As I’m sitting in my living room, having just put my baby down to sleep for what will inevitably be just fifteen minutes, I have to take this time to tell you about the last six and a half weeks.

 

The last time I wrote a ‘First Time Father’ blog for HobNobMurfreesboro.com was early in the morning on July 2nd, the day my wife’s water broke.  That should tell you that I have been super busy with our new edition.  But, there’s a lot to talk about, so here goes.

 

It was almost fitting the way I found out our baby was going to be with us soon.  Just like I found out India was pregnant by being woke up out of a deep sleep, so did I find out that India’s water broke.  My reaction to her waking me up with the news?  “Nuh uh”.  But she kept on, and I eventually woke from my sleepy stupor and got her a towel.  It just coming out in periodic gushes.  And let me tell you, it’s hilarious to see your wife walk around with ‘water’ just running down her leg.  I felt bad for her, but it was kind of funny.

 

The thing I really hated for India was we were supposed to go eat Waffle House not long before she woke me with the news.  See, I had worked the previous night at the hotel on third shift, and hadn’t slept much in the day.  When India got home from work, she told me to go to sleep.  We couldn’t decide on dinner, so since India wanted Waffle House, I told her to wake me a little later, and we’d go for dinner.  Sad for India, she didn’t get her Waffle House.  That hurt a lot more in the next few days, and I’ll let you know how.

 

After packing a few more things in our hospital bag, we headed towards Vanderbilt Hospital.  The ride to the hospital at 7:30pm was fairly easy, and I didn’t have to speed, so no tickets (yay!!).  As promised, the first person we called to let know what was happening was the baby’s Godmother, Trista.  Why not the midwife first?  Because Trista found out we were pregnant by text message.  So obviously I promised we would call her before we even called the midwife.  On the way to the hospital, we called everyone else.

 

We eventually got to the ‘Labor & Delivery’ part of the hospital, got our room, and then Trista showed up.  I had to go back to the car to get everything when she showed up, but when I got to the car, I didn’t have my keys.  After getting the rest of the stuff out of the car, I came back to the room to find an unexpected surprise.  India’s cousin, who was apparently worried that I wasn’t adequate enough to handle my wife, sent her husband, by himself, to sit in the room.  After lots of awkward silence, awkward conversation, and an awkward exit, he left.

 

Now, the reason that the Waffle House comment was so important is that India hadn’t eaten since around 2pm that day, so about 7 or 8, she would have been getting hungry again.  That’s about when the water broke, so we headed straight to the hospital.  Then, they told her she wouldn’t be able to eat anything other than ice chips until the baby was born.

 

A little while after we got there, the midwife on duty told us they would have to induce labor, since labor hadn’t technically started, because with the baby being GBS+ (Group B Strep), she couldn’t be in there longer than a day or so.  She started India on Pitocin, which is a very powerful drug that causes contractions.  For the next 12 hours, it was nothing but sleeplessness, not eating, and hearing my wife moan and groan every few minutes from the drugs.

 

After a brutal 12 hours of induced labor, intense contractions, and horrible pain, India finally decided to get an epidural.  It’s not something we wanted to do, as she wanted to go natural, but with the GBS+, it wasn’t an option.  Instead of working her way up in labor pains, it was all sprung on her at once.  And amazingly, she lasted 12 hours. I commend her for that.

 

The real fun starts with ‘Part 2’ of this article.  I couldn’t fit everything in the last 6 weeks into one part, because no doubt you would start getting bored.  But my next one is somewhat personal.  India agreed to let me write it all for HobNob.  You’ll understand why that’s important when you read Part 2.

 

Oh, and I have to send out a special thank you to the person who sent me my first feedback on any article.  Thank you so much.  Until next time, wish us luck.  Liberty is a handful