Moment 11
On the drive home from work one day my wife Gee called me to tell me that her water broke. That was about 7:20pm. It was more than a month before her due date, so this was not expected. When I got home she called the doctor and they said for her to come into the hospital. She took a shower because she wanted to be presentable, and then she packed up a few bags. We made it there around nine PM. Gee was not having contractions, so they decided to wait for a while to see if they would start. They did not, so they decided to induce labor. They gave her a medication intravenously for this. By the time she started getting contractions it was the next morning. She was not dilating yet, so I went home to take a shower, eat and change clothes. We live just 5 minutes drive from the hospital. She progressed slowly through the morning. The pain became enough that she got the epidural administered. That was fairly scary to watch. Come noon time she was only three centimeters dilated. I decided to go home for some lunch, send some email and to get some things she wanted. Not long after I arrived home I received a frantic call from her saying that she was now at ten centimeters and to rush back so I would not miss the delivery. When I returned the rush seemed to have lessened as they were waiting for the delivery room to become available. Once we got in the delivery room things progressed quickly, but smoothly. I participated by holding her right leg. Gee pushed for about a half hour and then our baby girl was born at 1:38pm. She started crying immediately, but for just a few seconds. We got a quick peak as they took her to the Neonatal ICU room next door. A couple of minutes later they let me go in and see her. When she was first born she was gray in color, but now she was pink and looking shocked by her new surroundings. I did not stay very long as I wanted to go tell Gee that she was doing well. She weighed five pounds, ten ounces and was eighteen and a half inches long. Not all that small for coming a month early. It took us a couple of days to pick her name. It was a compromise between both our desires, but we are both happy with the result: Emma Sophie Kiefer.
