the delivery

at about 4am, the doctors woke melissa up and told her she was fully dilated and would have the baby within half an hour. this was a surprise to her as she'd been sleeping for the past three hours.

in a flurry of activity, 8 more people and three more machines entered the hospital room, bringing the totals to 12 people (including us) and five machines. tools and carts and bottles and filters were all wheeled in while everyone got into their routines. about quarter past 4, everyone starts telling melissa to push, except she's doped up and can't tell if she's pushing or not. no problem, a 200 pound filipino man gets up and leans on melissa with his elbows to hasten the baby's exit.

i had the honor of cutting the little one's cord. i was given an individually wrapped glove and a special pair of scissors which had been dunked in some magical purifying solution. i was made to put the glove on and hold the scissors, making sure the neither touched anything else in the room. zeb was nowhere near out yet, i got bored and let my guard down, and the handle of the scissors touched my "sterile" scrubs. ikes! this, of course, necessitated getting a whole new glove and pair of scissors. after that, i was forbidden to move and had to hold my hand on the scissors on the table.

4:37am, zeb breaks free into the world. i missed it as the doctor was in my way and i was told not to move. the cord was cut successfully and zeb was whisked away to be cleaned. melissa had to ask if he was ok because the little boy didn't make a peep when he came out - only whined a bit when they inserted 3 foot tubes into all of his facial orifices. (he is still pretty quiet, for which we are thankful.)

zeb was removed from us about 4:50am and i didn't see him again until he returned to our room around 11. don't ask me, that's the way they do things here.