Later Saturday...

It is a beautiful day in Salem. Out our window are lovely vistas of the woods and a creek.





Alicia's night hadn't been much fun, and she looked mighty tired. However, she was more or less pain free. Dr. Peterson came in and told us that, even though the nurse thought that she had been a 7, she was actually only a 5. As such, Dr. Peterson opined that if there was no more progression by about 11:00am, we would need to perform a Caeserian section. Alicia was sleepy, so I decided to run out and get some food, and check about buying a newspaper. I ran downstairs, and they were out of newspapers. Sigh. I decided to go to the cafeteria. It was closed. I then went to the coffee shop. Also closed. I decided that, I had awhile, so I ran back to the main hospital to get some food. I grabbed some food, and headed back. On the way, I ran into the OB anesthesiologist of the day, Karl Hyde. He said, "they are looking for you, because your wife is complete, and ready to push." At first I thought he was joking, but after I realized that he was serious, I ran back to her room. They were waiting for me. Alicia had gone from a 5 to complete in about 25 minutes!

At about 10:50, then, she started pushing. Leah (our nurse) and I coached her, and she did great. She pushed so hard that the level of the contractions were off the chart. However, the baby just kept moving only a little.



At about 1:15pm, Dr. West (who was covering for Dr. Peterson) came in and said that he was concerned that she was starting to swell markedly, and would need some help. He said he would give her 30 minutes more, and then we'd try forceps, a vacuum pump, and/or an episiotomy.

We tried hard to push, and Alicia was an amazing pusher, but to no avail. 1:45 came along. Alicia had been pushing for about 3 hours now, and though she didn't have contraction pain, was exhausted. It was time for the big guns.