Its a girl !
Lets pick up at 7am on June 4th, Sunday from our last post. I am almost awake by then, the nurses have changed shifts and Kira, our new attending nurse, after some careful checking declares "its time to start pushing!" and that officially makes the labor about 12 hours long. This proclamation casts out any last remnants of sleep struggling to survive on my drooping eyelids.
As Kira gets the delivery table ready with towels, napkins, instruments of trade and other paraphernalia, she clarifies that there are two other patients already pushing and the only on-call doctor in the department at that time is time-slicing between the three delivery rooms. As she explains that we may have to hold off on pushing half way if any of the other patients progress to the actual birth and require the presence of the doctor, I am already sending telepathic messages to my daugher "My sweet one ! You are being born in a competitive world ! A world of strife and struggles ! But persevere, and you shall prevail !".
Kira starts off Priya on her first push by 7:30AM and as if on cue from my thoughts and lots of red-faced pushing from Priya (with considerable help from yours truly), within an hour, our daughter is ready to arrive into this world. Dr. Ann Wong is immediately summoned along with the pediatric doctor, Dr. Panchal and the NICU crew, ahead of the other two rooms, and at precisely 8:45AM, our sweet daughter arrives in this world.
And then everything happens in a blur of speed. Dr. Ann moves with speed and sleight of hand that would shame David Copperfield, clears the baby's nostrils, covers her in blankets, cuts her cord and hands her to the Dr. Panchal and the NICU crew. And as all of this happens, to much of my and Priya's relief, the baby loudly proclaims her arrival in lung bursting and ear splitting shrill cries. The pediatric and neo-natal crew instantly put her on a warmer crib, get her somewhat cleaned and get me to shorten the already cut umbilical cord by an inch to officiate the cutting of the cord.
Swaddled and clean, the baby is put by Priya's side and the NICU nurse, Tammy, reminds me of fetching my camera. Instantly I am digging through my spoils from the previous night and fish out my trusty F707, find the right location in the room and shoot a few quick shots of the baby by Priya's side. Tammy encourages me to step around to them as she snaps another few shots of all three of us.
As Kira gets the delivery table ready with towels, napkins, instruments of trade and other paraphernalia, she clarifies that there are two other patients already pushing and the only on-call doctor in the department at that time is time-slicing between the three delivery rooms. As she explains that we may have to hold off on pushing half way if any of the other patients progress to the actual birth and require the presence of the doctor, I am already sending telepathic messages to my daugher "My sweet one ! You are being born in a competitive world ! A world of strife and struggles ! But persevere, and you shall prevail !".
Kira starts off Priya on her first push by 7:30AM and as if on cue from my thoughts and lots of red-faced pushing from Priya (with considerable help from yours truly), within an hour, our daughter is ready to arrive into this world. Dr. Ann Wong is immediately summoned along with the pediatric doctor, Dr. Panchal and the NICU crew, ahead of the other two rooms, and at precisely 8:45AM, our sweet daughter arrives in this world.
And then everything happens in a blur of speed. Dr. Ann moves with speed and sleight of hand that would shame David Copperfield, clears the baby's nostrils, covers her in blankets, cuts her cord and hands her to the Dr. Panchal and the NICU crew. And as all of this happens, to much of my and Priya's relief, the baby loudly proclaims her arrival in lung bursting and ear splitting shrill cries. The pediatric and neo-natal crew instantly put her on a warmer crib, get her somewhat cleaned and get me to shorten the already cut umbilical cord by an inch to officiate the cutting of the cord.
Swaddled and clean, the baby is put by Priya's side and the NICU nurse, Tammy, reminds me of fetching my camera. Instantly I am digging through my spoils from the previous night and fish out my trusty F707, find the right location in the room and shoot a few quick shots of the baby by Priya's side. Tammy encourages me to step around to them as she snaps another few shots of all three of us.
The baby is bundled in my arms and I am paraded proudly but nervously across the labor and delivery wing to the NICU. The baby is weighed, and measured in more ways than a tailor would, every dimension registered, anti-biotic drip started and ointment applied in the eyes. The baby is declared to be 5 lbs. 1 oz. and 18.5 in. and I rush back proudly to share the information with Priya as she is being readied to be moved to a shared room in the maternity wing for the next two days as she recovers.
By around 10 AM, life slows down a little for the first time in the last 18 or so hours. As Priya and I catch our breath, regroup and recompose, we realize that this is but a temporary respite and there are about a hundred more things to take care of since the baby arrived about 5 weeks earlier than anticipated. Need to change the time-off schedules at work, make alternative arrangements so that the work does not suffer, pick up my parents at the airport, finish up the remaining baby shopping and get our home ready for the baby, learn about the infinite things involved in taking care of a newborn... hmm, life will change forever... for the better.
posted by kmd at 2:07 AM
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