I received this e-mail last night that, literally, brought a smile to my face and I thought that all the faithful Normalinauts out there would like to read it…

Hey man,

Sorry I know I’ve sorta’ fallen off the face of the earth lately (moving, work and of course Salem)… but I’m still alive and kicking, and sorta’ breathing (after a fashion) ^__^.

So I just wanted to let you know that i’m still here and I’m working on a special surprise for NM (sorry, no peeking yet - I literally do mean a surprise^__^).

Also, on a more personal level I’ve been trying to research the whole ‘birthing experience’ to get as good an idea as possible for what to expect in the next couple of weeks… so is there anything you can tell me about Bell’s birth? What it was like? How the whole labor thing went and all that? Anything you can tell me, or any helpful hints and tricks would be awesome man, thanks ^__^.

Cheers

See that “surprise” he mentions…that’s not just for me, that’s for all of us! I know I’m looking forward to it, gilgrim’s surprises tend to be really surprising…

I have a surprise for everyone as well, though, wordpress and her plugins are currently thwarting my attempts to deliver it….

As for your final question, gilgrim, I probably don’t have a lot of advice to give. Let me run down for you the final few days leading up to Bell’s birth. The wife was due on July 31st, which came and went, with no baby. My wife’s OBGYN went on vacation right about this time, but about a month prior to the due date the OB was feeling the wife’s stomach and proclaimed that the baby was in the correct (that is, head down) position.

So 5 days after the due date the wife had to go in for testing, to make sure the baby wasn’t getting overcooked, and during the ultrasound, the tech asked if we were aware that the baby was in a breach (feet down) position. This, as you might guess, scared the shit out of us! So the on call OB tells us we need to get to the hospital because we’re going to need a c-section, and it would be real bad if we went into labor before starting the c-section. We sped off to the hospital and, upon entering the maternity ward, felt as if we had somehow stumbled into a war movie. There were, literally, nurses running all over the place in a panic, one popped her head out a room to shout “We need a doctor in here now!” We were told that there was no possible way we could have a c-section done that day and we’d have to come back in two days, but to be vigilant because if, god forbid, we did go into labor then we would need an emergency c-section.

So we basically sat around and worried for two days before going back on that Friday. It actually took them longer to get the wife anesthetized then it did to perform the c-section. Though, my wife had a fairly large growth on one of her ovaries that they removed after getting the baby out. All in all, she was in surgery for 30 minutes. Once the anesthesia had been administered they let me come into the room, though they put up a sheet so I didn’t see any of the cutting and such (which I was pretty bummed about). We spent about 90 minutes in recovery before going to our room.

So, for us, the hard part wasn’t the delivery, but the next several days, since the wife had to go through abdominal surgery. Women recover much faster from a natural birth then from a c-section, so that’s one thing you have going for you. Of the few things I know about the birth, one that might be of interest to you is that if APril is going to get an epidural, make sure you get it early enough so that it kicks in. If you wait until she’s 8 or so cm dilated, it’ll probably be too late to be of any use. One thing they stressed at the birthing classes (this was before we knew we we’re gonna have a c-section, stupid doctor!) was that you should write a birth plan and try to stick to it, so that you have some idea about what decisions you want to make beforehand and aren’t forced to make them in the middle of labor. We had one, and while it really didn’t matter for us in the end, I’m glad we had it none the less. As for your part, I’d say just be as supportive as possible. I was able to talk to Katrina through the surgery, so that was good, and you just have to be as reassuring and calm as possible. If you start freaking out, then mom has no chance!

The only thing I can recommend is, after the birth, keeping the baby with you. Maybe it’ll be that you and mom want some sleep, so you send Salem to the nursery. Really it’s your choice, but we kept Bell with us the entire time we were in the hospital. Sure, we didn’t really sleep much, but hell you’re not sleeping for a while anyway, and we really wanted to bond in those first few days.