Day 590: The Birth Experience – Grayson’s Delivery

By the time we arrived at Northside to deliver Grayson, Serena had already been in labor for most of the day, probably around 14 hours. But the day had been very pleasant. We took walks, baths, ate pizza, and most importantly, baked cookies. For some reason, Serena had been obsessed with the idea of baking cookies while in labor to keep her mind focused… and she did… they were some of the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had.

I just wish our arrival at Northside has been as pleasant as the rest of our day had been. Frankly, our arrival was very bizarre. Reception behaved as if they had never seen a woman in active labor before. Saying things like “Is she okay?” and “She’s in labor… now?” Comically, in a Hospital that delivers 50+ babies a day, Serena was the only mother-to-be, out of ten in the waiting room, who was in active labor.

And of course, Northside reception did not disappoint. They lost all of our preregistration paper work… “She’s in labor now? Well, we’re going to need her paper work before we can let her deliver.” Seriously folks… I had to fill out all the paper work again, while my wife put on quite the show… probably reaffirming most choices for a scheduled c-section.

When they finally called us back to the very bright and surgical feeling delivery room we found more paperwork waiting with our assigned nurse… and questions… tons of personal questions like, “are you HIV positive” and “are you an IV drug user”… .

Finally, as Serena and the nurse began to argue over fetal heart rate monitors, IV connections, and hospital gowns… Serena bore down on one hell of a contraction and screamed at the nurse, “No cookies for you!”