Welcome to the World Rosario!

          This has been one hell of a week...and baby Rosario is now here!  Wednesday evening we went to dinner with our friends from home.  Adam Capretta and his wife Mallory "Angel of Labor" Capretta joined us for dinner.  Back in November around Thanksgiving, Monica and I were home for her baby shower.  The night prior to the shower we were supposed to go to dinner with Mallory and Adam but Rosie had other plans.  Mon started getting contractions and went into pre-term labor thus postponing our dinner plans.  Mallory met us at the hospital though and helped Mon and I get through that difficult night.  Mo was discharged and we went to the baby shower but Rosario still had more plans to make Mommy's trip to Ohio last longer.  Mon had to go back into the hospital to stop the contractions and I had to fly back to Florida by myself because Monica had to remain in the hospital for another day or two.  The common denominator in each labor situation is Mallory so therefore she is now referred to as the "Angel of Labor" and is open for hire if you are ready to get your labor process started.

          At dinner the other night, Monica was having contractions and they were about 5 minutes apart the whole night.  When we got home from the restaurant we waited until about midnight to head over to All Children's Hospital.  Let me tell you this, watching a woman go through strong contractions is wicked. Only women know what it is like to manage that severe of pain.  Later on in Triage, her water broke on its own at about 2:30am and we knew we were in for a long night and morning.  Monica's contractions got worse as they moved us to labor and delivery.  To make matters worse, the epidural was running 2 hours behind schedule due to some emergencies that Anesthesia had to attend to that night.  Let me say just one thing of substance here, and adhere to this advice like it came straight from the Lord's mouth on top Mt. Sinai,  epidurals are a pregnant ladies best friend and are a husbands saving grace.  Once the epidural was done she was able to control her pain up until she was 8 or 9 cm.  

          The contractions got stronger and Mon began to push once she was close to 10cm. Throughout the whole pushing process there was a lot of pain and suffering for my wife.  However, due to her determined personality, this pain just pissed her off and made her want to push more often.  Monica is one tough little cookie.  She was pretty drugged up and in so much pain that she doesn't remember much of the event.  I have to say that the whole experience was beautiful and euphoric. It is so unbelievable because what it taught me that I could never love anyone as much as I love and respect my wife after being through this wondrous and surreal event.  She was amazing! 

          As Rosie entered the world they took her over to the warmer to poke and prod with the required tests for new babies.  At this point, the placenta needed to be delivered and little did I know that this would be worse pain than any other part of the day for my wife.  To be brief and not graphic, there was some complications and blood loss so she had to go to the OR.  I was trying to not be too frantic over the matter and trust the doctor but in retrospect this was a really scary experience.  It was me, yes me at this point who was told by the doc to take the baby to the nursery for skin to skin time.  I was the only man in this nursery and I think the nurses just wanted to see me with my shirt off.  I got to spend the first two hours of my child's life holding her to my bare chest with our family staring at me through the glass windows looking into the nursery.  In the meantime, poor Monica had to go deal with more pain.

           All in all, I could go on and on about this day and I will remember every detail for the rest of my life.  I will not bore you with that, but I will say that this day was a life changer!!!  I guess you never know how much you love your wife or how much you can love something until this day.  As I said before it is utopian and euphoric.  The closest thing to my humble understanding of nirvana that I have ever experienced.  I just wish that my grandpa and Monica's papa could have seen the baby.  One of the special bonds that we as a couple share is that our grandfather's meant the world to us.  These men embodied love with every fiber of their being and thankfully they shared that love with us.  Consequently, we share that love with each other on a daily basis and Rosie is a perfect little example of it.  Monica's grandma said that she hoped the baby would have a dimple so that she knew her papa saw her and gave her a kiss.  Sure enough, baby Rosie has a little dimple on her and she must have been kissed with a great grandfather's ethereal love.   

Love,

Daddy