Kiernan Arrives
Kiernan (the online handle of my son) has arrived to the world.
First the vitals:
- 8 lbs, 2 oz.
- 21 inches long
- Born at: 2007-11-26 3:44 PM
- Apgar sccores: 8 and then 9 due to colorization.
- Song playing from my mp3 collection at the time of birth: Truth Hits Everybody by The Police
- As our doula said, “He has all of the factory approved parts.”
Mom and baby are doing wonderful, and I’m doing pretty good myself. Of course, I did lots less than either one of them, so I’m not taking any credit for anything other than being a cheerleader and water boy during the process.
The longer story:
Kiara woke me up at 3 AM today to tell me that she had been in early labor for an hour, and needed my help getting around. We walked around the house, laid in bed, tried various positions, and kept each other company until about 6 AM. That’s when we called our doula, and told her what was going on. She said to go back to bed, and try to get some rest because we were both going to need it. We laid in bed, and really didn’t get much in the way of rest.
8 AM hit, and the contractions got closer and closer. We called our doula, and asked her to come over. She got on the road, and headed our way. While she was on the way, I took care of all of the animals. When she got there, she started taking care of things. I was finishing up with the animals when Kiara threw up, but the doula came to the rescue to clean the mess. I managed to get a clean shirt on Kiara, and about that time the doula looked at me and asked me if I had eaten. This was about 9:45 AM, and I had not eaten even though I had been up for over 6 hours.
She told me to go into town to get some hot food, and I also had to get some gas, Monster energy drinks, and some cash from the ATM. I did all of this, and got home about 10:45. As soon as I walked in, the doula told me that we were going to the hospital soon. I asked how soon. She said, “now kind of soon.” I asked her if we could leave in 10 minutes. It would take me at least that long to get my stuff together for the trip.
Fifteen minutes later we were out the door. I still hadn’t had a chance to eat my food, tell anyone what was going on, or anything like that. The drive to the hospital was uneventful as far as the typical TV show drama goes. I managed to contact my mom, Kiara’s dad, Kiara’s doctor, and a few other folks on the drive to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital a few minutes after 11:30 to find out that Kiara was fully dilated and ready to go. We got up to a room quickly, and labor and pushing started almost right away. It was a blur of four hours. Lots of grunting, groaning, pushing, holding of breath, cheerleading, massaging, positioning, and monitoring.
Kiernan finally came out at 3:44. Things were great, except for the cord around the neck. The doctor jumped on the problem before I even realized that it was a problem. Everything worked out, and the doctor’s calm and confident demeanor put me at ease. This allowed me to put Kiara at ease, and things were good.
Next came all sorts of action, and I really wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do next. Our doula nudged me and told me to stick with Kiernan, and she would stick with Kiara. I did just that. Kiernan was being fussy because he had swallowed (but not inhaled) some meconium, and they had to suction it out of his stomach. He didn’t like the tubes, suction, and other handling, but so long as I was there talking to him, he would stay mostly quiet. I wish I could have recorded what I said because I honestly don’t remember. I just know that I was a proud papa to be looking down on my son.
Things calmed down after that, and we got to get a little rest before I started making phone calls to friends, family, etc. The phone calls were all pretty much the same as this post: vitals, short story, current status of everyone, and goodbyes so I could make the next call.
That’s pretty much where I’m going to end things for now. I’ll get some photos up as soon as I can, which may be tonight, or may be tomorrow morning. I’ll shoot for tonight.
