Gabriel Aaron        

Labor

At 5:30 or so in the am on the September 24th, 2002 Jessica was experiencing what would turn out to be labor contractions. She woke me to tell me that the contractions were different than the one she experienced up to now. This piece of information I took under advisement and duly went back to sleep. When I finally got up, Jess didn't seem to be in any rush so I ironed a shirt to bring with me on the off chance we'd have to stay. We called the doctor around 9:45 am and were told to go to the hospital. Jess was well prepared and her bag was already packed. We got the rest of our gear ready, and by the time we left her contractions were 6 minutes apart. 

Of course the car needed gas and by the time we left the gas station she was 4 minutes apart, and getting quite vocal! I drove a respectable 75 or so down to Newton Wellesley Hospital, and made the trip in 4 contractions. You do the math on that one! I parked in a tow zone and acquired a wheel chair for Jess. We made our way up to the maternity ward, and got her checked in. The admin person escorted to a waiting room and we were told someone would be right with us. Jess had another contraction and we had two people show up immediately. The vocal part of the contraction obviously got their attention. Jess was examined and was 6 cm dilated and fully effaced. At this point we had to move down to a birthing room as things were moving right along. We got her settled and I went down to the car for all our gear. If you have children you know what I'm talking about.......CD player, pillows, clothes for you and the baby, lotion, slippers, hand cream, toiletries, and an assortment of other items you'll never even take out of the bag while at the hospital. I managed to carry it all in one trip, and I'm sure I resembled a pack mule coming across the parking lot! 

When I returned to the room Doctor Clark informed me that her water had broken and she was 10 cm dilated. The baby would be born any minute. This statement got me by surprise, and the only response I had was, where do you want me to stand. I was positioned between Jess and the baby cart. This was a fairly high tech workbench with a heating element at the top. It would be a nice piece to have in the garage to warm your hands on a cold day!

Time to Push

It was 11:30 am and I knew things were heating up. The doctor ordered all sorts of things and two nurses were getting all sorts of things ready. They set the bed up for delivery and it was time to start pushing. Dr. Clark settled into a stool in front of Jessica poised for action. At the next contraction Jess was prepared to push. After the first push the doctor was extremely excited because the head started to come out. I never experienced a birth first hand before, it's really miraculous. On the third contraction the head popped out and on the fourth Gabriel was born at 11:59 am. It all happened in 20 minutes or so. Jess was presented with our son and the doctor and nurses took care of business. Gabriel was examined and all seemed fine. Jess was moved to a regular maternity room to recover after Gabriel's extreme rush to meet us. We were discharged on Thursday and so far everything is going along fine. We could use a full nights sleep, but I'm sure that's not going to happen for quite some time. In closing this chapter, if Gabriel was in such a rush to get into this world, perhaps he'll be just as fast in a Slalom event!

Click on the below thumbnails for a bigger shot of our small miracle!

Minus 36 weeks	Minus 34 weeks	Minus 26 weeks	Minus 2 weeks
Who turned off the heat!	7 LBS even	Who took my hand!	What's with the glass box!
pat,pat - BURP	I'm sleeping here	Home at last	Mom and babe
Dad and Gabriel	Boys in the hood!	Dad, Gabriel and Lou	Action
Cantor Pessaroff, Jessica, Alan, cousin Rich, Lenore and Lou	A pinkie full of Manischewitz goes a long way	Hick - enough already!	A break before the storm!
More action	Almost there	Well done son	Grandpa Lou