How Timothy Got Here

Several have asked about Timothy's arrival, so here's the scoop. I'm not offended at all if others of you skip this section. I have naturally sanitized it as much as possible.

I went in for my 40 week (full term) check-up. There were no signs of contractions, and I felt as I did with Jacob at that time, i.e. like we still had a ways to go ahead of us. The doctor did and exam and informed me that I should head straight to the hospital. Although there were no contractions, he said the labor was progressing and he needed to give me a small dose of medicine to help induce the labor. He said the whole process could take 2-3 days.

In shock, I called Santiago who came immediately to the hospital. (I had a full week of errands and meetings planned!) Jointly in shock, we had lunch to postpone going to the hospital, to give me "one last meal", and to take in the fact that we were expanding the franchise soon.

I was admitted to the hospital around 2pm and given a very small dose of induction medicine. At my 4pm check-up, not much had changed. By 5pm I was having noticable contractions, and they took me to the delivery room. Everything progressed very rapidly, and the epidural was given quite late in the process. (Read: PAIN.)

The labor and delivery room was quite a sight to see, as much as I remember. There were at least 4 doctors and 5 nurses buzzing around at any given time. I speak German with my doctor, so he was coaching me through in German. I was translating for Santiago as needed. Other doctors and nurses were providing guidance in Spanish, and Santiago was helping me with those things I didn't understand. There was some other doctor who was adding commentary in English. Santiago and I were speaking in English, and I hope no one was translating some of the things I was saying. All in all, everyone understood their role, since it's basically the same regardless of whether everyone was conjugating their verbs correctly. Around 720pm I began pushing, and by 740pm our little boy was born.

Everyone was amazed at our "grandote" (enormous) baby who was very average by American standards. (This is unfortunately usually followed by "Of course, look at the mother." When you're pregnant, you just don't want to be called grandote. Trust me.) Santiago remarked at how much hair he had at birth, which was quickly dismissed by a nurse who said it wasn't much. Santiago glanced around and noted that all of the Ecuadorian babies had full heads of hair, so Timothy's peach fuzz wasn't impressing anyone.

After an hour in the recovery room and Timothy's first check-up, we were all reunited in our hospital room a few hours later. The room had a gorgeous view of Quito and snow-capped Cotopaxi mountain, so was a relaxing place to recover and start life as a family of 4.