The last week has been one of the craziest and best weeks of my life! On Friday, February 2nd, 2018 my wife and I went into the doctor’s office for one last sonogram to make sure that things were all ready to go for what we thought would be delivery of our baby the following week. After our sonogram, the doctors (it takes two when it is serious) came in and let us know that my wife would be induced that afternoon, as she was dangerously low on fluids for the baby.

While my wife was terrified of being induced, she literally mentioned how much she did not want to be induced every week of her pregnancy, we both knew it was the only real option for our baby, Biscuit. So we left the doctor’s office, went and grabbed our suitcase and a Subway sandwich (my wife has had pregnancy cravings for Subway since we first started dating nearly ten years ago), and we headed to the hospital to meet our baby girl.

The actual birthing experience was a fantastic mix of emotions as I watched my wife turn into a herculean goddess. She was able to quickly channel her inner Wonder Woman to control her breathing and handle the contractions without even so much as muttering a curse word in pain. Despite her best efforts though, being induced so early on meant that we were trying to make the baby come when the baby just wasn’t ready. We were told to be prepared for the birth of the baby sometime in the next morning, meaning anticipating at 15 hr+ delivery! While my wife was hoping to avoid it, she agreed that an epidural would be the best case scenario.

After 7 hrs of labor, it was time for the epidural. Unfortunately, another fear of my wife’s was about to become a reality. Upon receiving the epidural, there was a complication in that the original attempt went too deep and hit spinal fluid, making the initial try a failure. So they (not the anesthesia doctor, but a nurse practitioner or CRNA, for future reference, ALWAYS request the actual doctor for an epidural) had to move forward with a second try, and this one took. A short 30 minutes later we were a full go for baby!

We then welcomed Biscuit into the world. Once my wife started pushing it only took ten minutes for everything in life to change and for us to become the parents of a wonderfully healthy baby girl. It was magical and I will forever have a whole new level of respect for the pain that my wife had to endure to birth our child, but more importantly for the joy that she took in being pregnant and birthing a child that we had only dreamed of. Both m daughter and my wife were magical and holding the two of them on the bed after the delivery is one of the most significant moments of my life, right behind my wedding vows.

God is good and gave us a great, healthy baby girl with a set of lungs you would not believe. Unfortunately though, as we end our first week of being parents, my wife is just now getting over the headaches and complications that were caused from the errant epidural. In spite of the error on the part of the CRNA, my wife has proven only more so her strength to rise above any challenge and do what is best for her child. She indeed is our Wonder Woman and Biscuit could not have a better rolemodel in life!

When I would tell coworkers about writing the DADbatical and trying to accomplish my dissertation while being a stay at home dad for 8 weeks, many of them would laugh and give a cynical, “Sure you will.” Well, it turns out they may have been right. I meant to get this posted 2 days ago, but such is the life of changing diapers and trying to figure out why your infant is crying so frequently. (Turns out babies are expected to cry about 5 hrs a day!!!) With all this being said, I go back to work tomorrow, and we will see what the future weeks hold. More to come from DADbatical and the countdown to the start of my actual DADbatical is only 36 days away!