King Henry Arrives in a Whirlwind

The past 48 hours have by far been the craziest hours of our short marriage. The days were filled with excitement, anticipation, heartfelt sorrow and finally, indescribable jubilation.

If you don't want to know the "gory" details, this is the part where you skip to the end.


The journey began at 9:15 pm on Monday, April 13, 2015, when Cadi's water broke. We rushed to the hospital ready for our baby boy to arrive. Everything was going great until Cadi's contractions became excruciating just before midnight. Her pain level was hovering close to 10. With that, she decided on an epidural despite only being a few centimeters dilated (10 cm is when it's time to push for baby).

After waiting almost 16 hours, Cadi was 9.5 cm dilated and we were so ready for the baby to come. But hour after hour, each check of the cervix came with the same results -- close, but not quite there. For six hours we waited with no change -- the reality of a possible cesarian set in. The doctor came in around 6 pm and told us that a c-section was a very likely possibility and prepped us mentally for the upcoming decision if nothing changed.

We were both devastated -- we knew the effects of a c-section and the vast difference this surgical procedure was from a natural birth -- and given that Cadi had just spent 21+ hours in active labor, a c-section was even more of a let down. A healthy baby was our number one goal, but we both hoped the c-section route was not going to happen -- Cadi because she had seen c-sections in her nursing clinicals and me because of what I heard about the procedure from Cadi -- the thought of my wife undergoing this really scared me.

The time had come. The surgeon meant to perform the c-section came into our room to chat with us one last time and have us sign the c-section consent form. She could tell we were visually distraught about the fact. She surveyed the situation and asked if she could check Cadi's cervix one last time -- she was still only 9.5 cm. While checking she asked Cadi to push as hard as she could. Impressed with Cadi's resilience, she made the flash decision to have Cadi keep pushing during her contractions.

Cadi pushed and pushed as the contractions came -- this being an impromptu natural birth, the nurses scrambled to ready the room for Cadi to finish pushing and for the impending arrival. It was a dose of chaos in between the contractions. The room went from two medical people, to six in a heartbeat.

The doctors kept Cadi pushing and the baby slowly made his progress down the birth canal. But soon, the contractions went from helping to get the baby out to non-existent. Cadi's uterus had been contracting in active labor for almost 24 hours and was exhausted.

We all sat and waited for the next contraction with bated breath -- the wait in between contractions seemed like forever, the next one either not coming or barely showing up on the radar. I prayed for just one more spike of life from her uterus to help get this baby into the world.

I didn't know what was going to happen now -- I could see disappointment on the doctor's face delivering the baby. What was going to happen now? It seemed like we had come so far on this marathon only to trip just before the finish line.

To help aid the baby on his journey, the doctors decided to suction his head to help pull him out.

The doctor got sick of waiting for contractions and told Cadi she was going to have to do the heavy lifting on her own, without the help of her uterus. Cadi pushed like a superhero, pushing with all her might to avoid a c-section and get the baby out healthy. She pushed for ten seconds -- short break -- ten seconds -- short break -- then 12 seconds -- short break -- 12 more seconds -- then the baby was so so close -- Cadi had to push with everything she had for 15 consecutive seconds a couple times until his head made its first appearance into the world.

At that moment, the doctor realized the cord was wrapped around baby's neck. To my horror, she yanked on the cord, trying to pull the cord over his head like a tie stuck around a gentleman's neck. Without incident, the doctor cut the cord and got our baby out safely. I was shocked to see the doctor yanking on the baby's head with such force to free him from his first home. Babies are a lot tougher than they look. Look at this little dude's head in the above photo from the suction!

Even though it took a minute for the baby to breathe, he checked into this world with a clean bill of health. To this day I stand in awe of what my wife went through -- her courage and strength to push the baby out on our terms is one of the coolest things I've ever seen a person do. She is my hero.

And just after all her hard work, Cadi gave us one of the most amazing gifts a human can receive -- a beautiful, healthy son.

His long fingers and toes was the first thing the nurses noticed -- he was a big boy. We had settled on the middle name Fischer (Cadi's mom's maiden name) for our baby boy, but were tossing around a few first names for our first born -- but one always stood out in my mind. Cadi looked right at me just moments after he was born and said, "He's definitely a Henry, right?" I couldn't have agreed more -- our first born would be King Henry.

Henry Fischer Deery was 8 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches long.

Before having kids people will always tell you how amazing it is to be a parent, to have a version of yourself in a little human -- it is truly an inexpressible feeling.

I will be using this blog to post many of the photos I take of Henry, instead of uploading everything to Facebook, why not create a little family blog. That way I can talk about my kid all I want, but not everyone has to be annoyed with me boasting how amazing this little person is.