Nov 13 2004
Her Water Broke
Saturday, November 13th. Phillip here. Steel White Table may not be updated for some time, at least not by Jody—because his wife went into labour 6:30 this morning. He’s gonna be busy.
Update (7:55pm): It’s a boy. Five fingers, five toes—all that good stuff. 7 pounds, 14 oz. I can’t talk right now. More details later if I can manage it (check out the comments to this post for most of the details).
Later (9:29pm): I’ve been avoiding it, but I may need a drink by the end of the night… Everything pretty much went according to plan, no major complications. Jody was calm when he called me, and said he was calm the whole time… As soon as the baby came out, they placed him on his mother’s chest… Fuck… Jody said that’s when it really hit him. (No shit.) It’s hitting me pretty hard just talking about it. (Wait until you hear the podcast I recorded 20 minutes after I got the news.) Shit, phone’s ringing… That was Jody. Everything’s cool. Mommy and baby doing fine. Jody’s staying the night. I’ll see them all in the morning. Christ, what a night. I’ll see you later…
Last update (next morning): Got about 6 hours sleep last night before my niece woke me up just before eight. I’ve showered and eaten breakfast. Still tired. My mother’s in the kitchen cleaning up—what I call making too much damn noise this early in the morning. Just got off the phone with Jody. He was too tired to talk much, but he’s okay. I’ll probably see him at the hospital in an hour or two. I hope they give the baby a good name.
P.S. (3:41pm): They gave him a name: Iain Robert Cairns. He’s pretty cool.
Phillip
No changes. I would love to take a nap. I don’t know if I’ll ever have kids.
Saw a more detailed entries than I’m seeing now (i.e. 7:14am, 8:35am, 11:58am) … and read them like an expectant uncle. Good luck and let’s not all get hysterical or anything! Am I supposed to boil water now?
Hey Jim,
I don’t have the energy to get hysterical (though, I’ll tell you, the last time this happened I was bawling my eyes out for days, I was so overwhelmed by it; it was great, and I don’t even like babies).
Yeah, there was a much more detailed post up earlier, and then I chickened out thinking Dawn, Jody’s wife, might not like me givng away all the details. She probably doesn’t give a shit, but maybe she does.
Anyhow, she’s supposed to have the baby some time this evening (early this afternoon for you), and so far everything’s going fine. She’s in no pain or distress; just sitting around reading books, listening to music and waiting.
I’d like to visit them at the hospital (to see how Jody’s doing too), but it looks like I might be taking care of my niece the whole time. I can feel the hour approaching, though, where I know I’ll see the baby, and I got a feeling I’m going to get all emotional again. We’ll see.
Next time Jody calls, I’ll ask him if he’s okay with me posting updates, how much detail and all that.
As for boiling water, I don’t know. Maybe just sit back and have a good smoke. I know I would if I could.
Later,
Phillip
Good luck! I was wondering why there wasn’t an update here recently - now I’m all excited too!
The baby’s on the way. Can’t write now. More details soon.
Sweet! This is fantastic news. What a day for a snow storm too. Maybe this is a sign that the kid will grow up to be a snow plow driver, or something like that.
So…
It all began this morning around 6:00am, maybe 6:30, when Dawn’s water broke. She and Jody got to the hospital around 7:00am, where they’ve been ever since. For the first 2 or 3 hours, Dawn was able to walk around with relative ease. Both she and Jody were/are tired as hell, but what are you gonna do? All they could do was sit around and wait for peak dilation. I don’t know what that exact measurement is, but after about 10 hours of waiting for it, it’s happened. Dawn is now officially in labour. Waiting around all day, she may have looked like someone who was waiting to have a baby. Now she looks like someone who is having a baby. Which means:
The contractions are 3 minutes apart. Dawn is not having any fun. She is sweating. It’s uncomfortable. She’s experiencing full-blown labour pains.
And Jody’s been with her the whole time totally cool.
Shit, the phone’s ringing…
…..don’t keep us in suspense like that!!! Who was on the phone? Did she have the baby?…lol
WELL?!?!
I was at my parents’ (the grandparents’) house. Now I’m at Jody’s house trying to calm child #1. My hands are full at the moment. The person on the phone was Dawn’s mother asking for a latest update.
If all goes well, the baby should say hello to the world in a few hours…
…or less.
[Written after the birth was finally announced.]
I’ve got a bunch of cigars ready to pass out … I’m having sympathetic labor pains!
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, man.
I just had to call some people to tell them the news. Getting kind of emotional here…
Woohoo! Congrats Jody. Now all you need is the white picket fence and an SUV and then you’ve got your perfect family.
Congrats Dawn, too, but you never read this blog any how.
It’s all over? You mean I can get down off the ceiling now? Well, CONGRATULATIONS! I did it! I did it! I participated in a live birth via a blog! All the best to the Cairn’s family who only had to go through the real thing!
Seriously, oh how beautiful birth and the cycle of life is…
You bet ya, Jim.
And get this: I just recorded a podcast about all this.
20 minutes after Jody calls me with the news, I’m recording a podcast, which might seem weird, but I had to keep the phone line open incase Jody called again, and my mother was trying to get Caitlyn (Jody’s first child) asleep in the computer room, so I couldn’t even talk to anyone through instant messenger, nothing. So it was either take a large shot of single malt, or get it all out on tape. So it’s on tape. Won’t be able to post it until Tuesday, though.
What a night.
Too bad you can’t post your podcast now, Phillip. I wish I could be there…
Yay! Woo-hoo! Congrats to Jody and Dawn!
congratulations!
Congratulations Dawn and Jody! Welcome aboard Baby Cairns!
Congratulations Jody, Dawn, Caitlyn, and, of course, Iain!
Congratulations to the whole (now bigger) family!