Orion
2019-06-09

I have not been phlogging here as often of late, focusing my energies into my
own server instead (colorfield.space). However, many of my early posts here in
Circumlunar Space were about my wife's pregnancy and some early thoughts on
becoming a parent. Well, my daughter was due on the 25th of June... but she has
surprised us and arrived on the 6th instead! 

At 4:40am my wife rolled over and said, "I think my water just broke". I groggily
said something along the lines of "are you kidding?" (it would not be outside the
humor style of our relationship). She was not kidding. I got the number for the
hospital and she called and got some instructions. Largely, wait an hour and let
us know the status of a few things. By the end of the hour she had started to feel
small to medium contractions and we went tot he hospital.

In the car the contractions got pretty intense. Her movements were very similar
to when I was passing a kidney stone and she was driving me to the hospital. We
arrived around 6:30a, having taken some time to pack up a few things at the house.
They took us into a triage room to make sure she was really in labor. A slightly
bumbling nurse tried to get the baby's pulse on the monitor and check a few vitals
until shift change at seven. The new nurse was great! She got things moving and 
was about to do a test to make sure the water broke when the charge nurse came in
for a status report. The charge nurse took a look down below and said, "no need to
finish running the tests, the baby is almost here, get her into a room".

Sure enough, one hour and twenty five minutes later our daughter was born. It all
happened so fast that the family we had intended to be present hadn't made it to
the hospital yet. The baby was delivered by my wife's doctor, with great nurses,
one of which we knew, and she did it without any pain killers or epidural (which
was what she had wanted until the contractions got really bad).

Our daughter is healthy, as is my wife. We are now at home after a few long nights
trying to sleep at the hospital. It is great to be back in a comfortable space.
I must admit it is a little terrifying as well as I am constantly worried that she,
the baby, is too hot or too cold, or is sleeping in a weird position, or any other
of a million things. I'm going to need to learn to relax a little bit... I suppose
that will come in time.

I am writing this while they both take a nap. The baby has been pretty sleepy these 
first few days and in my opinion is not eating enough, despite my wifes efforts.
My sister tells me everything sounds normal to her (she had my nephew two years ago
and has been a great source of information and comfort), so I am trying to just go
with the flow.

Welcome to the world Orion! I am sorry it isn't better, but hopefully it moves in
that direction soon, possibly with your help.