The Story of Jane's First Days

Dr. Venuto was ahead of schedule so we started earlier than planned, it was time to head off to the OR. Erin and I hugged and prayed together just before she went off to the operating room without me. I sat in the room for 10 minutes reading a book waiting for a nurse to escort me back into the room where Erin was prepped ready for birthing.

I walked into the OR and it was like a party behind the blue curtain that I was only semi invited to. I sat down next to Erin’s head in front of the blue curtain so that we wouldn’t have to bare the sight of the details of the procedure. Her arms were laying flat straight out on either side of her like a good girl so as not to disturb the operation. The anesthesiologist was our narrator to the whole event. I don’t remember his name but he was Asian, funny, and friendly.

So that I wouldn’t get too queasy I held the camera over my head to take the first couple of shots of baby Jane; considering that I wasn’t watching where I was shooting, the images turned out pretty good. Jane was born at 9:46am weighing in at 7 lbs and 14oz, her length was 19½ in. She looked identical to her older brother on his “birth”-day, and sadly like my father.

Jane was tagged and swaddled and handed to me to show to mommy for a couple of minutes, just enough time to capture a picture, taken by the anesthesiologist. Next it was back to the room while Erin was being sewn back together. Erin was not more than ten minutes behind me, but Jane was too impatient to nurse, she had found her thumb to suck moments before mommy was ready. Once Erin was ready, Jane latched on like a pro. No lactation specialist nurse needed for this baby, she knew what was going on.

More babies needed to be born, so an hour after surgery we were moved down one floor to our new, smaller room. Among Jane’s first guests were big brother Matthew with Grandma and Grandpa Hardwick. Matthew loved Jane from the very beginning; he smelled her hair, hugged her, and kissed her. Then he went to tug on every wire, cable, and cord in the room asking, “What is that?” I took him away for about an hour so the grandparents could get more acquainted with their 12^th grandchild. Someone had carved a bunch of letters and painted them all sorts of colors and left them in a park downtown, Matthew thought they were just as much fun as his new baby sister.

Jane passed all her blood tests for diabetes and didn’t give us cause for concern with jaundice because she was such a good eater and pooper at the hospital. In fact, she went through an entire package of diapers in just the two days at the hospital. It is much different changing the diaper of a girl, if she pees in the middle of a change it is very covert, all of a sudden she’s just laying in a puddle and you don’t know why.

Other guests that visited us in the hospital were: Uncle Joe, Aunt Pattie and Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary with cousins Marisa, Chandler, and Mavric, Friends Janelle with daughter Ella, Heather and Kimber with her daughter Reece, and Erin’s former student Katie. Marisa stayed with Erin the second night at the hospital while I got to stay home with Matthew.

Matthew went shopping with mom a couple of days before Jane’s birthday to pick out a special gift. He was apparently picky and directed mommy to go to several different stores before he picked out the perfect one. I figured that Jane needed to get Matthew a gift too. “Jane” got Matthew a wooden train set. When we got home we stayed up until two hours passed his bedtime playing those trains. His cousin William had introduced him to them a week before, and he totally got it.

I feel blessed to have a wife and two great healthy children, and I thank her every day for carrying them into this world.

More pictures can be found by clicking here.