Paul's Version of the birth story

Paul finally wrote his version of our birth story a couple of weeks ago. Actually I typed it (word for word) while he spoke... Here is it!

We were up late Friday night visiting Janelle and Benjamin. It was starting to snow when we left their place, it was after midnight. Mandy was starting to have labor pains, I was getting nervous because it was snowy and we were tired. Labor pains were continuing and we didn't go to bed. We called the midwife and Jenny. Midwife suggested the warm bath to try to slow things down. A few calls going back and forth. This lasted roughly until 3 a.m. After the bath we were laying in bed and just fell asleep. I remember distinctly thinking it was going to happen and it didnt.

On Saturday we just hung out at home all day, we knew the Coop was going to come at any point. I don't remember what we did that day. Did we rent a movie? We couldn't have rented a movie because we didn't go out. I don't remember what we did, but we stayed home all day. Then we went to bed around midnight. We were watching All My Children before bed. About 3 o'clock Mandy started having labor pains, called the midwife, ran bath. The pains were really bad compared to the night before. Mandy just wanted to run the bath but the midwife said "come on in" so I told Mandy we were going in. We were rushing around getting everything Mandy had packed into the car. She had everything packed we just had to put it in the car.

I remember it was kind of an icy night that night. I was nervous as hell. I didn't know what else to do. We started driving and Mandy was telling me to drive faster and faster and it was icy and I saw I police car. We heard a Little River Band song on the radio. It was either Lonesome Loser or Cool Breeze. I think it was Lonesome Loser. That's the song that makes us thing of Cooper. It couldn't have been Cool Breeze, had to be Lonesome Loser.

The pains didn't seem to be as bad in the car, but they were at regular intervals. You wanted out (Looking at Coop). We got to the hospital and got checked in very quickly. It was very quick. We went to triage, I don't think we were there that long. Mandy was 7 cm dilated. Then we went to the labor and delivery room.

i was standing to mandys right, jenny was to my right. The midwife was to Mandy's left. all of us were coaching Mandy. The midwife tells us to shut up and let her coach mandy. I remember looking around the room seeing a lot of ppl standing around the room, and some people are yawning. i remember thinking "who the hell are these people that are yawning?" Then the dr. came in. We didn't know who he was. They were telling Mandy to push and count to 10 three times every minute, something like that, it seemed like a lot. Mandy was dozing between pushes, sleeping pretty much. Gave her enough energy to push, and she was really trying to push, her face was really turning red while pushing. Jenny suggested squating but the midwife came up with some reason why it wasn't going to be effective. They all just seemed to be in such a hurry. The midwife kept saying "The baby wants to come out" of course the baby wants to come out damnit, we knew that. That's not a medical term. She also kept telling Mandy to get angry, just to make her push harder.

The dr. wanted to use the vacuum extraction. I think I asked about the pressure that is used and he responded annoyingly, like I was an annoyance. They had to do the episiotomy, I remember that, just before coop came out. Jenny said she saw the head. before we knew it we saw the coop come out. I was so excited to see him. I remember him coming out.

Mandy had him for a few minutes and they took him away. I went with Cooper, they had him over there too long, doing this and that, Vita K shot, stuff in eyes, foot prints. I got foot prints on my arm. Mandy kept asking when the baby was coming back. I kept asking when they were taking him back to my wife, they kept saying they had to do all this stuff. Mommy tried to breastfeed Coop.

Oh, I cut the cord. that's right. That was before they whisked the baby away. It wasn't that big of a deal, not like I thought. I cut the life blood to mommy.

It was nice to have peace and quiet, which was nice.