Feeling right at home

Things at home have gone well. Mom and Dad are adjusting to a schedule with less sleep. Lucy is adjusting to life on the "outside" pretty well too. Thanks to everyone who has shown their love and support recently. We appreciate it very much.

I promised more details last week so here we go.

First of all, many more folks have asked about the car seat inspection than I would have ever guessed. You'll be glad to hear daddy installed everything just right! The guy at the fire department was impressed actually. Shoot me an email if you need help installing a car seat. I'll be glad to walk you through it.

Ok, here's what happened on September 11, 2006. Heather woke me up about 3 a.m. and declared that she had been having contractions for the last hour(!). We flipped on the light and timed them over the next hour to see how regular they were. Sure enough they were coming at regular intervals, but weren't too intense or too close together. Somehow we both managed to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours.

When daylight broke the contractions had diminished. I went to the office to see if I could tie up any loose ends--thinking it might be a while before I could check in again. When I got back Heather's contractions had started up again. By lunch they were pretty strong and regular.

Heather wanted a natural birth and wanted to stay at home as long as possible. Paris, our doula, was on her way over to the house to help. By 2:45 p.m. Heather felt we should head to the hospital. I intercepted Paris en route to our house and suggested she meet us at the hospital instead.

The nurses explained later that they were prepared to send us home the minute they saw us come in. A woman that relaxed was not in hard labor. In triage however, they determined that not only was Heather in labor, but that things were moving at quite a clip. Paris joined us in triage.

The great thing about CMC (Carolinas Medical Center) Pineville is that you labor, deliver and recover in the same room. It's like a hotel suite. Heather was drawn to their jacuzzi hot tubs. She never got a chance to get in.

Forty-five minutes later, Lucy joined us to a crowd of cheering nurses. Amazing. I was the lone man in a room full of amazing women who made this happen. The OB, Dr. Bajaj was fantastic in supporting Heather's desires to go "natural." Paris was a fantastic coach and calming influence. This is the portion of the story where words fail. Amazing. Hooray for Heather and Lucy. They were my heroines that day.