A Year Ago Today, Part Two

A year ago today, Ira was born into this world. Before I recap what I remember from that day let me first say that Laura and I keep saying over and over this morning, "Can you believe it's been a year?" We're a little stunned today. A little emotional. There were many times this past year that we didn't think we would make it to this day with Ira.

At this point last year, I turned over the blogging responsibility to my friend and colleague, Jason. He did a great job of keeping everyone up to speed this time last year. For the details of the day, go back and read this post and others on April 21, 2005.
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My memory is that the action started around 4 a.m. The doctors came to remind us of what the birthing process would be like. We knew this was not going to be the kind of birth we wanted. With Sophia Laura worked hard to have her without meds of any kind (finally, after 14 hours of intense labor, she got a little relief - then 14 hours later, Sophia popped out). We had a midwife instead of a doctor for Sophia's birth. Not this time around and when the doctors came in at 4 a.m. the realization of our situation came to life. This birth was scripted from the beginning and dictated by medicine.

They started the patosin (sp?) at 4 a.m. and later in the morning Laura got an epidural. Several friends and family trickled in and out of the room that morning but then were kicked out when the doctors broke Laura's water at 10 a.m. She labored for some time but it was evident that this would not take 28 hours as it did with Sophia. Five hours and 20 minutes later Ira was born at 3:20 PM.

We thought we would get to take a good look at him before the three doctors standing by whisked him away. But they wasted no time. As soon as he came out and as soon as they cut the cord, the three docs took him and rushed him to the transition room. I remember the look on Laura's face. She was exhausted but also heartbroken that she didn't get to take a good look at Ira. We were both in shock.

I went out to the waiting room where many friends and family waited. I announced Ira's birth and then broke down in my mom's arms. There wasn't much more to say.

An hour later they allowed Laura and I into the transition room. Ira didn't look good. He was not stable. One of our hero's, Dr. Wang, was working his magic trying anything to stabilize Ira. They allowed us in there for only a few minutes. We couldn't touch Ira. I felt limp all over.

They moved him to the NICU floor after a couple of hours. It was then that they decided to put Ira on the oscillator. We were warned about what the oscillator does to a baby. It's a very intense ventilation machine that makes a baby's body shake profusely. The next time we saw Ira he was on that machine and sure enough, his body was shaking.

Laura was moved to another floor. The nurses there were a little annoyed because we spent our time on the NICU floor. They needed to do all their post-birthing work on Laura but she was never there. We were with Ira.

We finally did get back to Laura's room that Thursday night. Ira was still not stable. It would be the first of many nights that we would cry ourselves to sleep...