Hubby Guest Blog - The Curve Ball Cometh

Tanika and I should have known that our carefully scripted birth plan would not stand a chance against baby No. 3.

There's a reason we nicknamed this child Curveball.

Just a few days ago, the doctors told us to plan for Tanika to be induced on Monday. So, we mapped out a plan that had us arriving at the hospital at 6:30 a.m., with Curveball making her debut sometime thereafter, possibly at dinnertime.

There was nothing in the plan, however, that called for Tanika to start painful cramping (which we later realized were full-on contractions) at 6 a.m. TODAY, a full five days before we were ready to officially welcome our new bundle. Clearly, God was working from a different script.

Since Tanika was scheduled today for a regular appointment, we figured she would get to the doctor’s office and they would send her home with a diagnosis of pre-labor, and tell her to put her feet up and rest until her induction on Monday.

Meanwhile, the “cramping” intensified.

I knew it was time for me to shut the hell up when Tanika shot me a look as I told her to get ready for the mother of all contractions because the squiggly line on the contraction monitoring machine was forming the Mount Everest of peaks.

So, with a closed mouth, I decided the best thing for me to do was to rub my sweetie’s back and be sympathetic. A few minutes later a nice nurse named Jennifer came in to tell us that she was sending Tanika to the Labor and Delivery unit.

We were in labor and delivery less than 30 minutes when a doctor examined Tanika and said “she’s 8 centimeters.”

I wanted to raise my hand and say “but it’s not Monday and we’re not ready just yet for Curveball. I still have to hang the cute wooden letters in her bedroom.” I remembered the earlier look from Tanika and thought better.

We knew our wonderful plan was out the window when the doctor said “I hope that’s not what I think it is.”

Uh, say what doc?

We soon found out that our baby girl, who had been resting for weeks in a perfect-for-delivery, head down position, was now in the nightmarish double footling breech position.

The doctors said that because Tanika was almost fully dilated they did not think they had enough time to see if the baby would flip into the correct position. This meant that a c-section, which Tanika did not want to have, would be her new course.

I was tossed a pair of scrubs and Tanika was wheeled into the operating room. A nurse came to get me once Tanika was prepped for surgery.

The surgery happened so quickly. I felt like I had been in the room only minutes when they pulled our 7lbs, 14 oz Curveball from Tanika. We waited a few seconds before hearing the most beautiful cry in the world. We then both thanked God for a healthy baby and healthy mom before laughing at how upset Clair Elise Davis sounded.

There’s something incredibly beautiful about a baby’s first cry. They sound so sweet, pitiful and pissed off all at the same time.

Welcome to the world, my beautiful baby girl.