Welcome, Baby Butler!

We knew there was going to be a new addition to the Butler family for some time now--about 9 months, to be exact. The only problem was that we didn't know exactly when the new Butler would be arriving. There's always the 5 week window between 37 and 42 weeks that the doctors consider full term, but that's still not a big help if you're a guy working during the busiest part of his year.

If Jamie could, he would most likely be working 12 hour days right now since the Law School is finishing its building expansion, everyone is moving into their new offices, and students are starting classes in new classrooms in just 2 weeks. Jamie is in charge of making sure everyone's computer works and all classrooms have the necessary technology.

Needless to say, he didn't have a lot of time to warn the office that he wouldn't be into work on Wednesday, August 4th. I started having mild contractions at about 2:30 in the morning after a very long day spent at the ER. In a mild twist of irony, the ER visit was not at all pregnancy related, unless you count being excessively uncoordinated a condition of pregnancy!

The short version of the ER visit is that I was trying to cut carrots for a pasta salad when I cut off the majority of the tip of my ring finger on my right hand. The slice started around a fourth of the way down my fingernail and into a good part of my finger. I immediately called Jamie to tell him that I needed to go to the hospital, and of course, he thought I was going for very different reasons. I felt a little sheepish telling him that I needed to go to get stitches in my finger because I don't know how to work a butcher's knife. At any rate, Jamie met me in the ER and watched the doctor irrigate and put three stitches into the tip of my finger. Oddly enough, those were the first stitches I ever had. On a side note, I didn't even know it was possible to stitch through a fingernail. I guess I am walking proof you can do it!

After my visit to the ER, I went next door to my midwife appointment. My appointment was already made and we finished up at the ER just in time. Everything went well at the checkup, although they said the baby's heart rate was a little high, probably due to the stress of the knife wound (or the Chai tea and sugar cookie I had for lunch). There was no indication that labor would start anytime soon, so I went home to eat dinner with some friends.

So, back to the birth story. I awoke at 2:30AM with a mild contraction. I didn't think anything of it, but 10 minutes later I got another one. Contractions continued to be mild and occurring about every 10-20 minutes. I watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb, checked my email, and began watching the 4AM news. I finally decided to wake Jamie at 5AM when contractions got a little more intense and frequent. The next hour was a bit of a blur as Jamie got showered and we put everything in the car for a trip to the hospital. At what can only be described as "light-speed", Jamie drove us to Doug and Judy's house in Davis to drop off Sean. The toddler handoff took all of 45 seconds and we were speeding off towards the Davis Birthing Center. We arrived at the birthing center at 6AM. By then contractions were intense and I walked into the Birthing Center strongly suggesting that someone should get me drugs. In all honesty I could have handled the pain on any other day had my finger not throbbed as well. The next 20 minutes were spent checking me into the hospital and getting vitals on me and the baby. I was still asking for drugs when the midwife came in and told me that I was already 8 cm dilated. This meant that I was past the point of receiving any type of medication. I couldn't even get a Tylenol. So I continued to intensely grip each bedrail through contractions that were coming every 30 seconds. At some point, Jamie gently reminded me not to grip so hard with my right hand because of my stitches, and I think I may have told him off. After about 5 minutes of these contractions, I heard the midwife say that we were going to have the baby. The nurses scrambled to get all of the baby gear into the room. I think I only pushed for a few minutes, and our new baby was here. They laid him right on my chest, and we got to stay like that as a family for about an hour before they weighed him and gave him his shots and eye cream. As the nurses moved me from the labor and delivery room to the recovery room, they noted that they were impressed to see the delivery room so clean. They said that the rooms normally get fairly trashed throughout the course of labor. Apparently there wasn't enough time to get out any laboring tools, such as music, birthing balls, etc. I've been through 2 births now and have yet to have the time to labor with the help of such luxuries.

Finnegan Andrew Butler was born at 6:38 AM on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010. He weighed 8 lb 11 oz, and measured 20 inches in length. We plan on calling him Finn for short, but I'm sure it will turn into something even more affectionate, like Mr. Poops-a-Lot or Cocoa Phineas (Sean's preferred name for his baby brother). I will post pictures as soon as we get them downloaded from cameras and phones.