We spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Greenlake. Matt played some volleyball, Andrea (35 weeks pregnant) lounged on the grass since she was finally nearing the end of 8 weeks of bedrest, and Seattle was finally displaying some semblance of summer. Bob and Val were visiting from Oregon for Mom and Dad’s (Pat and Carol) 39th anniversary, so that night we joined them and Christina for dinner and S’mores, which Andrea was in heaven over. Bob had found the largest marshmallows in the universe, and we worked on perfecting the “chocolate in the middle” S’more. It was a fun, sunny Seattle day and we soaked in every bit of it. We slowly dozed off as we were watching Outbreak on AMC.
At 2 AM Andrea woke up to 3 major gushes, realizing her water had surely broken. We both jumped out of bed and grabbed our half-packed hospital bags. Matt nearly made himself sick running around the house and had to lay down for a few seconds before tearing off for more toiletries. Neither of our cell phones had been plugged in, so both were nearly dead. Andrea called the hospital, quickly called both sets of parents, and we drove off for Swedish Hospital on First Hill. We left almost every light in the house on, packed no clothes for Matt, packed no cell phone charger for our dead phones, and brought no movies, books, or music. We didn’t even have the car seat in the car. We couldn’t have told you otherwise at the time.
Andrea was quickly admitted to labor & delivery as it was clear that her water had broken and the baby was still footling breech (head up, feet extended down). Later it would turn out his cord was also loosely wrapped around his neck and leg (so he was accessorizing just less than little Bennett Young). We headed to the operating room, with a brief stop at the restroom.
In the OR the anesthesiologist got to work on Andrea’s epidural. Matt held onto her shoulder and hand…and empathized a little too much. Turning very pale, Matt’s tell-tale eye twitch started so he sat down with his head between his legs. Failing this, he laid down on the cold floor to stabilize. That did the trick, and after about 2 minutes he was back up sitting with Andrea, holding her hand as she was prepped on the operating table. A wave of nausea hit Andrea so she started dry heaving. Some anti-nausea medication was added and everything calmed down for the big delivery.
Our doctor was Dr. Martin, and she performed the c-section speedy quick. Little baby boy’s feet and butt easily made their way out of the small incision, but his head was stubbornly hanging on. Finally free, he was moved over to the warming table to be cleaned and a few seconds later let out that precious first cry. Of course to mom and dad those few seconds felt like rotten minutes. Born at 4:08 AM, he weighed in at a bulbous 5 pounds, 3.7 oz. and 17 inches long. Things said by mom and dad at the time included “There he is”/”good boy”/”listen to those powerful lungs” and “he’s ok honey”/”you did great.” Andrea’s a medical nut, so naturally she wanted to meet the placenta, too. It kept her baby alive for 8 months…and she’d heard that it’s crazy stretchy. They brought it around, we took a look, and said no, we weren’t keeping it. Nurses brought him over to the table where he got his first kisses (3 from mommy). Andrea really wanted to hold him right away, but sadly had to wait.
After they checked him out on the warming table they decided to take him to the NICU for transitioning. His oxygen saturation level was a little bit low and he was working a little for each breath. Matt went with the baby and Andrea was wheeled to a recovery room. After about an hour she met up with Mom, Dad, Bob, Val, Christina, and Alex. They visited briefly, and Andrea didn’t reveal the new baby’s name. That was going to be Matt’s job (and Parenthood moment).
Meanwhile, on the way to the NICU, little baby boy’s breathing and saturation level had both stabilized. He was putting on a warming table to keep him toasty and hooked up to heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation monitors. Matt’s comment to the nurses was “my wife would really love to see this room, with all the little babies.” The nurse monitored his vitals, gave him a glucose test, and said our little boy got an A+. Such an over-achiever already. Sadly in this same room there were at least 4 other little ones that weren’t quite so lucky. We remember a little baby Leo who had been born on May 2 and was still in the NICU. He had a little arrhythmia episode while Matt waited with our new baby boy. 2 other babies were in incubators, and 1 last baby was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and machines. Matt held our little boy’s hand and took some pictures…and quietly hoped to get the hell out of there. The nurses kept offering to take Matt’s mask and OR suit, which he refused. He wanted that traditional movie moment: coming out in the full get-up to announce baby’s safe arrival and mommy’s stable condition. So he hung out in the NICU in his suit, hat, mask, and booties.
While there, the nurse decided he should get some food, so Matt fed him his first 1 cc of formula. He let out a good strong burp, so we knew he was ours. After this began a long stretch of just waiting…he was looking great, but needed to show it consistently. After about an hour our nurse (maybe Sue?) wheeled Andrea’s bed into the NICU where she could hold him for the first time. This was just before 7 AM, so we only got about 15 minutes all together. At 7 there was a shift change and they needed to exchange notes, something we’re not supposed be around for. Andrea and Matt headed back down to the recovery room.
Matt brought everybody in and announced our new healthy baby boy, who we’d named Tyler Hughes Wood. Matt called his parents to spread the good news and his new name. Next we called Kristi, our visitors headed for home, and we sat in a big empty room thinking “this isn’t exactly what we expected.” Around 8:15 AM we were wheeled to room 1012 in the southwest wing (post-natal) and little Tyler was waiting for us in the room. That was wonderful news and we were all together at last.
matt & andrea 