Austin's Birth Story

February 21^st 2014 – A Magical Morning

Finally it had arrived. The date that had felt so far into the future was finally here. The day before I had worked frantically trying to wrap everything up to give enough time to come home early to start the preparations. Of course I had gotten slammed with a proposal that was due the day before my son was to be born. I had received text messages from Jess throughout the day. She had successfully made it to the hospital to register and take her blood work. Expecting another battle with the George Washington Hospital administration about scheduling, Jess had been knocked over by the care and attention she received in the Labor and Delivery department. Her last of many prenatal visits over the last 9 and half months.  All was now in place.

I sprinted home on my bike that night on my regular commute pulling into the back yard around 7:00pm. The lights were all on in the house and I could see Jessica’s parents had arrived. I walked in and was greeted with a unanimous “nice of you to join us Hayden”. I quickly retorted, “this baby is half Aaronson, so I knew he was not going to be coming early”. I quickly changed my clothes and collected Jeter’s things to take over to our new neighbor Shawn, who had graciously agreed to dog sit while we stayed in the hospital for the next three nights. Jeter climbed right up the stairs and burst into Shawns house and immediately started playing with Chase, his new best friend. This is perfect I thought. No dog guilt to saddle us until we come home, when Jeter would find out he is no longer the top dog in the house.

I arrived back in the house to find shopping bags full of food in the kitchen, with more being off-loaded from the Huber family car in the front. Immediately our refrigerator had doubled in size and pantry over flooded with all kinds of comfort foods.  I guess I should not have been surprised as food is a Huber family tradition, but I was still amazed and appreciative that we would not have to worry about groceries for the next week.

Bags in the following order from left to right: Hayden, Jess, Austin

After the food was put away we were all starving. I quickly put some hot water on and threw in some fusilli and macaroni pasta noodles. Andrea pulled out a pre-made chicken parmesan from the pile of groceries which we warmed up and we added a salad and all wolfed it down. That night we all went up to bed earlyish to prepare to leave for the hospital at 6:30 AM sharp. I double-checked my to-go-bag, which was twice the size of Jess' to-go-bag and which had been prepared several weeks before mine. After double-checking I decided to do a triple-check, anything to stall a couple more moments before waking up and knowing it was go-time.

Michelle - Labor & Delivery Nurse

Both Jess and I woke up instinctively before the 5:47 alarm. The senior Hubers, who are not early risers, were already in the shower getting ready.  It was the warmest day we had had all winter long. The forecast was for a high of 64 with some midday rain.  We squeezed in a quick breakfast, except for Jess who had started fasting after dinner. We packed into the car and arrived at GW Hospital with time to spare. We signed in and followed Jess up to the third floor and into the Labor and Delivery waiting room.  There was already a couple in the room. An Asian woman who Jess recognized from previous visits seemed in a panic -something about scheduling and delays. We quickly went to the front desk to figure out what was going on. Apparently there was a large number of births that had come into the hospital yesterday, but we were told this would not affect us as we were first on the list scheduled for 8:30.  I had heard stories from a colleague about her 8:00 AM C-section being delayed until 3:00 pm with no food or water to make way for emergency deliveries. By 8:00 Jess and I waved goodbye to Fred and Andrea and were headed to prep in a small recovery bed near the operating room.

We were first met by a wonderful woman, Michelle, the labor and delivery nurse. Jess

Dr. Jackson - Resident OBGYN

recognized Michelle from her appointment the day before. She was the right mix of competent and caring with an efficiency gained from 13 years working as a nurse in a large hospital in New York City. As she started to take all of Jessica’s vital signs, insert the IV and punch a slew of information into the computer, various doctors, resident doctors, interns and nurses popped in with questions. The first was the anesthesiologist, a short Indian American woman who was very energetic and peppy, especially for 8:00 in the morning. She explained thoroughly the procedure that Jess would be receiving a spinal block, a shot which basically does what it says, blocks all pain from reaching the nervous system below your spine. Additionally, they would be inserting an epidural, which would be used only in the case there was a complication and a need to ensure a longer term supply of anesthesia that could be easily administered. She was joined by her resident anesthesiologist, Dr. Rowe, who would be overseeing the anesthesia on Jess’s surgery. Next came, Dr. Jackson, another young female doctor (it seemed like no doctors or nurses were over the age of 35 in the hospital), pale skin with red hair, Dr. Jackson, was a OBGYN, and would be working under the oversight of Jess’s main doctor, Dr. Amr Madkour. She walked Jess through some of the procedure, at one point bumping into Michelle, who interjected with a classic New York saying, “Your killin me”, much to Jess’ delight, further endearing her to us.

Dr. Amr Madkour - Attending and OBGYN Extraordinaire

Finally, came Dr. Madkour. He had been Jess’s OBGYN from day one. Jess picked his profile out of numerous others for two reasons. First, apart from having a distinguished academic record as the Chief OBGYN Resident at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, he had volunteered for Doctors without Borders in northern Nigeria for one year and was able to advise Jess on how to manage her pregnancy during two overseas trips to Senegal and Korea[1]. Secondly he had a focus on uterine fibroids and minimally invasive surgery, the same procedure that Jess had had nearly one year ago. With Dr. Madkour we had lucked out. He was a very young good looking Egyptian American with a soothing voice, gentle smile and a focused confidant attention that made us, and more importantly Jess feel she was in the right hands.  

Dr. Madkour greeted us and said that one of his interns had caught something on the baby’s paperwork. Both Jess and I looked at each other nervously. Originally, Jess’s due date had been March 5th, the date estimated from her last period before the pregnancy. But after the first 12 week sonogram, Dr. Madkour moved up the date to February 26^th due to the baby’s size.  But because Jess was a C-section they moved the date up forward another week as a precaution to prevent unnecessary strain on the uterus. Somehow the two due dates remained in the system, so on the day of delivery, one of the interns saw the two dates and said that if they went by the March 5^th due date, then would be delivering earlier than nine and half months, the recommended timing for C-sections. Jess quickly stopped him and said “Dr. just tell me you are not going to cancel the C-section today?” He quickly reassured her that they we were within the window to operate, albeit on the early side, but felt obligated to inform her. It was a small scare that quickly dissipated back to nerves as we refocused on the task ahead.

Jess was finally admitted into the OR. She was dressed in her blue hospital gown. I kissed her, told her I loved her, and that I would see her soon. She nodded slowly and kissed me back, “I love you too”, she said in reserved manner that betrayed the fear of the coming procedure and she followed Dr. Madkour and Michelle into the OR. They told me to wait about 15 minutes until the anesthesia was administered and then somebody would come get me to come in. I quickly put my blue scrubs over my clothes – pants, shirt, hat and shoes and began gently pacing back and forth. I decided I had time to run to the bathroom. I came back and continued pacing into the hallway to look and see if somebody was coming from the OR or not and then back into the recovery stall. I started adding stretches to my pacing, stopping every time to stretch my calves, my thighs, my groin, or roll my neck. There were a few nurses and doctors casually walking around the hallways. One nurse was walking a student through the clipping of the umbilical cord. I listened out of one ear, but could not focus on the details. I thought to myself, I must look like such the stereotypical anxious Dad-to-be right now. Nobody though seemed to pay much attention. I started worrying about my large DSL camera. Should I bring it in with the whole case or without? What should I do with the lens cap? Should I leave it on or turned off?  I needed to be ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. I didn’t want to miss a thing.  Finally settling on a strategy, I continued my obsessive pacing and stretching.

At last, a doctor came out of the OR and said, “they are almost ready for you, they are just finishing the anesthesia”. Finally I thought, looking up at the clock as it was just after 9:00AM, about 30 minutes since she had gone in to the OR. Another ten minutes went by and I started to get nervous that they had forgot to call me in and that Jess was too drugged to remind them.  I asked a nurse if she could check again for me. She peaked into the window and said it looked like they were almost done. Finally after 45 minutes of deep breathing and pacing back and forth somebody told me I could come in. I walked into a very brightly lit large wide-open room with at least a ten people standing in different positions wearing identical blue smocks. I saw Jess in the center lying down on a table with a large blue partition over her stomach. She turned her head to the side when she saw me. I quickly walked over to her side where a chair was waiting for me. I sat down and nervously asked how she was doing. She nervously smiled back, and said “I don’t really feel anything.” She began to tell me that the only uncomfortable part had been when her blood pressure dropped suddenly and she had started having trouble breathing. Jess said they had quickly stabilized it and now she was all right. This all explained the delay I realized.

Jess seemed to be handling everything in stride and then I realized that the surgery had not yet begun when I heard someone say, “Okay, we are getting started”. Over the next 30 minutes I continually asked Jess “How are you doing?” “Are you alright?” and then tried to stay as positive as possible “You are doing great!” “Just keep it up, you are going to get to meet your son real soon!”   At one point I tried to make a joke by saying “See. Isn’t this easier than natural child birth”. And then I heard from over the other side of the partition, Dr. Madhour reply back – “Maybe for you. For us this is hard work!” We laughed, feeling comforted by the fact that things must be going smoothly enough if he can make a joke in the middle of the surgery. Finally, I heard “We have the head!” I looked at the partition again and could see the curtain shaking and then Jess being slightly jolted. There was some more jolting and I could see Jess was feeling at least some of what was going on. She said she felt heavy pressure on her stomach. We were getting super anxious now as we knew things were getting close. I swung the camera around and turned it on. I looked up at a large digital clock on the wall and took a picture of 9:29, thinking this could be the time of my son’s birth. It turned to 9:30. We continued to wait.

The first scream

Finally, I heard Dr. Madkhour say “Do you want to meet your son?” Then from side of the partition, almost like a magician, one of the nurses pulled out a pasty white screaming baby. Jess and I both just stared in disbelief. Then Jess started instantly crying. I was too amazed to follow suit. I looked over as a team of nurses and pediatricians quickly moved this child over to a side table on top of a baby warmer. They quickly took some kind of small cord and began to run it through the baby’s nostrils and then through its mouth. They looked to be vacuuming out some of the amniotic fluids. I carefully wandered over to watch them.  I could see a long whitish grey umbilical cord attached to his stomach and a smattering of blood in his hair. He looked so pasty white. The child  kept crying.

Then they placed him on a scale and one of the nurses announced, “7 pounds, 13 ounces! at 9:33!” Wow. I thought. That sounds big; slightly bigger than Jess or I, who were both barely over 7 pounds. The doctors had taken a bet before the surgery, Dr. Jackson estimating close to 8.5 pounds, while Dr. Madkour, was more conservative, at the mid sevens. After several minutes of quickly working on him they brought him over for us to see, holding him up from head to toe. He looked tall to me. His torso long and his legs even longer and skinny. I began to take photos of him. They then lifted him over a large certificate that said Congratulations! From the George Washington University Hospital and had two outlines of footprints. They took both his feet and stamped it in some ink and pressed it gently on the certificate. Then the nurses put him in a bassinet and swaddled him tight with a white blanket with blue and red stripes and the smallest pink and blue skull cap I had ever seen and then handed the tightly wrapped little package over to us. 

The first cuddle

One of the interns took my camera and began taking several shots of me holding the baby next to Jess’s head while the doctors quickly worked to stitch her back up. I looked down at the child who had stopped crying since being swaddle We then took the baby and unwrapped the swaddle and placed him under Jess' neck. I took several more photos. Disbelief and relief was all I felt at that moment. Everything had gone to plan so perfectly so far. Now we just needed to stitch Jess back up. 
d. His eyes were closed tightly and were twitching under the bright lights in the room. I put my hand over his eyes to shield him from some of the light.

There's a lot going on in this photo

“We are going to take the baby to the nursery to get it cleaned up” said one of the nurses. “Do you want to come?” I looked at Jess still lying on the operating table with a team of doctors bent over her. Go!” she said. “You have to go!” I quickly moved out of the OR with the nurse past our recovery room and down the long hallway near the waiting room. “Do you want to show the baby to the grandparents?” the nurse asked. I saw Fred and Andrea through the window of the waiting room and raised my thumbs on both hands. They quickly came into the hallway to peak at the baby.  “Everything went smoothly! Jess will be in the operating room for a little while longer”. “So can we finally know the name?!” they immediately asked. I paused, wondering if it was now okay to release the big secret we had kept for so long and wishing Jess was here to tell her parents. “Austin (pause) Frederick (pause) Aaronson” I said proudly. They both smiled, especially Fred at the sound of hearing his own name.  The nurse told them we would meet them back at the recovery room after the nursery. 

Baby warmer

I hurriedly said goodbye and followed her down to the end of the hallway to the nursery. I walked in and was greeted by a pediatric nurse who quickly put Austin down onto a large machine that looked like a big heat lamp. She took a printed leg band and matched it with his name and serial number that was on the other leg. She said that she needed to get his temperature back up and was going to place him under this machine. She placed a gold star on his stomach, which was attached to a cord and I watched as his body temperature slowly started to rise under the machine, back up to womb temperature.  As Austin was warming back up he was slowly squirming up and down, his eyes closed, twitching slightly due to the brightness of the lights in the nursery. I looked at him, his body still looking so long and slender to me. Wow. Maybe this kid will grow up to be really tall I thought. He already looked strong, seeing his legs and arms lash around.  Amazingly, he was quiet, amidst all the screaming babies in the nursery.  God, I hope this little guy is super chill, I thought to myself. Then, unexpectedly, the small slits under his eyes popped open. One at a time, showing clear blue eyes, just like his old man and his grandpa.

Bumper Bassinets

I took a break to stop staring at him and looked around. It was like bumper bassinets in the nursery. There must have been over ten newborns in clear bassinets on wheels.  The bassinets all had nametags with last names on them and the birthdates. I looked back at Austin’s bassinet – no nametag yet. How cool it will be to see his name in writing I thought. Most had been born yesterday or the day before and were in for their daily physical. The newbies were a cornucopia of colors and shapes a nice reminder of how multicultural a city DC is.

First sponge bath

After Austin’s temperature was regulated the nurse started to give him a sponge bath. She quickly took a large sponge and began to rub him down getting the afterbirth out of his hair and the white film off his skin. He had gained a pink pigment and his hair had gone from curly to spiky. The nurse dried him off and then took a forceps and clipped and clamped the umbilical cord down further. After a few further checks of his vitals she swaddled him tight and said I could wheel him back to the delivery room myself.  Everybody took turns holding the baby. The camera came out and several more photos were taken.
I awkwardly pushed the big bassinet out of the nursery, feeling a little uneasy without any chaperone. I took Austin back past the waiting room and into the OR recovery room where everything had started. Lying on a table was Jessica and sitting next to her were her parents.

Baby burrito

We then heard little Austin, who had been so quiet make a couple cooing noises and start sticking his tongue out.  Austin was clearly giving us the signal. The grandparents left for a minute while Jess put Austin close to her breast. He immediately latched on and started sucking. Only one hour old and he seemed to know exactly what to do while Jess rushed to keep up with him. With a break in the action, I took out my phone and dialed my parents number in Asheville, NC. My Dad picked up the phone on the first ring. "Well, how did it go?" He answered. "Great."I said. Everything went so great. Jess and the baby are fine" "Can we know the name now?" A huge lump started to form in my throat and my emotions from the whole morning started to catch up with me. I finally was able to choke out the words "Austin - the A is for your name, Art, and for Jess's mom,Andrea and Frederick is for Jess's father." "What a great name!" they both exclaimed. Dr. Madkour and his team finally came back and all said congratulations. We then moved all of our things over to recovery room #339, where we would begin our next series of challenges.  It had been one of the most amazing mornings of our lives and one we will never forget.

An addendum:

 Hayden, this captures our best day perfectly.

I want to add details to two moments for posterity.

Before you arrived in the OR I was administered the spinal block and epidural. As you paced the hallways, I paced mentally. I climbed up on the table and as the anesthesiologists went to work, I ran through comforting moments of my life, some expressed in my head and as the process grew in length, I began to say these things out loud. I commented that a drink to take the edge off would be nice. I blurted out that this was as scary as landing in Tripoli airport for the first time. My hero, Dr. Madkour who was standing in front of me holding my hand, told me he was once engaged to a Libyan woman (interesting!) As the needles were going into my spine and as I had to stay still and not think about the needles going into my spine, I started talking about New York. Michelle chimed in about pizza and Dr. Madkour, who did some of his residency at Columbia Presbyterian (of course he did) told me about a new distillery in New York that was producing “baby bourbon.” I guess I spoke a few times about needing a drink.

As I was laid on the table, my blood pressure dropped. I was told this might happen. It was super scary. At first I tried to tough it out, telling myself “you have to push through this.” But then I really started gasping for air. It felt like I got the wind knocked out of me. I couldn't take any more and started saying “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” They talked to me the whole time and presumably gave me meds to push it back up. They also gave me oxygen and then I could feel myself calming down and able to breathe.

Not long after that Hayden came in and I felt immense relief.

After Austin was born and they showed him to us and I saw that he cried right away, I cried right away. He is ok. He is here. He is ok. He is here.

As they performed the APGAR testing on him with Hayden watching over him, another feeling came in. I felt…NOT PREGNANT. Woo hoo! It felt so good to have that little guy out of me. Hayden and Austin left for the nursery. I lay on the table for another hour listening to the doctors stitch me back up. I was so calm. Austin was ok and I had survived the mental and physical feats of a c section. It was interesting. Dr. Madkour was walking Dr. Jackson through the close. She was clearly doing it and he would very gently say things like, “try this and you need to move this way a bit. That’s it.” I didn’t feel worried. For the first time in many months, perhaps in many years, I was not worried (especially since I wasn’t actually able to see the procedure; although I could see the suctioned blood and stuff in the drainage buckets that were not so strategically placed right next to my head…)

It was a serene moment. It felt great and now they would wheel me out to my baby.

Proud parents

Proud grandparents

Breaking the good news to the other grandparents

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[1] http://www.gwdocs.com/obgyn-obstetrics-gynecology/amr-madkour

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