Chapter 1: The Birth.
I was at my office when my wife, Sylvia, called to tell me the "rabbit died". I was speechless for a while. We had not planned on having children yet. Apparently, that decision had been made for us. We did decide to become informed (future) parents so we read books and magazine articles on the proper way to raise children. Everything was discussed ahead of time. We agree on how he was to raised, how discipline would be administered, how we should act around him, what he should eat, what type of diapers to use, whether to breast feed, where to get baby furniture, etc. We had a plan so the fear of becoming first time parents lessened somewhat.
Then came the day of Shawn's arrival. Again, I was at work when I got the call. I asked how far apart the contractions were and Sylvia replied that they were still 20 to 30 minutes apart. Good. No rush. This was December 23rd and I knew I was not coming back to work before Christmas. So I took the time to load the car with Christmas presents I had hidden at my office; Sylvia snoops. When I got home, Sylvia was fixing her hair and putting on makeup. I looked around for the things we had planned to take to the hospital while I timed her next two contractions. They were about 3 minutes apart!
Obviously, Sylvia had not been timing her contractions! So now it was a mad rush to get her to the hospital. At the hospital parking lot she said it would be fine to park in the normal lot and walk to the clinic. After about three steps toward the hospital she realized that Shawn might end up being born in the parking lot. So we got back into the car, drove up to the entrance, and left the car there while we went to OB-GYN. The nurse at the registration desk asked whether Sylvia was having false labor. She would soon learn otherwise.
I went back down to move the car and then back to the registration desk to finish filling out the paperwork. By the time I finished, I was rushed to the delivery area to put on my surgical gown. By the time I finished getting dressed; they were already wheeling Sylvia into the delivery room. Shawn was not going to wait! Minutes later (11:20 am) he was born, 7 pounds, 6 1/4 ounces, 19 inches. I was in a daze and now the anesthetic was beginning to work on Sylvia.
We had planned to take Shawn home by noon on Christmas day, so I was busy preparing the house and the dinner totally oblivious to the fact the power had gone off the night before. I got a rather curt phone call from Sylvia wondering where I was. Shortly thereafter, all three of us were at home; two rather weary parents (although that term had not sunk in yet) and one brand new baby boy. We didn't realize how weary we would become in the next few weeks with those all too frequent feedings.
We did have to "return" Shawn to the hospital after a couple days for what we thought was a breathing problem. But the hospital staff dismissed it as "new parent syndrome". We soon got into a routine, 2:00 am feedings eventually waned, and even the dog learned to adapt. Little did we know that the fun had just begun.
