Statistics and FAQs on Ben's arrival (provided by Dad)
Whats the digs on the labor?
6:00 am Jen had contractions that were painful enough to wake her up.
6:01 am Eric is gently awakened.
7:30 am The contractions are about 10 mins apart. We call the Drs office. They tell us to chill out at home until they are 5 mins apart and too painful to talk through.
8:45 am We quickly hit the 5 min mark. Jen has to sit down during the contractions.
9:00 am Eric cancels a 9am conference call, emails the office with the news and begins to gather their things.
9:15 am Jen reminds Eric that he needs to water the plants on the back porch before we leave. Eric is grateful that at least she didnt try to do it herself.
9:20 am We walk (slowly) to Wells St. to catch a cab. She has one contraction on the way. We pause while it subsides.
9:45 am Arriving at Prentice/Northwestern, we go to the observation rooms. They casually check us in and assign us Room A.
10:15 am Jen is still having contractions 5 mins apart. They are starting to really hurt. They do an initial examination and discover she is 8cm dilated (i.e., 80% of the way there.) They are shocked that she is standing and not screaming, and they get us an express delivery room upstairs. Jen accepts their strong recommendations that she use a wheelchair.
10:30 am We check in the delivery room. Dr is not there yet. Nurses are great, literally cheering for Jen as she gets wheeled in, "8 centimeters - we are gonna have this baby by noon!" Contractions are very painful. We begin discussion whether or not to get an epidural. They explain that this is only for Jen and Im not allowed to get one as well. I withdraw my aye vote.
10:40 am We discuss the epidural one more time. Jen pretty much has to decide in the next few minutes whether she wants to do this with or without drugs. Most couples discuss this beforehand -- were doing it real-time. Of course, we pause the debate during the contractions where shes unable to speak. Some statistical context: 96% of women at Prentice/Northwestern end up having them. Jen ends up not having one.
11:00 am Dr. Starr arrives and gets scrubbed up. She is more conservative than the nurses. When Jen asks how much longer, she replies, "it could be an hour, it could be five hours."
11:30 am Jen is fully dilated and they encourage her to begin to push. More painful, intense and difficult than she imagined. She disappeared into a different state, all interior space, for the remainder of the labor. One nurse in particular was the guiding voice that directed her.
12:40 pm Bens head can now be seen clearly. The Dr tells Jen that she can have this baby in 5 more contractions, 5 more big pushes. Jen, near full exhaustion, decides, "I am going to do it in 2."
12:47 pm Ben emerges and is placed on Jens chest.
Hows Jen feeling? Hows she recovering?
Shes been doing well and recovering fast. I think seeing Ben is a pretty good pain reliever.
How Big is Ben?
A very reasonable 7lbs 6ozs. 20 inches in length.
Where does he get his name?
Bens Great-Great-Grandfather on Erics side was Ben-Zion Antonow. We divided and expanded the name to Benjamin Zion. Ben Zion lived into his mid-90s and had 5 children - Samuel, Julius, Sophie, Bertha, Nadia. Eric carries the middle name Samuel, in memory of his grandfather.
Is there any other deep meaning?
Here are some additional meanings for the curious.
Benjamin - Son of the right hand. In the bible, the patriarch Jacob's twelfth and most beloved son.
Zion - A place or religious community regarded as sacredly devoted to God, place of refuge, a hill in Jerusalem, which, after the capture of that city by the Israelites, became the royal residence of David and his successors.
Where does he get the red hair?
Yep, we were surprised as well. There are two possible sources - one on each side of the family, both having skipped a generation. Jens cousin Mary has red hair and we are tracking down the hair color of Jen's great grandmother Winkleman, possibly red as well.
Eric father, Joseph Peres Antonow, had red hair, though he was white-haired in all of our memories, and all pictures we have of him when he was a redhead are in black and white. His sister, Eric's Aunt Miriam, was also a redhead.
More to come...
