{"id":237,"date":"2004-03-25T21:14:57","date_gmt":"2004-03-26T05:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2004\/03\/25\/d-day-delivery-day\/"},"modified":"2004-03-25T21:14:57","modified_gmt":"2004-03-26T05:14:57","slug":"d-day-delivery-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2004\/03\/25\/d-day-delivery-day","title":{"rendered":"D\u2011Day (Delivery Day)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Our first child, Dana Marie Davis, arrived March 25, 2004 at 4:03pm PST. She was 6 lbs 7 oz, and 18\u2033 long. Ten fin\u00adgers, ten toes, the whole bit.<\/p>\n

Deliv\u00adery was actu\u00adal\u00adly very easy for Paula. From the time she start\u00aded push\u00ading until the time of deliv\u00adery took less than an hour. To top it off, Paula felt rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly lit\u00adtle pain through\u00adout. We\u2019re still count\u00ading our bless\u00adings and thank\u00ading every\u00adone who prayed in that direc\u00adtion!<\/p>\n

See pho\u00adtos of Dana<\/a> in our gallery.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the essen\u00adtial outline\u2013if you want the blow-by-blow, read more.<\/p>\n

I actu\u00adal\u00adly wrote most of the fol\u00adlow\u00ading at the hos\u00adpi\u00adtal (yes, I brought my lap\u00adtop with me\u2013it amused the nurs\u00ades, I think), so please for\u00adgive the verb tens\u00ades.
\n
\nWe\u2019re hav\u00ading our baby at Sequoia Hos\u00adpi\u00adtal<\/a>. It\u2019s a very good hos\u00adpi\u00adtal, espe\u00adcial\u00adly for women\u2019s health issues<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n

Check\u00ading in was a breeze\u2014the nurs\u00ades and staff were extreme\u00adly friend\u00adly and help\u00adful. The room is nice\u2014it\u2019s well dec\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded and com\u00adfort\u00adable. There\u2019s even a lit\u00adtle roll\u00adaway bed for me to sleep in.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a lit\u00adtle weird\u00aded out when I learn that this is the actu\u00adal room the baby will be born in. I guess that\u2019s what they do now\u2014keep the moth\u00ader in one place and have the dad help.<\/p>\n

Paula is hooked up to some mon\u00adi\u00adtor\u00ading devices and a short Fil\u00adipino nurse sticks her head in the door and says, \u201cDid you know you\u2019re hav\u00ading con\u00adtrac\u00adtions? A lot of them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paula shakes her head no\u2014she\u2019s not feel\u00ading any\u00adthing.<\/p>\n

The nurs\u00ading staff seems pret\u00adty amazed by this, but the machines show that Paula\u2019s con\u00adtrac\u00adtions are indeed com\u00ading quite reg\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly.<\/p>\n

We go to sleep.<\/p>\n

In the morn\u00ading Paula is still con\u00adtract\u00ading, and still not feel\u00ading any\u00adthing. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, the same can\u00adnot be said for her encounter with the IV. She\u2019s got small, mobile veins and is pret\u00adty hard to stick. It\u2019s very unpleas\u00adant.<\/p>\n

The doc\u00adtor showed up around 9am and broke her water.<\/p>\n

Paula start\u00aded to feel the con\u00adtrac\u00adtions after that, but the nurs\u00ades were still sur\u00adprised at how lit\u00adtle Paula felt.<\/p>\n

Then they start\u00aded to hurt. Paula asked for and received some painkillers, and con\u00adtin\u00adued hav\u00ading reg\u00adu\u00adlar con\u00adtrac\u00adtions.<\/p>\n

Our rather sassy nurse (not the Fil\u00adipino, this one is a white girl from Philly who is quite hap\u00adpy that Stan\u00adford got bumped from the NCAA tour\u00adna\u00adment) stopped in and dis\u00adcov\u00adered that Paula was pro\u00adgress\u00ading pret\u00adty far. Long sto\u00adry short, she got the epidur\u00adal and then things real\u00adly start\u00aded to hap\u00adpen.<\/p>\n

I remained in the room, and helped coach Paula through the deliv\u00adery process (by which I mean that I told a lot of jokes dur\u00ading the deliv\u00adery). For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, I only threw Paula out of her groove once. I was real\u00adly restrain\u00ading myself, too. )<\/p>\n

I saw things I will not speak of and am glad that I did not record.<\/p>\n

And then I met Dana. That was cool. Paula start\u00aded cry\u00ading with joy as soon as she saw her head and heard her cry.<\/p>\n

I then learned that they don\u2019t slap the baby on the butt any\u00admore (at least in the Unit\u00aded States\u2013evidently doc\u00adtors in oth\u00ader coun\u00adtries still do it, and it can be quite shock\u00ading to Amer\u00adi\u00adcan nurs\u00ades when there\u2019s a vis\u00adit\u00ading doc\u00adtor).<\/p>\n

I called my par\u00adents and told them the name and then invit\u00aded Paula\u2019s par\u00adents to come in from the hall\u00adway (I fig\u00adured since they got to see her first I\u2019d give my par\u00adents hon\u00ador of first noti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion).<\/p>\n

My ini\u00adtial impres\u00adsions of Dana? She\u2019s qui\u00adet for a baby. At least, that\u2019s how it strikes me\u2013she does\u00adn\u2019t cry much (a fact that Paula and I are des\u00adper\u00adate\u00adly hop\u00ading proves to be a ten\u00adden\u00adcy). She\u2019s also very active and squirmy. She near\u00adly turned her\u00adself over sev\u00ader\u00adal times.<\/p>\n

Which of us does she resem\u00adble most? Whichev\u00ader of us has red blotchy skin, a pres\u00adsure-mis\u00adshapen skull, and no teeth.<\/p>\n

Seri\u00adous\u00adly, I\u2019ve been told that she has my nose. I feel for her\u2013what daugh\u00adter wants to have a promi\u00adnent facial fea\u00adture that was clear\u00adly derived from her father?<\/p>\n

Side note\u2013this hos\u00adpi\u00adtal has some real\u00adly cool secu\u00adri\u00adty fea\u00adtures for babies. For instance, every baby is giv\u00aden an elec\u00adtron\u00adic tag that sounds an alarm if it is removed, tak\u00aden off the floor, or giv\u00aden to the wrong moth\u00ader by mis\u00adtake. There are all these sen\u00adsor tiles in the ceil\u00ading that track the babies, and if they\u2019re tak\u00aden off the the floor all the ele\u00adva\u00adtors are locked down auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly. I think nin\u00adjas appear out of the laun\u00addry chutes, too, but I could\u00adn\u2019t get the nurse to con\u00adfirm that last detail.<\/p>\n

Any\u00adway, I\u2019m pret\u00adty tired (but nowhere near as beat as Paula, I\u2019m sure), and so I\u2019ll stop now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our first child, Dana Marie Davis, arrived March 25, 2004 at 4:03pm PST. She was 6 lbs 7 oz, and 18\u2033 long. Ten fin\u00adgers, ten toes, the whole bit. Deliv\u00adery was actu\u00adal\u00adly very easy for Paula. From the time she start\u00aded push\u00ading until the time of deliv\u00adery took less than an hour. To top it \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cD\u2011Day (Deliv\u00adery Day)\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-3P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}