Mom’s water broke at 2:00 in the morning on the 13th.  We slowly got our things together and headed into Saint Francis hospital where the madness began.  We first went to the triage wing where mom got a gown on, after the nurse noticed how much water was in the wheelchair she had been sitting in we were immediately moved to labor and delivery.

Once we were moved to the new room, babies were hooked up to their fetal monitor and mom got the TOCO on to see where we stood with contractions.  They were two minutes apart and the pain was progressing rapidly.  At this point, Genie is in full on labor (nearly dilated to 10) and babies are trying to come any second.  Dr. Parks was paged immediately and we nervously waited to find out if she was going to be able to come in or not.

The clock was ticking quickly as contractions became closer and closer together and the nurses were afraid the babies would come naturally.  This was not optimal as Hudson was facing backwards and upside down, in my professional opinion as a web designer this was not a good position for natural delivery.  They gave us a 20 minute count down and confirmed Dr. Parks would be able to come in, being there in 20 minutes.

Things start to blur as questions and nurses were moving fast, sign this, put on this, do this, don’t push and so on.  Rapid movement was happening all around us, 20 minutes was up and they have Genie ready to go but we can’t enter the OR without the doctor.  They decide to move ahead with the doctor on call as Ms. Harper is not going to wait any longer.

They start to take Genie back and prep her for OR, as they do, Dr. Parks shows up just in time.  She greets me then is off to start the procedure.  I sit patiently (not patiently at all) and wait for them to come get me so I can be there during birth.  Twenty minutes go by and still have not heard from the nurses.  Meanwhile, Debbie and Gene, Genie’s parents, show up and see me sitting in my scrubs.  I can all but assume I am looking white as a ghost at this point.

A couple minutes later, a nurse comes to let me know the saddle block didn’t work and they are going to have to “knock her out”, my words, not theirs.  For whatever reason, this means that I won’t be able to be in the OR with momma as she gives birth.  Disappointing but I get to be in the NICU room that connects to the OR so I can see the babies as they come out.

Once Harper is delivered at 4:24, they bring her in and start cleaning her up.  She is doing well, kicking and screaming and able to breathe on her own.  Hudson joins us at 4:25, he has a bit of an issue breathing on his own but the NICU team does a great job getting him stabilized then off they both go to the NICU where they are now residing.

From 2:00 am until 4:30 am I don’t believe we really slow down for a moment.  We couldn’t have asked for a better way to start parenthood.