Here's the story of Sept. 3rd while its fresh in my mind.

     6:30 AM on a Sunday morning and I wake slightly as Colleen gets out of bed. I just thought she was letting the dog (Spot) out to go to the bathroom. 6:50 AM Colleen walks into the bedroom and I ask "What's up?", for which she replies "I think my water broke!".

     "Do you want to go to the hospital now?", I ask. "I think so..." replies Colleen in a casual manner. We slowly start our preparing to go to the hospital while we wait for Mom to come to watch Shauni (our 9½ year old daughter) who is still asleep. It was wierd the way we were both extremely calm during the whole process. Contractions started as 7:04 AM, but were mild. We left for the hospital at 7:15 AM and of course I turned down the wrong street and had to back-track a couple of blocks. On the way to the hospital I timed the contractions at 2 minutes apart, ahhhh, this kid is coming quick.

     Arriving at the hospital's labour and delivery department the doctor gave Colleen a check. She was already 3 cm's dialated. We were moved to a nice big delivery room that was very warm and comfortable. We had a terrific nurse named Dorothy, who was very helpful. Colleen began to have alot of pain, her contractions right on top of each other. She wasn't dialating past 5 cm's though. She finally had enough and let them give her an epideral (I think I spelt it right). After the medicine kicked in, she was calm and in little to no pain. Actually she couldn't feel a darn thing!!

     Her contractions had almost stopped, so they gave her some kinda' drip to make them come back. She couldn't feel them, but knew when they were happening. One minute she was 5 cm then I come back from getting a coffee and she's a whopping 10 cm and ready to start pushing. With a little coaching from Dorothy, I helped Colleen through pushing. 3 pushes per contraction for a count of 10 each. Boy am I good at counting to 10. 1, 2, 3, you get the idea.

     It really didn't take long at all before the doctor finally came in for his 10 minutes of fame. I actually saw everything the doctor did from where I stood beside Colleen. She didn't even break a sweat during the delivery. Jose's head came out without Colleen even noticing. I was asked if I had wanted to cut the cord, but I didn't get that chance as the doctor told Colleen forcefully, "DON'T PUSH!". The ambilicle cord was wrapped around poor little Jose's neck. Everything was moving so fast, I didn't clue in what was going on! I actually watched him cut the cord without realizing that it was wrapped around her little neck. Everything was fine....Jose was wide eyed and looking all around even before she was all the way out at 14:25 (2:25 PM for us normal people).

     The nurse Dorothy was a little concerned because Jose didn't cry much, but she bugged Jose into crying for her once and a while. I actually had to fight a little to get to hold my daughter before my mother who was also there for the delivery. Jose was wide awake for many hours following the delivery and visited with us until I had to take her for her bath. It was a great experience and I'm very happy that mother and baby are doing good. I'm sure Colleen will want to tell her side of the story too, but that will have to wait for a while. Hope you enjoy the pictures of Jose below taken while she was still less than 24 hrs. old.

Keith - 09/04/00

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