Week 6: Born To Be Wild
My wife is a tiny gal. So when her pregnancy ran a week over due and she looked like she may burst at any moment, it wasn’t hard to talk the doctor into inducing labor. On March 4, 2011, at 12:05am we checked into the hospital to get the “baby show” on the road. If you know me, then you know I’m a pretty laid back person. So being able to walk into the hospital relaxed, smiling and happy, was just how I’d prayed it would be.I’m pretty sure if it had turned out like the movies portray it; rushing to the emergency room, wife’s yelling at her husband to drive faster, but be safe, but don’t hit bumps, saying she loves him and hates him at the same time… I would have needed a Xanax or three.
As we got ourselves settled in the room, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the past nine months, looking back on what a journey it had been. Naomi put on her gown and got situated in the bed. She looked the most beautiful I’d ever seen her. If she had been at all nervous I couldn’t tell, she just smiled and had a look of extreme contentment.
Calm before the storm I guess?
Someone could have warned me though, that in just a few hours it was about to get wild up in that Kaiser Permanente. Naomi began contractions after a couple hours and the only instructions we had given the nurse in regard to a birthing plan was that an epidural was not only an option, but a requirement.
This may be the only time in my life where the whole “warning” thing would be tossed out the window. As I sat there holding her hands watching the doctor pull out a needle the size of a yardstick, I just smiled and said, “I love you, the worst part is over”. After an uncomfortable hour she was relaxed and sleeping. My mother-in-law showed up after calling incessantly to see if she could come to the hospital.This was cool with me, Naomi was sleeping, and the coffee my brother had brought me was starting to wear off, so it was time to try to get some sleep on the sliver of a couch they provide for soon-to-be fathers.
I don’t really know how long I had been asleep or what time it was exactly, before the sound of 20 or more doctors and nurses rushing into the room awoke me. They were all crowding around Naomi as she lay still, with an oxygen mask over her face. I jumped off the couch and grabbed my mother in laws arm, “What’s going on,” I yelled.
“She’s ok,” she said, “the babies heart rate dropped”.
My mind began racing. Was my wife going to be ok? Was the baby ok? You quickly realize how much the focus is entirely on the mother in the delivery room. Until they figured things out and got the situation under control, the doctors and nurses weren’t going to answer any of my questions. Finally after what seemed like forever, a doctor sternly said, “Ok, everyone get out of here!” Only then could I get to Naomi’s bedside. Our doctor explained the baby had dropped very fast and was under distress.
“We’re going to monitor the baby, and if his heart rate drops again we’re going to have to do a c-section” she said.
As I looked down at Naomi, and adjusted her blanket, she said, “I think I pee’d myself.” Under any other circumstances I would have probably laughed, but out of concern I lifted up her blankets. There was blood everywhere, and it wasn’t ten more minutes before they had her in the operating room preparing to get our son out of there.
As I waited in full scrubs outside the operating room, completely at a loss, I did the only thing I knew I could contribute. I prayed for everyone in that room, the doctors, the nurses, Naomi, and my unborn son… I prayed very hard. “Ok Tyler, you can come in now,” I heard the nurse say. I sat next to Naomi’s head and asked, “Babe are you ok?” And because she is tougher than me, and because she’s secretly a superhero, she answered, “I’m perfect”.
The next fifteen minutes happened in a flash and the next thing I knew I was starring into the eyes of my ten fingered, ten toed, healthy brown-eyed baby boy. March 4, 2011 at 7:40am, Aiden Zachary Poor was born at 6lbs 13oz, 19in long. After a teary eyed moment showing Aiden to my wife and watching her gaze at her perfect angel, the nurses took me to another room while the doctor stayed to take care of Naomi. For the next 45min I sat in a chair holding this little version of myself wrapped tightly in a blanket.
“I promise I will be there for you everyday, I promise to teach you, to protect you, and love you with everything I have,” I told him. I thanked God over and over for giving me the strongest woman in the world as my wife and for my beautiful son.
Till next week!
“Someone Could’ve Warned Me” WARNING of the week: Hospital rooms are not made for the comfort of the expectant father. Be prepared to begin your sleepless nights the day of the delivery. Consider yourselves warned.
Fitness Update
This week as promised the fitness guru himself, Justin Miller, is offering up a great at home workout for everyone reading the blog. Enjoy, and try this routine out for a couple of weeks to get your butts moving.