Do You See What I See?

It's been two and a half months since my last post, as it turns out, this whole parenthood thing is more than a little time consuming. I try to stay as reflective as possible, not wanting to get caught up in the past but not forgetting where I came from and how I have achieved what I have achieved.

Reflecting on where I have been and what I have seen at this stage in life is fulfilling. If I were to make a short list, it would read something like this:

My wife's eyes as we said "I Do", Big Ben, Trafalger Square, Thames River, Churchill's War Room, London Bridge and the Crown Jewels, Eiffel Tower, Seine River, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, Mona Lisa, Rome, The Colosseo, Sisteen Chapel and The School of Athens, The Vatican, Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, Florence, Duomo, Assisi, Venice, Michelangelo's David, New Year's Eve in Time Square, celebrating in "Cubbyville" after a win, Napa Valley Vines, Sunset in the Rockies, walking across the Golden Gate and on and on...

The previous list took about six years to compile, the following list trumps the previous and has only taken eleven weeks:

One Last Push, his eyes for the first time, my son nursing, dirty diapers, spit-up, a cry in the night, a sneeze, a cry in the day, a curled lower lip in combination with an ear piercing scream caused by inoculations, a smile, a splash and a kick in the bath tub, a coo, a yawn, attempting to vocalize, a laugh, a grab, his mother comforting him, the tight grip around my finger while we play and his innocent pupils just before he slips into his dreams as I lay him in his crib.

Recently, I haven't wanted to do anything except: hold, play, read, rocking and loving on our blessing (explains my lack of posts). There is a new constant in our life that is apart of an old constant and I look forward to Seeing us through. I look forward to making new lists together.

My Fantastic Four

I'll begin by saying, "this is a Thank You" to; my Mom, who always knows what to do, my Dad, who sees everything that I don't, and my In-Laws. Susan and Dempsey's formal titles have In-Laws in front of them. I started courting their daughter when she was 16, that statement by itself sounds creepy but it is not because I was 17 at the time. They endured years of corny jokes and witnessed countless attempts at failed wit. However, those years did not prove fruitless. Just ask them, but when you do please refer to them by their newly minted informal titles of Nana and Poppy.

The love and support of family is a blessing a million times over because there is no end to what our parents will do for us. I might insert one of those bad jokes here about walking on the other side of the law as a possible "line in the sand" but depending on the circumstances, I'm not sure even then they wouldn't oblige.

Our four parents watched us grow up together which helped change the dynamic of how we all interact. They spent time at: dances, graduations, celebrations and now vacations and Holidays. The most recent gathering is one that I bet we never forget.

Thank You to all four of you for all of the little and all of the big things that you did for me, for Ashleigh and for Pierce this last week. I am glad that you could all be apart of September 21, 2010. Your individual contributions helped enhance this event, which speaks volumes because the event itself stands alone as one of the most euphoric moments in life.


PZH is a blessed grandson!

Culmination part 2

We headed down Man O War Blvd as the lead car in a caravan of three. The elevator doors opened to the second floor of St. Joseph East's new Woman's Center at 10:30 PM. We were escorted in to a registration office. Here we are, my poor wife absorbing contractions every 240 seconds and the admin lady is asking us for our licenses and insurance card, all while fighting with her printer.

After checking in to our room and meeting the RN assigned to us for the night, the first order of business was to determine at exactly what point Ashleigh would be getting the epidural? As it turned out, she ended up being the lucky recipient of TWO EPI SHOTS. The second shot came at about 3:00 AM which is when things began to intensify. Fast forward an hour, it was 4:00 AM when contractions started to come on top of each other.

I hesitate to attempt describing the cinematography of it all because re-telling it, hardly does it justice. The two grandmothers to be, stood off to the side holding each other tight. I was on Ashleigh's left side, the RN on the right and it goes without saying where our midwife (Nancy) was positioned. A few other support staff were in and out, the only other person worth mentioning is the pediatrician (Dr. Ang). I greeted him in between pushes, the enthusiasm that I expressed was not reciprocated, it appeared as though they had just woke him up.

Nancy would ask Ashleigh to push and she would oblige by putting her chin in her chest and squeezing my hand while I counted to ten. She never yelled or screamed or called me names, she was perfect. Beauty is subjective but any man who's stood by his wife's side, held her hand while counting her through pushing your son out of her body knows that it is the most beautiful event you can ever witness. The feeling that I experienced as Pierce was being delivered was a combination of almost every emotion I've ever felt in my existence raised to the tenth power.

After the final push, the newest Hernandez entered this world. I was instantly put under a spell of euphoria. The cord was clamped and clipped and our miracle was walked to the doc. With my heart thumping more rapidly than ever before and two or nine tears trickling down my cheek I rested my forehead on Ashleigh's and told her that she did it (like she didn't already know). As I gave her a kiss, we heard him say, "well, he has his Daddy's nose" it appeared Dr. Ang had finished his cup of coffee.

The culmination of 41 weeks: imagining, anticipating, preparing and believing was realized. I stood next to him, watched him get cleaned off, talked to him for the first time. Harnessing the jubilation of it all proved to be overwhelming. I picked him up, held him, I made a promise to him, walked him over to his mama and placed him in her arms.

Culmination part 1

You watch television and movies or read stories and imagine the event happening to you. How will it unfold: will you be eating at a restaurant when your water breaks, will you be at a sporting event and have to be taken by ambulance to the hospital because you parked too far away or will you experience contractions watching the latest blockbuster at the theater?

We were hoping to provoke the miracle by putting ourselves in those less than convenient situations because we desperately wanted to meet our little man. To be fair we were SEVEN days past our due date, we just figured that we could tempt fate and at the very least, we'd have a jaw dropping story to tell about the circumstances surrounding our labor.

Many of you already know the play by play, but seeing how that this is my journal of sorts I'll proceed like you don't so that years later I can look back and get a warm dose of nostalgia when reading this.

Monday morning was here, the start of the work week and I decided that even though Ash was not in labor or even showing any signs, that I would not go in to work. Being seven days over due, there was no end to the question from my co-workers "George, when you gonna have that baby? I couldn't take another day of it. Don't take me wrong, I am grateful to all that were concerned and showed genuine excitement for me but that question got to be the equivalent of hearing nails run down a chalk board that stretched a city block.

I knew that we had a doctor appointment early Tuesday morning, and more than likely we would be induced if we didn't go in to labor on Monday so Ashleigh and I decided to take advantage of one more "George and Ash day". After a morning filled entertaining anything and everything that we heard would induce labor no mater how ridiculous it seemed, (walks, pregnant break dancing, massages, chiropractic alignments and other "activities"), we decided to catch an early movie.

After the movie was over and the nearly full bag of over priced popcorn and soda were tossed in to the waste basket we headed home. It was still late afternoon, we had a snack and watched the season finale of Top Chef (an under whelming season). While my parents, (whom were staying with us the last days to help out) were making dinner, Ash and I ventured on yet another walk around the neighborhood and that is when she told me that she had a few contractions. Not wanting to get too excited over a few contractions we tried not to talk about it but it became apparent that this was not false labor, we must have stopped four or five times for her to absorb the 20-30 second bursts of pain.

Upon arriving home my parents surprised us with what they made, a romantic "dinner for two". Sweet of them right? We decided not to share the news until we were absolutely sure. As we ate our meal, the contractions started to come closer together. After dinner we headed upstairs to our bedroom and looked at the previous hours' statistics (which we kept via an App from the android marketplace). The stats warranted a call to Ash's parents which was around 7pm, Susan answered and I asked "are your bags packed"?, "yeah, why?" said Susan "because we're having a baby".

Susan and Dempsey arrived from Ashland around 9:30. I put the bags in the car, locked in the Chicco infant car seat and went back upstairs to check on Ash. After laboring at home in the bath and on the yoga ball, contractions started to come more rapidly, four minutes apart, lasting for an average of 90 seconds. It was time to head to the hospital.


cont.....

Pierce Zachary Hernandez

Born September 21, 2010 @ 4:47am


He weighed in @ 7lbs 14oz and measured 21 inches long.

P - patient

I - independent

E - engaging

R - rational

C - consciences

E - empathetic


more to come....


much more...............

Left Hook!

Ashleigh, Pierce and I have been blessed with a smooth sailing, uneventful pregnancy (easy for daddy to say right?). That's not to say that there haven't been ups and downs, everything is relative but the last 38 weeks haven't been complicated.

You do all of the things that you are supposed to do as conscientious, loving and expecting parents: Daily Prenatal vitamins check, drinking plenty of water and then drinking a little more check, eating 47 small meals and snacks a day check, walk and exercise check, prenatal yoga check, pregnancy classes check, reading reviews on strollers, watching every headline about crib recalls and taking meticulous notes on anything and everything that has to do with the most important job that you will ever have CHECK PLUS!

After the check list is complete and you have purchased the car seat and picked out the bedding, after the nursery is painted and the closet is organized, after the crib is put together and the chair rail securely brad nailed and leveled on the wall, the only hurdles that remain are the last few doctor visits once a week for the last month.

With anticipation and anxiety at the apex you look forward to hear from your health care provider that all is well and the only thing left is to wait for GOD to complete your miracle and deliver him in to your arms. Only maybe everything is NOT OK?

Maybe, there might possibly, sort of could be a problematic variable?

"Let's do an additional ultra sound to be sure"?

I (like many people) make a concentrated effort to calculate all "what ifs" for the week, the month and the year so that I can be as prepared as humanly possible for any outlier that rears it's unexpected head.

I was gut shot! My guard down, I took a left hook that caught me clean on the temple.

"OK, doc we'll see you in two days for the ultra sound".

The orb of love and comfort that I have described before, softened. With 48 hours to digest, analyze and agonize, my thoughts ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other with the majority of them hunkering down on the more miserable side of the two.

We went through what most parents have experienced at one time or another. The crippling fear of the unknown, accompanied by a knot at the bottom of your throat which makes it impossible to swallow and ultimately you taste a salty substance on the edge of your mouth. We were treading water with cinder blocks around our ankles but giving in to the overwhelming feeling of helplessness was not an option.

After recovering from the initial impact and the irrational thoughts subsided, an innate sense of "mommy/daddy" strength emerged. A new check list of questions and concerns created and each item needed to be picked off with the same efficiency as the last, whatever it takes to regain the balance and put us back on our toes.

With appropriate due diligence executed it was determined that ALL IS WELL! There is nothing to fear. It really seemed like a series of unfortunate events took place. If any one of the six scenarios on that initial day were different, chances are there never would have been a concern, the doctor would have never called to inform us of the unnecessary ultra sound. The mental anguish would have been avoided.

One thing came to the fore front with this experience; it appears that with the stakes being higher than they can ever be, what I learned while my knees were weak and my heart aching is that as a parent, there are moments when you have less control than you've ever had before. It's out of your hands, there is little that you can do and that is terrifying!

With Love, Support and Faith as our smelling salt and life jackets we got through it. I told all 7 of you that moving forward, this blog was mainly going to be about being a Husband and a Daddy. My experiences are new to me, the lessons learned are probably not new to you. Most of the time, I'm just working out in my head, what the Silver and Black Lining is.

Couldn't have said it Better...