The "just after"

Our doctor immediately put the baby on Andrea's chest and he gave a little wimper. I haven't mentioned this previously, but there were a number of times throughout the process that I got teary eyed---at times actually crying. When we were told that Andrea was 10 cm dilated, I was so incredibly proud of and impressed by her that I got teary-eyed. When the head first appeared, I had troubles continuing my counting for similar reasons. However, when the whole baby was brought up onto Andrea, there was no holding back. I was so amazed by Andrea to have gone through what she had without any sort of pain-relief and I was so happy for what looked to be a real baby, even with a little bit of a cone head.

Andrea, however, is a little different. Her sister calls her the "ice princess" as Andrea is not one to get teary for much of any reason and she actually kept dry eyes for the arrival. This, of course should be tempered by the fact that she had gone through something extremely painful and difficult, but even without tears it was very obvious that she was an extremely happy mother.

The rest of the "immediately after" was pretty much as one would expect: a quick wiping down of the baby with a towel, the attachment of a hat so that we would still love our child with his cone head, the cutting of the umbilical cord (although the texture is as gross as I imagined, yes, I cut it), and general clean-up. With a pretty much effortless push the placenta came out, and the doctor then went to work stitching up the not insubstantial tearing that Andrea had suffered (it is amazing the medical work that can go on a person with little notice if that person has her newborn in her arms).

We kept the baby on Andrea for about an hour before I went with him to do have a few procedures performed: weighing (7lb 13oz), measuring (20"), vitamin K shot, and eye treatment. We passed on the Hep-B, the anti-bacterial washing (benefit for nurses: they don't have to wear gloves to handle baby. benefit for us: they have to wear gloves to handle baby...plus antibacterial stuff is icky when not needed), and circumcision. After the stitching was completed, Belinda, Nick, and Luisa came in and there were few dry eyes in the house (Andrea's only?). Happy times indeed.