wiped down, swaddled and topped with a cap in an amazing amount of time, and he was handed to me. Welcome to fatherhood. Man was he ever amazing. I took him over to Emily, and we got our first family photo taken and then I was whisked out of the room so that they could sew her back up. I walked him back to the labor room where everyone was waiting. I rolled his carrier in, said "Everyone, meet Thomas", and burst into tears. Happiest. Day. Ever.

Thomas got his picture taken about one hundred times in the two minutes he was in the room, then we took him up to the nursery to finish getting cleaned up and checked out. I stayed with him for awhile, but finally had to go back down so that I would be waiting when Emily came out of the operating room. Emily got back to the room about five minutes after me. They hooked her back up to the monitors and a nurse stayed with us to examine her every fifteen minutes. After she was stabilized and got some of the good stuff pumping through her IV, we brought Thomas in to nurse. It didn't go great, but for a first time, the nurse said he was an overachiever. We sent him back up to the nursery and got ready and moved up to the recovery room. After forty-two hours of being awake, finally we got some sleep.