Dustin's Side of Birth Story

I have day dreamed for a while about the excitement of a water break and fast dash to the hospital.  I think I romanticized the idea in my head, and had been awaiting the chance.  A few times leading up to the actual birth I awake to Sarah thrashing and screaming in the middle of the night.  Each time, I jumped up like a rocket and would say, "Is the baby coming???  Did your water break????"  ......Nope she was just having a leg cramp.  Serious charlie horses that I would have to physically bend her foot back to straight to relieve the pain.  Well at 11:58 when the actual time came it was much more subdued and not quite as cool as I thought it would be.  A rather quiet but firm, "Oh my gosh Dustin, I think my water broke......yeah it definetly did."  She walked calmly to the bathroom and I got up and realized I had only slept for an hour 15.  The drive to the hospital was a perilous balance of damned if you do, damned if you don't.  With her contractions coming every 3 minutes and being in discomfort, potholes were not welcome.  Also, turning too fast caused "sloshing" of the baby and was not welcomed.  So if I drove too fast that was bad, and if I drove too slow we wouldn't arrive on time.  I basically didn't drive in any lane, just navigated potholes and slowed down for turns and pulled in to the ER.  From there I grabbed her blankets, pillows, toiletries, clothes, baby clothes, and $42 dollars in snacks and walked behind the wheelchair to the delivery room.  I was pretty sure we had enough to move in for a good month.  In the delivery room they checked and she was 6 cm apart and they called the back up on call anthestiologist and the on call doctor.  I felt pretty helpless so I took to the task of keeping family informed via texts and phone calls.  No one was really awake so I didn't really hear anything from most people until the next morning.  It was 12:45 when we arrived in that room and the epidural guy arrived when she was 7cm.  From here things went like a blur.  While giving her an epidural her contractions were every 2 minutes and her body seized like it was being shocked with those electric pads they revive people with in the movies.  However, it was SO IMPORTANT that she hold still.  An epidural involves shots to the back and then feeding a catheter tube into her spine so they can hook her up to a constant pain med drip right to her spine.  Needless to say there is risk involved in this, you can go paralyzed for life.  So the moment came to feed the tube into her spine and they told her not to move.  I was braced up against her receiving double death grips from her hands and her head resting on my chest.  I was standing and so looked down her head to watch him feed in the tube.  A powerful contraction hits right as they are feeding the tube.  The doctor and nurse tell her to not move, she does some and I wonder if she can hold it or I'm going to be pushing her for walks in a wheelchair with our new baby.  She is screaming out in pain claiming she feels pressure and needs to push.  The nurse looks at me and says, "Sir, are you alright?"  I snap......"AM I ALRIGHT?  SHE'S THE ONE IN LABOR!!!"  The nurse most have seen me lose color because I say this and maybe count to 3 and say "I'm going to pass out"  She guides me down to a chair and Sarah screams the baby is here.  The nurse shoves the anthestiologist out of the way and calls for back up stat!  Nurses pout into the room and position her on her back to push with a tube hanging out of her spine and no pain medicine delivered.  Two nurses peel off on to me hitting me with smelling salts.  Wow!  Not a good smell my body convulses at the hit and I say I'm fine and try to stand up.  I start to go down again!  They guide me to the floor and put a cold rag over my hand.  The charge nurse tells her to give me juice, the lady opens the top on a grape juice container and pours.  It would have worked nice as a face wash/shower, but nothing went into my mouth.  She went back for a straw but it didn't help.  I was laying there thinking seriously?  Dustin your wife needs you the most and you are stuck here on the floor?  My hands felt as though they were operating a jackhammer.  Sarah was dramatically screaming and they were encouraging her to push.  I could hear a brief cry and then knew the baby was out.  I already knew it was a boy but needed to see if he had all his fingers, toes, etc.  I tried to get up and couldn't.  I called for the baby and they brought him down to me while I was on the floor.  Just after that the gurney arrived from the ER to take me out.  I am way to cheap to add that cost to the medical bills, plus I knew I would be down there for hours for nothing.  I told them to just give me 10 minutes and I would be ok.  I was right, with Drew healthy and here and my wife feeling good and no longer in pain it all went away.  For the record, blood does not make me pass out, nor do needles.  I field dressed my first deer at 12 and saw plenty of blood.  Since then I have cut open and dissected cats, minks, fish, sharks, newts, frogs, birds, stingrays, lamprey, turtles, rats, etc. and went to a human cadaver lab in Illinois and reached into dead carcasses to pull out and pass around body parts.  Not even the slightest twinge in my stomach, unfazed.  Now that I have salvaged a little bit of my man card I have to say that happened because I was worried about Sarah.  I didn't want her to be paralyzed, I hated hearing her in pain, I was scared for her, I mean the doctor wasn't even there (the nurse delievered.) and so much was still unknown about Drew and his health.  After word Sarah was a champ refusing even Tylenol and we both were up for an extra 4 hours running on sheer adrenaline.  I have taken much slack for passing out, but really you have to have thick skin to be a Verpooten.  Thanksgiving and Christmas is full of jabs and embarassing stories that would make the weak crumble.  My uncle Arthur has spoken about an incident regarding me crying over a cheeseball in 1984 every year since its occurrence.  I'm just glad he has a new story to come at me with now:)