This is My Birth Story. I didn't write it. My dad did. Hope you enjoy it!

Milo              

New York, NY
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Room 1225
Temp Outside: 17' F

January 5th, 1999 - Tuesday

4:30am Maria is awakend by a pain in her belly. She screams. I awake (obviously).

5:00am We go back to sleep.

6:00am Up with intense pain. 1 to 3 minute contractions every five to ten minutes. I call doctor Shin at 6:15am. He says wait an hour and see if the contractions get worse or better.

7:15am We leave home as a family of two for the last time.

8:00am Citywide car service drives us to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on 168th and Broadway. We check into a room. I find the comfy chair and start my shift.

9:00am Enter Dr. Levine, our gynecologist. He examines Maria and tells us that she is .5 centimeters dilated and we need to watch for two hours to see what happens.

10:40am The baby's heartbeat is being written on the little machine above my chair. 122 to 165 bpm (beats per minute). It is one of those pens that jig back and forth over a treadmill of graph paper to create the squiggly line you see often in movies. I have used it for a background on another page. Click here to see it and the aforementioned machine.

11:45am Dr. Levine says that perhaps it is not labor but because he is low, he is pressing on an organ and causing pain. Her cervix is effaced but the diameter has been at 1 centimeter for 3 hours now. It has to go to ten eventually. Perhaps he will give her a sedative so she will sleep till the evening. He wants to confer with Dr. DeMarco, his associate.

2:00pm Morphine to kill the pain. Terry is the nurse who covered for Mary, our regular nurse. My parents came to hang out in the cafeteria. They are not allowed on the delivery floor. Oh well. I warned them.

4:00pm New nurse -- Fran. Maria sleeps till 7. No idea what I did. Probably watched her sleep and slept myself.

7:30pm Woke me up with intense contractions -- 30 second contractions @ 5-6 min apart.

8:30pm Dr. DeMarco came in and said, "We won't induce now. Sleep through the night and well see how you are in the morning. Pitocin will be used in the morning to accelerate the dilation of the cervix."

Our overnight nurse was a lovely Jamaican woman by the name of Yaa. She has three kids -- 25, 15, and the baby at 5. The only other thing I know about her was her great grandfather was Scottish.

11:30pm 100.3' temp. Brita - new Night Nurse...(Night Nurse was a big hit song in Britain two years ago when we were there. Simply Red with Sly and Robbie on drums and bass. Very cool song.)

12:15am Injection of Morphine and Seconal in the ass by Brita, our Irish lass. She has a great sense of humor. After yelling a bit, Maria was asleep by 12:35.

1:00am I go to sleep. Last night as two.

In the middle of the night this idiot resident doctor came in to check on her. Woke us by his presence and left - letting the door slam on his way out. So I got up, went out to where he was writing and said, "She is barely sleeping. Could you not slam the door!" Inconsiderate son of a bitch! I wish I remembered to look at his name. I could let you all know to stay away from him.

January 6th, 1999 - Wednesday

6:30am Dr. Levine woke us and asked us if we were fine. We were. Maria had no more extra pain in her abdomine. I gave Maria a shower. Got wet. Very romantic, as you can imagine! Brushed her hair and teeth.
Hooked up the Pitocin and the baby's heartbeat is 132bpm. I am going to get coffee and something to eat.

8:00am Head nurse Betsy checks her out -- tough woman, Betsy! Maria is much better. She slept through the whole night. And no fever!

12:15pm Dr. Levine breaks her water. She is sitting up and talking to Rosa her sister on the phone.

1-2:30pm More serious contractions.

2:45pm Levine feels her uterus is three centimeters open and totally effaced.

3:00pm The epidural/spinal tap goes in. Wow, what an ordeal that is. She must stay perfectly still while the anesthesiologist sticks a 5" wire into your spine. Yea, I could do that. NOT!

3:10pm Her left side is numb. They only completely anesthesize one side so you can help in the delivery. Otherwise they would have to suck him out!

3:30pm She is fully open - 10 centimeters. Dr. Nathan Harat said,"She is totally dilated!"

This is when I first saw Milo. Nurse Fran told me to look between my wifes legs and what I saw there was amazing. It was very wet and dark. I moved it with my fingers and realized I was playing with my son's hair while he was still inside my wife. If you look at the birthing pictures you can see the head of hair he had when he was born. That wet mop is what I could move around while we were waiting for the doctor. I am glad that we have dropped the super sanitized process in the delivery rooms. With gloves on, I would have missed the tactile sensation of what I did.

4:00pm Dr. Levine comes in and asks how everybody is doing. He is so happy to be doing this he is smiling wide. He just spent the whole day doing very complicated surgeries and this is what he lives for day to day at his job.

4:10pm Dr. Levine is at the receiving end of the bed. Fran takes her right leg and I take her left. He says,"Push!" and "Hold!" Over and over this is said and over an over she does it. All the time I am telling her to breath rhythmically through the pain. In...out...in...out...in...out. Steady does it. At one point Levine says,"Hold it!" and she has the head half way out. She is stretched open about 5 inches with his head stuck half way into the room. Imagine the size of a medium grapefruit and you will have an idea what I am talking about. Finally we are moving again. Within minutes he plops into Dr. Levine's hand and is a crying bundle of flesh; purple and wet.

4:28pm Milo Romaguera-Mayo is born. 7lbs 1 ounce. 19.5 inches long.

4:29pm The doctor asks me if I want to cut the umbilical cord. Of course I do. He clamps the cord shut about 1.5 inches from Milo's belly. The second clamp goes about an inch from that. He hands me the scissors and I cut between them.

Wow, I am fascinated by the whole event. I am constantly asking questions of the nurse and doctor. Trying to absorb the whole thing as much as I can.

Well...that is all for now. It is two months and 15 days later and, funny, I am really sitting here writing with him in my lap. I wonder how long it will take for him to get the hang of this computer thing. Probably not too long. It is great to write about all of this after such a long time. I obviously took notes with times. I get to revisit and reexperience the whole event, embellishing as I go. Oh oh! He is getting fidgety. Gotta go. Bye now!