Hello World

It was just after midnight (about 12:15 AM) Friday morning, April 22/05. We recieved a call from Women's College that things were quiet in the delivery floor and they were calling to let us know to come in for induction. We sat and thought for a few minutes whether we should go now or at 7:00AM. I figured that in the morning there'd be more hustle and bustle and no matter what, I would NOT be able to sleep anyways so why not go now. We had all our stuff ready. But it just didn't seem like we were ever really ready.
A few hours earlier we had hit the Mandarin on the Queensway for some chinese buffet, after visiting our OB-GYN earlier that day and recommending that we go out to eat and watch a movie. Now were were second guessing that decision. Ho boy.


This was it. We were finally going to see our baby face to face. And our baby would see ours and put a face to the voices rumbling through the belly. So we gave our baby one final rub of good luck on the belly before we headed out to the hospital. It was now 1:30AM.


This was Tresa's bed. They took real good care of Tresa and that's all that mattered. I was just there to be the squeeze ball.


And this was my bed. It's actually not too bad. It folds into a chair. I should've taken a picture of what it looks like folded. But I forgot. There were more important things on my mind. We had been up since 7:30AM Thursday morning. So we were in for a long day.
We got admitted at 2:00AM and settled in delivery room #4. The SARS unit. It has a HVAC unit in there. Pretty ironic, since 2 years ago we did a SARS world tour (Toronto - HK - Singapore - Thailand - Cambodia) and I came back with a bad flu-like symptoms...which was actually - the FLU.
At 3:00AM the resident came in and broke Tresa's water. The water was clear and apparently very warm. Like bath water. I didn't touch it. But I did mop it up as Tresa moved around from the washroom, to the bed and around the halls. She had these absorbant pads. We had to double them up, cause one wasn't enough. Actually two wasn't enough either. We were replacing them fairly frequently. We walked around the halls trying to get the baby to drop. She was apparently at -3, what does that mean? If she's a +2 she's dropped. So -3 is pretty high. I think because the baby is upside down, the scale goes from -3 to +2. But that's my educated guess, I'm no MD or medical staff. BUT I do have two brothers that are doctors!
My stomach was grumbling and probably from stuffing myself at the Mandarin. We didn't think we'd get the call tonight! I wasn't sure if it was nerves, but my stomach was churning. But after visiting a restroom in the hallway (I certainly didn't want to stink up the one in our delivery room) I felt much better.
At 6:30AM they attached an oxytosin I.V. drip to Tresa. It was set pretty low according to the nurse. The night nurse was ending her shift and the nurse that eventually help us through the labour and delivery came in.
I had dozed off for a while and I missed our OB-GYN, who was luckily on call, and had come in to check in on us. She came in again later that morning and said that most likely this afternoon or in the evening the baby would be born.


This is our nurse, Cheryl, and she was amazing. She teaches yoga to pregnant women. I don't know what we would have done without her. She got us through the toughest parts of the labour.
Within an hour or so, the labour contractions were beginning. It was 7:45AM now and I had gone to move the car from the street and into the parking garage, and grab something quick to eat. I came back a little while later and Tresa was have the contractions less than 2 minutes apart.
They checked her just after 9:00AM and she was about 9-3/4 cm dilated now. She was almost ready to GO! The contractions were getting much stronger. I was watching the monitor and realized that one was the baby's heart rate and the other was the strength of the contractions. I was watching the meter and saw it climb, 2, 5, 19, 25, 37, 41 then slowly back down. I kept watching it again and said "Here it comes!". Then again this one was a biggie. It hit 67. WHOA. To which Tresa said. "Don't tell me when it's coming! I know when it's coming!" I felt kinda bad for her, the pain was tough and could see it was hard on her. And no epidural. She had dialated really fast. She really just needed the oxytosin as a jumpstart and then her body just took over.
Just before 10:00AM she was fully dilated and was encouraged to start pushing. I was watching the monitoring unit and checking the heartrate and the contractions. Our OB said not to watch it. But I couldn't help it. It seemed like an eternity and I was wondering how long she'd have to do this. I was encouraging Tresa, getting her quick sips of water in between pushes, telling her that she was doing great, getting her to focus when things got tough. I started counting during her pushes. Then she quickly told me to stop counting. They told me the baby was past the cervix and in the canal. Tresa was having major pains in her lower abdomen. Most likely from the baby's arms hitting her in the wrong spot.


The baby was almost out, the head was just at the opening and I could see it. The baby's hair was really long. They were even pulling it out through the opening. It was right there. She pushed in total for just over an hour. I even got to help pull our baby out. I wasn't really sure what our OB was doing. I was busy holding Tresa's knee against my body and using my head on her other leg to keep them apart in order to help the baby come out. Our doctor snaked her arm around my arm, and I looked at her and said "Hey, what are you DOING?" I was thinking - aren't you supposed to be getting my kid out? She then said "you're going to pull him out." At just before 11:00 AM Kieran was born, I put him on his mama's belly and then I cut the cord.


He was all blue and gooey when he came out and alert. He was already opening his eyes. I was happy to hear his voice when he cried. He had a full head of dark hair! That's when I looked to the monitor and checked the time. It was amazing to witness this whole process. From our trials with fertility to conception to pregnancy to birth. WOW. I was tired. And I know that Tresa was exhausted and sore. But she saw her son and it was all worth it in the end.

Hello World
3.57 kg (7lbs 12oz)
52cm (21 inches)