Thats right...10 pounds, which is about half a pound heavier than Levi and one full pound heavier than Tyson was. For all of you people who say that the third would come sooner and the delivery would be quicker - I suppose we are the exception to the rule. The due date was set for Sept 29th although we had a feeling that he would come late since both of his brothers came 5 days after their expected due dates. The 29th comes and goes. The Doctors are estimating him to be around 9.7 pounds but are not panicking since Jenn has been able to deliver the others successfully. But the clock is ticking and that baby wasn't gonna get any smaller.
The Tuesday after the due date Jenn has another appointment to check on the pregnancy. The technician measured the baby and actually told Jenn that she wasn't going to tell her what she thinks he weighs at that point. The doctor told us to go ahead and call Labor and Delivery to see if they could get us in to induce the labor. Unfortunately there was no room at the inn and we were told to call back the next day. I guess early October is just a busy time for storks, kind of like Christmas time for FedEx drivers. They should have hired some Osprey or Cranes for "Push" season. At that point we were really getting concerned because we were NOT prepared for an emergency C-Section and if they didn't get us in soon it would be inevitable.
Finally we get the call from Labor and Delivery on Friday afternoon around 4:00 pm with the advice that we'd better get there soon or there might not be room. One of our dear friends Chantele Martin comes over from work to stay with the boys (much to their delight). Jenn heads to the hospital and by the time I arrive they already have her in a room and gown and hooked to the IV. After some preliminary medical questions the nurses begin the induction and administer the Petocin which is a medicine that brings on contractions. 12 hours go by and little has changed. Jenn is still pretty comfortable and is around 2-3 centimeters dilated and her water has not broke. In a perfect world Jenn's water would have broken on its own 8 days earlier and after 6 hours of labor we would have our baby boy. This was not going as planned but we were happy to at least be in the hospital.
12 more hours later Jenn is at about 9 centimeters and the doctor thinks that it's time to push and no one is more eager than Jenn. This is when all of your emotions flood into your brain. You feel the excitement, exhaustion, anticipation, joy and concern all at once. In my mind I know everything is going to be fine and a healthy baby will be here soon. After all, we live in a time where medical technology gives you that kind of security like there is some machine in the hospital that ensures all babies will be born without complications. The reality is that there is no such machine and anything can happen at this point. Aside from some monitors beeping and the IV machine there is very little technology going on here. This is a woman about to push a 10 pound baby out of her womb with her own power. This is something that Jenn is good at. She pushes and pushes hard over and over again but the doctor says that he seems to be "hung up on something". This is the doctor's nice way of saying that they waited to long to induce this labor and the child is just too big. Jenn is persistent though and we give it a few more tries. She tells the room "I CAN DO THIS!" but the doctor doesn't like what she's seeing. His heart rate is dropping (not dangerously) and she thinks it is time to get a room prepared for to perform the C-Section. Different emotions fill the room.
They take Jenn away and give me my scrubs and tell me they will come get me when they are ready. At least 10 minutes goes and just as I get up to wander by the door of our room to see if perhaps they forgot to get me the nurse returns. There are about 8-10 doctors and nurses in the operating room and they all seem pretty focused. You can here one of the doctors expressing her frustrations as to why this patient was not brought in a week prior but it's too late for that now, we just want to see our son. The C-Section takes all of 10 minutes to deliver our boy and maybe another 20 to finish the procedure. We finally get to see him and he is a big boy. He didn't look like a newborn at all. After the nurse checked his vitals we were able to hold him briefly before he was taken into another room to be put in a warming station. Spirits were so high looking at this big round pink baby. He was our son and we were so happy to have him.
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