Baby Leo is Born

Our baby was due August 14th.

Hitomi arranged off from work beginning in August, so she was home this week. Already by this week her cervix had dilated 3cm. For whatever reason we thought the baby was coming soon. I canceled an overnight hike.

Week of August 1st I worked, excepting a few days I had for Jury Duty. Hitomi was at home preparing. I tried to get in a few more days of playing games with Ian and others. I did a bicycle ride with the “Two Mikes” of Cascade Bicycle Club.

Friday, Hitomi and I bicycled to the U District. We were on our tandem, so it wasn’t too uncomfortable for her. I was thinking this was definitely going to be our last ride. We had Greek food at Costa’s. It was a nice relaxing lunch.

Later that night we were going to a BBQ party at Kevin’s house. We we supposed to bring food, so we went to the Korean grocery to get inari sushi makings. I bicycled home alone, since I had to go back to work, and Hitomi went to the U Bookstore.

After arriving home, I received a phone call from Hitomi around 4PM saying her water (membrane) broke. She was wearing a pad but it was quite wet. I offered a ride but she decided to take the bus. At home, Hitomi started preparing rice and I did a bit of laundry. Her contractions started soon after around 5PM or so. They appeared as followed on Hitomi’s Android application:

time – duration – interval

17:21 – 1:13 – 9:03
17:30 – 2:07 – 8:16
17:38 – 1:24 – 8:53
17:44 – 0:53 – 5:17
17:46 – 1:26 – 2:31
17:49 – 1:03 – 2:36 !!

Around this time, I called my mother (18:03). She recommend I go to the hospital. Hitomi didn’t seem completely convinced, but I soon called the Hospital (18:10) and had the doctor on call talk to Hitomi. Well, I had a few more things to do before we left. I figured it’d be some time so I cleaned up the downstairs bathroom and packed my things.

We got into the car around 6:45 and to the hospital (Northwest; UW Medicine) before 7:00. Contractions before getting in the car were about 1 minute and every 2 minutes or so. Was this “transition”? It didn’t seem as intense as I was expecting it to be. Hitomi was quiet and peaceful.

I dropped her off at the child birth entrance. She got checked into her room just about nurse shift time. So it was about 10 minutes or so until a nurse arrived. I rubbed her back. Then they examined her cervix. Hitomi was definitely complete and ready to push. Wow.

Things happened pretty quickly, at least for me. Not so much for Hitomi. Pushing lasted about an hour on her back and later her side. The nurses did most of the work and coaching. Hitomi thought it took forever. It seemed to be over in a few minutes.

Mom came in for about the last 10 minutes. This was about the time the head was poking out. The doctor reached in and when it was ready I pulled the (slippery) baby out.

The baby was born 08:09PM. Seven pounds. (I forget the length.)

Hitomi had lost a bit of blood; about a liter. Everybody was amazed at the speed which supposedly contributed to the rapid blood loss. There were a few stitches to add and that was it. I do recall they gave her an I.V. and some drugs to stop the bleeding.

At this point, Hitomi tried breastfeeding. We also had to work out the name. We chose Leo, but we haven’t picked out the Kanji for his Japanese version which is りお. I was thinking 凛男 maybe. We’ll figure it out.

The baby looks quite healthy if not a little strange. I like his healthy head of hair. He’s fairly quiet but the nurses come by and harass him often. (Nurses have been great but still it’s hard on him.) I spent the night at the hospital and rested okay excepting the interruptions which put Leo into a crying spell or when the lights were on.

The morning after, things are great. We had a sushi lunch and getting our things packed to head home this evening.