Mason Anthony Jones officially arrived on May 2. Since not everyone could be there in person, I hope the following play-by-play analysis will give you an insight into our world on this momentous day.
The following events take place on May 2 between the hours of 4:20 am and 11:59 pm.
4:20 am: Lexie wakes Anthony from a deep sleep with eyes popping out of her head. Her quote: "Get a mop." Secret code translation: Her water had broken.
4:25 am: Not wanting to stink all day, Anthony quickly jumped into the shower. This would later prove beneficial as he would need a fresh smell for the upcoming 17+ hours.
4:27 am: Lexie says to Anthony: "What the **** are you doing in the shower!!? I'm in LABOR!" GET OUT!
4:28 am: Anthony is out of the shower and already dry. He proceeds to throw some last minute items into the suitcase.
4:29 am: Lexie again screams: "What the **** are you doing packing clothes! "I'M IN FREAKING LABOR AND IT'S TOO LATE TO PACK YOUR **** I'M LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"
4:35 am: We depart our house and race to the hospital. Lexie is starting to experience her first mild contractions.
5:00 am: We arrive at the labor and delivery unit of Baptist Women's Hospital in Memphis.
Important Side Note: Normally it takes 30 minutes to drive from our house to the hospital. Follow the timeline above and you'll see I awoke, showered, packed AND safely drove to the hospital in 40 minutes.
KUDOS to Anthony.
5:10 am: Lexie is taken to triage and the nurses confirm her water has broken and the baby will be born today. Parents are notified via phone calls.
5:30 am: Anthony is allowed to join Lexie in the triage area. They asked her if she was a battered or abused wife (what the hell?). Fortunately, she told them I was a good guy and allowed me to come back to join her.
6:00 am: The nurse tells Lexie that we're in for a long day. Even though she's in labor, she's not yet dilated. It could be 12 hours or longer.
7:00 am: We're moved out of triage and into our birth room. Lots of IV's and wires are hooked into Lexie. Anthony is camera happy, pumped and ready for action. Surely this thing will be over in a few hours, right?
8:00 am: Waiting...
8:30 am: Waiting...Anthony watches Sports Center.
9:00 am: Waiting...Anthony is getting hungry.
9:00 am: Waiting...Anthony is starving; Doctor won't let Lexie eat today.
9:30 am: Mom, Dad, Roni, Ashley & Nanny arrive at the hospital.
10:00 am: The doctor examines Lexie and informs us she's barely 2 centimeters.
10:15 am: Anthony sneaks out of the birthing room to go eat doughnuts.
10:30 am: Anthony returns to Lexie but doesn't tell her he just ate 3 tasty, chocolate-cream filled doughnuts.
MMMMMMm....tasty memories.
10:31 am: Lexie squeezes Anthony's fingers during multiple contractions. Anthony makes the mistake of grimacing during one squeeze and Lexie gave him the death-ray stare.
10:34 am: Anthony bravely pushes through the pain in his middle, ring & pinky fingers.
10:45 am: Lexie's starting to feel some serious sharp contractions now. She asks for some pain relief in the form of Stadol.
10:55 am: Stadol is injected in to IV and Lexie is feeling gooooooooooooood.
11:30 am: Oops...apparently stadol has a really short half-life. Lexie is NOT feeling so goooood anymore.
11:45 am: Oh yeah, it's Epidural time, baby! The procedure is complete in about 30 minutes. The contractions are still coming but not too painful now. Looks like the epidural worked!
12:15 pm: The doctor visits again and informs Lexie that she's about 3-4 cm dilated...still a very slow moving labor.
1:00 pm: Anthony is hungry again. He sneaks out into the waiting room to have a quick lunch consisting of chicken fingers, greasy fries (which were AWESOME!) and a big shot of caffeine.
1:30 to 4:30 pm: Contractions continue and Lexie's starting to have a bad day. Epidural is working off and on, but several additional doses are administered. The waiting game continues.
5:30 pm: We're about 6 cm now.
6:00 pm: Lexie is giving the ice chips hell at this point - one spoonfull after the next. The pain continues as the epidural seems less and less effective.
Anthony was really getting tired at this point, as you can imagine. He managed to soldier on, though.
7:30 pm: We're finally at the magic 10 cm mark. Our nurse - Jennifer - tells Lexie that it's time to start pushing.
7:31 pm: Anthony clears the room of all non-essential personnel. Bye-bye family: you don't want to watch this.
7:45 pm: Lexie's bed is magically transformed into a creepy looking device with stirrups. Anthony has never seen this kind of thing before and feels like hiding in a closet.
More Kudos to Anthony for not running off to hide.
8:00 pm: Jennifer informs us that she can see the head and tells Anthony he should see for himself.
This is something Anthony swore he would never do. His birth plan consisted of staying at the North Pole of Lexie's body and telling her how good she was doing. Nothing more.
Little did he know he would be transformed into labor and delivery soldier on this day. That's right... a soldier.
8:01 pm: Anthony takes a peak and sees the tip of his son's hairy head. He's not ready to come out quite yet, though
8:02 pm: Anthony is confused, excited and bewildered at this strange new world he's just seen. He's happy, but is sure he just stepped into the third dimension of the twilight zone.
8:10 pm: The real pushing begins. Yes, Anthony had done a lot of work up to this point, but Lexie stepped up to the plate when it counted here. She pushed, screamed, cried and I think even threw stuff around the room. MUCH RESPECT goes out to Lexie during this process.
Oh yeah, we soon realized this epidural thing was a big joke. She was feeling ALL the pain.
8:15 pm: During a break between the contractions, Anthony tells Lexie how great she's doing. He then tries to lighten the mood by making a funny comment, a simple attempt at humor.
NOTE TO GUYS: DON'T EVER TRY TO SAY ANYTHING FUNNY DURING LABOR.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. YOU'LL JUST END UP WITH HURT FEELINGS.
8:20 pm: Anthony recovers from his failed attempt at humor and the pushing continues.
8:30 pm: We try another dose of medicine in the epidural but with no success. It's just not going to work today.
8:35 pm: The doctor finally decides to join the party and earn his money!
The doctor tells Lexie she's doing great and to go ahead and throw up if she felt like it.
Lexie complied. Anthony held the pan for her. The ice chips were a'comin back up.
More Kudos to Anthony....sorry, no pictures of the puke. Didn't want to ruin a new camera.
8:40 pm: Doctor tells the nurse to call him in 20 minutes and he'd come back to deliver.
9:05 pm: Jennifer calls for the doctor and his crack "delivery possee". Anthony steps back and gladly let's the professionals take it from here on out.
9:16 pm: It's over. He's out. Baby is crying and laying on Mom's chest. Dad grabs camera and starts taking pictures of everything (well, almost everything). The doctor hands him the scissors and the cord is cut. The twilight zone is spinning out of control now!
9:17 – 10:00 pm: Baby Mason is taken across the room for his tests and checks while Dad keeps the camera going. Lexie is getting "fixed up" and still lets out the occasional scream or obscenity.
Anthony wrestles with his first-ever diaper!
Oh, Anthony never passed out or threw up.
Extreme Kudos to Anthony!
10:15 pm: The family joins Anthony, Lexie and Mason in the delivery room and the celebration begins. Tons of photos and a few tears of joy.
11:30 pm: Lexie is HUNGRY. Nanny suggests she eat some chicken broth and sip some juice.
Instead, she opted for a juicy cheeseburger and jumbo fries from Wendys as a midnight snack.
She earned it.
11:59 am: Family leaves for home after a long day of waiting. Anthony, Lexie & Mason start their migration to their overnight room on the 4th floor where they will get a full 2 hours of sleep after a very memorable day.
|
