On July 27, 2004, I made the following note into Pocket Outlook on my Pocket PC:
Joshua Thomas- born 1552 in the middle of a thunderstorm. 8 lbs 1.2 oz, 20 inches long.
I was working the swing shift at the time. I took my wife to a routine OB/GYN appointment around 9 AM that morning. I planned to take her home, eat lunch, then go to work. Joshua’s due date was Aug 11. My wife hadn’t packed anything. In fact, neither of us had clothes for another day because laundry was going to be done after the appointment. Her blood pressure was slightly high, so we were told to go to the hospital. The hospital concurred and suggested inducing. Then they brought in an ultra-sound and said that Joshua’s shoulders were too big and needed to be delivered by C-section. I’ve since learned that New Jersey has the highest rate of C-sections in the nation and doctors won’t chance anything here. Somewhere around 2:30, the room filled up with doctors and nurses and it seemed like equipment was flying all over the place. My mother-in-law had arrived for support. While Christina was being prepped for surgery, the power went out. She freaked. I figured the hospital had a backup generator, but the power was out for a lot longer than a generator *should* need to kick in. Especially in hospitals, those things should have millisecond tolerances.
Christina was taken back to surgery while my mother in law and I were left in the labor and delivery room. I was fetched to come back to surgery. I didn’t see Joshua taken out. The next year, I watched as Caleb was taken out, but I didn’t get to see as much with Joshua. He came out with a full set of lungs, really ticked off at being removed from his safe warm place. After cleaning him up, I followed him to the nursery, then bounced back and forth between the nursery and my mother-in-law until Christina was wheeled out of surgery into a room. When the doctors felt she was ready, I went down the hall to get Joshua from the nursery. After Christina’s dad and sister arrived, her sister and I drove back to my house to do laundry and pack several days of clothes for Christina. As I said, Joshua was born during a thunderstorm. Several roads were still closed due to flooding and damage while I drove home. We missed it all.
Ultrasound- Dec 24, 2003
Walking down the hall, Jul 27, 2004
July 27, 2004
Pictures from July 2008
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