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Daddy's View of Birth Day
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My son, Brice, was born June 21, 2000 at 8:31 p.m. in Chippewa Falls, WI.  He is the coolest little guy I know.  His birth was the first time I'd seen a human birth.  The day he came into the world was amazing.

Bricey, for some reason, didn't want to come out and see the world.  He was about two weeks overdue when we decided to have his mother induced.  When the big day came, I had to miss the morning to work at CarQuest.  Outside it was a little June-sticky, with a gray, overcast sky.  A few streaks of sunlight attempted to peek out, but they weren't too successful.  By the time I arrived at 11:00 a.m., not much had happened.  His mom, Katie, was hooked up to a fetal monitor and had a couple IVs, but she didn't have any contractions, yet.  So we sat and watched one of the Indiana Jones movies.  By 1 o' clock, the little man was starting to move.

Rapidly, the contractions got very painful for Brice's mom.  I felt so helpless because she was in so much agony and I couldn't alleviate the pain.  Hours became compressed into minutes, or it felt that way.  We spent two or three hours waiting for the next contraction to sap Katie of her strength.  Eventually the pain was too much and she asked for an epidural.  When the anesthesiologist came, I remember the overwhelming odor of iodine, used to sanitize her back where the doctor inserted a catheter.  The sweet, stale smell reminded me of being in a barn during milking.  With red blotches on her face, she relaxed and waited for the epidural to numb the pain.

I realized I hadn't eaten for ten hours, so I left Katie and went to Arby's.  By the time I got back, the doctor and Katie had decided to make the final push at 8:00, an hour and forty-five minutes later.  We sat down and tried to stay calm.  At 7:45 Dr. Krietlow came in the room and checked Katie's cervix.  It was almost fully dilated!  Now I got nervous. The baby delivery crew was on their way in.  The nurses closed the curtain to outside spectators and situated themselves.  It was showtime.

Dr. Krietlow had Katie put her legs up on the leg supports.  The doctor pulled out a device that she was going to use to suck Brice out.  One of the nurses went up by Katie's head and gave her instructions.  I held one of her legs as she pushed hard.  Little blood vessels were popping in her face because of the effort.  After about twenty minutes of Katie pushing, I could see Brice's little head.  He was disgusting.  The wee man's body was purplish and slimy.  Brice couldn't get his head all the way out, though.  The doctor backed him up a little and gave Katie an episiotomy.  That was gross.  But just a couple pushes later, in a spray of blood, the little man popped out.  Tears welled up inside of me when I saw his naked little body.  My little boy was born!  And even though it took a whole day for him to come, I'll never forget Brice's birth day.                

Links for Expectant Dads:

The Expectant Father
An excerpt from a book written by a pair of doctors.  Short, but interesting.