In the beginning

The date was February 9th, 2009.  At 6 a.m. my wife woke me with the announcement "my water just broke".  With the calm only a woman can bring to such a situation she proceeded to go about her morning routine.  While I played the madman running here and there, throwing the bags in the car, she calmly showered and started applying make up.  Occasionally I would hear "Ow, that was a strong one" and I would then hear her call out a time (Dad the engineer had handed her a stopwatch to time the contractions).  The times seemed to be compressing quickly and I was getting frantic for her to get in the car.  Still, she calmly continued until I heard "that can't be right, I am having contractions every 90 seconds now".

With the most authoritarian voice I could muster under the circumstances I said "IN. THE. CAR. NOW!!!"  I looked at my watch and it was 10 a.m. and I mentally picked the quickest route across the town considering the traffic at that time and we were off.  The wife continued with the smooth calm she had shown all morning taking the 20 (typically 30 minutes but any father driving his wife to the hospital in this situation will make Dave Earnhardt Jr look like a senior citizen) minute drive to call family and friends while dad weaved his way through traffic.

The check in was a blur but I do remember the nurse talking to my wife.  She asked how far the contractions were apart and my wife told her less then 60 seconds.  The nurse was a bit incredulous at that claim until they hooked up a sensor in one of the observation rooms.  Three minutes later the nurse was unhooking the sensors and making a call for a delivery room and we were off.

My wife did get an epidural and I remember her going into distress and the anesthesiologist turning off the epidural.  The contractions actually started getting further and further apart for about two hours and two of Carries friends arrived.  Then, everything happened fast.  The friends didn't think they would be there for the birth but as circumstances dictated our son was coming and Carrie wanted all the support she could get.

At 2:32 pm Aksel was born. From the beginning things were not as they should be.  He did not open his eyes.  He did not cry.  A nurse went to the wall and hit a button.  Within seconds three more people were in the room.  The delivery nurse calmly told me not to fret and that this was just a precaution.  I could hear the new arrivals saying Oxygen, breathing, struggling.  All words you don't want to hear.  Then I heard "Contact NICU.  Arriving in minutes".  I was then handed my son wrapped in a blanket and asked to come with them.   We then went to NICU where after less then a minute I had to hand my new born son to a nurse who told me that they would let us know when my wife and I could come to see him.

This marked the beginning of the journey of raising an autistic son.

 Daddy in the NICU

Wondering where he is.