I have alluded to my beautiful wife and I having a baby. But, I don't think I've come out and just said it on my blog.
The due date is this Saturday and I find myself not being able to focus on much of anything. I am very excited and anxious to have him. Our weekends over the last few months have been spent getting ready for him. I've painted his room a bright blue and Amy has done a great job coordinating the decor, all the way down to stencils on the wall. Our family and friends have blessed us with a lot of baby clothes, toys and all the accessories we need.
I am not an overly religious person, although I am spiritual. I have been praying that he's healthy and that he and Amy have a safe and relatively pain free birth.
I'll report back when he arrives. :)
Update I: 9/19/07 10AM. Amy's water broke at 11:15 last night. I got home at 10:30 from here, and I had just fallen asleep. I am a bit of a "sleeper". So, she told me and I said "ok" and went back to bed. Then, when I heard her calling the hospital, I realized, "Oh shit. I need to get up". I guess it didn't really sink in that it was "time". Amy was very well prepared. All I had to do was grab a few bags and juggle the cars in the driveway. And we were off. The drive was pretty quiet and uneventful. I expected it to be different. But, there weren't many people on the road at midnight on a Tuesday. And I figured I'd have a little leeway pushing the speed limit, if I did get pulled over. I don't think I've ever been so focussed on the task of driving as I was last night. Every turn signal and lane change was calculated, plotted and then executed.
We made it to the hospital by 12:30. Contractions were still not that strong and were far apart. The baby's heartbeat is strong and Amy walked around the room and bounced on her birthing ball until about 4AM. I slept for about 15 minute increments until then. Then, Amy laid down since things weren't progressing. We both slept on and off until about 7AM. I had text'd family. So, we woke up and returned a bunch of calls. I had called my brother-in-law, Chris, and told him that Amy's water broke. He replied, "Did they fix her water yet, or is it still broken". My other brother-in-law, Tim text'd and said that Erin, Amy's sister (his wife), was hysterically happy and anxious to hear updates. My sisters and mothers were the same. Amy's other sister, Kerry, left a very nice message. Amy teared when she heard Kerry's 5 year old son, Jaedon, say, "I love you Auntie Amy".
When I called my parents in the morning, my mom answered before the first ring with a very concerned and anxious "hello". They're leaving from PA at noon to come up. From the looks of it, they'll be here for the birth.
It's now 10AM and the doctor examined Amy. She's dilated about 3 centimeters and contractions are still far apart. They wanted to start her on pitocin to accelerate contractions, but we've asked to hold off for a bit. The doctor is ok with that as long as Amy's temperature stays normal. I guess a spiked temperature would mean that there's a possible infection. That's more likely to happen after the water breaks. Since the baby is doing fine and Amy's temperature is normal, we can still wait for things to take their course. My tapping at the keyboard has put Amy to sleep, I think. She's closed her eyes, which is good. I have a feeling she's going to need the energy. Wish us luck. If I don't need to be holding her hands, I'd like to do another update, for posterity's sake and to share this most amazing event with everyone, as it happens.
Update II 9/19/07 3:15 PM. Wow! Amy and I can't believe all the notes and comments that people are sending and leaving. We really appreciate it. And Peter V will know he's loved.
Blogging this just seems like a natural thing to do to me, especially since there is free wifi in the hospital. But, I'm certainly not the first one to do this. Bobo pointed me to his post about the birth of his son, Asa.
We're still in a bit of a holding pattern.
Amy is a bit upset. During her examination on Monday, the doctor was a bit rough on her cervix, on purpose. Amy thinks that's what caused her mucous plug to come out and her water to break. The doctor just kinda did it without really asking or telling Amy what she was doing. But, we're certainly not doctors. So, we don't know for sure whether the water would've broken last night or whether the doctor caused it or not. I guess we wouldn't be too worried about it if contractions were more frequent or stronger.
The hardest part is that Amy is really tired and really hungry and the labor hasn't started yet. We've put off taking the pitocin still. That could make the contractions come faster and get us closer to the beginning of labor. Right now, they seem to be about 6 minutes apart. But, most likely, Amy hasn't dilated much more. So, we'll see. It'd be nice if Amy was allowed to eat something. But, they don't allow it. If she does have to have a c-section, the standard concern is that she might throw up and food could get into her lungs (ie aspirate). It seems to me that there's plenty of time for her to eat and digest something before that would happen. But, I am certainly not the expert... and I guess that there is always the risk that an infection could occur which would necessitate intervention and that could require a c-section.
I obviously have way too much time to think about this.
We walked around the maternity ward earlier hoping to see some babies. But, there weren't any in the nursery. We saw a few babies with their parents who were so little. But, we didn't want to stare.
I went down to the car to get Amy's crossword puzzles. But we both suck at those. So, that didn't last long. So, now we're watching a show about babies being born on TLC.
Will let you know whether Amy decides to try the pitocin. Apparently, we can try it for awhile, and if it starts working and we want to stop and see whether nature takes over, we can. Stopping would allow Amy to get up and walk around and not be tied to the bed. Allowing her to get up and use the exercise ball, the shower and different positions would increase the chance of having a vaginal birth without pain medication or a risk of more intervention. We'll see. We took an amazing natural birthing class at Mothers & Company and Amy would really like to do it naturally. But, we're listening to the doctor's advice and not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves. I am just here as support. There certainly isn't much that I can control in this whole process, other than supporting Amy emotionally.
I am looking forward to seeing my parents in a few hours.
Update III: 9/19/07 4:56 PM. I didn't even know my sister, Bethany, had a blog. She wrote about us and her livejournal wedding planning peers have been lighting up my referer logs.
Nothing new to report on the birth. We're bored. But, I am sure that'll change soon enough.
And Bethany will be an Auntie soon. :)
Update IV: 9/19/07 7:45 PM. Coming soon...
Update V: 9/20/07 7:30 AM. Sorry about the false alarm on the last update. Need for sleep got in the way. It's probably more important that I am rested enough to take care of Amy today than write an update. Atleast that's what I was thinking last night.
All of the phone calls, texts and comments are really encouraging. It's nice to know so many people care. It's funny how baby's bring us all together... I guess it's not that funny. But, it's certainly nice.
So, last night we saw Dr. Logan again. She's awesome. They monitored Amy's temperature and the baby's heartbeat all yesterday and last night. Every two hours. There are two dangers with the water breaking early. The first one is that the baby could end up pinching the umbilical cord and O2 flow would be reduced to him. That's why they monitor his heart rate: if O2 flow is reduced, it'll show there. The other danger is that the uterus could get infected, which has serious consequences for the baby too. They monitor whether an infection is occurring by tracking Amy's temperature. She's been a steady 97 degrees. So, no problem there either.
Since everything was progressing slowly, surely and safely last night, Dr. Logan asked Amy if she wanted to eat something. Labor was still far away. Dr. Logan predicted labor would be late morning or early afternoon. So, eating was safe. Amy had a veggie burger and some fries, which weren't exactly good, she said. But, it was the first thing she had eaten in 24 hours. So, she was happy. I am glad they let her eat, because I couldn't imagine not eating for 36 hours and then playing a soccer game. And I imagine Amy will be exerting herself during labor more than I do at a soccer game.
Since last night, contractions have been getting more intense. They are still about 5 minutes apart this morning.
They started the pitocin this morning at about 6AM. It's 8AM now and I can tell Amy is in a lot of pain. In between two contractions, she said to me, "Don't get mad if I don't talk to you or respond to you.". I asked her how I can support her. We agreed that me just being here and not saying too much would be the best way to go.
Labor is definitely coming. With the pitocin, things should progress a little faster. We'll see whether Amy decides to stay on it as things progress. Right now, they are letting her walk around a bit with the IV in her hand. At some point, she might have to decide between "pitocin and bed" -or- "no pitocin and walking around". At our child birthing class, the motto for enduring the pain was "drink, pea and changing positions" .
I will update again, assuming I can. Since I am the father and not the "hired journalist", I should probably not be tapping away when the real action starts. I should probably just be paying attention to Amy.
Update VI 9/20/07 8:25 AM. Contractions are now very intense and only about 3-4 minutes apart.
Update VII 9/20/07 12:11 AM. I am a DADDY. Amy is a MOMMY. He was born at 11AM. He's 6lbs and 7.8 ounces. He has wavy dark hair and a cute round little face. He has mommy's nose.
At 10AM, Amy was 8cm dilated and in a lot of pain. She was a few hours into receiving the pitocin. She doubted whether she could endure the pain much longer. She tried a few different positions and moved around a bit until it got a bit too much to bear.
At this point, she asked for an epidural. But by the time the anesthesiologist arrived and questioned her history, and we waited to hear back from Amy's neurologist, labor had started happening.
The actual labor part of labor went pretty quickly. Amy explained that it felt like he was pushing to come out. Since she was only 8cm, Sheila, our nurse instructed her not to push yet for fear of tearing her cervix. The nurse examined her and the nursing student, Angelis, looked up at me and said, "he's right there". This was her first birth as a nursing student. I think she was as emotionally involved as I was in the whole thing.
At this point, Sheila called Ivy (receptionist) to get the doctor to come and Angelis and I each held a leg up. Dr. Ballademos came in the room. In about 30 seconds, she instructed Amy how and when to push. With the first push, we saw his head. After the second set of pushes, I asked Amy if she wanted to reach down and touch his head. She did and looked up at us with awe in her eyes. She had a renewed sense of purpose and energy and she pushed really hard for a few more sets of pushes. His head popped out and the doctor clamped his umbilical cord. I cut it. Then, she told Amy to give one last push to get his shoulders out. He came out real quickly and I heard his first cry. From first to last push, it was about 10-15 minutes.
After he was born, the nurses put Peter on Amy's chest where he cried a bit. They wanted to get him warm, so they took him to the warmer, gave him his Vitamin K shot, put lotion on his eye lids and cut more of his cord off. I went over with him and put my finger in his palm. He grasped it tightly and rolled toward me, I am sure involuntarily. But, his other hand came up and he grasped a finger in my other hand. I touched his little chest and felt his rapid heartbeat. He was wailing pretty good by now. But, he calmed down.
I asked if we could get him back to mom to breastfeed. And they weighed him real quickly, cleaned up Amy and got him back to her.
Update VIII 9/21/07 9:30 AM. Peter Caputa V is almost one day old now. A lot happened yesterday after the birth. He's had lots of visitors including Grandpop Peter, Grandmom Pat, Grammy Linda, Papa Terry, Uncle Jeetu and Aunt Leena and Aunt Amy Breton. Amy Breton brought him a onesy that says, "Chicks Dig Me".
Yesterday, there were a bunch of nurses in training from Regis College. Peter and I went to the nursery to get his first bath and to check his vital signs. He was the only one in the nursery for awhile. All of the nurses were saying that he was too cute to be a boy. I think he's beautiful too.
The pediatrician came in to examine him this morning. He said everything was "perfect".
Amy's been nursing quite regularly. Everything is going very well.
I don't think I'll be able to keep writing with so much detail as Peter gets older. I am sure I'll be writing about him quite a bit. Maybe he can start his own blog like Kai Roberge did. Regardless, I look forward to guiding him as he becomes a young man.
Without further ado, here's the part everyone has been waiting for: Photos.
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