TheFranciscos.Net

Our daughter Zoe is turning two tomorrow! It seems like only yesterday that she was still a small, fragile baby. I can still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.

Aileen, Mommy Digna, and I spent the beginning of the day counting the minutes between contractions. Then, after remembering Dr. Williams’ advice on walking around to help the labor along, we decided to walk around in the mall. Thinking back, it was a very funny idea to do that… imagine a woman about to give birth walking around in a shopping mall! A manager at a shop we were walking around in was shocked when we told her that Aileen was feeling contractions and suggested that we go to the hospital. The manager was probably just afraid that Aileen’s water would burst in the store and they’d have to clean it up.

We finally got to the Bryn Mawr Hospital at around 2 PM. We had no difficulty getting there since I was practicing the route weeks before. The problem we had was making the turn to get into the driveway that leads to the delivery reception area! I missed that three times…. Aileen would probably be laughing then if she didn’t feel so much pain.

After another few hours of walking around in the delivery area, the doctor decided it was time to start pushing. We started this at around 6 PM and ended up doing it constantly until 11 PM or so. Dr. Williams finally decided it was time for our baby to be born. Aileen had a hard time pushing probably because our daughter was so big and she was a bit groggy from the epidurals she took for the pain. The OB brought out an instrument with a suction cup at the end. Imagine my surprise when I saw this… my baby was going to be sucked out of her mom by a plunger!

Anyway, the delivery turned out well, and we finally saw Zoe at around 11:45 PM on April 5, 2000. I remember that day to be one of our proudest moments as a couple. The nurses carefully took Zoe to be cradled in her mother’s arms. As I was looking at both mother and daughter, I remember feeling a lot of mixed emotions. Relief – that the ordeal was finally over (Aileen was probably more relieved than I was though). Happiness – because our daughter seemed to be a healthy, normal baby (our ultrasounds had indications that she might be underweight). Most of all though, I felt a lot of love for my wife and our newborn daughter.