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… specifically the hours that turned my world upside down.

Cheryl has her own version of this story which I will ask her to post at some point in time but this is my version from my own point of view.

I was meeting with a new client over dinner to discuss approaches and future actions when I looked down at my phone to two texts from Cheryl. “Babe, can you call me; it’s really important” and “Babe, they might induce me tonight. Can you call?”  So I called, and got the skinny. Cheryl’s blood pressure was high (a normal thing for some pregnant women) and since we’re so close to the due date that it made sense to just move it along. This was Wednesday June 9th.

So we packed up our things and drove to the hospital where we were admitted. No dramatic water breaking or heroic traffic weaving. Just an easy drive to the hospital listening to 103.5 QMFM. We got there and we were admitted immediately.

Before we got into our room, we learned that Cheryl was already having contractions (very few and light – she didn’t even notice them) so on with the Cervidil! I’m not going to bore you with terms like “ripen the cervix” but I am going to say that this process lasted at least 36 hours. A long and drawn out process that includes boredom killing activities such as posting video of your wife and cool machines that measure baby activities and contractions.

The next few were a blur, so I’m writing them using bullet points:

• At 22:30 on June 10th, Cheryl’s parents arrived from Edmonton (they drove 12 hours upon hearing that we were getting admitted).
• The doctors checked her up at 22:45, and found that she was already pretty far dilated.
• 23:00, they artificially ruptured her. They broke her water. Tip for dads out there: if they do this to your wife, try not to look like you’ve just seen that scene from Titanic when the hull filled up with water. Try to stay calm. Thoughts, “Eww, swamp water with seaweed in it. This is going to be a pretty messy room after.” (Note: Mackenzee had Meconium – for the love of God Wikipedia, picture of poop if you click on the link, you’ve been warned! – meaning: She pooped in utero, normal but still pretty gross)
• 23:01 – 01:00 *PAIN!* the heavy contractions started and Cheryl was in pain.
• 00:35 She grabbed my hand (which had my ring) and squeezed. That hurt! Tip for dads: Remove your ring before she grabs it and pretend like she’s squeezing them into mashed potatoes.
• 01:10 Doctor informs us that they’re going to start an IV with Oxytocin. Contractions are going to get worse, Cheryl and I look at the doctor and said, “1 order of Epidural please! Hahah! … We’re not kidding!”
• 01:15 Epidural is in. Yay! The sky parted, rainbows came in, and birds were chirping. We both slept and got some rest.
• 05:15 10cm dilated, tried to push once but Mackenzee was in occiput posterior position (Cheryl’s translation: head down but face up and you should be head down and face down).
• She was moved into the Operating Room at 06:00, regular C-Section stuff.
• Mackenzee came out at 07:01.

… and we haven’t slept since. Ok, I’m totally kidding but more accurately, we haven’t slept more than 4 hours since.

She’s here! 9 months of waiting and my child / offspring / descendant / kin has arrived.

Yes, her name is Mackenzee Charlotte Cayabyab Macapinlac. Now let me explain why it’s so long. Well, we were using Cayabyab Macapinlac which is a spanish tradition that filipinos adhere to. We use the mom’s last name as the middle name (Cayabyab) and her last name is the father’s (Macapinlac). To make things more complicated, we wanted a palindrome for her initials MCCM. So we ended up picking Mackenzee Charlotte. We picked Mackenzee because we wanted her nickname to be MCee (notice the “ee”)?

Ok, yes. Cheryl and I know that it’s super long. 36 characters to be exact. So you database programmers, make sure you can accommodate a name longer than 30 characters. I distinctly remember my own database design instructor saying that 30 characters was good enough. Screw you Mr. Database-design-instructor, I’ll crash all your legacy databases!

She was born on June 11, 2010 on 7:01 weighing 6 pounds 3 ounces (tiny I know, Cheryl and I aren’t exactly big people ok!) The whole pregnancy experience deserves it’s own post I think, but let me just say that when your child is born, no amount of distraction during the first phase of labour will work. Stop talking when your wife gives you the “Shut up now and stop asking me about my day or my love for Indian food.”

Another fact? She’s born on 06 / 11 which could really be written like 3 + 3 / 11. I was born on on 3 / 11 (March 11). Cheryl was born on 11 / 21 (November 21) which could also be written like 11 / 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3. All 3′s and 11′s. I wonder if that means something.

She’s sooooo cute! But then again, we’re biased.

Ok, I admit. I’m a fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise. I even owned an arcade cabinet (c/o John B) at one point in time. I loved it. I finished the first one with pretty much all of the characters and was obsessed with the violence (along with how much it pissed my parents off). Also, I liked the first Mortal Kombat movie. Yes, I know. The movies of the Mortal Kombat franchise were generally horrible and required a lot of drugs to get through but I did like the first one.

There was a time in my life when I knew every finishing move and every attack for every single character. I’m not a big video gamer. I can count the number of video games that I was interested in (and played religiously) with one hand.

Then things started sliding, the game started losing momentum with the market. The movies got sillier and sillier eventually running straight to DVD. I lost contact with everything back then. Until now, this trailer is bad ass and if it gets made into a movie. I would totally watch it! The fight choreography was apparently done by the same guy who did Undisputed 3: Redemption‘s fight sequences.

And now you’re thinking, “Yes Ritchie, obviously I would watch this movie based on the guy from a straight to DVD release movie because he choreographed the fight scenes.” To which I would reply, “Well, the trailer below looks really good! Plus it’s got Jeri Ryan (who was 7 in Star Trek!) and Michael Jai White (who was Spawn!). You should really hold reservation before you make sweeping and judging statements like that without basis.”  And you would probably say, “Man, Michael Jai White played Mike Tyson in Tyson. That was a pretty bad and inaccurate movie. Your argument is basically invalidated. But I’ll just check out the trailer first…. Wow that trailer is pretty awesome!”

So just save me the time and just watch the damn trailer!