Ian's Delivery

He's here! He's here!

But what's the story behind him getting here? Read on.

All dressed out in my bunny suit, I walked down the hall beside Theresa's bed and we made it to the operating room. She got wheeled in while I was instructed to wait outside until they called me in. All this was right around 11pm.
I sent some texts to family letting them know it would all be happening pretty soon. The last one I sent was to Rich and Chi at 11:02pm saying I'd be going in soon. So many thoughts going through my head right now. I'm about to be a daddy.

While I'm waiting outside the room, I hear a lot of noise coming from the inside. First I hear some retching, which I take to be Theresa which can't be good. Then there's a lot of noise and commotion from the doctors and everyone else in the room. Finally I see a bunch of people running down the halls and then into the operating room. Uh oh. This can't be good. I'm waiting outside with no one telling me what's going on and just trying to keep calm and hope for the best.

Theresa was inside and filled me in later about what was going on. Remember how earlier I said Baby Boy didn't like Theresa positioned on her back. Well that didn't change when she got wheeled into surgery either. When they got to the operating room and hooked the baby up to the monitor, his heart rate was down in the 70s when it should be in the 140s. As they moved T over to the operating table, it didn't get any better. A baby can only last for so long with such a low heart rate until they just give up. That's when they called a crash c-section. Doctors came running in to take care of the baby as soon as he came out, and insted of their normal surgical prep, the nurse told me they just splash betadine on Theresa's belly and start going in. Basically the baby needs to come out NOW!

One of the nurses asked if the father could come in. The surgeon said if he's right outside the door and can come in immediately then yes, otherwise there's no time. Nurse Lori came to the door and said "Come inside now! Walk right in, don't touch anything blue and sit in the chair." Luckily I was ready to go. I jumped up and followed her in. 

Inside I see Theresa on a table, lots of people around her and a curtain blocking her face. On the other side of the curtain is Theresa's head with a small chair beside her. I sit down and Theresa's not doing too well. She's shaking a little bit and she's already thrown up down her gown. I tell her that she's doing great and we can only hear more commotion going on south of the curtain. 

Within a minute we hear, "We've got him!" and I hear some small whimpering sounds coming from the other side of the curtain. I turn to Theresa and say "Can you hear him?!? That's our son!!!" I don't know if Theresa could hear but I was excited and starting to tear up. I'm just so filled with emotion I'm about to bust.

They pick up him and move him over to a warming table. There's so many people surrounding him I can hardly see him. They say "Dad you can come over here if you want". I felt bad leaving Theresa, but I was so excited to be with my boy. I told Theresa I had to go over and be with him, but I'd be back.

Not sure if you can tell, but definitely have watery eyes and a huge smile behind the mask.

Theresa's looking over this way, but can't see much of anything with everyone surrounding him.

He's on a warming table with tons of hands around him, but I'm able to stand behind them and see him. They're cleaning out his nose and mouth and giving him a rating from 1-10 on how healthy he looks. He got an 8/10 for having blue hands and feet, but otherwise he's in good shape.

They say I can come closer and since he's got such a good rating, a few of the doctors start peeling off. The room in general gets a bit more calm after he comes out.

I get a picture of him while he's laying on his table and walk back over to Theresa. She hasn't really seen him yet, so I show him a picture of our beautiful boy. All the while I'm telling her how amazing she's doing and how amazing he is. 

I go back over to him and they ask if I'd like to cut the umbilical cord. Um, of course. One of them even offers to take my camera while I do it. Sweet! He's not too squirmy and i get through it no problem.

Good thing he's under the heat lamp. Otherwise he'd be chilly.

I ask if he has hair and they pull back his cap to show his head. He's got some very fine brown hair but his head is the main thing. He's got a serious cone-head going on from T pushing him before. He looks beautiful though. Poor guy. He was trying to come out the normal way but just couldn't fit. He's got a red spot on his forehead from getting stuck while Theresa was trying to push him out.

After that, it's just a couple of us looking at him. I ask the doctor at his head whether I'm allowed to touch him. He just tells me, "He's your son." Wow. So much weight to those words that again I just start tearing up. 

I hold his hand for a little bit then put my hand on his tiny chest. He looks so perfect just laying there, and I'm just so thankful he's here and he's healthy. I'm here for you buddy. Whatever you need.

The nurse picks him up and takes him over to Theresa and she get's her first good look at him. 

After a few minutes a doctor asks me to swap spots. She gets him naked and we get his weight. 8 pounds 7 ounces. With his cone head he's 21" long (even though you'll see 20" listed on his card from here on out). Technically he was 53.3cm long which is 20.984 inches but we'll just call that 21".

The doctor confirms that we want silver nitrate for his eyes, then smears it in his eyes. Next it was time for his vitamin K shot. He didn't even cry when he got it. He also gets his tags installed. There are 4 bands all with matching numbers. He gets one on both feet, then I get one and Theresa gets one. This whole ordeal has probably been an overload on his system. I stand by him for a little longer and then I hear Theresa asking where her husband is. She's having a hard time with the surgery and not doing too good and needed me to be beside her. I told our boy I'd be back to see him but I needed to be with mom right now.

I came over to Theresa's head on the curtain side and hold her hand and stroke her hair, but sometime while I was gone, my chair had disappeared. Fine with me because I was tall enough to see over the curtain to see what the surgeons were doing with Theresa. They've got a few organs on the outside of her and are putting stitches in them. I see them vacuum blood as it seeps around and I'm pretty much intrigued by the whole thing. After a couple minutes of watching though, one of the surgeons looks up and sees me looking over the curtain. They ask if I can sit back down and I tell them someone took my seat but that I'm fine. They ask someone to find my chair and suggest that I sit back down.  Aww.  I wasn't going to pass out or anything. Oh well.

Back down by Theresa's head, she's really not doing good. The cocktail of drugs they've got going through her system have messed her up. She's dry heaving and shivering uncontrollably. She can feel the doctors tugging on her organs up towards her chest and it's not feeling good. Her whole body is shaking, her teeth are chattering and her jaw is tensed up. I try to hold her hand and have her breathe slowly to try to calm down. She's asking the anethesiologist how much longer, how much longer. He's says they're doing it right so it'll take as long as it needs to.

While I'm beside her, one of the nurses has bundled up our son and brought him over to me. Here we are, our entire family together for the very first time. Me holding him up beside Theresa's head and we're all together. T still can't control her shivering and they keep trying different cocktails to calm her down so the surgeons can close her up. Finally a little while later, the doctors have finished accounting for all the tools they used and T is sewn back up. 

The anethesiologist asks if our baby boy has a name yet, and he's the very first person we've told his name to. Theresa has had this name picked out since high school. Back then she had said IF we get married and IF we have a son, I'd like him to be called...

Ian Robert Flowers.

A name that was 15 years in the waiting. Ian just because she likes the name. Robert I had some input in. It's my dad's name and I can't think of a better person for him to be named after.

They start piling warm blankets on top of Theresa and then we start getting ready to head out the door. But before we can go, Theresa finally gets to hold Ian beside her. 

You can tell from her face that she's relieved and excited. It was only after she was able to hold him that she finally stopped all her shivering. 

We start walking down the hallway and we check the time. It's just after midnight. She's finished surgery in under an hour.  His official time of birth was 11:06pm.

What happened after that? We'll cover that in the next post.