Glenda's belly right before we headed to the hospitalSo we scheduled an appointment to induce labor, which is a pretty strange experience in itself. The surprise is somewhat removed, but the upside is that there is a lot more time to prepare and make sure you have your stuff together. So at 8pm on August 4th, we reported to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital. I remembered from the birthing classes we took at P/SL that room 309 is the roomiest, and has the best view of the city, so he was crossing his fingers. As it turned out, the hospital was teeming with women in labor that night (unlike every other time we'd been there), so we didn't really get to pick our room, but the one we got was plenty roomy. The nurses were extremely busy that night, but they got Glenda induced and all we could do was wait it out. It takes 18 to 24 hours to "take," so that meant a lot of downtime. Neither of us had ever spent the night in a hospital before, so that was pretty exciting. The woman in the next room gave birth around 10pm that night, and the screams coming from that room had me pretty freaked out. To make matters worse, I had to sleep on a crappy old chair that folded out, but managed to sleep a little bit. Glenda was up all night with contractions, which were not too close together yet, but were painful nonetheless. Around 11am on the 5th, Glenda's sister Beckie showed up, much to everyone's delight. Glenda is pretty close to Beckie, so she was very glad to have the moral support. I really appreciated the fact that Beckie took over helping Glenda get through the contractions so that I could go walk around outside and decompress. Around 4pm, the contractions reached a critical point, and Dr. Forschner came into the room to start the pushing process. We weren't having much luck with that, so he got out the vacuum, which is nothing more than a suction cup that attaches to the baby's head to help the doctor pull the baby out. Still no luck. After a bit more of this, Dr. Forschner decided that the baby's head was off-center, which made the pushing much more difficult, and kind of dangerous. So he broke the news to Glenda that a Cesarean section operation would be the safest way to go for both her and the baby. The nurses gave me some surgical scrubs and without delay, we proceeded to the operating room, another first for both of us. I had never seen any sort of surgery before, and thought I might get light-headed, so I gave myself the option of looking away or leaving if need be. But rather than getting squeamish, I actually found it pretty fascinating. It's definitely not a gentle operation; after making the incision, two nurses used what looked like a tire iron to pry apart the opening. But by far the most bizarre part was seeing Glenda smiling at me oblivious to the fact that her organs were being yanked and pulled apart (she had a curtain in front of her face and was obviously anesthetized). Before I could even sort out what was going on, Dr. Forschner had pulled the baby out. It never occurred to me that it was up to me to announce the baby's sex, so I hesitated a second, and then meekly blurted out, "Girl!" I also wasn't prepared for the fact that the baby was bluish-gray, no matter how many people warned me about it. Needless to say, this was a lot of stimulus in such a short time. Pretty overwhelming. But as they snipped the umbilical cord and carried the baby over, it really set in. I looked over and was overcome with just about every emotion you can imagine. After all these months of pregnancy, seeing that face was just surreal. But I managed to get it together and help the nurses get her cleaned up and cut the rest of the umbilical cord. Glenda had to spend a while in the recovery room, so I got to take the baby (we hadn't decided on her name yet) to the nursery, and to meet her aunt Beckie, who was waiting it out in the room. Beckie said she definitely looked like an Olivia, and I agreed. Within ten minutes, we had Glenda's vote for a consensus: Olivia Golter Kaul. (Glenda kept her last name when we got married, so we thought this would be a good way to honor both families, while avoiding the whole unfavorable hyphenation thing.)
Beckie and Olivia in the nurseryBeckie and I stared at this little baby for quite some time in the nursery. As any new parent knows, this is one of the more powerful moments you'll experience in your lifetime. Just seeing something that tiny and exquisite is potent enough, but then you're quickly overcome by a tremendous sense of duty and responsibility. Not in the bad sense; more a feeling that you want to provide and protect this youngster at any cost, and to give her a nurturing place to live and flourish. Another thing that kept my mind reeling was thinking about how this tiny ten-minute-old person will someday be an adult, and that she'll probably develop in ways I can't possibly fathom at the present. The whole experience is very humbling and really makes you want to cast aside the petty crap you spend your time worrying about. With the delivery overwith, Glenda and I looked forward to some rest, but alas, none was to be had. There was a constant stream of people in the room assessing Olivia and Glenda. Both of us were very exhausted, but they really keep you on your toes in the hospital, which is good and bad. Good because the care and attention is top-notch; bad because you never really get to sit down and relax. That night we moved to a tiny room on the 11th floor with only a crappy recliner for me to sleep in. I chose the floor over the recliner, and got maybe two hours of good sleep. Glenda had a steady stream of people in the room, as usual, as well as having to nurse Olivia every 2-3 hours on average, so sleep was pretty elusive for her, too. And getting the hang of breastfeeding was probably the most challenging step of this whole thing; luckily all of the nurses are very experienced (one had worked there 36 years!), and they even had a lactation specialist! Again, no shortage of top-notch help in this hospital. We realized how renowned this hospital is when we were watching the Discovery Channel one night in the hospital. They had a whole show on high-risk pregnancies that was filmed at our hospital, in the same room we were in! It was pretty weird seeing our nurses on the Discovery Channel. By Sunday, both Olivia and Glenda were given the go-ahead to go home. Now the real work begins...
