She's finally here! Part I

Akemi Juliet Fu was finally delivered into this world on January 28 at 1:37 PM (PST). She weighed 7.03 lbs and was 20 1/4 in long.



This is my (Jonathan) first post on this blog and I am doing as a new father. The last 72 hours have been quite intense. In some ways I felt I was ready and in others--I was just totally unprepared.



It all started Tuesday morning at 1:20AM. Karen nudged me from my sleep and told me she was starting to have contractions. Prior to then, she had been having mild contractions, but very far apart. We began recording their frequency and duration on a note pad. For the next 5 hours, we rotated between sitting in our bed to watching TV in the living room. The contractions were not consistent, ranging from 4-12 minutes apart and sometimes 30 seconds, up to 60 seconds long. We even called our doctor who advised us that we should try to stay home until they were 5 minutes apart, 1 minute in duration, and in this pattern for at least an hour.



By 5:30am or so, they started to get very intense and Karen had about 4-5 in a row that were less that 5 minutes apart. By that time I could tell she was in an incredible amount of pain. When the contractions hit, her body just become rigid and she could not move. I won't even pretend to understand or fathom what she went through. It was time to go.



We got to the hospital and waited in the triage room so we could be evaluated. There was a slight chance that we could be sent home if she was not dilated enough. But not surprisingly, she was already 4 cm which was good enough for us to stay. So we were checked in and moved to a "delivery" room. There she got her IV, was plugged into a bunch of machines that would monitor her and our baby's vital signs.



The next 2 1/2 hours seemed liked an eternity. We knew from the start that she was going to have an epidural. But she had to wait for a bit because the had to check her first to make sure she was far enough along to get the epidural and because the anaestician was not immediately available.

I have to mention here that we had taken a lamaze class which taught us all kinds of breathing techniques to help cope with the pains. But I have to admit, it was still very hard to watch my wife endure the pain. I felt very helpless as well as frustrated. I wanted to go hunt down the anaestician and drag him into the room.

He did finally show up and by 8:30, Karen got her epidural and was able to relax and even take short naps. For me--it was a very slow time as I really could do nothing. I watched TV, tried talking to her, but for the most I was actually kind of bored. At the same time I was very anxious because I just wanted to the delivery process to start. I wanted to see my daughter!

Finally around 12:30 the nurse checked Karen again and determined she was dilated enough to begin the "pushing" stage. Now this is where it is NOT like it is in the movies. There was no screaming (since Karen had her epidural) and for the most part, I could not tell what was happening. For the next 45 minutes or so, it was all in internal struggle to get the baby to "drop" to a low enough position for the doctor to do the final delivery.

Now the final delivery took my by surprise. There were several things I had made very clear to Karen that I was not going to do at the time of delivery:
1) I was not going to look at the "crowning" of the head (this is where you see the tip of the head coming out).
2) I was not going to cut the umbilical cord
3) I was not going to look at the placenta coming out

I ended up doing all three. Surprisingly I did not faint or feel a gag reflex. Perhaps it was just "being in the moment" and all those "fears" just go away.

My focus was to see my daugther. And when she finally came out, it was an amazing experience. I still am not really able to describe the feeling. I personally was overwelmed with emotion. I'm sure part of it was due to sleep deprivation, but I think alot of it just the build from the anticipation, stress, and excitement. We've had alot of friends and family supporting us throughout her pregnancy. My family especially was very excited about having daughter. The last two weeks have been filled with text messages, emails, and phone calls asking if Karen had given birth yet. I know it sounds silly, but I think Karen and I almost felt a certain amount of pressure to meet everyone's expectations!

Anyways--it was an intense experience going through labor and delivery with Karen. I was very proud of her because she always stayed focused and never complained. I felt a bit proud myself because we had finally made it. My daughter was finally here!

But alas...it was on the beginning!!