Just like the first time around, it’s taken several weeks to find the time to put this birth story down for posterity. I hope you’re in the mood for a long read…<\/p>\n
The funny thing about the day of your child\u2019s birth is that you know it\u2019s going to be a day you\u2019ll never forget, but when the day starts, you don\u2019t know that this<\/i>\u00a0will be that<\/i> memorable day.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how it was on the day that Charles Xavier was born on May 3, 2018–a rainy but warmer than average Thursday\u2014nearly a week past his due date of April 28.<\/p>\n
Daylight appeared through the basement window and my alarm clock roused me for another day of “bonus” work. After working from home for the first two days of the week as a precaution, I had returned to the office on Wednesday, since Charlie still showed no signs of showing up. I trudged upstairs and got ready for work. Unlike other mornings, I noticed that Theresa was sound asleep in our bed\u2014a good sign, considering what a luxury uninterrupted sleep had been for most of the third trimester. Since she was sleeping, I didn\u2019t wake her and left for work for the first time in weeks without saying anything to her. Turns out that would be a mistake.<\/p>\n
I arrived at the Metra station for the 7:48 a.m. train, affectionately known as the “Seven Forty Late” to me and the other denizens of the Park Ridge train platform who know this particular train will only be on time on the day that you are running late. I was not late on May 3, however, so the train showed up even later than usual, arriving around 8 a.m.<\/p>\n
For whatever reason, I actually managed to snag a seat on this usually Standing Room Only train and I started thinking about how I would fill my day at work. While there is always more work to be done, I had worked efficiently enough to knock out my active to-do list in time for our due date. I had spent the past several workdays doing odds and ends to help ease the load for my coworkers during my parental leave. Ludicrous as it sounds now, there was no part of my brain that was thinking we would have a baby today.<\/p>\n
So there I was, settling into a podcast as the train rolled toward the Clybourn stop, when my phone rang. It was Theresa. It was happening.<\/i><\/p>\n
She had been roused from her slumber shortly after I left the house by contractions that were stronger than what she had previously experienced–and happening once every 10 minutes or so! It wasn’t the painful back labor of Maddie’s birth story, but they were painful and growing in strength, so this didn’t appear to be a drill.<\/p>\n
I decided to get off the train at Clybourn–the last stop before downtown Chicago–which seemed like perfect timing, since we pulled up just as I got the call from Theresa. Unfortunately, I forgot that the lateness of the train meant that there would be no other trains coming from downtown to Park Ridge until 9 a.m.–about 45 minutes later. This is the inconvenience of being beholden to the Metra schedule. At 8:15, I would have no way to get back to Park Ridge until 9:30.<\/p>\n
I thought about snagging an Uber, but it wasn’t going to save me that much time in the city traffic, and it would cost about $30. Not wanting my thriftiness to be my fatherly undoing, I called Theresa back to ensure there was enough time for me to catch another train to the downtown station then grab the 9 a.m. train back to Park Ridge. She said that sounded fine, so that’s what I did.<\/p>\n
The train to Ogilvie Transportation Center was interminable. Every car was solidly packed, so I spent the short trip pressed up against other sweaty strangers, fighting away inane thoughts of Theresa’s contractions quickening to the point where I would miss the birth of my son. At the station, I immediately boarded the 9:00 train that wouldn’t be departing for another 20 minutes. I wasn’t going to miss it!<\/p>\n
The rest of my commute was fairly uneventful.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I put on my “pump up” Spotify playlist, while memories of Maddie’s birth danced in my head alongside visions of what we might be about to experience with Charlie.<\/p>\n Once I got home, things started to move a little faster. Maddie had just gotten up, so I took over her morning preparations while Theresa took a quick shower. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s impossible to know how much Maddie really understood about her impending big sisterhood, but our excitement must have been contagious, as she was in great spirits that morning. We told her that very soon “Shar-Shee,” as she had been referring to him for months, would be joining her on the outside.<\/p>\n We finished packing our hospital bag and, more importantly, our bag of supplies for Maddie–who would be spending two nights away from us at my parents’ house for the first time in her life. How she would take to that was one of the bigger question marks of this entire birthing experience, but she definitely rose to the occasion.<\/p>\n Since Theresa had been having contractions every five minutes for more than an hour, we called the doctor and they told us to come to the office as soon as possible. We gathered up all of our baggage and left our house as a party of three for the last time.<\/p>\n We drove to my Mom’s house, where she stood at the ready to distract Maddie with the tantalizing trappings–Yogurt! Music! New toys! Adoring uncles!–that Maddie had grown accustomed to experiencing at “Gi”‘s house.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> My Mom also provided us with a sack full of her signature peanut butter and jelly sandwiches<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>, which we devoured on the two-minute trip to the hospital and in the doctor’s office waiting room. Before parting from us, Maddie gave Theresa a very sweet prolonged hug, as if she sensed the import of the moment.<\/p>\n By this point, it was nearly noon and we were finally off to the hospital. At the doctor’s office, they checked Theresa and found that she was at 4 centimeters, which meant once and for all that we were not going home without a baby in tow! We made our way gingerly–the contractions were getting much stronger and more painful now–to Labor and Delivery, and completed a check-in process that still felt incredibly familiar and oddly recent from our experience with Maddie about 21 months ago–almost to the day!<\/p>\n