The Whole Story

Friday morning Stephanie had an appointment w/ her midwife while I was working. We'd been planning to attend the Saline Celtic Festival's Pub Tent (& the Mr. Pretty Legs Contest), but when Stephanie texted me @ 1:00 saying she was having contractions and dilated to 2 centimeters, I figured we'd have to give the festival a miss. She still wanted to go though, claiming she'd had so many weeks of false labor that this one would probably fizzle out too. Besides, the festival wasn't that much further from U of M than our house & she needed to walk around anyway. With that in mind, I got home from work, took the kids to meet my dad @ the Chuckie Cheese in Canton & then we were off to Saline. The contractions were getting stronger so I was shocked when she still wanted to go, but she was adamant about it. We watched the Gaelic footballers warming up before their match & then met Laura, Dave, Laurie & Pete @ the Pup Tent. As we walked in, I was treated like a fucking celebrity. They were so happy I was there. It was like Richard the Lionhearted returning from the Crusades to rescue England from the evil Prince John. Like Luke, Han, & Chewie returning to the rebel base after destroying the Death Star. It was the return of the fucking king! Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but only a little. They definitely rolled out the red carpet for us. When they found out Stephanie was in labor, the red carpet treatment was kicked up to notches unknown. We sat up front @ the judges' table for the contest & they bid me up to the stage for pictures w/ this year's winner who is a complete ass, the douchieest of the douche bags. is winning cast a taint over my victory last year. It was fun though, all the while the festival people fawning overe Stephanie. We then walked around a bit before heading to U of M. W/ Aunt Megan
We arrived in triage about 10:00ish. Stephanie hd dilated a little more, but not enough to admit her so we walked the halls for a couple hours rather than driving home to come right back. Around midnight, the back labor kicked in like w/ Solstice & Aiden. She was checked again & still only @ about 3 1/2 centimeters, but due to the intense pain & her history of really, really long labors, she was admitted & got an epidural. By the time the epidural was set up (3:30ish) she was checked again & suddenly @ 8 centimeters. She'd never dilated so quickly before so all was looking great. We (Stephanie, me, Megan, & Doula Megan) got a couple hours of sleep before she was checked again 'round 6:00 hen we found out she was @ 10 centimeters & 100% effaced. She pushed from then until 8:30 when we found out the baby hadn't moved @ all. They were beginning to talk about a C-Section, but they allowed her to push for another hour just in case. It turned out his head was turned just like Solstice's was so the C-Section was inevitable. It was set up while I waited in some hallway before they let me into surgery.I watched when Solstice was delivered like this, but I don't remember the specifics of the operation. It was pretty amazing seeing her bladder & stomach & pancreas & everything else, & Shadia was the head nurse during the procedure, so afterwards wee got to catch up a little & make plans to get Aiden together w/ his homie Ben. Isaiah was delivered @ 12:15 & we were finally able to move to recovery @ 1:00. He started eating right away (& hasn't stopped yet), & Stephanie has been doing really well too. They were moved to a regular room around 3:30 where we spent the last 2 days. After Stephanie's folks came out, my mom brought Aiden & Solstice to meet the baby & then we got to chill out by ourselves. I took him into the waiting room for a few hours so Stephanie could sleep & he insisted on watching the Hogan's Heroes marathon on TV Land. I know it's a ridiculous show, but I couldn't really say no to him on his 1st day out. He sat on my lap for hours while we watched the show & I read Fever Pitch. Neither Solstice nor Aiden would ever let me sit there & read, but his chillness seems to have dissipated. I'm not too surprised though: he'd have to be daft to choose some hairy dude over a tit.We came home yesterday in what was the most frustrating check-out in history. She was admitted under a different name because her legal name & the name on her insurance are different. This confusion caused a problem when Isaiah's father go there. He was almost not allowed in which was pretty fucked up. Speaking of him, it's still not clear how much involvement he wants in Isaiah's life, but it seems like that might be cleared up pretty soon. Apparently he's going to bring his other kids & his mom to meat him this weekend. The name confusion also meant her prescriptions were written to the wrong name. They took 3 hours (after we were supposed to have left) to finally realize that they couldn't be fixed so we had to get her stuff @ the pharmacy in the hospital. The dick @ the counter seemed to think she was pill-hunting even though she was in a wheel-chair, holding the baby, & had Shadia next to her in scrubs. Things finally got straightened out & we were told it'd be about an hour before they were ready so Shadia suggested I take them home & come back which was fine until they were in the car & the little buzzer went off to alert us that the stuff was ready. I walked back fro Taubman to the pharmacy only to find out it was a mistake. They didn't even apologize. I flipped out. They said I couldn't hold them responsible for the hours it took to get the prescriptions. I said, "I don't. I only hold you responsible for screwing this up and having such a rude demeanor." I really tried to control myself, but then his boss stepped in & refused to believe he'd been a dick. He said, "He was rude? I find that hard to believe. He's usually a very nice person." I said, "I find that hard to believe, but I'll have to take your word for it." At this, we left, they came inside & I returned for the stuff. We've been home about 20 hours now & although she's really sore things are going well. We go Al Noor for dinner last night & laid in bed channel-surfing until we fell asleep. Why is Conor wearing an eye-patch? Pirate Week is over!
At this point, it must be said that I have fallen head over heals for this kid. I remember when Aiden was born being afraid that I didn't have enough love to split between 2 kids. As soon as he was born, I realized it's not a finite amount, but I had no idea how I'd feel about Isaiah. I ran into Linda (from work) the other day who said it'll be easy because babies are babies & they're just easy to love. I was sceptical, but she was absolutely right on. He is amazing & we can't wait for all of you to get to meet him.