(Caleb's) Life in the 'Knife

The story of Caleb’s birth begins on Thursday morning. Jen woke up and noticed that she was encountering contractions of the “legitimate” variety. By 9:00 pm, we were able to time them and reliably predict when they should be coming. It took until 4am Friday morning before they were frequent and regular enough to warrant going to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Jen was crushed to learn that she was not very far along. After another 5 hours of contractions, she didn’t get very much further. The nurse gave Jen a shot of Demerol and recommended that we go home for a while.

By 6 pm Friday, the contractions were stronger. We went back to the Hospital.

In the end, Jen decided that after several months of limited physical activity arising from the pregnancy, she would celebrate its conclusion with 28 hours of contractions every five minutes and a grand finale of six hours of pushing. While I commend her dedication to getting exercise and physically exhausting herself, I have counselled her that next time we should take smaller steps. Nevertheless, I am very proud of her effort.

While we were in the hospital, there were some other moms-to-be that tried to compete with Jen’s endurance. They were all weaker than Jen and gave up (or rather, gave birth) while Jen was still going strong. We had the satisfaction of hearing not one, but two babies being born in the labour room next to us while Jen was labouring onwards. Jen’s effort was so monumental, that the obstetrician was called in from his home to admire her and give her pointers on how to bring this Magnificent Opus to conclusion.

The pointers worked, and Caleb was born without further incident in the afternoon of February 7, 2009.

Upon arrival, Caleb found that the birthing process was sufficiently undignified that he did not need to belabour the point by shouting and causing a fuss. He gave a few coughs and some obligatory signs of good health. This was enough to convince the nurse that he was ready for life on the outside.

Since arriving outside, Caleb has had some serious concerns with this type of lifestyle. He has some (valid) complaints with how cold, bright, loud, and hungry life is outside the womb. But with the same stoic resolve that he showed at birth, he is quick to return to an agreeable demeanour once the offending situation has been cleared up.

Both baby and mommy are happy and healthy. We have obtained 3^rd party confirmation that Caleb is, objectively, a very cute young man with a pleasant temperament. He sends his best and looks forward to meeting everyone.