A Baby Story

Friday morning, at 5:45 am, Christina woke me up to tell me her water had broke. Her water was a little cloudy, which means that Dillon had a bowel movement. I had her call the Birthing Center as I hopped in the shower.

Twenty minutes and a few phone calls to our parents later and we were headed to the hospital. At this point Christina had not had any contractions so I was preparing myself mentally for a long day.

Flashing forward to noon, Christina was only 4 centimeters dilated. Her contractions were still manageable but she was very nauseous and frequently vomiting. The nurse was hesitant to give her a spinal injection (aka happy medicine) because one common side effect is an upset stomach.

Around 2 pm Christina's window (5 centimeters) was open for a spinal. Surprisingly, the spinal made Christina's vomiting go away. The pain from her contractions were also gone.

As her spinal began to wear off, the nurse noticed there were signs pointing to the umbilical cord potentially being wrapped around Dillon. She was able to know this by observing Dillon's heart rate during the contractions. His heart rate was normally anywhere between 130 to 150 but would dip to as low as 50 during some contractions. She monitored this closely as Christina's contractions grew closer together.

At 5 pm Christina received her second spinal of the day. Unfortunately, this one made her sick and she would be vomiting through the rest of the evening.

Christina finally dilated to 10 centimeters around 7 pm. The nurse called the doctor and Christina began pushing. Dillon still had a ways to drop before he would be delivered. The doctor said it could take 2-3 hours of pushing before the baby could come out.

During pushing, Dillon's heartrate was continuing to drop to the low 50s. At 8:15 the doctor said that Christina was going to have an emergency c-section.

As the doctor and nurses prepared Christina for surgery, I updated all our family in the waiting room.

Twenty minutes later Dillon was born. (A side note: the nurse was right about the umbilical cord. It was wrapped around his neck twice.)

It took Christina 3 hours for her to recover due to the hard labor and the third spinal of the day (for the c-section). During that time all the family came in to get their first look at Dillon. Tears, laughter, and hugs were all shared during the joyous time.

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Below are some of our favorite pictures so far in Dillon's first week of life.

I never knew how much newborns sleep. This little guy sleeps at least 16 hours a day.


Nothing wakes this boy up, not even a turtle nibbling on his ear.


Dad's favorite picture.


Someone is not very happy with Grandma. I had the same expression when I found out the Lakers had traded Shaq to the Heat for fifty cents on the dollar.