Happy Birthday Logan!

Two years ago today, a Thursday, Brandi wanted me to stay home from work. She was one day past her due date and having some pains. She had been having pains all week, however, and had wanted me to stay home every day that week. I ended up going to work, but didn’t have a good feeling about it. Something was definitely different about the way Brandi felt that morning.

She called when I was half way to work. My phone was in my pocket on vibrate and I almost didn’t feel it. I think I got it on the fourth ring. Her water broke in the time it had taken me to get about half way to work. I needed to come home. I was about a half hour from home and the hospital was about another hour from home. I hung a U-ie on Route 68 and hurried back, cutting through a couple of read lights along the way. When I finally got home, Brandi was nervous, but dressed and ready to go. I got her and her bag down the three flights of stairs from our apartment and off we went.

I decided on the toll way to get to the hospital, hoping by that time, around 9, that rush hour traffic would be gone. No such luck. We were worried about being stuck in traffic too long, Brandi was getting more nervous, especially as we ran into an unending block of stopped traffic. I ended up driving on the shoulder a good little way to get to the upcoming off ramp and taking local roads the rest of the way. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep Brandi calm and calling our parents and my siblings. — A funny side note, the week before I had called my older brother for some little thing, to borrow a dvd I think. No one had picked up and it wasn’t a big deal, so I didn’t leave a message. When he saw the caller ID he called back and I told him it was no big deal. He said that considering that Brandi was close to popping at the time, I wasn’t allowed to call and not leave a message. — So anyway, we got to the hospital in a good amount of time and got Brandi admitted.

It was a cold October day, and as we were pulling into the emergency parking lot, it started to snow. This is pretty unusual for mid-October in the Greater Chicagoland. Sure it gets cold around that time, but usually not cold enough to snow. The ground was warm enough that the snow didn’t stick around, but throughout the morning and into the afternoon it kept snowing and picking up strength. Brandi’s mom was at a hospital up in McHenry when Brandi went into labor, it was part of the school program she was in, and she said that up in McHenry, roughly 45 miles away, it was like a blizzard outside.

Not long after we got to the hospital, my parents arrived, as they both had their own businesses that were run out of the house, and they started from only five miles or so from where we started. They spent most of the day in the delivery room with us, as well as the rest of Brandi’s family, which we will definitely not do next time. Brandi wasn’t able to relax, and having all these people around wasn’t helping me at all either.

After several hours in labor, Brandi was given drugs to help regulate her contractions and move things along and drugs to help with the pain. I did a lot of pacing and fidgeting, while nurses and her doctor would come in from time to time to check on things. The night wore on and Brandi wasn’t progressing and neither was Logan. The doctor started talking about caesarians, which Brandi did not want to do, and we told him we’d think about it. It was about 8:30 or so when the doctor pulled Brandi’s mom out of the room to have a chat with her. We found out later that he had asked her to come in and try and nudge Brandi toward a c-section, which she did.

Brandi reluctantly agreed, and she was prepared for the operating room while I was left alone in the delivery room to put on the O.R. gown and booties that wouldn’t quite fit over my shoes. They brought me into the room and I sat by Brandi’s head while the doctors did their thing. She was shaking and still in some pain, and the anesthesiologist gave her more drugs, until finally Logan was removed.

I don’t really feel like going into detail after that. That night and the first two weeks of Logan’s life we had a lot of scares. Since then we’ve had our ups and downs, our worries and our joys, but overall we’re happy, and we’ know that we’re blessed to have him.

So anyway, Happy Birthday Logan! I know it’s been two years, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Time slips away so quickly, and before I know it, you’ll be a man out on your own. If I did my job right, you’ll be fine.