Welcome Jacob!

Jasmine’s water broke just before midnight on Tuesday.  She called the doctor’s office to see what the next step would be and since her beta strip was negative, there was not a huge concern to immediately get the baby out.  So we stayed at the house.  I figured that the first child usually takes 12-16 hours of labor according to most information given out to soon-to-be parents, so we both needed to attempt to rest.  Yeah right.  She is having contractions and I am anxious as can be.  I managed about 1 hour or so of sleep before Jasmine woke me up at 3:30 am this morning to go to the hospital.  Thankfully, we were very prepared and ready for this to occur, so we literally only needed to jump into the car – we had all our bags packed that were needed immediately.  I tell you this – you can see shows or whatever that show real labor, but nothing gets you prepared.  My heart about broke when I saw how much pain my wife was in.  I would have done anything to alleviate it, even take it on myself.  That isn’t how the world works though, so I did everything I possibly could to make her as “comfortable” as possible. 

We got to the hospital and the staff was absolutely amazing.  I made sure the nurses knew that my intention was to help and they should direct me so they could do their job properly.  I was not trying to get in their way and I was not trying to contradict anything they said.  I just want to support my wife however I could.  I think they were appreciative of that.  Many people don’t act in this manner, but the reality is quite simple:  I don’t want them attempting to do dose or shielding calcs for my fellow employees at plants and the public, because they haven’t the faintest idea of what they were doing.  Guess who knows nothing about child delivery?  Me!  lol

Things progressed very quickly.  We got to the hospital and Jasmine and I had no idea how far along she was, but her contractions were painful for sure.  I thought she was being very strong and thought it was the beginning of things picking up steam.  Ehhhhh, neh (My Wife and Kids reference if you watch it like we do)?  She was already at about a 9 when we got to the hospital, basically nearing the transition stage.  Imagine our shock to hear that!  I felt very comfortable with the staff there, the head nurse, Susan, was awesome and the midwife at the time was an English lady (Is it weird that I thought of Ian and Martin when my wife was in labor??) who was very kind.  The nurses struggled to get the IV to Jasmine, because she has such tiny veins.  This isn’t a problem with the staff, I have yet to see anyone have much success in that department with Jasmine, it usually takes about 5 tries.  You need X amount of fluids before you can get an epidural.  She did eventually get the epidural and it kicked in literally about 10 minutes before she had to push.  She pushed and pushed, and sadly 30 minutes into pushing, the staff had to turnover.  The midwife who replaced the English woman was nice, but I am not a fan of the nurses tbh.  As I said before, I am not trying to be a problem at all, but at one point, one of the nurses told me to move out of the way.  This is not normal at all, I was trying to support my wife.  Even if they need me out of the way as far as holding her leg or whatnot, I still should be at the top with Jasmine holding her hand.  This is SOP when there is not a problem with the delivery.  I said nothing though and backed away, because I just want what is best for Jasmine.  I do think the midwife saw the look of sadness on my face though and told me to go to the top of the bed.  At 7:32 am, my beautiful son – Jacob Daniel Timm – was born into this world.  My good friend LuckySOB said it will be amazing and words couldn’t describe it.  Another poker player who I associate with occasionally – hobiejuan – told me that when I hold my child for the first time, that it is something I need to remember for as long as I can, as it is simply the best feeling.  To be honest, you just don’t know until it happens to you.  I cried.  I was so overwhelmed with joy and amazement seeing my son for the first time and they were both right.  I am actually tearing up a bit just thinking about.  lol

Jasmine was only in labor for 7.5 hours which is a very short period of time relative to most births, especially the first.  I tell you, she amazed me with her strength.  I cannot fully explain how proud I am of her and how great of a woman she is.  They say behind every great man is a great woman.  Well I have no idea if I am a great man or not, but there is certainly no denying that if I am, so much of it is because of her.  She is my inspiration.  If I could just have her rub off a little more on me, I’d be so much better for it.

After Jacob was born, Jasmine joked with me that he came so quickly, because he has some of his daddy’s impatience – I hope not!  lol

I got a couple of pictures on my phone, which aren’t very good.  He was a bit fussy here in the first picture, he was maybe less than 10 minutes old and was hungry!  In the second picture, he was just starting to wake up and is probably about 5 hours old at that point.  I just missed him looking so peaceful.    Hopefully in due time, I will get some more pictures up of Jacob with the family.  I am out for now, Jasmine is back, baby still sleeps.  I need to do some more recovering of teh sleep as well myself.