BABALITY

Well, today was a big day.

We woke up bright and early and headed to the hospital. With only 27 hitches we managed to get Io in and had our OB/GYN examine her, and he told us all systems were GO for the c-section today. We got moved from room to room a couple of times, and sometimes Ioana would get whisked away for more exams and I would wait and occasionally nurses would yell at me in incomprehensible Romanian.

And then, all of the sudden and with essentially no warning, it was time for the surgery. Normally in Romania family are not allowed anywhere on the OB/GYN floor. Expectant dads, grandmas, aunts, etc. all have to wait in the stairwell until a nurse comes out and tells them what happened. The people in the photo at left were all waiting to hear news from other birthing rooms.

Luckily, because Io works at the hospital and because our OB/GYN is an awesome and forward-looking guy, we managed to negotiate me a place in the delivery room.

We got taken to another room and the nurses shooed me out while they got Io ready to be moved to the OR. They gave me a sterile smock, mask, hair-cover, and covers for my shoes and banished me to the hallway. I ended up sitting outside the OR while a bunch of nurses cleaned it and prepared it for surgery. This was probably the most nerve-wracking time for me, just sitting there with nothing to do but think of a million things that could go wrong.

The original plan was that I would be right there next to Io holding hands, which would have the added bonus of placing me on the same side of the OR "screen" as her so that I wouldn't see the actual surgery. But at the last minute the OR nurses were basically like "Get out of here" and I ended up watching from an interior doorway. But Io and I could see each other and talk to each other, and to be honest the anesthesiologist was so great that she was probably a better comfort than I would have been anyway. And we were still together and got to experience our magical moment, largely reminiscent of the chest-burster scene from Alien. Gabriel was saucy and complaining right from the get-go, which is great (especially for a c-section baby).

The nurses checked him out and cleaned him up, and then brought him over and let me hold him. I was positive I was going to like drop him or crush him or something, but nothing like that happened. They took him over and showed him to Ioana, and then put him into a little baby-house and took him off for more exams and whatnot.

BABY!

Born 3/22/11

7 pounds, 1 ounce

19 1/2 inches

I went out to the stairwell to tell Tania that everything was good. The doctor finished up the surgery and Io was transferred to the ICU for the first night (routine). We've been in to visit a couple of times, but generally the ICU nurses kick us out after 15 or 20 minutes. Io's taking some painkillers but has been in pretty good shape, considering. Tomorrow she gets some soup and yogurt and transferred out of the ICU, which means hopefully I can spend more time with her, and Gabriel can spend more time with both of us.