#005: Now Presenting... Gabriel Lee Winkles
Greetings and salutations once again! I see from my last post that I have not written in this blog since January of this year. Pretty dismal if you ask me. Do I still have any faithful readers out there? I guess the best way to answer that question is to send out another "mass email" after I've written this one, and check.
If you have become unfamiliar with my writing style, let me remind you. I tend to take the bits and pieces of my life and turn them into my own private satire. It seems to provide good therapy for me, so all of you become my "virtual therapists." Life seems to always provide many twists and turns, so I believe how one reacts to those twists turns is what will make your life wonderful or dismal. So far, I can quote Louie Armstrong by saying "What a Wonderful World." I can truly appreciate the world I live in.
Now Presenting... Gabriel Lee Winkles
I think the hardest part about writing in a blog is figuring out what you want to write about. What exactly do people want to read? When my family spent nearly five months in Thailand, the trials and tribulations of oversea living seemed to be something of interest to many people. But now, I’m back in the USA and dealing with this question once again. After this question gets answered, the next question will inevitably be "when will I have the time to actually write it?"
Enter Gabriel.
We have a new child in our family. He arrived a mere 85 hours ago. Now that he's here, I am reminded of how wonderful it is having a baby around the house. Yeah, it's the early morning and I was awaken by something that sounded like a cat in heat, but I love it! Things seem so different this time around. I seem to wake up as soon as I'm needed, and then I want to do whatever I can to help. For my wife, it is the best blessing she ever could have a received. A husband that is willing to do whatever he needs to do to satisfy her and Gabriel's every whim.
Did I mention I've only been doing this for 85 hours?
Anyone have any bets on how long this will last? Oh, yeah? I think I'd set your sites a little lower.
I hope I'll continue to be this great support system, but only time will tell. For now, I'm going to bask in the majesty of being the "greatest husband alive" in my wife's eyes. That alone could be enough to make this last a lot longer than even I can imagine.
The positive thing about a new baby is that we always seem to be awake. Why is this possible? Insomnia normally lends itself to writing. I mean, as long as I’m up, I might as well write something, right? The beauty of all this is you get to see how deranged my mind can be in the middle of the night. Either that, or you will how completely disjointed my thoughts can be when I’m not completely awake.
Hold on... Let's Go Back a Bit
Okay, it seems as though I've jumped a bit too far ahead. A lot of things have happened in the last 85 hours that I haven't talked about, so I better bring you all up to speed. Let me give you the play by play of the birth of my newest miracle.
October 26, 8:45am: We had an OB appointment. Side note: ever notice how "OB appointment" rolls off the tongue much better than "obstetrician appointment?" Do you think he's ever referred to as an "obstetrician?" Anyway, at our OB appointment, Dr. Robert Marotz asked Livonia the question she was dying to hear.
This is otherwise known as the statement "history has shown that when I strip your membranes, your babies arrive within a few days of this occurring." It has occurred with both Christian and Nathan. Livonia was very happy to hear these words, as they meant Gabriel would be here very soon.
We had no idea how soon "soon" was.
After the appointment, Livonia dropped me off at work, and went home.
October 26, 12:30pm: During lunch, I get a call from my wife. The contractions she has been getting were much stronger than the other ones, so she wanted to pick me up before they got too strong for her to drive. After we got home, I went to work at packing our bags and getting us prepared for the journey into hospital. Believe it or not, as much as I plan everything in advance, I had not packed our bags. I did manage to generate a packing checklist though. If there are any expectant fathers out there, you should contact me. I have the ultimate pack list for you.
So, I pack. And then I wait... and wait... and wait.
I decide before too long that I might as well log into work and work from home. This could be awhile.
October 26, 6:30pm: Time to start timing these contractions. They are coming faster and lasting longer. A couple of days prior to this, I downloaded a "Contraction Timer" for my PDA, so we started using it. Yes, I’m a geek. If you haven’t figured that out yet, it won’t take too long. It is a pretty neat program. It has very big buttons for tracking the Start and Stop of a contraction, and then it measures the length of the contractions and the durations between them. Not too bad huh? Everything a triage center needs to ascertain whether or not to keep you. Plus, they always need to know the true “geek factor” of the people entering the room.
We started tracking them and they were anywhere between 2-5 minutes apart, lasting from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes in duration. After a couple of hours, they were a consistent 2 minutes apart, lasting for a minute each. It felt like the right time to me, but my wife seems to know her own body better than I do. She decided the time wasn't right, and that we should just go to bed.
I fell asleep on the couch.
October 27, 4:00am (the day he was born): My wife started getting contractions again. This time they were so strong it woke her from a sound sleep. She felt pretty convinced, but didn't say anything to me for another hour. She came downstairs around 5am to tell me the time was "now." As she got another contraction, it caused her to drop to the floor. After that, we knew it was time to go. I mean, the constant pain wasn’t enough. She actually had to hit the floor before she was able to put it in her head that we needed to leave. I hate to state the obvious, but I think there is a clear reason why women have babies instead of men.
We woke up Esaiah and told him we had to go to the hospital. Then he heard the bad news. He would have to stay home from school and watch over the boys. Now, for a 15yr old Freshman, this news is very hard to take. I mean, school is everything to boy of this age. Missing even one day is a personal tragedy. Wouldn’t you all agree? Somehow, he managed to hold back the tears and agree to stay home.
What a brave kid I have.
October 27, 5:45am: We leave the house and make the 5 minute pilgrimage to the hospital. We get checked into triage and start timing the contractions. I took this opportunity to mention to the nurse my stellar Contraction Timer program on my PDA. I’m sure we ranked right up there when I pulled out the PDA with the Excel table of all the contractions. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to show it to the nurse. She didn’t seem too impressed at my marvel of modern technology.
Oh well. We all can’t be lovers of technology.
After we got hooked up, I was amazed to find a dramatic difference in what the machine was measuring versus our home measurements:
7-9 minutes apart, lasting roughly 1 minute. Dilation :2-3 centimeters
How in the heck did the contractions slow down that much?!?
My wife tells me it was because she was sitting up at home, and now she's lying in a more comfortable position.
Yeah, whatever.
In the back of my mind, I'm thinking "they are going to send us home." The triage nurse sees the results and asks us if this is our first child. Livonia tells her it is our fourth, so she thankfully comes to the conclusion that Livonia knows more about this than she does. She tells us to take a walk for about a half hour and see if things change. She said she was pretty confident we would be staying at the hospital.
October 27, 7:10am: We get hooked back up again and get another checkup. We are now 7-9 minutes apart, dilated 3-4 centimeters. I'm sensing another walk in our future.
We take another walk and with each contraction, my wife has to lean up against the wall and I rub her sides and massage her stomach. It is during this time that I am reminded that a woman in that much pain doesn't necessarily say what she means.
This is when I also learned that it takes a VERY long time for my Blackberry to send out a message to this many people. Good information to know before you are trying to leave one room for another. The message did get sent, and we were sent on our way.
Coming soon... labor and delivery, and the eventual arrival of Gabriel into this world.
It is now very early on Monday morning. It is time for me to sign off, as I do need to get into work tomorrow. I am not taking any time off, but I do plan to work from home whenever possible during the initial stages. I don't want to miss out on anything, nor do I want my wife to feel compelled to do anything other than heal and feed our baby.
It's been fun writing again. I hope you enjoyed it as well. More to follow.
Until next time...
If you have become unfamiliar with my writing style, let me remind you. I tend to take the bits and pieces of my life and turn them into my own private satire. It seems to provide good therapy for me, so all of you become my "virtual therapists." Life seems to always provide many twists and turns, so I believe how one reacts to those twists turns is what will make your life wonderful or dismal. So far, I can quote Louie Armstrong by saying "What a Wonderful World." I can truly appreciate the world I live in.
Now Presenting... Gabriel Lee Winkles
I think the hardest part about writing in a blog is figuring out what you want to write about. What exactly do people want to read? When my family spent nearly five months in Thailand, the trials and tribulations of oversea living seemed to be something of interest to many people. But now, I’m back in the USA and dealing with this question once again. After this question gets answered, the next question will inevitably be "when will I have the time to actually write it?"
Enter Gabriel.
We have a new child in our family. He arrived a mere 85 hours ago. Now that he's here, I am reminded of how wonderful it is having a baby around the house. Yeah, it's the early morning and I was awaken by something that sounded like a cat in heat, but I love it! Things seem so different this time around. I seem to wake up as soon as I'm needed, and then I want to do whatever I can to help. For my wife, it is the best blessing she ever could have a received. A husband that is willing to do whatever he needs to do to satisfy her and Gabriel's every whim.
Did I mention I've only been doing this for 85 hours?
Anyone have any bets on how long this will last? Oh, yeah? I think I'd set your sites a little lower.
I hope I'll continue to be this great support system, but only time will tell. For now, I'm going to bask in the majesty of being the "greatest husband alive" in my wife's eyes. That alone could be enough to make this last a lot longer than even I can imagine.
The positive thing about a new baby is that we always seem to be awake. Why is this possible? Insomnia normally lends itself to writing. I mean, as long as I’m up, I might as well write something, right? The beauty of all this is you get to see how deranged my mind can be in the middle of the night. Either that, or you will how completely disjointed my thoughts can be when I’m not completely awake.
Hold on... Let's Go Back a Bit
Okay, it seems as though I've jumped a bit too far ahead. A lot of things have happened in the last 85 hours that I haven't talked about, so I better bring you all up to speed. Let me give you the play by play of the birth of my newest miracle.
October 26, 8:45am: We had an OB appointment. Side note: ever notice how "OB appointment" rolls off the tongue much better than "obstetrician appointment?" Do you think he's ever referred to as an "obstetrician?" Anyway, at our OB appointment, Dr. Robert Marotz asked Livonia the question she was dying to hear.
"Would you like me to strip your membranes?"
This is otherwise known as the statement "history has shown that when I strip your membranes, your babies arrive within a few days of this occurring." It has occurred with both Christian and Nathan. Livonia was very happy to hear these words, as they meant Gabriel would be here very soon.
We had no idea how soon "soon" was.
After the appointment, Livonia dropped me off at work, and went home.
October 26, 12:30pm: During lunch, I get a call from my wife. The contractions she has been getting were much stronger than the other ones, so she wanted to pick me up before they got too strong for her to drive. After we got home, I went to work at packing our bags and getting us prepared for the journey into hospital. Believe it or not, as much as I plan everything in advance, I had not packed our bags. I did manage to generate a packing checklist though. If there are any expectant fathers out there, you should contact me. I have the ultimate pack list for you.
So, I pack. And then I wait... and wait... and wait.
I decide before too long that I might as well log into work and work from home. This could be awhile.
October 26, 6:30pm: Time to start timing these contractions. They are coming faster and lasting longer. A couple of days prior to this, I downloaded a "Contraction Timer" for my PDA, so we started using it. Yes, I’m a geek. If you haven’t figured that out yet, it won’t take too long. It is a pretty neat program. It has very big buttons for tracking the Start and Stop of a contraction, and then it measures the length of the contractions and the durations between them. Not too bad huh? Everything a triage center needs to ascertain whether or not to keep you. Plus, they always need to know the true “geek factor” of the people entering the room.
We started tracking them and they were anywhere between 2-5 minutes apart, lasting from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes in duration. After a couple of hours, they were a consistent 2 minutes apart, lasting for a minute each. It felt like the right time to me, but my wife seems to know her own body better than I do. She decided the time wasn't right, and that we should just go to bed.
I fell asleep on the couch.
October 27, 4:00am (the day he was born): My wife started getting contractions again. This time they were so strong it woke her from a sound sleep. She felt pretty convinced, but didn't say anything to me for another hour. She came downstairs around 5am to tell me the time was "now." As she got another contraction, it caused her to drop to the floor. After that, we knew it was time to go. I mean, the constant pain wasn’t enough. She actually had to hit the floor before she was able to put it in her head that we needed to leave. I hate to state the obvious, but I think there is a clear reason why women have babies instead of men.
We woke up Esaiah and told him we had to go to the hospital. Then he heard the bad news. He would have to stay home from school and watch over the boys. Now, for a 15yr old Freshman, this news is very hard to take. I mean, school is everything to boy of this age. Missing even one day is a personal tragedy. Wouldn’t you all agree? Somehow, he managed to hold back the tears and agree to stay home.
What a brave kid I have.
October 27, 5:45am: We leave the house and make the 5 minute pilgrimage to the hospital. We get checked into triage and start timing the contractions. I took this opportunity to mention to the nurse my stellar Contraction Timer program on my PDA. I’m sure we ranked right up there when I pulled out the PDA with the Excel table of all the contractions. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to show it to the nurse. She didn’t seem too impressed at my marvel of modern technology.
Oh well. We all can’t be lovers of technology.
After we got hooked up, I was amazed to find a dramatic difference in what the machine was measuring versus our home measurements:
7-9 minutes apart, lasting roughly 1 minute. Dilation :2-3 centimeters
How in the heck did the contractions slow down that much?!?
My wife tells me it was because she was sitting up at home, and now she's lying in a more comfortable position.
Yeah, whatever.
In the back of my mind, I'm thinking "they are going to send us home." The triage nurse sees the results and asks us if this is our first child. Livonia tells her it is our fourth, so she thankfully comes to the conclusion that Livonia knows more about this than she does. She tells us to take a walk for about a half hour and see if things change. She said she was pretty confident we would be staying at the hospital.
October 27, 7:10am: We get hooked back up again and get another checkup. We are now 7-9 minutes apart, dilated 3-4 centimeters. I'm sensing another walk in our future.
We take another walk and with each contraction, my wife has to lean up against the wall and I rub her sides and massage her stomach. It is during this time that I am reminded that a woman in that much pain doesn't necessarily say what she means.
What she means: Honey, I love you so much for being here with me duringOctober 27, 8:00am: We get checked again, and now we are dilated 4-5 centimeters! The time has come to transfer to labor and delivery! With this now being official, I send out my first notification to our closest 135 friends that we are on our way.
this amazing time in our life. You have always been such a great support system
to me, and I appreciate all the things you do to make this experience so much
more enjoyable. If I can ask for one thing, I ask that you please consider
rubbing my stomach in this manner, my lower back this way, my sides that way.
Yes, that is much better. Thank you for your understanding and your unselfish
help.
What she said: Lower! Softer! Not like that! Don’t push there! Ouch!
This is when I also learned that it takes a VERY long time for my Blackberry to send out a message to this many people. Good information to know before you are trying to leave one room for another. The message did get sent, and we were sent on our way.
Coming soon... labor and delivery, and the eventual arrival of Gabriel into this world.
It is now very early on Monday morning. It is time for me to sign off, as I do need to get into work tomorrow. I am not taking any time off, but I do plan to work from home whenever possible during the initial stages. I don't want to miss out on anything, nor do I want my wife to feel compelled to do anything other than heal and feed our baby.
It's been fun writing again. I hope you enjoyed it as well. More to follow.
Until next time...
posted by Roger Winkles | 2:04 AM
1 Comments:
Yes, I have the BEST husband in the world! Thank you sweetheart for taking the time to log our recent wonderful blessing, birth of Gabriel. God has truly blessed us. I love you....
Livonia
Post a Comment
<< Home