Quentin's day through Daddy's Eyes

By now you have all heard the story of the false alarm and the basic about Quentin's birth. We thought it might be fun to hear the story through my eyes. Okay, here goes. On Tuesday night, the night after the false alarm, I took my prescription pad and wrote Roo a Rx for "Stay Put Pills." Roo was told to take these until Daddy got home. Anywho, got up wicked early to get the train to Boston. About a 1/2 hour into the trip, Keira texts me. For the last few weeks, everytime I get a text (keep in mind 98% are from Keira) my heart rates jumps because I'm worried that she's going into labor or something has happened while I'm not at home. So I get the text, freak out mildly before reading it, then read it. She thinks she is having some contractions. I call her back right away to assess the situation. They did not seem regular and I was hoping it was gas (we had Chinese the night before). I told her I'd call her back from the airport to re-assess. I figured, I'm where she would be coming anyhow if we had to make a change in the plans. I called her and the contractions were going away. With 10 minutes to go before boardings, we decided I should get on the plane. I make it to Richmond, check out the house and start working on spackling the holes and loading the truck. Around 7PM I check my phone and see a text message from Keira, obligatory tachycardia ensues, and I then read the text: "No big deal, give me a call when you have the chance." Okay, so I immediately call BS on the casual nature of the text and call her back. She is having the dreaded very painful contractions associated with legit labor. I tell her to call MGH and see what they think she should do. At this point I am a nervous wreck. Each minute feels like an hour. I was expecting to hear a responce in about 10 minutes. Keira does not call for about 30 more minutes with the news that they think she should go to a local hospital for triage. If it's labor, go to MGH. I am even more nervous than before but forge on with what needs to be done at the house. The update from triage: negative signs of water being broken but 2 cm dilated. She said they would follow her for an hour or so and see what happens. My nervous wreck proceeded to near full out breakdown at this point. Do I stay or go or what?!!!! I decide to see what the verdict is after an hour. To pass the time and preparge, I run to walmart to get some painting supplies. As I am driving back, I get the news: 4cm dilated, Roo is coming, and will be born in Springfield, not MGH. At that point, I make the call to drive back to Massachusetts. Seeing as we dropped 500 quid on the truck I need to finish loading it. I had had plans of mowing the lawn so left a spot in the truck for the mower and a bunch of other crap that would go on top of it. It was now 1030PM. It took awhile to load everything and clean up the house in case someone wanted to see it, even if it was still covered with spackle. By 1230AM I was on the road. At this point I had been up 19 hours. The trip went well for the first few hours. The only problem being that i was driving a truck and felt like I was moving on molasses. I was trying with all my power to get there on time but at times felt like I was about to fall asleep at the wheel. While I wanted to be at the birth more than anything, I also didn't want to be dead. I tried to stop more frequently than I usually do and drink sugar and caffeine. THis strategy worked pretty well except that not only was I getting really tired behind the wheel, I had to pee alot. As I side note, I will never forget the tone in Keira's voice pre- and post-epidural. Words cannot capture the change, it was very sweet. I keep getting updates on the labor: 5cm, still 5 cm, still 5cm. At this point I think I've got a chance, she's stalled. I was torn because stalling gave me a better chance to make it, but severe stalling could lead to C-section which Keira really did not want. Anywho, I though my odds were improving. Then, she tells me they are going to try to help things along with pitocin. Damn biomedical science! Damn you to hell! I am now in New Jersey. Our usual route takes us through the Garden state parkway. I could not for the life of me remember if commercial trucks we allowed. It was also starting to get to be rush hour so I opted for the 287 which is a much longer way around New York. It was now 7AM and right when I thought I had beaten the fatigue, I would need to take a quick break. I took one break and thought it would be a quick on and off. It was not, I was soooo pissed than I didn't feel the need to stop anymore and forged on. I got an update, 7cm. At this point I was about 3 hours away. I was praying that she would be a below average woman and finish dilating at less than 1 cm per hour. I was clinging to that, it was all I had left. Then 20 minutes later, 10cm the baby is coming. I was advised to pull over so that I could experience the miracle of birth via speakerphone. So here I am in what I think was Bloomingdale, New Jersey, sitting in a truck telling my wife how pround I am of her while she delivers our son. While I wasn't able to be there, it was one of the greatest and most exciting moments of my life! I was really happy to be a daddy and happy that Quentin and Keira were okay. That was all that really mattered to me. THe rest of the trip seemed like an eternity. I powered through on pure joy for about 2 hours until I had to make a fatigue stop. I mis-read the sign back to the interstate and went on a goose chase for 20 minutes before making it back on the road. I was so pissed because all I wanted was to see my new son and my wife. My frustration got me the rest of the way. I got to the hospital and, well I had a huge smile and I picked up my son for the first time. It was special and it made the trauma for the previous 36 hours worth it just to see him!