Wednesday, November 5th our lives changed forever.  At 11:18am in Nyack Hospital we welcomed with an indescribable amount of love our first son, David Matthew Herman into the world.  Born 7lbs, 13 oz. and 19.5 inches long, we held him in our arms immediately and he captured our hearts instantly.  Words cannot describe the way we have been feeling.  It has been the most amazing few days for both Darren and I and our families.

For the past 9 months we waited with anticipation for his arrival and then in the early morning hours of November 5th, David was ready to start his journey to the outside world.  At about 5am, I woke up with pain and realized I might be in labor.  We called the doctor, described what I was feeling and then was told to pack my things and head over to the hospital but no need to rush as the hospital was busy and my labor didn’t seem to be too far advanced.  Little did we know, I was much further along than anyone thought.  We arrived at the hospital about 6:20am, settled into an assessment room and hooked up to the monitors to determine what stage I was in.  By 6:45am, it was clear that I was well into labor, as I was already dilated 7cm. I would never have thought that given I wasn’t feeling much pain except periodically and it was tolerable. As a result though, I leap frogged over all the other women that had come in overnight as I was the furtherst along.  The staff quickly moved me to labor and delivery where my dilation reached 8.5 and 9 cm in record pace.  Needless to say the speed with which all this was happening resulted in me missing the epidural window and having to venture down the road “au natural”.  Given the pain was so severe and regardless of how many times I confirmed I was ineligible for the epidural, the doctor was able to give me a little something to take the edge off for just a bit but by 9:15am, I was ready to start pushing.  And I pushed and pushed and pushed…and two hours later at 11:18am, David Matthew Herman was put in our arms to catch the first glimpse of him.  Feeling his warm body against mine is something I will remember forever.  Darren and I just marveled at every little thing about him.

Throughout the entire delivery, Darren was an amazing coach and helped me through what was a short but brutal 6 hour journey from start to finish.  His words of encouragement, his soft kisses on my forehead, his gentle back massage and regular intervals of wash cloth wipe downs of my face made the experience as good as it could be.  For someone that was apprehensive about the delivery process and didn’t think he would want to see much for fear of passing out, he completely surprised himself and was an active participant watching my progress, the actual birth, cutting the umbilical cord and even feeling the placenta!  I had a feeling all along that he would be this way the day of the birth and I was right.

It was amazing experience and the hospital staff at Nyack Hospital were terrific.  From the labor/delivery nurses, especially Gerri, to Margaret, Val and the others in the Mother/Baby section, they took amazing care of me and Baby David.   Anytime I needed anything or had a question, they were very responsive.  This was incredible considering the nursery was filled with 17 babies by Thursday night – an extraordinary and unusual amount of newborns that they rarely see at this time of the year.  Yesterday, before my discharge they packed me up with lots of supplies for my recovery as well as for taking care of David for his first night home.  The head of nursing stopped in to say hello and see how our stay was.  From start to finish it was a great experience and I look forward to delivering our next baby there (although not anytime soon….).