A new "ultra" begins......

3:15am-ish, March 19th, 2017
"Andy, wake up! I need you!!"

It felt like just seconds prior I was rocking a sweet TMNT T-shirt, a vest that would make Marty McFly swoon, and rocking to "The Breakfast Club" at the Orange Peel. My 40wk (to the day) partner-in-impending-parent-hood by my side....sporting a sweet side pony tail. A great Saturday night in full swing. 

Now, groggy and frantic, I'm throwing duffle bags into the truck as fast as I can (don't forget the Hopslam) and doing 65mph down Hendersonville Road towards Mission Hospital.  I'm going to be a dad today!!

I shit you not.......  Maura worked out that morning, I had the boat on jackstands with work on it saved 'til Sunday.  There was no concern about planning the next 24hrs.  Just 3 days prior we were talking about induction dates.  "see you next week" was the last thing our Dr. told us.  We had a date night ahead of us where we openly joked that mexican food and dancing would bring on the labor. We were dining at Mamacitas and watching Hoff's band open for Breakfast Club, our favorite 80's tribute band.

The evening went as planned; fantastic tacos, VIP access via Hoffman, and great music!  During one of Maura's MANY bathroom breaks, she texted me.  I didn't see it.  She shows up some time later and tells me "I just lost my mucous plug in the bathroom.  We should probably go after that beer to be safe".  God I love this woman.  I finished my beer at a less-than-urgent pace and we left. 

We got home and I was instructed to sleep while she stayed up to monitor her "crampy-ness".  I figured it was nothing and that she was just being a little nervous and that it was a true food baby feeling. 

Nope.  Truck now parked backwards in the ambulance area, I'm banging on the door of the apocolypticly empty hospital trying to get some help.  The security finally guard lets me in while Maura is on all fours in the driveway having contractions.  He gets a wheel chair and throws me his keys so we can get to the 4th floor.  Truck running, doors left open.  I'm going to be a dad today!! 

We get checked in and the nurses get us to our room.  A nice big room, with a tub and a decent view of the mountains.  Paige and Andrea, our doula's, meet us shortly.  The plan had been to have them with us at home, but when the contractions went from 7min to 2min, it was "I'll meet you at the hospital" time.

The next several hours were something I'll never forget. You take the classes, you see the videos, you read the books.  Nothing can prepare you for those hours.  Seeing Maura's toughness, her pain, her strength was nothing short of incredible. It killed me to not be able to take away that pain. Paige was amazing though and helped me feel confident.

We spent the first couple hours in the tub.  Paige squeezed Maura's hips while I held the puke bag during contractions. "Mumford and Sons" Pandora station on in the background. I would rub her shoulders and kiss her head and make sure she knew how great she was doing.  It was hard to keep myself together but since 100% of my thoughts were focused on Maura, I had no room left to worry about anything else.  At one point I helped Maura to the bathroom and in there she confessed "I dont know if I can do this without an epidural".  "you are already doing it, and I know you can keep doing it" I reminded her.  I know she didn't want one, but just her admitting that doubt in herself, I knew the pain had to be horrible on her. 

Paige was great at moving Maura through various positions to help keep her relatively comfortable.  We moved to the bed where Maura laid on her side, the pain was so intense, and we made "horse sounds" for what seemed like a long time.  It seemed really silly, even at the time, "make WHAT sound?" but it worked, and you could instantly see how the change in breathing made a difference for Maura.

We really had a good system going.  I was digging deep into my bag of running mantras and tried to keep Maura focused.  "ok, here we go, we got a hill coming (contraction) so keep focused, keep those feet moving, you can do this".  Ice chips, and electrolyte drinks to follow, also making sure to refresh to cold wash cloth on her shoulders and forehead.  I was her pacer for this race, and I was going to make sure we got to the finish line!   

Around that time our Dr. kneeled down by Maura's head and said to her "my shift is about to end so we're bringing in Dr. Wright"........(insert sound of record skipping).....not the thing you expect to deal with when your this close to baby town!!  We really liked Dr. Wright though (Dr. Bob to me) so we didn't panic too much. 

Dr. Bob arrived and it was PUSH time!  The room started to transform before me, and you could tell it was about to get real serious in there.  Small metal tables were wheeled in from the back room.  The nurses cleaning and placing the stainless steel tools onto the sterile paper on top.  A support bar was added to the end of the bed with a glorifed dog rope/toy tied to the middle. All the while Dr. Bob sat on the endge of the tub dressed in full scrubs, legs crossed, facing my wife and the pit crew of nurses, just observing. 

Maura's pain was beyond anything I could imagine and the change in the contractions could be felt in her cries each time.  Each one piercing my heart, each one bringing us a little closer to meeting our miracle.  She pulled herself up and pushed with everything she had through the pain.  The release after each push seemed to be the hardest.  The head was now starting to show, so the pain didn't 100% go away in between.  "how many more?" she kept asking.  Of course it doesn't work that way with this process, but as runners, we like our metrics and knowing where that finish line is.  "There's the Citgo sign, you can see it, you're almost there.  (For anyone who's run the Boston Marathon, when you can see the Citgo sign, you're a little over a mile from the finish and is well known for being when you really have to dig in). 

Just like that, she gave a good push, and we could hear everyone start to cheer and say "here we go!!" and Dr. Bob raised the little one up to where we could see.  The emotional release was second to none.  The focus and activity for the last 6.5 hours had built a dam around my emotions, and seeing my child come into the world for the first time broke through it instantly and a steady flow of tears ran down my face.  I reached for the washcloth that covered the moment we'd been waiting for.  Through the sobbing tears and lump in my throat I was able to barely get out "it's a boy"!!  and again another wave of complete love and emotion took over.  I cut the cord and Sutton was bundle up and handed to mom, where she could finally be eye to eye with him.  He was perfect.  I just became a dad.  We just became a family.