MichaelandChrissy.com

I’m not sure where the idea for a “push prize” came from, but I’m sure it came from a pregnant woman. This is where you buy a present for your wife as a reward for making it through labor and delivery.  I’m thinking that labor and delivery is expensive enough without additional costs adding to the total.  But I understand the principle of the matter, so I set out to get something shiny for Chrissy (jewelry being the predominant gift for this sort of thing).

When Aiden was born, I gave Chrissy a ruby and diamond three-stone pendant.  She saw it at Jared Jewelers while we were shopping for wedding rings and loved it.  However, aside from her wedding ring and that pendant, she doesn’t wear much jewelry.  I’ve gotten her plenty of sparkly things, but she only wears them on special occasions.  So, I decided to try something else.  What does Chrissy love most (besides me and Aiden)?  Scrapbooking!

Chrissy had mentioned that she would like a printer that can handle 12×12 scrapbook paper.  “Well, there’s no such thing,” I told her.  It turns out that HP, Epson, and Canon all make printers capable of printing on 13×19 paper.  However, only one of them, the Epson Stylus 1400, can feed 12×12 paper directly; the others make you print on 13×19 paper and then trim it back to 12×12 with scissors.  I think that Chrissy would want to print directly on 12×12 scrapbooking paper (that she has in a variety of colors).

After checking around a little bit on the internet, I found the best price for the Epson 1440 on buydig.com. I’ve never used them before, but they offer free shipping and the printer weighs 25 pounds, so I went with them.  As an added bonus, they let you pay via PayPal.  That was my downfall, since Chrissy monitors my PayPal transactions (to make sure that I’m not buying another Fort Max on eBay), and discovered the purchase well ahead of time.

It didn’t help at all that buydig.com shipped the printer without so much as wrapping it in brown paper.  Federal Express made Chrissy sign for a huge box that said “Epson 1400 Wide Format Printer” all over it.  Apparently, the universe conspires against my secrets and forces them into the light!  On the bright side, Chrissy should theoretically be able to start scrapbooking again as soon as we get home from the hospital.  When she’s not feeding small children, at least.

Things are getting exciting here, with only seven more days before the arrival of our new son, Gavin James Wilson.  Since Aiden was born by an emergency C-section, Chrissy opted to deliver Gavin the same way.  The hospital has asked that Chrissy arrive at 5:15AM on July 22nd to “prep” for the surgery, as the doctors are scheduled to begin cutting at 7:30AM.  We are not thrilled about doing this first thing in the morning, but that is when they told us to be there.

Aiden was born around 4:30PM, the late afternoon being perfect timing for Chrissy. She was in the recovery room until about 6:30PM and then got to visit with family until the end of visiting hours at 8PM.  It was nice to see Aiden and visit with Chrissy’s family before going to bed.  After forty-eight hours of back labor, Chrissy was happy to sleep the night away, heavily medicated.  Everyone was shocked at how quickly she recovered and was soon up and moving with little pain.

Since Gavin will be born so early in the morning, Chrissy will unfortunately spend the entire day in a drugged stupor as family and friends come in and out.  She would rather sleep off the anesthetic overnight like she did last time.  We have already requested that visitors wait until the next day, but that, of course, doesn’t include our immediate family (who will probably be there before she gets out of recovery).  If only we could reschedule until later in the day.

I will still be calling everyone to propagate the good news though.  And although the birth won’t be simulcast on Twitter, I will definitely be posting timely information on our web site.  And photos, possibly movies this time too.  Watch this space for details!

Chrissy and I had a long weekend. Heavy labor pains for forty-eight hours tend to ruin a good day. Here is the scoop on the birth of Aiden Michael Wilson:

• August 27th 4 PM — Chrissy starts having labor pains in the afternoon, but is definitely feeling it by 7 PM. We decide to wait until the contractions get to be about 5 minutes apart before we go to the hospital. Chrissy is able to watch TV until about 9 PM, but goes to lie down after that because of the pain. We’re hoping to have a baby by Monday morning.
• August 28th 3 AM — Chrissy wakes me up to tell me that we should go to the hospital. She hasn’t slept at all. We time the contractions, and they are 3-5 minutes apart, but they are only about 20-25 seconds long. We go to the hospital and get admitted. They say that Chrissy is barely dilated.
• August 28th 10 AM — The doctor allows some drugs for Chrissy to kill the pain, and we manage to get a few hours of sleep until we talk to the doctor.
• August 28th 12 AM — The doctor checks Chrissy and says that she is still barely dilated, so we can go home if we want, or we can wait it out at the hospital room. We decide to go home. We’re home by 6 PM, but Chrissy has bad labor pains all night.
• August 29th 3 AM — The contractions are still pretty strong, and now they are longer (almost a minute). The doctor told us to wait until they were 2-3 minutes apart, so we time them for a couple of hours before heading back into the hospital.
• August 29th 10 AM — Chrissy gets more drugs for the pain, but the contractions are so strong this time that she can’t sleep through them. The doctor checks Chrissy and finds that she is only 3 centimeters dilated. They break her water, and order an epidural.
• August 29th 12AM — The epidural (for the pain) and Pitocin (to speed up dilation) come around noon, which finally allows us to get some sleep. We get to sleep until about 2 PM.
• August 29th 4 PM — The doctor checks Chrissy again and finds she is only 4 centimeters dilated. The doctor asks Chrissy if she would rather wait until she is fully dilated even though there is a good chance she won’t be able to have the baby naturally, or opt for the c-section. Aiden is ramming into the pelvic bones with his head, and the doctor doesn’t know if he’ll be able to come out naturally. Chrissy opts for the c-section, and immediately nurses prep her for the operating room.
• August 29th 4:33 PM — Aiden is born. The neonatologist gives him an 8-9 on the APGAR test. Chrissy then recovers in post-op while Aiden is sent to the nursery for measurements.