One month ago today.

            Callum was still eight days away from his due date when we went to see the doc at 12:30. The nurse confirmed our looming fears that Colette's blood pressure was high, so the doc said we should go to the hospital and check ourselves in. She said she would call and let them know we were coming. We asked if it would be ok if we went home first to grab our pre-packed hospital gear and the doc said sure. Colette was hungry and we knew there was a chance once we got checked in she wouldn't be allowed to eat, so we went to the first fast food place we saw to save time. We idled in KFC drive-thru waiting for her food. I ate some of her fries.

            I remarked to Colette on the way home that it was slightly odd and more than a little unnerving that we were at the moment driving AWAY from the hospital where we are supposed to check in.

             I called my dad and told him it was go time, and he said something like, "It's happening right now? It's going to be today?" I optimistically replied yes he will be born today, all the while hoping I was right.

            We grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital at about two. Once in triage the receptionist said that no, she had not received a call and we should have a seat. I called the doc's office and said they needed to send the call so we could get things moving, all the while I am thinking of Colette's blood pressure and how not much was being done about it. Also, I was pretty sure the KFC was not helping in that department either.

            After about 20 minutes, we were admitted and then proceeded to sit in a room for over an hour while the staff did nothing but take out billing information (priorities). It wasn't until some time after that that a nurse came in and hooked Colette up to a machine. The nurse's were not friendly and somewhat dismissive, we could hear them gossiping outside of the curtain while we worried something was wrong with Colette and the baby. It was a very surreal experience and Colette told me she didn't want to be there anymore, she wanted to go. I agreed, I was also wishing we had driven the extra half hour and delivered at Mercy Gilbert again instead. The more we dealt with St. Joseph's, the more angelic and saintly the Mercy Gilbert staff seemed. 

            We finally got into a room which was the temporary room before going to the floor with the permanent rooms of which there were none available. Feel free to re-read that sentence again. At about 5 pm they made the decision to give her the Pitocin and Colette and I knew we had not dodged the bullet this time. Thanks to reviewing my texts to Grandpa Doug, I see that Colette was on ever-increasing doses of Pitocin up to 9:40 when they manually broke her water with something that looked like a large bubble blowing wand without a hoop at the end. 

            Colette started having very painful contraction and the anesthesiologist (I totally typed that without using autocorrect) was on his way. I should at this point out that the nurse we had while in the room before the room that was full, Megan, was awesome. She was a small blonde girl that looked like she belonged on roller skates bringing you a Route 44 Cherry Limeade and tater tots from Sonic and not helping you deliver a baby. She was a very type A, organized nurse who had a really nice bedside manner and we felt very happy to have her.

            Ok so, the epidural was in route, only they had to give Colette two HUGE bags of saline before he could administer it. I watched that bag drip with the scrutiny of a jeweler's eye, willing it into her so she could stop feeling the mega-contractions from the Pitocin. Finally the cursed fluid was gone and wouldn't you know it? The anesthesiologist was with another patient. Colette was super unimpressed with this, and she started to become very agitated and worried. After a painful 20 minutes he showed up and very soon Colette was feeling much better, and I could finally breathe again.

            Not soon after Colette said she was seriously feeling the urge to push. An on-call doc showed up, this time a girl, I'm sorry, woman, who again looked WAY too young to be a doctor anywhere but on TV. She seemed super not interested in delivering the baby and a little anxious. Our doc was paged and said she would be there in 15 minutes. A storm began outside the window and there was this neat moment when we all stopped thinking about the baby for a second and marveled at the sound of the rain against the window. 

            The doc was, of course, late, and after a half hour Colette was HIGHLY motivated to get the baby out but Megan kept telling her to not push. Finally the doc burst in with a tale of how her power was out and she couldn't get her car out of the garage so she had to take her husband's. Lightning flashed and I thought how cool is it to be born during a storm? It reminded me of the old stories and legends you read in mythology. I asked Colette if we should give him a viking name. She declined to comment. (Sorry Callum, it could have been Ragnar Stormbringer)

            The doc got there at 11:15; by 11:24 Callum was in the world. It took her three rounds of pushing and there he was. I cut the cord, (this time I was not per-occupied with trying to record the baby's cries with my phone) and because there was no meconium like with River, Colette got to hold him for at least fifteen minutes before they took him and weighed him. There was a comical moment when the nurses were bossing me around, "Take a picture! No, get the scale so you have the weight!" It was very funny to me to have a room full of women bossing me around. Callum and I were slightly outnumbered in that room.

      

      Callum came in at 11:24 PM, 6 pounds 11 oz 19 inches long, almost identical to his sister's birth stats!

            He was so quiet, even as his first cries came. They weren't weak, just reserved. Even now after a month, he has very reserved cries. For the most part he sits and observes, huddled against his mom in what can only be described as a state of Baby Nirvana, blissful and calm. 

            Callum's first doc visit went really well. The doc said most babies lose their birth weight after the first week, but Callum GAINED weight, almost a pound. He has been eating like a champ and is already out of his newborn diapers! 

            Callum likes to sleep in the daytime currently, which would be fine only everyone else, his sister included, sleeps at night. Mom has been bearing the brunt of the experience, staying up until 5 AM at times with him. She has been doing an amazing job and really is an inspiration to me. She is made of tougher stuff than most people, especially me. I am so very proud of her and I know Callum has already formed a deep and lasting love for her, as we have with him. It is amazing how after only a month you can't imagine your life being any different. All things are as they should be, with mom, dad, daughter and son. It's perfect.

            Everyone is pitching in, even big sister River who helps out with diaper changes and such. While I was at work Colette text me that in the car the baby began to cry and River said, "Oh no, baby! Sing! Nananana!" Awesome.

            As I said once before in another post of this nature, the rest is blurry. We moved to another room on a different floor, we ate a lot of bad cafeteria food, we watched worse TV and we tried to sleep. Unlike last time, I was itching to leave ASAP. 

  So much has happened and it's just as it was before and yet so much is different because there are more Tejedas running around than before. Bill Cosby said once that you're not a "real" parent until you have two children, and although I completely disagree, I feel the true meaning of the statement is more along the lines of, "You think one was challenging? You ain't seen nothing yet!" But I think if we are not ready, we will be, because children are more than your legacy, more than just the bearers of your family name. Our children are quite literally the future of the world, and it's the parent's job to do the best we can to be sure our children leave this world a better place than how they found it. How we do that exactly is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but I have hope, and I believe all good things at their core come from love, and there is no greater love in my heart than the love I have for my children.

James 

09-14-2012 12:46 PM.