Little Bu Meets World

Well, it only took a few days since YT's last post and our waiting is over. Little Bu made his appearance to the world as we know it today, Sunday morning April 25 at 10:41, after a long night of labor. He weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 19 inches long. Things have quieted down a bit now, so I thought I'd take a bit of time to record for myself and posterity the ins and outs of how it went down. 

First of all, history will note that Little Bu (LB) was very nearly born on April the 22nd, which as you all know is of course also Earth Day (as I learned recently). This is relevant for reasons that will be more apparent soon, I hope. In the early afternoon that day, YT started to experience painful contractions, and we thought the time was upon us. They were somewhat regular, but didn't yet reach the magic 5-1-1 we had been told to wait for (5 minutes in between, 1 minute duration, for 1 hour). We took YT's mom's advice and went for a nice long walk in Frick Park, which is just down the road. It was a beautiful spring day, and we really enjoyed the sun glistening through the green leaves in the wooded park. I couldn't help but sing In the Bulb There is a Flower (1st verse) to him, which seemed quite fitting. Despite all our efforts to convince him it would be much cooler to be born on Earth Day rather than the day after Earth Day, he didn't listen. Instead of becoming regular and more intense, the contractions actually sort of faded away. They were painful, but probably Braxton Hicks and not the real thing. I think LB was just trying to help us learn to be patient.

Friday (4/23) went by with no developments, and it seemed like things were back to 'normal'. Saturday (4/24)  morning YT even went to the strip with her parents to buy groceries and other sundries at the Chinese grocery store. We even tried to find stuff to do to keep her parents from getting bored, so we walked back down to Frick Park to see the Clayton House (former home of Henry Clay Frick) and associated exhibits. After dinner, we started to watch a movie (Star Wars: A New Hope, mainly because YT's parents hadn't seen it before and I had it at home). There were no subtitles, so YT and I were both trying to translate/explain what was happening.  Before too long, we found we were translating/explaining between increasingly regular and intensely painful contractions. We saw Ben fall to Darth Vader before we got the return call from the OB and we prepared to head to the hospital. I guess LB couldn't handle the suspense. Poor guy.  If you see him, please don't ruin the ending for him.

 

We packed up the car and drove to the hospital around 10:30pm, and went into triage around 11:10pm. Not too long before midnight, we were officially admitted to the hospital -- 3cm dilated.

The rest of the story will be resumed later.  Mother and baby are down for the count, and I'm practically there myself.  I believe for the first time in a long time, I will really sleep like a baby.

Bb