introducing felix

 
felix mccarthy, 7 lbs 1/2 oz, 19.5 inches, was born on monday, december 21 at 6:34pm. whereas violet's birth story went up less than a week after she was born, at the time of this posting, felix is already approaching six months, which means i can say definitively that he is a joy.

last spring, when we found out we were having a boy, we were pretty surprised and frankly a little apprehensive. ever since violet came along, i think we thought of ourselves as girl people. we already had the clothes, the toys, the friendships of the parents of the girls who had become violet's friends. happily the shock quickly became excitement. it turns out that having a boy is pretty neat -- something that around 50% of the people reading this already know!

'twas the night before felix...

taken almost exactly 24 hours before he was born.

i woke up around 5:00am to some, let's say, symptoms, which led me to believe that i'd be going into labor soon, and within an hour, the contractions started. i emailed my office that i wasn't coming in, as i'd planned to work for the last few days before christmas, my due date. i was paranoid because my doctor was convinced that my labor would go fast, so as soon as the contractions hit the 5-1-1 rule, kevin and i shuttled violet over to lisa and john's house before heading to the hospital. it was only 9:00am, and i knew my mom would arrive from san diego by the afternoon, so we told violet not to unpack because she wouldn't be spending the night. soon after, lisa texted this:

luckily lisa and john are like family to us. thanks guys.

the commute to the hospital wasn't bad, despite a few uncomfortable speed bumps just like last time, but as soon as the nurse hooked me up to a monitor, my contractions practically stopped. i'd been walking around all morning, which had been moving things along, and i knew the labor was progressing because it was becoming more painful. nevertheless i was afraid they were going to send us home, but since i was 3-4cm dilated, they agreed to let us walk the halls for a couple of hours. kevin shuffled along with me. we saw a lot of this:

here's me in the holding room:

the staff delivered tea and cookies, which i appreciated very much but sadly did not eat. gestational diabetes sucks. (happily i have eaten many cookies since.)

the walking accelerated the contractions, and by mid-afternoon, i was at 4-5cm and officially admitted and wheeled over to labor and delivery. it was a huge relief to put aside my fear of giving birth in our bathtub. i haven't done any reading about home birth, but i have often wondered where all the mess goes. now i never need to know!

our labor room this time was much bigger than last, so i basically walked in circles for over an hour. kevin and i chatted with our nurse about her recent trip to cabo and her son's gifted program at school, and we spent the rest of the time strategizing about when to ask for the epidural. a coworker of mine had told me a funny story about his wife, at the time a high-powered studio executive, and how she made him chase down an anesthesiologist at 11:55am because she knew he would disappear for lunch. given that i had to wait for two hours during my labor with violet because the anesthesiologist was in surgery, i didn't want to wait too long, but i didn't want to be a wimp either. kevin was the best at comforting me as the contractions got worse, and by 6cm, i was like, yeah, i'd be happy to stop doing this, so we called it -- and caught the anesthesiologist about five minutes before he was heading into a surgery! divine intervention?

ever since we'd arrived, my doctor had been "asking" if i wanted pitocin to speed things along -- her polite way of saying she wanted to give me pitocin -- and i had been replying (via the nurses) that i didn't think i would need it. our main nurse was clearly irritated with the doctor's pressure and said something along the lines of "they knew the hours when they got into this profession so don't let her push you because she'd like to be home for dinner." as much as i love my doctor, i really didn't want the pitocin. on one of the biggest and best days of your life, it's surreal to watch humdrum workplace politics at play.

i did say okay to having my waters broken. the nurse didn't seem on board with this intervention either, but she had already referred to my waters as a "bulging bag" which was freaking me out a little, and when my doctor promised i'd "go really fast," i was game and she was right. an hour later and i was ready to push.

i didn't have to push for more than a few minutes. it was so quick that the baby nurse hadn't even entered the room yet. as felix emerged, the doctor said, "i have to help you out a little." i didn't know what she meant, but kevin watched as she cut the cord that was around felix's neck. they put him on my chest, and i asked if he was supposed to be purple and if he should be crying. as the labor nurse called for the baby nurse, she did two quick suctions from felix's mouth... and then he started crying before the baby nurse raced in. his color returned almost immediately and my doctor promised that he was fine. it was all so fast that we didn't have more than a few seconds to panic, and then kevin and i were just flooded with the relief and joy of having a son.

we stayed two nights in the hospital, as evidenced by daddy-son matching bedhead.

i was still paranoid to see if my gestational diabetes would disappear so i ate a cheese omelette for every breakfast and whitefish with steamed broccoli for every lunch and dinner. luckily my sugars are back to normal and i have since made up for the lost carbs.

when felix would try to nurse, he'd hold his mouth open and wail while frantically shaking his little head back and forth. when he would finally latch, he'd nurse like a champ, but i was pretty panicky about it those early few days. the nurses assured me that he didn't know what he was doing yet but would soon enough. everything improved exponentially once my milk came in.

my mom brought violet to visit, which was very sweet.

i'll have lots more to write on the subject, but in sum, she is the best, most loving and adoring big sister. watching them interact has been the joy of our days these past several months.

all in all, we were thrilled that the little guy decided to come out four days early, so that we were home in time for christmas. an appropriately fortunate start for a felix.