Terrifying Day 1

It all started at 3:45 AM, though I wasn't to know that for an hour. Mom woke up with contractions. After timing them for an hour, she woke me up to let me know that they were the right frequency. And so the day began...


We called the hospital, and they told us to make our way in, though it was not crucial to do so. We jumped in the new hotness mobile, my Mazdaspeed3, and made our way to the hospital. At 5 AM, there is thankfully little traffic, and apparently few police people to prevent you from doing 70 in a 50, so that's what I did.

We got to the hospital, and we were admitted by one of our two favorite nurses, Holly, who was the last person to get to hold Andrew, and with whom we've had a very special relationship since the most horrible day of our lives. I'm just glad that she got to be the first person we saw that morning.

She admitted us, checked out Jessie, and asked us to walk for an hour because of... something. So we did, and while we were walking, Jessie's contractions stopped. We were SURE we were going to be sent home. After we got back to triage, the contractions started up again, and at some point a nurse came in and told us that we were being admitted. So, today was the day we'd been waiting for for 9 months (38 weeks, 3 days to be exact).

Fast forward after getting into our rooms to active labor. It started with Evan kung fu punching his way out of the amniotic sac. Really, the fetal heart rate monitor made a very very loud sound when that happened. Contractions continued, and they had to augment Jessie because she was not dilated enough.

Meanwhile, Jessie's labor breathing rhythm was "[breath], ow, [breath], ow, [breath], ow," continually for the entire time. Time came for pushing, and she was a champ; half an hour of pushing, and little Evan Matthew Ambler was born into the world at 2:37 PM in Annapolis.

Evan also did a number on Jessie on the way out. Without details, there was some tearing, and the doctor would eventually have to take her to the OR to get it all fixed up. In the meantime, though, another woman was delivering at the same time, and so she had to minimize the bleeding and go deliver another baby. Doctor Moen came back, and they repeatedly told me that there was just a spot they couldn't find without better light, and they had to take her to the OR. So, that's what they did.

I got to spend half of the first hour of Evan's life scared out of my mind for my wife.

After an interminable amount of time, they wheeled Jessie back in, all fixed up, and we both got to be with our son. While she had been gone, they weighed Evan in at 7 lbs, 8.4 oz, and measured his length at 21 inches. 21 inches, 7 lbs, 8.4 oz of the most ridiculously awesome cuteness ever.

We eventually got taken to our longer-term room upstairs on the third floor. This is where sleep deprivation would begin to make things a little blurry. We had lots of help from our wonderful nurses the first night (and all throughout, really). We learned about all the fun new baby things, and we didn't sleep a lot because we hadn't figured it out. At one point during the night, we had to take the nurses up on their offer to watch him so that we could just get an hour of sleep. We had to call them repeatedly because we weren't sure what we were doing. It was actually kind of frightening, but still wonderful. I was changing all diapers and doing anything else that wasn't feeding because Jessie was laid up from him emerging.

Tuesday during the day, we got to learn more about caring for the child. Again, the nurses were just wonderful. Tuesday night, we actually got to see Nurse Tina, who was our other nurse with Andrew. Man, it was so nice to see her, too. We also had visits from Aunt Karina and Aunt Tammy. At least I think they came Tuesday. There's no clear delineation between days at the moment. Also, Evan will have lots and lots of aunts and uncles.

In the middle of the night, I again had to get help swaddling, and we again had to take up the nurses on their offer to watch him so that we could just get an hour or two of sleep. Thank you awesome nurses!

Wednesday, the first highlight was that Nurse Holly, who admitted us, got to come back and meet him. That made us so happy. I would have been a little upset if Holly had not been able to meet him. Wednesday was also discharge day! We rolled to Evan's new home (well, kind of), in the new mobile, and he slept all the way home. Apparently, the exhaust sound and the feel of the road made him very comfy.

So, now all three of us are home, and we get to learn how to be parents.

Welcome to the world little Evan Matthew Ambler!