New Year, New Challenges, New Baby

At around 3:30am on Thursday, February 2nd 2007, Michelle started feeling severe contractions. I was already prepared at home since she had contractions the day before which subsided. We both had waffles for breakfast wondering whether we should go to the hospital or not. The night before was an ordeal because we were both not sleeping in anticipation for the mad rush to the hospital. At around 6:00am, we called our doctor and she confirmed that Michelle was indeed in labor. As panic started to set in for me, Michelle wanted to put away some clothes, take out the trash and wash the dishes before going to the hospital. We eventually made our way out of the house by 7:10am to go to CPMC hospital in San Francisco. Smack dab in the morning rush hour traffic.
Labor was just sitting around and waiting for Michelle to dilate. This was a complete replica of our rehearsal in December when Michelle had to be admitted for prenatal complications. Back then, with the 4 week bed rest, we were watching for contractions and hoping it would stop. This time was the complete opposite. Sitting there waiting and measuring the time between them.
Jen , Maan, Raldy and Maxine were all at the hospital to lend morale support. By 12:00am, it was time to start pushing. Her pain medicine was starting to wear off and the ordeal was becoming painful for her. By 3:00am, Luke was still not out. Dr. Pearl Yee and Nurse Lisa began prepping for an emergency C-section.
Jen and I dressed up in our scrubs as Max headed off to the waiting room. At this point, Michelle was completely exhausted having been up for the past 24 hours with not much sleep the night before.

At 3:49am, Luke was born.