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This morning at 9:45AM, Patti gave birth to our third child – a boy. He was 8 pounds 15 ounces and 21 and ½ inches long. We are still debating names so not sure what we are going to call him. Yesterday morning Patti had a doctor’s appointment and she was about 1 CM dilated. She started having contractions around 5PM. With Ethan, our second child, she had a doctor’s appointment in the morning, started having mild contractions in the afternoon and delivered that night around 3:30 in the morning. So I came home from work, we got everything together, had a friend come over while Patti’s mom drove up, and went to the hospital. We were checked in and all settled by 9PM. Patti’s mom made it to our house around 11:30 so we were all set.

Unfortunately Patti was only about 2CM dilated by 9PM. Around 10 they tried to break her water to speed it up (apparently only about 15% of pregnant women break their water outside the hospital) but the procedure didn’t work and was extremely painful to Patti. They gave her a medicine that induces labor and her contractions started to pick up. The baby’s position changed and around midnight they broke her water without any issues and we settled in for the night.

Nothing happened but her contractions started to get more severe. At 4:30 they put the epidural in and that relieved the pain.

At 7:30 I went downstairs to grab breakfast. The night passed slowly but I got a couple of catnaps (I have to look up where that expression came from, because our cat sleeps all the time) and Patti tried to rest. By 8AM Patti was ready.

Our doctor, who also is Patti’s primary care physician and the same one who delivered our other two, decided that Patti was going to start to push around 9. 9AM came and went with me, the doctor and the nurse talking about a number of things from the Blackberry copyright lawsuit to the nation of India. Patti was having severe contractions and we were standing there ignoring her while shooting the breeze. It was kind of funny. Every now and then I would look down and say “you ok?” to Patti while she had a pained expression and was breathing heavy, really focusing on the conversation with the doctor.

Finally at 9:30AM they had Patti do her thing and the baby came out about 10 minutes later. Healthy, 10 fingers 10 toes, cried a little, fed right away, good color and relieved parents. Although this was the third time, I got as nervous as the first time when the doctor said it was time. That is the moment of truth. No matter how hard I pray for everything to go well, when the baby comes out is when things go wrong. Forgot for a minute birth defects that might not have been caught before, there are complications from the delivery that can be severe. And even with the epidural, it hurts for Patti. Not a fun thing. But the second the baby was out, the special nurses had him cleaned and swaddled, the relief ran out of me like a 100 story waterfall. Nothing can describe the extreme sense of pride, satisfaction and overwhelming happiness when we find out everything is ok with the baby and the mom. Tense moments quickly forgotten.

So Patti’s mother is here to help out. My sister is coming in for a few days to help. And then we hope to fall into some sort of controlled chaos for the next 6 months. Sleep, my old friend, I’ll miss you. I have a feeling we will part company for a while.

One other thing. This is our third birth at St. Elizabeth’s in Boston (Brighton). Words cannot describe the level of compassion, professionalism, kindness and genuine concern that the nurses display at this hospital. Emily we had a rough go of the delivery. Ethan was very smooth and this one was without incident. In all cases we have had nurses who treated us like we were the only ones in the world who were having a baby. They showed genuine interest in our lives, the mom and baby’s health and our general well being. It makes a huge difference during what is already a stressful time.

Peace out – Dave

PS. All three of our kids were born on a Thursday.