At The Beginning
I have mixed feelings about photos in the labor and delivery room. It didn’t stop me from having a camera on hand. And/but I do have mixed feelings about it. As for Lisa she definitely has some opinions. In fact her friends know her opinions “in no uncertain terms.” J’s labor was 40 hours. That was two nights! After the first sleepless night, here’s what we had. It’s not romantic like the movies. It’s a mess and I will probably regret posting this picture…nothing staged… reality. Hmmm… she even took a picture of me.
Later on I made the mistake of asking how she felt. Labor hurts! I remember wearing a skinny (very skinny) pink tie (I was sort of at work). In a flash she reached out and grabbed me by that tie, pulled my face in close, choking me, and said, “If you ask me that again, I’ll kill you. Get me some drugs.” So much for Lamaze classes, I got the drugs, and never got close enough for Lisa to strangle me again.
A day later it was all worth it. The Kodak moment, mom all neat and pretty again.
For the record we had argued about names. But when J popped out at 2AM it was obvious instantly what her name should be. At the other end of things, Lisa naturally asked immediately what sex? I replied, “Girl. Normal, ten fingers, ten toes… eight on one foot, two on the other.” It took a moment to sink in before Lisa said, “What!?”
I had been a physician just long enough to have only really been taking care of birth deformities. You don’t see too many well babies in my specialty. I’m not a pediatrician. My specialty was in caring for the problem children. I had to keep reminding myself that the majority of babies are all born normal. Yup, it’s a curse of the profession that afflicted both Lisa and myself. My buddies and I were all having kids at about the same time. This was something we would confide about and sheepishly admit as we held each others newborn kid and quickly ran a hand up and down the spine and felt the newborn fontanelle for hydrocephalus.
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