Birth Story, Part Three

They whisked Jack over to the baby station, where they cleaned him off and made sure that he was in good working order (because you know the warranty expires as soon as you take him off the lot). Everyone kept motioning for Terry to go to the baby station, but Terry wanted to make sure that I was okay before going over there. Aww! My loving husband! I let him know that I was okay and that he could go over to be with Jack.

In the meantime, despite having just given birth, it turns out that my torture was not over with yet. The doctor was having a very difficult time getting the placenta out and practically had to push her knees into my abdomen to remove it. I’m sure it was an odd sight, in which it looked like my doctor was assaulting me. This all was very painful. And to put the icing on the torture cake, the doctor proceeded to sew me up in a very delicate area, where I could feel each puncture of the needle. Yikes!

Somewhere around this time, my parents showed up in the room with all of the excitement of new grandparents. After Jack was cleaned up, the doctor gave Jack to Terry to hold for the first time. Terry felt a little guilty about holding Jack before I had a chance to, but I didn’t mind. I was so exhausted that it was hard for me to grasp all that was going on.

After a while, I was given Jack to hold for the first time. I remember looking down at him and trying to take in every feature of his little face. This was the face that I had spent nine months wondering about, imagining. It was hard to believe that this was the little guy who had been kicking me in the ribs for the past two months. The little guy who would get the hiccups and make my belly jump rhythmically. The little guy who had made it impossible to bend over to pick anything off the floor. He was foreign, and yet familiar.

While we waited to be moved from the birthing room to the postpartum room, the nurse suggested that I give breast feeding a try. I felt awkward doing it and Jack didn’t seem too interested. I had no idea what we were in for in regards to breast feeding. Overall, I can say that it was a positive experience, but it was definitely hard and painful in those beginning weeks.
During the next couple of days in the hospital, Terry and I tried to get used to our new life. We spent a lot of time staring at the little bear that seemed like an enigma to us. We tried to interpret his little cries, which sounded more like a little bird. Hungry? Wet? Cold? We had no idea, but we tried it all. By Wednesday, we were dying to get out of the hospital and back to the comforts of our home. We checked out of the hospital, packed all of the bags and gifts into the car and drove with such incredible caution home that you would have thought we were carrying a nuclear weapon on board.

When we got home, Merlin and Milo greeted us and the baby with apprehension. They tiptoed around the baby, uncertain of what this thing was doing in their home. It felt so wonderful to be home with all of my boys.