Here is Maks as he gets his first test

Today at 1:20pm, we welcomed the newest addition to our family as Maks O’Brian without too much fuss.

Char woke up at 4am, tossing and turning and woke me up around 5 (of course last night was the night I decided to catch up on some work and TV at the same time and ended up crawling into bed around 2:30).  She woke me up again at 5:30 asking for Tylenol (which our midwife had recommended).  I got in the car and drove, looking for a 24 hour store that would sell Tylenol…not an easy feat when you’re groggy.  In the process I almost killed a skunk on Oxford, and had to hit two stores to find Tylenol (and then I only got Regular Strength).

I managed to get another couple of hours sleep while Char paced downstairs.  She eventually woke me up around 7:30, pretty sure that today would be the day.  She called my mom to come over and take care of Kaylin, I finished up some emailing to work, and then it was a whirlwind.

While she went for a quick bath to hopefully control the contractions, I headed outside to put the carseat in the car.  She came outside to tell me that it was getting close, and when I got back inside, I called our midwife Bin to let her know we were close.

We both got fuelled up, and headed to the hospital (the same hospital that I was born at and nearly to the day).  This time it would be Charlene who screwed up the directions, I was sure we were supposed to go in off of one entrance, she insisted it was the other.  Kind of makes up for me getting lost on the way to the hospital for Kaylin.

I dropped her off and parked the car, grabbing only Char’s essential bag.  No camera, no baby bag, no car seat.  Our midwife Binh checked Char, and she was already 7cm dialated.  It was noon as we checked in, and it looked like we’d have a baby by 2.

Things happened very fast, so fast that I didn’t have time to grab the camera or take a quick pee.  Luckily I had my Flip video camera in my coat pocket (which I brought with me because I didn’t want to forget my wallet or keys).

Maks and Charlene from Brian Garside on Vimeo.

Charlene’s labour was fast and intense, and I knew we were in the home stretch when she suddenly started saying that she couldn’t do this anymore.  Our midwives were fantastic, both supportive and task oriented, getting her through contractions one at a time, and keeping her updated on how close she was to the finish line.

At 1:00 the work began in real earnest, things had progressed so fast that Char hadn’t had the opportunity to have any pain medication at all other than the couple of Tylenols that morning.  With just under 20 minutes of pushing on Char’s part, Maks O’Brian emerged into the world.  Char said she knew that we were almost there when the tears started flowing down my face.  What can I say?  Seeing babies get born makes me cry.

I took a little bit of video right after he was born, and got his cries as he got weighed (7lbs, 4oz).  The midwives let Char and Maks bond for a while while they filled out all of the paper work.

Then they did the various tests and checked out all of his parts:

• Two eyes – Check
• Two ears – Check
• One nose – Check
• One mouth – Check
• Two hands – Check
• Ten little fingers – Check
• Two feet – Check
• Ten little toes – Check
• One penis – Check
• Two testicles – Check
• Three nipples – Check

Umm, waitaminute…three nipples — what the heck? Apparently it’s pretty common though.

Just three hours later we were sitting in our own bed back at home (at 5pm), with a newborn baby boy.

It was fast, and it was amazing.  So far he’s been a good kid.  He’s pretty quiet, and when he does cry he calms down really fast.

There are a few photos in my Flikr photostream.