Micah’s birth, recovery, and homecoming

9.18.07 6.13 22. We’re home, finally, and have been so busy with our new addition to the family. We’re utterly exhausted, yet filled with an overwhelming joy. This is the story of the most amazing week of my life.

Friday, September 14th. I went to work and left the car with Erin to go the OBGYN for her checkup, as had become the routine this last month. At about 1:30, she shows up at the office grinning like crazy. She tells me that all this time we thought the baby was due on the 20th, but he was actually due on the 11th. Of course I’m cool calm and collected after hearing this *ahem*. So the Dr. decides it would be best to induce on Monday the 17th. No pressure. Don’t Panic.

Sunday, September 16th. We spent the weekend getting ready, cleaning and packing for the hospital and for the week or so after. We left in the morning for an 8am appointment, and are going to be spending some time at Erin’s Mom’s house in Simi after the delivery.

Monday, September 17th. Got to the hospital and checked into Labor and Delivery. They checked Erin and she was already 2-3 cm. By the time 9am rolled around, Erin was on the Patosin and in labor. We moved to the delivery room where we would spend the next 16 hours or so. Erin’s Mom stayed by her side for the whole process, from labor to delivery.

Tuesday, September 18th. The labor was hard, and long, but thank heaven for drugs! Erin was amazing. She did so well through it all, and I was just completely baffled at her strength and elegance. After a lot of hard work, and crushing the bones in my hands, the most beautiful thing on this planet occurred. New life.

Micah did not breathe for about a minute or two after he was born, which seemed like an eternity. As the atmosphere of the room became a little intense, I turned of the camera and started calling Micah’s name. I saw his little nose wrinkle, he opened his eyes, and made the greatest sound I’ve ever heard. It was most likely the work of God, and the team of expertly trained doctors and nurses in the room that brought him around, but I like to think I helped a little.

They let us hang out with him for just a few minutes before taking him to the nursery for some tests and observation.

Erin got a bit of much needed rest, and I hung out with Micah in the Nursery. Later on, we came back to the room to try breast feeding. Micah’s first try started out ok, but about half-way through he must’ve forgotten how to breath because he started to turn purple! With the help of the awesome nurses we got him to cry again, and he went back to his normal shade of pink. After that we went back to the nursery for more… you guessed it… tests and observation.

Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep at all those first few days. It was hard not to constantly worry about the little guy, but he’s been doing so well ever since. The last few days of the recovery went off without incident. We even had visitors!

My Mom and Sister came to say hello…

Micah’s Aunties and Cousins…

We got a bunch of pictures online, so have fun looking through them and don’t forget to leave a comment!

If you want to visit, we’ll be at Erin’s Mom’s house in Simi Valley for another week or so. We’ll eventually head back to our place in LA and so I can get back to work and Erin can have more space. I’m not in any big hurry tho!

Well time for much more important things, like sleep. See you soon.