(Yeah, it's been a while since then, but it's been kind of busy here...)
Kristi woke up that morning with some contractions. I didn't think too much of it at first because she's been having a few here and there; the Braxton Hicks contractions. Before I left for work, though, she commented that these were a little stronger. The baby was not due for another week, but if it's starting to get a little stronger, I figured we were talking Saturday then.
During the day, the news was all about the rain that was approaching the area. I had decided to leave work early in the afternoon because I needed to stop at the grocery store on my way home and I wanted to be home before the storms got here and wreaked havoc with the afternoon commute. I think I got home at around 4pm to find Kristi on her knees, with her hands on the seat of the couch, breathing through what was obviously a strong contraction. As soon as it was over, she told me that they had started getting more frequent.
I jumped into action and got the inflatable pool into our kitchen area and finished inflating it, connected the hose to the faucet and started filling the pool with hot water. During this, Kristi kept having some contractions. They were between 5 and 10 minutes apart. I set up candles around the area to make it a nice and relaxed setting. By then, the rain had started and you can hear it and see it from the pool as well. Once the pool was ready, she got in and relaxed. This had the side effect of basically stopping the contractions.
After a while, Kristi decided to get out of the pool to see if that got things going again. She stood in the kitchen, talking on the phone with her sister and chatting way on her laptop. The contractions resumed and during them, I took over the phone to narrate what was going on, etc. It was a little past 6pm, I think, when all of a sudden, her water broke right in the middle of the kitchen while she was standing, reading something off the computer. I just said "OK, time to get back in the pool!".
From that point on, even in the pool, the contractions kept coming. I was sitting right outside the pool, holding her head, talking to her, trying to help her not focus on the pain, but on nice, peaceful and relaxing images. It was all I could think of. She was obviously in pain during the contractions, but I could see that she was handling things very well.
The kids were both very interested in what was going on. Lula was in charge of the video camera. I could tell that they were a little worried about seeing their mommy in pain, but at the same time excited about meeting the new baby. The dogs on the other hand, were nervous. They could tell that something strange was going on, that mommy was in pain and they just did not know what to expect.
All of a sudden, Kristi has a contraction that was obviously a lot more intense. Right in the middle of it, she said something like "I can't do this!". Those words freaked me out. This is the most prepared and ready person for childbirth I have ever known or heard of. She is always so determined, so focused. My first thought was "if she can't do this, we're in big trouble, because if she can't do this, I don't know who can". At the same time, I knew I had to do something. I talked to her, tried to calm her down. I figured all this meant that the baby was about to come out. I told her that I was going o get in the pool with her, thinking that I might be able to hold her or calm her somehow. When I got in, I got a really big surprise; the head was already out! That was the terrible painful contraction. Kristi was concentrating on breathing and trying to calm down to slow things down a second. She was worried about the baby coming out too fast. So, for maybe a minute, could have been 30 seconds or it could have been 5 minutes, honestly I can't say, but for that short while, I just stood there, looking at the face of our new baby, completely still, underwater, as if in perfect sleep. This was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. At this point, the baby is still "breathing" through the umbilical cord, so it's not trying to breath through the nose while underwater. It was very surreal. The baby was just there, not moving. Then, the next contraction came and, just like nature and all the books say, the baby's shoulders started rotating 90 degrees and out came the rest of the body, still underwater, and straight into my hands. It was 6:50pm.
As soon as I caught the baby, Kristi said "Don't tell me what it is! I want to see for myself!" I just held the baby while she turned around and sat on the pool and I handed her our new baby son. After a few seconds of cleaning his nose and trying to get him started on breathing, he cried a bit, more cleaning and holding and a little more crying, we got a good look at our little baby boy.
He sure had a lot of hair right from the factory! He started nursing pretty quickly and basically continued nursing for the next hour and a half. He had so much hair. As in head, shoulders and back! We measured him at 19.5 inches and weighted him on the digital scale I use in the garage for car and bike parts at 8 pounds, 11 ounces.
Lula and Marcos were awesome. Lula did a great job with the video camera and Marcos was just so supportive as well as excited. The doggies were nervous. Hardy was shaking! Puck wanted to do what he always wants to do: lick someone. Kristi was absolutely and incredibly amazing.
We had been looking for names for a long time. One day, we were at Barnes & Noble and, while I was looking for some books, Kristi was checking out a baby name book. I came back to her and she asked me what I thought about the name "Cormac", which she had seen in the book. I had in my hand a book by Cormac McCarthy. What are the odds? We liked the name, so that was that.
So, this is how we met our little Cormac.
Aby
Nonnie
Cormac hanging around (video)
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