Isaac was born January 22, 2010 at 9.09pm. He was 9 pounds, 5 ounces, and 22 inches long. His birth date, birth time and length are all palindromes (01/22/10, 9.09, 22). I mentioned it would’ve been kinda neat if he was 9lbs, 9oz, but Lisa gave me the death stare. I no longer think it would’ve been neat.
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I know it’d be typical to say that the day started as any other, but it didn’t. This day we had two appointments scheduled: an amniotic fluid index and a Birth Center follow-up. The two week date was rapidly closing, and making it to these appointments was not welcome. Lisa was already stressed out, and we had Nora in tow.
Lisa was having irregular contractions the night before, though nothing to write home about. We woke up that day without any sort of preparation that today would be ‘the day’. It was pretty somber.
We went to the AFI. We had yet another glimpse of Isaac; nothing clear enough to see his face. I remember vividly the one image where it looked like he was reaching out to us – his fingers wiggled.
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We immediately headed over to the Birth Center, where Lisa was strapped in to do a non-stress test. Lisa was depressed, and was on the verge of tears when the discussion moved to induction at a hospital. It felt like a lost cause at this point – the machine wasn’t picking up any of the contractions she was having. Worse still, Nora was reaching the end of her toddler patience, and was in a foul mood. Lisa sent Nora and I to procure food at Wawa.
By the time we came back, Lisa was standing outside the Birth Center. Her test ended early as the baby kicked the monitor off of Lisa’s belly. We headed home. On the way home, I decided to drive over every single pothole I could find. In the meantime, Lisa started to have major contractions, but didn’t make much of them as she just had her membranes swept.
We came home, and as we were eating our food, it was fairly obvious Lisa was in a lot of pain. She tried keeping a brave face for Nora. After timing the contractions and a call to the Birth Center, they decided we should come back in. I feverishly packed the last of the items on our list.
We raced to Mare and Michael’s house, where we quickly set up Nora’s car seat and her gear, preparing her to stay overnight. We had been trying to prepare her for weeks prior to this day, and she was actually going along with the plan (thankfully).
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Lisa would have everyone know that I supported her much more this labor than the last one; I believe otherwise. To be quite honest, the whole experience was markedly different. The nurses and midwives were friendlier and much more reassuring. There were more of them, too. At no point were we lacking for support – we had no less than two ultra supportive midwives/nurses by our side at any given moment.
My role was very simple: whenever Lisa had a contraction, she’d throw herself onto me, and bear down. My job was to keep her steady and hold her up through the contraction. This wasn’t a role we had practiced, mind you – it was just how it happened.
You have to keep in mind that Nora’s birth was an epic almost two day labor. This, in contrast, had my head spinning. When I called Lisa’s mom, I told her then that she probably wouldn’t be here before the baby was born. Unlike Nora’s labor, I had really no time to think about anything – Lisa wasn’t locking herself in the bathroom, nor were there long stretches of complete silence. Lisa was clearly in a lot of pain. She moaned. She talked. She didn’t walk around much. She didn’t try many methods of laboring. Most of my attempts of easing her pain were rebuffed (and that’s putting it lightly). I used a massage pin and a cold wash cloth for most of her labor.
Shortly after Lisa’s water broke, she mentioned that felt like she could push. At this point the nurses started prepping for pushing. I kept thinking “now? already? now? my son is coming now?”
They insisted she try laboring on the bed. After the first unsuccessful attempt, she got on her back, and the pushing started in earnest. The nurses exhorted her to push slowly – they were constantly talking her through it giving her instruction in an attempt to reduce the amount of postpartum bleeding. I mopped Lisa’s brow with a cold wash cloth and tried giving her something to hold onto tightly.
And then… there he was. After a few pushes, he was out and on Lisa’s chest. He was blue, and he was mad. After the initial shock on how blue he was, I fell in love with him. Like last time, Lisa bled, so while they stitched her, I took charge of Isaac. By this time, the color had returned to his extremities. My first memory: he swung his arms quite angrily, looking me straight in the eye. It took a few minutes to calm him down.
I couldn’t get over how much he looked like Nora – except he had much larger eyes. And while Lisa insisted (and later, as would everyone else) that he was smaller than Nora, as I held him I didn’t believe it. He took up much more arm space than she did.
He was here. And it was glorious.
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The next few hours were a blur. Lisa’s mom came, then my dad, then Nora and Mare and Michael. We ordered food, we ate, and much to everyone’s consternation I took two naps with Isaac. He easily cuddled right up to me, and we slept pretty soundly.
As of writing this, he still seems to prefer sleeping next to me.
As we were leaving, the nurse gave us a hug. I really appreciated that – she was by our side nearly the whole evening, and we shared all sorts of stories. Nora seemed to take to her.
It was quite an experience.
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When Lisa said that she was having major contractions, I ran up to quickly shower. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was shocked at how happy I looked. All the months of worry and anxiety with respect to having two children disappeared. It was right at that moment I realized that this is precisely what I wanted. I wanted a big boisterous family and siblings for Nora, and we were about to fulfill that. I did a little dance. I sang a little song. I moved faster than I had ever moved in my life.
And now that he’s here, that feeling hasn’t changed. When Nora is whining and he is crying, I’m not annoyed – far from it. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and needs to be bounced, I’m not frustrated. It’s odd, but I really relish moments where I can take care of both of my children. I relish the word children. I relish the phrase my children.
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A family friend I hadn’t spoken to for a couple of years called me recently asking for some help. In the course of talking, she mentioned that she talked to my mother. Apparently my mom is thrilled with Lisa and I as parents.
I’m glad, because I’m thrilled to be a dad.
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