The after birth

Yeah, this chapter's title sounds gross. I really am just talking about the time after Laura is introduced to the world but it kinda has two meanings, as you'll see.

Almost immediately our little baby is swaddled and put on Danielle's chest to meet her mommy for the first time. Her beautiful eyes are wide open, seemingly teary due to the medicine they put in them to prevent infection, and she is just staring and blinking at the smiling woman now holding her. What must she be thinking? About 5 hours ago someone drained her relaxing amniotic bath, then the walls started really pushing in on her like the scene in Star Wars where they are trapped in the Death Star's trash compactor, minus the Wookie of course. Then, to top it off, she was pushed out of this wonderfully warm, padded water-world, through an opening that wants to be accommodating but falls quite short of spacious, into a bright, loud, freezing chaos that ambushes every underdeveloped sense she has. How could you not be terrified and traumatized?

Maybe newborns have a direct connection with the voice of God. As the final moments of labor approach He may whisper to them, "I love you. I am always here. All will be well.". The look on her face is so tranquil, so content and inquisitive. It is truly a peacefulness that I can not ever remember seeing before this moment.

Seeing my two girls together for the first time is so overwhelming. Did I mention I was crying? Yeah, maybe even slightly sobbing. Maybe. Hard to tell. I hear the doctor saying here comes the placenta. The nasty bloody melon that has haunted my dreams. So, of course, I have to watch. I feel compelled to. It is a highly unattractive, veiny, bloody thing, but I have to marvel at it since it helped my baby girl come into this world. As a matter in fact I might even go as far as to say that Laura's placenta was way cuter than the one in the film. I may already be a tad bit biased towards my daughters amazingness.

I decide to cut the umbilical cord. It really is the only actual physical contribution I have been able to do in the last 9 months so it should make me feel accomplished. All I have to do is cut between the clamps, I am told. I figured I would have a good inch or so to aim for but instead I have a gap that is barely wider than the surgical scissors that I have been handed. With a jittery hand I take aim and strike my target and close the blades on the cord. It doesn't just cut like a hot knife through butter mind you. You have to hack your way through it. It takes 3 good cuts to separate mommy from baby. Quite a weird sensation, having never actually scissored into flesh. Very satisfying though. I am the dad, see me hack.

At this point I have no idea where my camera is so I try to take a picture with my phone. I have had this phone for a while now and I should have no problem taking a little pic. All i have to do is hit two buttons and be done. Nope, can't figure it out with my fumbling fingers and swirling brain waves and emotions. I finally figure it out and I have no room for any new photos in the memory. Great time for this electronic hiccup. So as I am messing around with this mounting crisis, feverishly trying to delete old photos of pizza and baseball games, Danielle has to actually yell at me to get my attention back to her. It seems the doctor is not quite done with her as he is not sure the entire placenta and the after birth have been delivered. She is clutching at me with more intensity than most of her contractions as Doc is 'mining' for the baggage Laura has left behind.. She looks like she is dying in pain since it looks like the doctor is trying to turn her in to the next muppet. Sorry for the visual. I think the doctor forgot she didn't have an epidural and she now is asking for drugs. He asks what she would like. "I JUST WANT TO BE HIGH!', she moans in agony. This from the woman who had never been drunk, much less ever even thought about being HIGH. I can't help but laugh a little but it really drove home to me how much pain she was in. Immediately she is given a good dose of Stadol and she gets what she was looking for. It helps the pain almost instantly but of course does not eliminate it. Fortunately, the doctor finishes the mission and it is almost over. This is the one sight I wish I had not seen. The placenta was no problem compared to seeing the afterbirth hunt and extraction. At least I will no longer be afraid of melons. Now maybe it will be muppets.

And so the scene closes. Mommy starts to relax, the pain finally subsiding as the meds take affect. Daddy gets to take his little princess and hold her for the first time. All is well.