Safely Delivered

Elliot Mason Sueyasu was born at 4:29 pm on May 15th. He weighed in at 3458 grams (7 lbs 10 ounces) and was 50 cm (20 in) long. He has all his fingers and toes and Yoshi’s nose, for sure. I think his wrinkly fingers look like tiny elephant trunks. MJ is tired but happy. It is so sweet to see her watch Elliot sleep. Her face gets all blissed out.

If you were checking wombquake, you got the news just a few minutes after Elliot appeared, thanks to MJ’s clever skill at giving us access to post by mobile phone. I even snapped a photo as he was being washed up for the first time.

I was surprise at how fast it happened at the end. When I got back from my break, MJ was 7 cm dilated (10 cm is the goal). Tracey went to take a shower and Yoshi to get some food. I sat with MJ for 20 minutes or so, then the midwife shoo’ed me out so she could do something involving a basin and a towel. I was in the waiting room for ten minutes when the nurse ran in to find Yoshi. “Where is the husband? The baby is being born now.”

Tracey walked in 15 seconds later, but Yoshi wasn’t with her. We rang him, but he didn’t answer. I dashed back to the apartment to fetch him. We thought we had sufficient time, since the books all said 30 minutes to 2 hours for this phase of the delivery. Urgent messages from Tracey sped us up and we made it to the delivery room in the very nick of time. Elliot was just emerging as Yoshi walked in.

I’ve never seen a baby delivered, and though I missed most of this one, I saw enough. Wow. When the doctor held him up so Tracey and I could see, we both cried. Just thinking of it now brings tears to my eyes.

But I’m really glad it was MJ and not me. I’m very happy to be an aunt.

Posted by kuri at May 17, 2008 08:15 AM