Oak Joseph Neuner

When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.
- Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Scott and I would like to introduce the latest addition to our family: Oak Joseph Neuner. He was born Tuesday afternoon at 7 pounds 19 inches long and we are so happy and grateful to have our little boy with us at last. He came a bit early, 5 days to be exact, but after calling my Mom at 5:30 am she was able to catch a flight and be here in time to watch Eve while Scott and I went to the hospital. Well, we actually went to my obstetrician's office first. This was at 3:30 in the afternoon and by that point I had been in labor for 14 hours so when she said I was dilated to a 5/6 and 90% effaced I was both happy that they weren't going to send me home but also a little disheartened that I still had a long way to go.

The plan was to stay at my ob's for 20 minutes while they got a hospital room ready and then to walk the 10 minutes through a series of elevators and sky bridges over to the delivery area. So they put me in a room along with another lady who was geting an IV and hooked me up to some monitors. The contractions were getting so intense is was all I could do to stay calm and not panic. After 10 or 15 minutes I had one contraction where I felt the beginning urges to push. I told Scott to get the nurse and that I needed to be checked again.

I was dialated to a 9. Before I knew it they had me in a wheel chair with a blanket thrown over me sprinting out the door with my doctor saying she'll be right behind me. The poor girl pushing my wheel chair was obviously terrified as she was yelling out for elevators and for people to get out of the way.

We got to the delivery room where I literally jumped onto the bed and started pushing. At that point the delivery nurse realized how close I was and started yelling for a doctor and more help. Little Oak was born literally one minute later (3:34 pm) where my doctor, who was barely able to get her gloves on, plopped him on my stomach. An experience unlike any other: delirious pain followed by absolute joy . . . and relief.