09/10/09

I wouldn't go so far as to say I knew Alder was coming last Thursday but something did feel different. I remember remarking to a coworker that I couldn't get anything started because I wasn't sure I'd be there the next day. And I felt like I had to check in with Kari before going to workout in the afternoon (something I'd never do normally except maybe to try and prove I'm not lazy).

Kari's parents had kindly offered to take us to dinner and although Kari had been having some contractions throughout the day, they were pretty irregular and not too differnent than the previous few days. S0 after I got home from work we all walked to House, the local restaurant that took the place of Gemelli's.

Papa entertained LT at dinner by folding up the kid's menu into various things including a boat and a hat.

LT did a little entertaining with the menu as well.

We had a nice dinner but something something about Kari was just off - I don't know how to describe it. We walked home and even though they offered to stay and watch LT should we need to leave, Kari insisted her parents go home. It couldn't have been more than an hour later when she called them to ask that they come back. We started timing contractions around 9 o'clock and while I didn't attempt any house projects on the roof this time, I did learn that even if you are completely capable of multitasking, this is not the best time to watch a football game on TV (yes, even if it's the season opener). We were on our way to the hospital by 9:45.

We'd talked a bit at dinner about how we all sort of hoped that AC wouldn't be born on the eleventh. It wouldn't be the end of the world but the date 9/11 evokes such immediate and emotional responses in people that it just seemed like it might be a hard birthday for a little guy to have. As we arrived at the hospital around 10PM, however, it was seeming nearly inevitable that Adler would be born on September 11th.

I parked the car in the loading zone, left all our stuff in it, and took Kari inside to check in at the ER. The moved her though the process very quickly and it wasn't long before she was in a delivery room. Though it probably seemed like an eternity to her, it wasn't much longer until she had an epidural in. At that point things had calmed down a bit and I asked her and the doc if it was OK for me to run down to park the car and grab my camera. The doc said I could go get the camera but leave the car for later. What he'd said didn't really sink in but I did what he said all the same. I didn't run to the car but I did go quickly and was frustrated at being held up at the ER for a couple minutes to get back up to the delivery room. Much to my surprise, when I walked back in the room the mood was starkly different than it had been when I left just a few minutes before. The doctor and several nurses were all right around Kari and polity told me to "forget the camera and get over here, now." It couldn't have been more than a minute or two later that Adler was born - 11:43PM on September 10th.

I nearly missed it but I was lucky and it all worked out in the end. I did have my camera so I was able to capture a few pictures of Adler's very first moments in this world.