Belle was born on May 13th at 12:34:06 in the morning. However, the hospital recorded it as 12:33.
The surrogate mother, Margaret, was going to be induced on the 12th. However, on that day we were told that there were two pregnant women ahead of her so they would reschedule. Fortunately, a few hours later we learned that they had a spot for her at 11:15 that morning. I was in the middle of a run when I heard, so I headed back to our AirBnb (mostly) promptly.
We got to the hospital and got to the room before Margaret did and we setup our stuff. Margaret arrived shortly thereafter (she had trouble parking) with her support sister, Christine. They were very nice, and we pretty much spent the day together waiting for things to happen. They gave her Pitosin to help get the contracting going.
We spent a lot of time walking Margaret around the birthing floor to help her get the contractions. At one point we actually got out of range of the monitoring equipment because we went to an atrium that was too far. We got into a little trouble for that. Nurses don’t like when they can’t track their patients.
We also gave them boiled quail eggs that they really liked. And a red envelope with money for luck.
After awhile Margaret and her sister became comfortable enough with us to open up a bit. When Margaret first got pregnant, they were unsure what to call the baby; they already had a child they called “Baby”. But they had been told it was a girl, with two X chromosomes. Being of Spanish descent, they started calling the fetus “Dos Equis”.
Our Doctor, Hanna, broke Margaret’s water at nearly six o’clock. It would have been earlier, but she wanted to do it after her office hours. The water had a green tint to it, which mean she pooped in uterus. So they would need to have a pediatric team ready in case anything goes wrong. If she inhales her poop, and gets into her lungs, that would be a problem.
The doctor then left to go home and would be back when things started happening.
When it was time for the epidural, there was some entertainment. The hospital was busy, and the available anesthesiologist, Wilson Lee, was stressed. When he entered the room, the first thing he said was “What a s#!tshow downstairs,” about his previous patient. Apparently things were bad downstairs. He also seemed very short and wanted everyone out of the room. No pictures! So Catalina and I took a little walk and tried to get some food; it didn’t go that well as there was only a little convenience store that we could grab pre-packaged food at.
Her epidural was fentanyl and a numbing medication, 10mg an hour.
We returned and Margaret was getting her Hydro-Cortisone injection for her rash. She was feeling a bit nauseous. She wasn’t eating because she didn’t want to poop during the birth.
Dr. Wong was the anesthesiologist we were supposed to have, but she had been too busy which is why Wilson came in. But when Margaret started hurting, she came in and gave her an injection of 5mg of pure fentanyl.
At around midnight, Margaret was dilated to 10cm. Hanna returned and things started happening. By 12:30 Margaret started pushing and things happened quickly. A few minutes later we could see the top of the head, and then out came our baby girl. She promptly screamed, which was actually a relief to the doctors. Her head was very pointy.
Margaret did poop during the birth. Christine and Catalina both started crying, but Margaret just had a big grin on her face. The baby was very warm too.
Catalina cut the cord, and then she was placed in my arms. I was shirtless to encourage skin-to-skin contact. She cried; understandable as she had a traumatic day. She pooped Merconium all over me. And suddenly I was a father.
After awhile, the other part of the cord was cut by Catalina; we don’t want a long umbilical cord leading out from her bellybutton. According to her the cord was harder than expected and felt full of cartilage.
We looked at the placenta; they put it in a box. It was smaller than expected.
Within the hour we had some statistics: 7lbs, 6oz. 20.25inches tall.