Firsts

First blog, first post, and oh yeah...first baby.

I know that too much shouldn't be made of the unveiling of this blog. After all, I'll probably do it for a couple of weeks, see something else shiny and drift out to sea. In the meantime though, I offer you an all access pass to the Oak Lair.

About a week and a half ago my wife and I met our daughter for the first time. Throughout the pregnancy there was no shortage of baby/labor/delivery advice and testimony from friends, family, books, tv, etc. I was starting to form a pretty good picture of what it was going to be like as we approached blast off. As it turned out, we could've just gone ahead with our carefree, know-nothing-about-childbirth lifestyle.

Tuesday, April 22nd Jodi woke up with what could be described as a moderate pre-labor discomfort. As the morning wore on, she became more and more uncomfortable, but not in a way that was consistent with contractions described by the books/classes/nurses. At any rate, the pain was becoming pretty hard to ignore, and it was becoming more apparent that we needed to get to the hospi....TTAAAAAUUUGHL!!

Upon arriving (around 8:20 a.m. or so), Jodi was asked to get into the appropriate attire, during which time she was urged to hurry, as she was displaying some all too familiar behaviors. After being helped onto the bed and hooked up to all necessary monitors, it was soon determined that she was pretty much fully dilated. It was at that time that the nurse said something along the lines of, "Get the doctor in here now!"

Until this moment I had wondered about what exactly I was going to be doing during this process. I figured I would be doing some coaching, some massaging...just generally trying to make Jodi a little more comfortable...all the while sitting safely next to her head. I have to admit, though, that the anticipation of this event and all that it involves had me more than a little anxious.

Fortunately for everyone involved, I didn't really have time to get worked up. As it turned out, Jodi had pretty much done all of the work prior to arriving at the hospital. After pushing through one contraction, Maura Kay Bright was introduced to the world about 15 minutes after we checked in. I can't help but think of how it might've gone down had I gotten pulled over on the way. I kinda wish I was able to tell the story of how my kid squirted down mama's pantleg. I should probably be thankful for the way it actually turned out.

Here are some movies I whipped up...