Arrival: Terminal L&D Gate 14 - Part 2

Flight Information:

Airline: Little Miracle Airlines
Flight: Jett Aubrey McGowan
Departure Airport: HVN
Arrival Airport: JAG
Arrival Time: 11/5/09 1:31 PM
Terminal: L&D
Gate: 14

Let's continue:

2:oo AM - Jen had three contractions in a row and almost woke me to head to the hospital. They didn't continue, but it was an encouraging sign that her body and baby were ready.

5:15 AM - Wake up call! Of course, the reality was that we both woke up multiple times during the night staring blurrily through one squinty eye at the clock to make sure we didn't oversleep. That coupled with nerves made it a broken night of sleep. Let's just say that in our lives we've been late a time or two, but we didn't want to be late for this.

6:00 AM - Dang! We had the McGo-Van loaded up and were on our way! Per my friend Patrick's suggestion, I brought a camping cot for myself to sleep on, because you know they just don't care about dad's in these hospitals. I mean, you would think that we were invisible! What happened to patient's rights... or patient's helper's rights? I demand at least a pull out couch at a minimum! I demand more than just one complimentary meal! I demand more than one squeaky rubbery pillow to lay my head on! Oh wait... Soooooo...

6:25 AM - Booyah!! Overacheivers!! Or just nervous. We arrived early at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Allen. It felt a little weird walking in the hospital not feeling or breathing or contracting like you're on the verge of having a baby. It was comical to walk to the nurse's desk and say, "Um... yeah... so... we're scheduled to have a baby today." It felt like checking into a hotel, except it was 6:30 in the morning and it was more like an Econolodge than a Ritz... and it had spot lights on the ceiling... hmmm... and a VCR... and a single bed that resembled the Craftmatic Adjustable ones you used to see on TV (they must've done a deal with them... you know, instead of the Westin signature "Heavenly Bed" or the "Ramada Sleep Number", it was the "Econolodge Signature Harder Than Hell Make You Want To Leave Soon Craftmatic Adjustable Bed" with built in speaker, wired remote, and room service call button. The future is now!) Weird.

But hey, our friend Leslie, who works at the hospital, had left us some pumkin bread in our room as a welcome gift. So, I partook... it was good!

6:30 AM - We encountered one of the uncanny, but cool moments of the day when we were escorted to our room by our attending nurse named KC. I immediately noticed that she looked familiar, but are you ready for this? Turns out that she was one of the nurses who assisted during Grady's birth. Wow! She was in training the day the G-man was born at Plano Presby and now she was with us for Jett's birfday! She ended up being our daytime nurse the whole time we were at the hospital too! Pretty cool!

8:15 AM - After various blood pressure things, hep-locks, paperwork, and other formalities over the first hour or so, Aliza came and it was time to "break the bag of waters." Ha! She just took "breaking your water" to the next level. For some reason, the only thing I could think about when she said "bag of waters" was one of those cooking bags that Mama uses when she cooks a turkey in the oven. It keeps all the juices contained and when it's done you pull it out and break the bag.... of waters. You see the correlation? And I'm sure that Jen is so glad that I just compared her to a turkey baking in an oven contained in a placenta-like Ziploc bag. Uh, so, strike that last mental picture. It was nothing like that. So, all that to say, the water or the bag containing the water was broken around 8:30 and the contractions soon commenced.

8:30 - 11:30 These few hours were comprised of a lot of ramping up. We walked the halls and entertained a few surprise early visitors. We summoned Gigi and she arrived to help us along. Jen was really committed to going natural again this time, but was a bit more nervous. In her words, "This time I didn't just THINK it was going to hurt, I KNEW it was going to hurt!" I, on the other hand, felt a little less nervous because I had done this all before. In fact, I was a professional L&D assistant. I just didn't have a degree or a badge on that cool zippy retractable clippy thing. Oh and Gigi and KC were there too... and Aliza was virtually a Nobel Prize winner for natural births. Aaaand we had one of these "birthing balls", which looked like two big exercise balls that collided in a nuclear particle accelerator. It wins the award for birthing tool of the day!

As the contractions grew more intense and frequent, my confidence began to wain though. Aliza was my ace in the hole, but I hadn't seen her in a couple of hours. Jen was facing an increasing amount of pain and I was out of tricks. It turns out that Aliza was in the final stages with another patient who had been in labor for over 24 hours! Oh my! At this point, I was prayin hard for that lady to just pop that baby out, if you know what I'm sayin'! After all, it's what's best for all of us, Laboring Lady. You get out of labor and get to see your new baby and we get Aliza. Sounds like a deal to me.

What else could we do? Where could we turn for answers? Well, I did what any other resourceful modern-day husband would do... I turned to my iPhone! After a few minutes of Mindy Smith (soothing but sad), in a last ditch effort, I selected a Jim Brickman playlist from my Pandora App. I wonder if it's developers had this in mind when they began their streaming dreaming. Regardless let it be said again, music does wonders to sooth, but when you have a world of music at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless.

11:30 AM - With the end of the "War and Peace" of labors realized, Aliza arrived just in the nick of time. I don't know that there are many times in my life that I have been so excited to see someone! And the wait was well worth it. She is a pro! She was so calm and kind and I could tell that Jen was topping the hill. She was feeling much better with Jim and friends in the ears and Aliza, Gigi, KC, and I at the hands... and rubbing on the back... and shoulders... and doing whatever it took.

1:10 PM - With one journey coming to an end and another about to begin, it was time to get this Jett landed! Aliza gently guided, while me and KC manned both sides of the bed. Gigi was right by Jen's head. At one pivotal point, I caught her with tears in her eyes, and I nearly broke down myself. But I didn't. I stayed strong.... Ok so Jen was really the one who stayed strong! I can't explain to you how I felt about her in that moment, how much my love for her grew, and how proud I was of her. A true side of beauty that I had never seen. I was amazed, honored, humbled, and thankful all at the same time.

1:31 PM - Finally, we got to see our little man for the first time. He stuck his head out with one arm soon following and Aliza turned to me and asked, "Do you want to catch him?" I was floored, but absolutely up for it! What an awesome opportunity! I grabbed him and laid him right on Mommy's chest. It was a very sweet moment for all of us, but especially for mommy and Jett.

We were a little disappointed that we had to have the induction, that it didn't happen in our perfect timing, but we knew that this was God's timing. When Aliza broke Jen's water, there was some myconium already in it, which means that he had already gone to the bathroom in the womb. This can be very dangerous, even fatal if it isn't caught soon enough. If we had waited even another day or two, the levels might have been at a point that would've warranted an immediate C-section. Thank God for His timing and his hand on our precious baby Jett!

For this reason, they took extra care to suck out his chest and nose and stuff. They wanted to get all the fluid out so she stuck the tube in a second time. At that point, Jett grabbed the tube, pulled it out of his nose and rolled away from the lady doing the procedure! I was so proud that I laughed out loud! I'm sure it's a sign of things to come and it won't be so funny when it's me, but hey...

A few hours later, our BIG boy Grady came to meet his little brother for the first time. He took one look at him and gave him a kiss and then tried to honk his nose... it has begun! Our two boys! We are so excited about our family of four!

If you've come to this point in the story, thanks for hangin in there! You are our real friends. Thank God for our little miracle!

Just before Aliza arrived.

M..M..M..Mommy and the Jett

Daddy and Jett-man!

Our Family of Four!

Making our victory lap!

Team-mates! Me and KC!

Jen, Jett, and Aliza!

~A