Now that the dust has settled.......

So here we are, 3 days after my son was born and I can finally sit back and reflect on it.

We both were in dire need of sleep, as you can tell <----------------!!!

The experience was one I will never forget. Like I had said before, the past 9 months gave Tiffany and I time to reflect on our lives and decide where we wanted to go. We didn't focus on the negative aspects of things, we just stayed focus that in the end, everything would work out fine. And guess what? We ended up FINE!

I spent the past year preparing myself for becoming an adult. Hell, I'm 31, going on 32 in just over a month now, it's about damned time I grew up and started realizing that I was letting time slip by and needed to ground myself.

But enough gibberish, let's get into the event's leading up to his birth.

Monday morning Tiffany had an appointment with the doctor to see how she was doing. Alex expected delivery date was August 17th, and it was th 15th, so we were right on time. Well, the doctor asked her if she wanted to get this party started and go thru being induced. Tiff's been very anxious to get this done, so she was ready. We were told to be at the hospital at 8pm that night.

We get in to the hospital and spend the next 2 hours getting checked in and filling out paper after paper after paper until 10pm when the resident doctor stopped in and told Tiff that they were going to start with a Cervodil, which is used to relax the cervix, thus preparing her to be induced. The whole process there was to last 12 hours. So we headed to bed and laid listening to Alex's heart beat throughout the night on the heart monitor. At 6am, the doc. came back in to check on her and see how things were progressing. She was still stuck on 1cm, but had been having 'variable contractions' all night long. About 15mins after leaving the room, she stopped back in and said that they were gonna go ahead and remove the Cervodil.

Around 9am they put her on the Petocin to induce labor. It took until around noon before she made it to 2cm's but at least we had some progress. Now, Tiffany was being one hell of a trooper. She was offered to have an epidural on several occasions and had decided to hold off until and only until she desperately needed it. Well, at 1pm they checked her again and decided that it was time to break her water. Well, after sitting there about 45mins. after that she had decided that enough was enough, TIME FOR THE EPIDURAL!!! What a woman!

So the epidural was started and from there on out it was just a sit and wait. Most epidurals last up to 5 hours, and she was bound and determined to get this over before then. The betting was on. Tiffany said by 6pm, one nurse said before then, and the resident was counting on midnight that night. So around 3pm they checked her and she had made it to 3cm, again, progress! But it's a long way to go to 10cm's.............

Next check was at 4:30 and damned if she didn't go to 9 1/2 cm's! Well, her cervix was not completely ready, but they were betting on it being at least another hour or 2 before she would be ready to rock! Well, daddy to be was starving and miserable with a headache from lack of food and drink, so I stepped out, asked the nurse if I was safe to go, and she said, NO PROBLEM!!

As I'm standing there deciding what was gonna work for dinner, the girl behind the counter, a very sweet lady, talked me into a delicious meatball sub, a bag of chips, and a fruit punch drink! But as she's getting it ready we're talking about why I'm in there and tell her about Tiffany being close to 10cm's but still time to spare! The next reaction was classic, as my hogie is rolling thru an oven, she reaches in screaming at me "Boy, you crazy!!!! Your girl's about to have that kid any minute, what the hell you doin having me toast this sub for you!!!????" Hahaha, slaps it in to a bag and sends me off running back to my room.

Well, damned if this girl didn't know what she was talking about, cause as I came in to the room Tiff's tellin me to drop the sandwich, it was showtime! It was now 5pm.

So I cleaned up, went to her bedside, and the next thing I know the RN and I are holding Tiff's legs' up and encouraging her to "PUSH!!" 3 pushes later, the RN looks at and claims "I'll be back, we need the doctor!" I looked and questioned "WHY??" She say's that baby's ready to get here NOW!!!!

So the doctors and a few more RN's get in the room and encourage the 2nd round of pushes. And there I am, holding her leg, encouraging her, and watching the baby crown!!! What a sight! Now were ready to rock! Everyone in the room gets garbed up and ready to go. In the meantime, Tiffany, all doped up, starts telling the girls "C'mon girls, let's do this, I'm gonna push this kid right up out of me! C'MON!!!" NO pain whatsoever! Thank God for epidural! I was blessed with missing the screaming and yelling at me for making her this way!!! Woooo, hoooo!!!

So, round 3 of contractions, and another 3 pushes! By the second push his head was halfway out and moving fast!!! We looked up and told her 'One more push baby!!!' and she grabbed ahold of the bed, dug deep for a big breath and just pushed like nobodies business!! With me watching this child enter this world, he came head down and was moving quick, next thing ya know, he's right up out of her!!!! Quickly they clean his mouth, and bam! We have our first cry!!!! And a beautiful baby boy is born!!!

The greatest moment came when I had to cut his umbilical cord! Oh man! How cool is that? Gross as it may sound, but to cut and release him from his mother like that was just more than I could handle, I cried my eyes out!!

Next they get him over to the scale to weigh him in. Well, for days and weeks we were being told he would be undersized. Well, the astonished look on the RN, Tracy's face, was priceless. She turns and claims, 'You guys! 7lbs 7ozs!!!!' 20" long!!! Yeah!!!!!!! A healthy baby boy, who scores 100% on all tests as well! A perfect 10!

So the momma and I spent the next hour by ourselves with the baby just taking it all in, crying our eyes out at how beautiful he was and how striking he resembled daddy!!!! He had all my features, which to me was enough, but we did a test anyways! Hey, we didn't need it, but to put everyone elses minds at ease, we did anyways! (And by the way, I was handed the results on Thursday, 99.97% for the daddy!! I balled it up and threw it away! I already knew that, thank you very much!!)

We had a few visitors, including my mom and dad, Brooke and her gramma, and Gramma Sue made the first night visit! Tiffany and I spent the rest of the night up with him (minus my moment of sleep pictured above!) just soaking him up! The more we looked at him, the more it just choked me up!

What a great life experience! Now I feel apart of the world after bringing my own child into it! What a feeling people!

Baby and mom were home by 11am on Thursday! Short stay and home where they should be! We spent last night in awe of him again after visits by Uncle Dylan and I think I went to sleep at around 2:30 am! Boy, I'm on such a high from all of this!