A Son Is Given, Part 1

Our original due date was June 24, but my wife always believed, for good reason, that June 27 was more realistic. Due to a variety of factors (large babies, broken tailbone on the first child, c-section on the second, etc) the doctor has felt there were some issues at work that might result in another c-section. Tricia, however, very much wanted her body to go into labor when it was good and ready. After a bit of back and forth, we settled on July 3rd as an induction date in case we had not already had the baby.

Last night, we finally went to bed after getting everything in order for the induction the following morning. We were quite disappointed, to say the least. Tricia had tried every little technique to get the labor started (spicy food, caster oil, walking, and other less mentionable…). So we got to bed late, just after midnight, prayed together, and tried to go to sleep. I succeeded pretty quickly.

Tricia, on the other hand, seems to have gone into labor. Around 12:30 a.m. she woke me (does 5 minutes of sleep actually count as sleep?). I reminded her of the general rule that the coach is to be allowed to sleep until things are severe. She left to prowl the house, and I went back to sleep. This time, I got a solid hour of sleep before she shook me awake and told me to “start counting.” Now, for those of you who don’t remember, counting sheep is a common practice used to induce sleep. And it was 1:40 a.m. I made it to 30 or so before losing consciousness. That, apparently, is when she almost slapped me.

Out of a warm sense of love (and a strong fear for my well-being), I got up about 2 minutes later. That was an hour ago, and it looks like that may be the last sleep we get for some time. We’ve both showered and are ready to go to the hospital if things continue on as they are currently progressing. It’s all pretty remarkable. After months of pregnancy and a couple weeks of waiting for labor to begin, it appears to have started less than 7 hours before the induction deadline.

So, if all goes well, this will be my last blog as a father of two…

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