Erik's Story

Mom's view...

On the 8th of September, I got up at 4 o'clock in the morning because I had some steady contractions. Those were not very strong contractions but they were 7-10 minutes apart. I went to my computer and decided to work on the A Foreign Affair Catalog. Then the contractions got stronger but they were irregular and I did not take them serious. The due date was 17th of September, and I had an appointment with my OB doctor on the same morning, so I decided to wait to hear what the doctor would say.

Ron took me to the doctor that afternoon, as I refused to drive the car for the last week to his sincere surprise, he could not understand why. The midwife told me that maybe I will give birth today, maybe in two weeks, that these contractions might well be just a false labor. She prescribed me some sleeping pills in order I would be able to sleep at night.

We went to the office as I had to do the Cyrillic addresses translation for the company, I knew that nobody was going to do them for me, I felt miserable. I had very strong contractions every 10 minutes or so. We then went home. I still felt awful but then my darling husband made a bubble bath for me. This was the second in our married life, the first one he made a year before that when I returned from 3 weeks in Russia - September 1998 Tour. I was lying in the bathtub and talking to Natasha who was filling me in with the news from St. Petersburg. After the bath I felt considerably better and we decided to take Vike to the park. In the park, I told Ron half joking, half serious that I was about ready to give birth. He told me that the contractions that I had were not real contractions, these were "tiny-biny contractions" !!! How did he know! Mr. Know It All!! I told him that maybe I will give the birth not that day but definitely next day. "What about 9/9/99?" I asked. Is it a good date to remember?? I should say that it was his biggest concern for Ron, as his memory is not a finely trained instrument and he does not want to keep remembering all these dates: my birthday, our wedding day, now yet our son's birthday. He told me that it was a good date!

At 8 o'clock, we waited for Kent and Natasha to come to our place in order to go and to have dinner somewhere and maybe to catch a movie. They just returned from Russia and I was happy to see them. I told them that since 5:00 pm I had strong regular contractions 5 minutes apart, and that I should call my midwife. I did but she told me that because it is my first baby, that it is probably too early for the real thing. So I should just have a good healthy dinner and call her later if something develops. Everybody was hungry, so they took the midwife's advice to have dinner with a great joy and approval.

We went to the Thai restaurant and I managed to have a bite to eat between contractions. However I understood that it cannot continue like this and that I need to go to the hospital. My dear husband was still very skeptical. "They will send you home!" I said: "Fine, but there must be some humanity in their hearts. They should either give me something to stop the contractions or to induce the labor, but I can not continue like this". So by 10 o'clock we were in the Phoenix Baptist Hospital. I was 3 cm dilated. In an hour I was already 8 cm dilated and everybody was surprise how quickly it was coming along. I suffered greatly and begged for epidural. God, they are so slow there. I got it only by 12:30, but what a relief it was. Honestly I could not have imagined that the pain can be so strong. After the epidural (Happydural!) everything was a piece of cake. At 1:56 am on 9/9/99 Erik was born, little, red and yelling. I was surprised but I immediately fell in love with him, he was so cute and helpless.

Dad's view...

On the afternoon of 9/8/99, Elina and I appeared at our weekly appointment with the clinic. Your mother was expressing her concern to the midwife about the fact that her unborn child had not allowed her to sleep during the night. Elina was of the opinion that she would not be able to cope with another sleepless night. The midwife prescribed a mild sleeping pill and even suggested a glass of wine to aid in her relaxation. Since this was her first pregnancy and about 8 days before scheduled to deliver, the midwife suggested that she may be experiencing false labor.

As I write this note now 6 weeks after your birth, the play by play facts of the afternoon proceeding your birth are vague. Elina tells me we took our daily walk in Granada Park with our 2 year old Doberman Vike, although I do not remember details about the walk. We were back in time to meet Kent and Natasha Baxter. Elina was experiencing contractions and thought it was about time for your arrival. I however was skeptical due to the earlier conclusions of the midwife. To be on the safe side I suggested she call the midwife again, explain her feelings and contraction timing. The call to the midwife brought a suggestion to enjoy an evening meal and try to get good nights sleep.

This was good news to Kent and myself. We were looking forward to a break, I from my own cooking and Kent from Natasha's. We jumped into Kent's black '98 Jeep 4 wheel drive and off to Thai Rama we went. Thai Rama was only a mile and a half from Phoenix Baptist Hospital, half way between our home and the hospital, which reassured me that in case of emergency we were in the general direction.

I ordered my favorite dish and Elina ordered only egg rolls and started asking Natasha who set across the table with a seriously concerned look on her face, to start timing her contractions. Three quarters of the way into the meal Elina announced that it was time to go to the hospital. I was keeping a level head and balancing my reactions midway between my wife's desires and the speculations of the time tested midwife. We hurriedly finished our meal and then I had Kent return us to our home where we hurriedly picked up the pre-packed overnight bags for the hospital, a camera and off we went. We arrived at the hospital at around 10 pm and proceeded immediately to the delivery room, bypassing the emergency check in station. The first one hour passed slowly. It was an hour of nurse instructed wait and see philosophy, with the objective of determining Elina's progress. The second hour was passed in hand holding anticipation of the anesthesiologist arrival. Your mother has a good tolerance for pain and was a great trooper but I know the pain of labor was reaching the apex of her tolerance by midnight. The third hour was passed with the implementation of the epidural and the continued onset of progressive labor, myself simply attempting to keep your mother breathing regularly now that the drug was washing her with a welcome wave relief. The forth hour was simply the hard work of intensive labor on your mother's part. The climax was approx. 1:56 am of 9/9/99.

You were immediately cleaned a little by a nurse and placed in your mother's arms and after a short introduction, she immediately turned you over to me and its been that way ever since. After a few minutes of our introduction and bonding, the nurse asked if she could have you back to complete your grooming and the necessities of record, such as being weighed and measured. I think that moment was actually one of the happiest days of my life. To see you healthy, whole and complete is just a great moment, second only to the day I married your mother.

Mom's view...

On the 8th of September, I got up at 4 o'clock in the morning because I had some steady contractions. Those were not very strong contractions but they were 7-10 minutes apart. I went to my computer and decided to work on the A Foreign Affair Catalog. Then the contractions got stronger but they were irregular and I did not take them serious. The due date was 17th of September, and I had an appointment with my OB doctor on the same morning, so I decided to wait to hear what the doctor would say.

Ron took me to the doctor that afternoon, as I refused to drive the car for the last week to his sincere surprise, he could not understand why. The midwife told me that maybe I will give birth today, maybe in two weeks, that these contractions might well be just a false labor. She prescribed me some sleeping pills in order I would be able to sleep at night.

We went to the office as I had to do the Cyrillic addresses translation for the company, I knew that nobody was going to do them for me, I felt miserable. I had very strong contractions every 10 minutes or so. We then went home. I still felt awful but then my darling husband made a bubble bath for me. This was the second in our married life, the first one he made a year before that when I returned from 3 weeks in Russia - September 1998 Tour. I was lying in the bathtub and talking to Natasha who was filling me in with the news from St. Petersburg. After the bath I felt considerably better and we decided to take Vike to the park. In the park, I told Ron half joking, half serious that I was about ready to give birth. He told me that the contractions that I had were not real contractions, these were "tiny-biny contractions" !!! How did he know! Mr. Know It All!! I told him that maybe I will give the birth not that day but definitely next day. "What about 9/9/99?" I asked. Is it a good date to remember?? I should say that it was his biggest concern for Ron, as his memory is not a finely trained instrument and he does not want to keep remembering all these dates: my birthday, our wedding day, now yet our son's birthday. He told me that it was a good date!

At 8 o'clock, we waited for Kent and Natasha to come to our place in order to go and to have dinner somewhere and maybe to catch a movie. They just returned from Russia and I was happy to see them. I told them that since 5:00 pm I had strong regular contractions 5 minutes apart, and that I should call my midwife. I did but she told me that because it is my first baby, that it is probably too early for the real thing. So I should just have a good healthy dinner and call her later if something develops. Everybody was hungry, so they took the midwife's advice to have dinner with a great joy and approval.

We went to the Thai restaurant and I managed to have a bite to eat between contractions. However I understood that it cannot continue like this and that I need to go to the hospital. My dear husband was still very skeptical. "They will send you home!" I said: "Fine, but there must be some humanity in their hearts. They should either give me something to stop the contractions or to induce the labor, but I can not continue like this". So by 10 o'clock we were in the Phoenix Baptist Hospital. I was 3 cm dilated. In an hour I was already 8 cm dilated and everybody was surprise how quickly it was coming along. I suffered greatly and begged for epidural. God, they are so slow there. I got it only by 12:30, but what a relief it was. Honestly I could not have imagined that the pain can be so strong. After the epidural (Happydural!) everything was a piece of cake. At 1:56 am on 9/9/99 Erik was born, little, red and yelling. I was surprised but I immediately fell in love with him, he was so cute and helpless.

Dad's view...

On the afternoon of 9/8/99, Elina and I appeared at our weekly appointment with the clinic. Your mother was expressing her concern to the midwife about the fact that her unborn child had not allowed her to sleep during the night. Elina was of the opinion that she would not be able to cope with another sleepless night. The midwife prescribed a mild sleeping pill and even suggested a glass of wine to aid in her relaxation. Since this was her first pregnancy and about 8 days before scheduled to deliver, the midwife suggested that she may be experiencing false labor.

As I write this note now 6 weeks after your birth, the play by play facts of the afternoon proceeding your birth are vague. Elina tells me we took our daily walk in Granada Park with our 2 year old Doberman Vike, although I do not remember details about the walk. We were back in time to meet Kent and Natasha Baxter. Elina was experiencing contractions and thought it was about time for your arrival. I however was skeptical due to the earlier conclusions of the midwife. To be on the safe side I suggested she call the midwife again, explain her feelings and contraction timing. The call to the midwife brought a suggestion to enjoy an evening meal and try to get good nights sleep.

This was good news to Kent and myself. We were looking forward to a break, I from my own cooking and Kent from Natasha's. We jumped into Kent's black '98 Jeep 4 wheel drive and off to Thai Rama we went. Thai Rama was only a mile and a half from Phoenix Baptist Hospital, half way between our home and the hospital, which reassured me that in case of emergency we were in the general direction.

I ordered my favorite dish and Elina ordered only egg rolls and started asking Natasha who set across the table with a seriously concerned look on her face, to start timing her contractions. Three quarters of the way into the meal Elina announced that it was time to go to the hospital. I was keeping a level head and balancing my reactions midway between my wife's desires and the speculations of the time tested midwife. We hurriedly finished our meal and then I had Kent return us to our home where we hurriedly picked up the pre-packed overnight bags for the hospital, a camera and off we went. We arrived at the hospital at around 10 pm and proceeded immediately to the delivery room, bypassing the emergency check in station. The first one hour passed slowly. It was an hour of nurse instructed wait and see philosophy, with the objective of determining Elina's progress. The second hour was passed in hand holding anticipation of the anesthesiologist arrival. Your mother has a good tolerance for pain and was a great trooper but I know the pain of labor was reaching the apex of her tolerance by midnight. The third hour was passed with the implementation of the epidural and the continued onset of progressive labor, myself simply attempting to keep your mother breathing regularly now that the drug was washing her with a welcome wave relief. The forth hour was simply the hard work of intensive labor on your mother's part. The climax was approx. 1:56 am of 9/9/99.

You were immediately cleaned a little by a nurse and placed in your mother's arms and after a short introduction, she immediately turned you over to me and its been that way ever since. After a few minutes of our introduction and bonding, the nurse asked if she could have you back to complete your grooming and the necessities of record, such as being weighed and measured. I think that moment was actually one of the happiest days of my life. To see you healthy, whole and complete is just a great moment, second only to the day I married your mother.

I love you both, Your Father, Ron

I love you both, Your Father, Ron