The Timeline

Tuesday, June 17
4:30am - Kathy wakes up with "cramps" and moves to the living room to read a book to see if she can get drowsy again.
5:30am - Giving up on sleep, Kathy showers and dresses while her "cramps" intensify and come with increasing regularity. She has her regularly-scheduled appointment with her Ob, Dr. Atkins later in the day.
6:45am - I make the executive decision that I will not go to work, and need to get her to the hospital to Triage, and make them tell us that these "cramps" are not contractions and send us home if they're not.
7:15, 7:18, 7:24, 7:28, 7:32, 7:39 - The times more "cramps" begin during our drive to the hospital, which I quickly reserve to memory to tell the nurses inside.
8:30am - Kathy's "cramps" are deemed contractions, she is dilated 0.5cm and is hooked up to monitors for observation.
9:50am - On orders, we begin walking the halls to see if Kathy will dilate more.
11:00am - Kathy is dilated just over a 1, and we are told to continue walking as this approach is apparently working.
1:30pm - Kathy dilates between 2 and 3 and we are officially admitted, while nurse has some "bloody show" during exam. We are assigned room 2331.
4:45pm - After doing more and more walking with her mother Joan, Kathy now dilates at 4. Four centimeters in 8 hours doesn't impress the doctor and we are given options for inducing, having her water broken, as well as getting an epidural.
6:45pm - As the anesthesiologist readies the epidural, Kathy's water magically breaks on its own. Epidural is administered.
9:00pm - Kathy dilates between a 5 and 6. Contractions are getting harder and closer together.
9:45pm - Rangers defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-5. Hey - it was a long day that was going to get longer. Yes, the TV was on, and yes these are my notes.
10:30pm - Doctor begins an IV drip of patocin to increase contractions.
11:45pm - for the first time, we meet Dr. Mary Finke, the ObGyn on call at Arlington Memorial Hospital this night. She checks Kathy, who is now dilating between 7 and 8. The delivery table is brought into the room.
Midnight - I double-bag the coffee maker on the delivery floor and get a Double Gulp sized styrafoam cup filled with java. It's my third cup of coffee - something that will soon catch up to me.
Wednesday, June 18
12:15am - Kathy is dilated at 9.5cm
1:00am - Kathy is at a full 10cm dilation and we begin to push. On the in-house telephone, I call the family waiting room and leave my receiver off the hook - keeping the line open so I can deliver a crude form of Play-by-Play of the delivery. My mother is on the other end of the line and describing what she hears to others.
2:00am - Dr. Finke determines that if we can push the baby a few more centimeters down the birth canal, she can reach in and salad-tong his head and pull him out.
2:30am - Dr. Finke's goal is adequately reached, as Kathy is near exhaustion pushing and pushing and pushing with every contraction. Three more nurses arrive, blue sterile sheets are thrown everywhere and Kathy's legs are thrown up in stirrups. Dr. Finke takes a seat in her stool, masked with sterile gowns and gloves. Six eager faces surround the bed and urge Kathy to push.
2:46am - without any pretense, without a head pop-out first, without any real sign of anything, Dr. Finke reaches in and pulls out Kole Kenneth Fletcher. Being up by Kathy's head and with the baby coming out from behind blue sheets from raised legs - I didn't get a clear view of his actual delivery, but the world stopped on its axis when the doctor held him up.
The next 15 minutes was a swirl of emotions, and I can still replay the movie in my head over and over again. Every little kick and wiggle as the nurse cleaned him off. Every cry and jostle as she inked his feet and put them on the birth certificate. His calmness as he contently examined his face and mouth - not the screaming, screeching wails that we've seen on every TV baby-delivery show over the last 9 months. Watching him get wrapped up in a blanket and getting to hold him for a good two minutes before the friends and grandparents came sprinting in like Paparazzi. I took the time to remind him that he has at least 38 back-logged hours of Timeout, handed down by his mother for crimes while in the womb.


More later, eventually. I am seriously dog-whipped. What a day!