I'm sleeping on the couch. Been there for months...big day planned for tomorrow. Pedicure, prenatal massage (paying just to lay on my stomach for an hour would be worth it withOUT the actual massage!), and then lunch with my girlfriends in early celebration of my birthday, number 39 to be exact. Suddenly I wake up at 2a. Ouch...ut oh, contraction? I'm up for the next 3 hours, timing contractions, worrying and trying to sleep. At 5a I call the on call ob, who says to head to the hospital. I call my parents and ask them to come over and take Jack to school. "I'm sure we'll be back in a few hours" I hear myself say. I wake Scott and shower. We head out and realize, down the road, that the bag is still at home. We turn around, get it and start out again. Check in to the hospital, get hooked up, labor for an hour and a half, labor some more, nurses and doctors deliberate on my condition and the contractions get stronger. At some point Scott and I stop joking around and I get cranky as the pain gets stronger. The on call doctor, Dr. Smallwood, comes in at 1p (5.5 hours later) and agrees that today is going to be THE day. Wow! A January baby! I never would have predicted that with a 2/13 due date and, more importantly, a 2/5 scheduled csection date! The ball is rolling, parents are heading to the hospital, getting Jack from school...this is it! I'm prepped and wheeled into the OR. Scott is in his scrubs and we are waiting to meet the newest member of the family. What a moment of absolute anticipation...praying to God for 10 fingers and 10 toes...and perfect health all the way around.
We get started and before you know it, there it is...the cry. The world stops for a moment for us, he is here. Our family has been forever changed in this moment, which began so many months ago and has culminated here.
And it is in that moment that I fall madly, deeply, hopelessly in love with another human being. Though I'm sure I was in love with him since the very notion of him met my brain, it has become ever so real as I hear him cry and see him wriggle on the table. I wait for signs of calm from the nurses to be sure he is ok. I briefly catch a glimpse as Daddy hovers over him, admiring him lovingly already! The nurse brings him over to me and the wonderful anesthesiologist, who himself must be a Daddy, helps free my arm and give me room amidst my wires and tubes to let me hold my sweet son, my second born, for just a moment before he is whisked away to the nursery. And in those quick, magical moments, a memory is captured...this is the beginning of what is sure to be an amazing journey with Tyler Neal, whom we are ever so honored to call our son.
