I've had people act like c-sections are no big deal, I've had some say it was. Recovery is a week or so, my best friend said his wife had a c-section and was fine within a 2-3 days.

Like I said, it's up to her.

Prayers sent Josh. Can't even imagine.

We're being moved back stateside in s couple weeks once our little man is stable enough tj fly. The army ur putting us as close to home as possible which is nice although we would love to stay in Korea one more year

Wife gave birth to Cameron Donovan, our first child, Saturday at 6am. He's healthy, she's healthy, and everything went very smoothly, thank God. Especially since we chose not to do any testing for downs or whatever else they can discover during the first tri. We got home today around noon.

He was 6lb. 9oz. and 19.75". Full head of straight black hair. We actually left for the hospital about 45 minutes after my last post itt. Got up there at 11:30pm Friday night and almost 7 hours later he was here. What a whirlwind weekend!

Got ~1 hour sleep Friday night
~4 hours Saturday night
~2 hours last night.
~2 hours earlier today nap when I got home and got into my BED finally. And...I'm about to go lay down and see if I can't catch up a bit!

Good luck to all those fixin' to have kids. It was a really neat experience and it goes by so fast. You don't even have time to think you just react. lol.

Congratulations!

Reading your post took me right back to the overwhelming incredible day. Thanks.

Awesome. He showed up at a good time, eh? 6am. I better prepare for something like that.

6 weeks to go.

It was as good a time as any. Honestly it was nice to get up there at nearly midnight and just hand the bored valet dude our keys. It was really dead and barely any visitors walking around the hospital so it was pretty calm heading up to the L&D room. Also felt kind of intimate going through the whole thing during the night hours - I dunno.

Just glad we didn't have to induce. Wife was really bummed when she heard they wanted to induce her yesterday. She wanted the process to just happen as it would naturally so she'd get "the whole experience" or whatever. I kept telling her there was a chance he'd be here sooner, and he was. But she was really glad about that. The induction would have been due to a minor precaution anyway it wasn't anything serious.

Also wil, you will be prepared because early labor can last hours and they strongly recommend you stay at home during early labor. So you'll be seeing her progress and whatnot and it gives you time for it to all hit you. I think she was in a bit of denial that it was happening, even while on the floor weeping in pain. I was having to work to convince her it was time to go to the hospital. Once her contractions were 5 mins. apart for about 45 minutes (and her last two came with some blood - yikes) I called the nurse and she told us calmly to come on in. Wife wanted me to wait until it had been an hour. I was like "I'm driving - you're bleeding - it's time to go." She actually wanted to hop in the shower. I was like "uhhh, no. Let's go have a baby."

The hardest part for me honestly was trying to not strangle my wife's mother during labor & delivery. It was the 2 of us in there the entire time helping and we don't exactly get along smoothly as it is and this was her first grandkid. There were times she was being way overbearing (and reading numbers off the monitor out loud - getting us worried over nothing) but I just remembered my wife telling me she wanted us both there and for me to be patient. It was tough though. lol.

Congrats!

I dunno man. I'm scared the kid will just pop out and we'll have it in the back of the car.

My wife already agreed no one in the room except me. I asked if she minded if I wasn't there but she insists. She said her mom is annoying and she doesnt' want her in there, I just said "whatever you think is best", with a smile.

Man. I'm getting anxious. hahah

Nah he won't pop out in the car. Wife's contractions had been happening off and on for 25 hours before we left. And even when she got there they said she was only 2cm, but after evaluating her the doc said "I think that you are in labor so we're going to get started". She didn't get the epidural for a couple hours b/c the pain was too much and probably within an hour after the epidural they checked her again and she was already at 8cm so it was like whoa game is definitely on.

As far as I could tell, 1 helper in the room is enough. The nurse will have you holding a leg and stuff while she holds the other. For a portion of it all, the nurse was busy "down there" so her mom was holding her other leg - I think that was the only time it was noticeably beneficial to have the extra helper in the room.

Once baby crowned and remained exposed, nurse let out a loud happy scream then called in the delivery doc and she arrived with 4 other helpers (1 of which was the anesthesiologist) so the room was full and he came out shortly after. Cord was around his neck but she got in there quickly and fixed that issue. I remained stoic and calm until I saw her pull him out completely then I just started insta-crying and smiling. Wife was instantly doing the same. It was neat. It was like I was concerned and reserved even while his head was out but once I saw him come out entirely the floodgates opened as if it was all OK now.

Doula > her mother ainec.

Every time the baby's heartbeat would go down after a contraction she'd read the number off the monitor and start telling my wife "blah blah blah C-section blah blah blah". I kept biting my tongue b/c the docs weren't mentioning it at all. Finally I had enough and said "What are you talking about?!" and she said "well his heartbeat keeps dropping." "I know that but please stop - you are worrying me. We don't need that OK?" and she stopped after that point. She's a mega worry wart and I'm about as docile as it gets under pressure. 2 complete opposite ends of the spectrum. But like I said it all worked out OK.

Honestly last week I thought I was >50% likely to kick her mom out of the room at some point. So I ran hot I guess.

Well it's been just over a year since Brooklyn was born and I have loved every minute of the first year. I was fortunate enough to split the paternity leave with my fiance and enjoy the last 6 months of the first year. I feel real fortunate that I got to see her first steps and hear her first word.

I do almost all of my 2+2 reading at work where my computer is blocked from imagedump and other photo storage sites or I'd post a recent pic. My avatar is from when she was 6 months or so, it's still my favorite picture of Brooklyn.

Congrats to everyone who has recently brought a little one into the world, I hope your journey is as fun as my first year has been.

We have two kids. Tried to go natural on the first. He was a week and a half late and measured huge, so we tried natural induction. OBGYN we went to is a super natural type, but not the kind to risk the health of the baby or mother, so she was a good mix for us. Wife tried for 40 hours. Baby wasn't coming, was passing meconium. He had his head turned the wrong way and had a huge head. It was time to throw in the towel. Wife had a C-Section (not emergency, but not scheduled), and baby was healthy. We went home 2 days later. Wife was sore for a long time due to all the pains of natural labor and then the surgery. Baby was 10+ lbs with >95% head size, so no way he was coming out.

She got pregnant again and we wanted to try natural, but the one thing she didn't want was what happened the first time. We had a few elective ultrasounds to measure her head size and it was always 2 weeks ahead of gestational age. We scheduled 5 days before due date. It was amazing what a difference between the two situations were. This was super relaxed and calm. We both got good nights sleep before going in. The surgery was very relaxed and smooth, got to play our own music, birthing process was very smooth. Wife was nowhere near as sore as the first one and we left in 2 days again, but this time she was MUCH better when we got home. It was a breeze.



Almost all of this is based on psuedo-science non-sense and is not true. The risk is not significantly higher. Isn't recommended by whom? It's not *much* longer. It's a bit longer. If by a while you mean a few days, then sure.

Forcing the birthdate is the biggest part of nonsense in here. There is this whole hippie BS of "baby knows best" blah blah. No. Child birth is inherently a dangerous process. Babies do not know anything. Babies die all the time in natural childbirth. Doctors are not going to schedule you when their lungs are immature. 39 weeks is standard for this, and 37 weeks is full term. Being off by 2+ weeks is virtually unheard of for modern ultrasounds, especially if you got an ultrasound early when there is little variation.

The other thing to consider is expense. Not sure what your insurance might be, but it was a decent amount more expensive for me for the C-Section. Check your insurance for this. I'd say about $10-15,000 is accurate for C-Section costs if it goes smoothly.

wil- you need to do what you guys are comfortable with. Make an educated choice, don't be guilted into it because you aren't good parents if you schedule a C-section or whatever nonsense is coming from the psuedo-science community.

Josh, I just want you to know that you, your wife, and your son are in my thoughts. Please keep us posted on how little man is doing.