He's Here!

Remy James was born at 5:13 on 6/14, weighing 8 lbs, 14.8 ounces, and measuring 21.5" long. We came home one day later and everyone is doing great!

Birth Story:
On Saturday, the agency rep called to tell me the birth mom (M) would be induced on Sunday morning, and she asked if I'd like to be in the delivery room. Wow! Yes, I said, what an honor. I had just a few hours to pack my bags and try to get some sleep. My dad picked up Felix at 6:40 AM the next morning and I headed to the hospital just a few minutes away. This match had been a real roller coaster full of stress and unknowns, and it was hard to be excited because I wasn't sure how it would all play out.

I met M for the first time in the waiting area. She was wearing pajamas and drinking hot chocolate. I stood up and shook her hand, then immediately wondered if I should have gone in for a hug instead. I felt bad that I hadn't brought her Starbucks like I was drinking, but I had wrongly assumed she wouldn't be allowed to eat or drink before being induced.

Also in the waiting area was the agency rep, birth grandma (G) and teenage son (S). I had met G and S prior to delivery day and it was good to see them again. We all felt like we really hit it off after our first meeting a couple of weeks prior.

They took M back to a labor and delivery room and started the pitocin. She invited us all in, so there the four of us sat, talking and playing games on our phones over the next 8 hours while they slowly increased her meds and checked her progress. We shared childhood stories, talked about favorite baby names, and oohed over a few outfits G picked out for the baby.

At one point, G and I compared stories and I quickly learned that the match had been stressful for them, too, due to poor communication on the part of the agency. They wondered if I really wanted the baby! I felt horrible. The whole time, I had hoped they were receiving better treatment than I was. After all, they were the expecting family and I was "just" a waiting parent.

S was so funny. He really wanted to be there, but plugged his ears and hid under a blanket any time a doctor or nurse came in. He didn't want to see or hear anything related to his mother's nether regions. The nurse commented it was probably great birth control for him.

Around 4 PM, contractions started to really pick up and M's water broke. This was the most uncomfortable time for me. M was obviously in more pain with each contraction (waiting for an epidural), and there was nothing we could do for her. There was some meconium in the water, so they told us NICU would be in the room during delivery.

At this point, S decided he will definitely adopt one day, because he would rather just "pick from a list of cute babies" than put his wife through child birth.

Finally the epidural was in place and it was go time! The room filled with doctors and nurses buzzing around. After being steady all day, the baby's heart rate started dropping with each push. And I started to realize how easy it would be to faint watching the birth of a child. I had to stay seated just to keep my composure, with cold, sweaty palms and jitters all over.

Baby was so close to being out, the doctor decided to "go for it" rather than easing into pushing or doing an emergency c-section. So in a couple more pushes, out he came. His head looked abnormally small and he was totally discolored (the cord had been around his neck once), so I was worried. I followed the nurses over to the warming area where they were all exclaiming what a big baby he was! Yep, I had just forgotten what they look like as newborns. His apgars were great and he was wailing within a minute or so. They were able to suction him before he cried, so there were no more worries about the meconium.

We had planned ahead of time that baby would do skin-to-skin with M first, then me. It was an amazing experience. He started out very alert, lifting his head to look around, and ended up resting peacefully. I gave him his first bottle a little while later, and everyone took turns holding him.

I'll have to write about day 2 in another post...

Felix meeting Remy for the first time.

Remy at 2 days old.