Sept 5th Labor Day

I know everyone was on pins and needles about what happened to my hammy.  Instead I will tell the story of how Elizabeth Blakely Merritt came into this world with punctual style. 

After checking into the hospital I went from this adrenaline rush of we are going to have a baby to this nervous waiting game.  Elizabeth crashed open the water balloon, but then thought better of leaving her cozy home so after an hour or so of waiting they put Stephanie on a drug to get things going.  The next few hours were fairly calm.  I could watch the contractions on a monitor, but they seemed to not really bother Stephanie.  However, I also would like to say my wife expresses pain by checking out of the planet and into her own mind.  Let me explain.  Let’s say you smash your finger with a hammer.  I would raise my voice and yelp in pain.  Increasing in volume to a crescendo of OUUCHHH.  My wife lowers her voice and will say very calmly, “I hurt my finger.”  Let me give an example.  My wife and I were working in the backyard and she decided she wanted to cut down all the limbs on this mostly dead tree.  I hear a smack and turn around to see the limb cutter on the ground and Stephanie looking at her hand.  She walks over to me in the most calm fashion and says, “I think I hurt my thumb.”  I looked at her and assessed the situation and she seemed okay so I told her to go get some ice on it.  Cause I assumed she was ok and just wanted to take a break.  In reality she was in so much pain she could not even talk and I just told her go get some ice cry baby.  Husband of the year:  Andrew: 1    Other guys:  0

Back to the birth.  It was slow go at first.  We sat around most of the night (me and Stephanie’s mother) and waited for something to happen.  Stephanie was in very little pain for a long, time but then it started to come on and she was concerned if she did not get the epidural she would not be able to later.  So Stephanie got that and then took a little nap.  Oh I should not leave out how many times the nurse tried to get the baby heartbeat monitor thing attached.  It fell out like a half dozen before they gave up and put a band around her tummy.  At some point all hell broke loose, but in the most organized fashion.  Stephanie has her eyes closed zenning through one of the pains and they split the bed in half and rolled things from random places.  In a flash the whole room is set up and it is time to push.  I get the job of holding one of Stephanie’s legs and putting my arm under her back and neck to lean her up to push.  Every time she feels a contraction come I get to hold her up and coach her to breath and encourage her.  I seriously doubt she heard me at all she was so focused on getting this thing DONE!  FYI this is where I almost pulled a hammy.  The doctor started laughing at me because I was holding my breath and pushing like Stephanie and I was red in the face from holding up the partially limp Stephanie and straining with all my might to help get the baby out.  I was just trying to help, but they thought I was going to pass out.  Stephanie was a trooper and after quite a lot of pushing our world changed. Blop. (I wish I could include sound effects)  I instantly drop into tears and am thrust into cutting the cord.  It took a moment I think for Stephanie to come to Earth to realize that Elizabeth was here, and she saw her for a moment before they took the baby off to get cleaned up.  Elizabeth arrived right on time.  She arrived on the morning of her due date.  Oh and she was amazing   ..and slimy

We spent a few days in the hospital learning to feed and change diapers and letting my amazing wife recover.  We were very blessed to have Stephanie’s parents there to help us with bringing us clothing, DVD, and the necessities.  You can see a lovely picture of Stephers holding Elizabeth during our hospital stay.