Jill's Birth Story, Bryan's version

My part of this story started on a radar test ship in Pt Hueneme CA on March 27th. The array we had shipped in the fall (El Diablo as the systems guys called it) was acting up again so I was back out on the ship. If all went well my plan was to fly back on Sunday the 26th, but of course all didn't go well so I decided to take the red eye back Monday night. We were cranking along at around 4:00 when I heard my phone ring outside. The array is located on a high tower, and is in an area where we can't bring our cellphones, so I decided to call back after we had finished what we were doing. Then a minute later the phone rang again which I though was odd, so I went outside, attached my safety harness, and answered. The shock of hearing Ronni tell me that her water broke almost made me lose my balance, so I sat down and tried to be calm. It was around 7:00 east coast time so no one was around. Ronni was in the parking lot and decided to call John Firda who was guarenteed to be working at 7. I told the guys I was working with the situation, to which Mike the SI lead suggested I probably wouldn't win Husband of the Year award this year.

I hopped in the car and drove off the base, and decided to take the PCH to avoid some of the LA traffic snarl -- I hear it's a gorgeous drive though all I saw was the top of the steering wheel and my hands at 10 and 2. All the flights that were available were red eyes, and no combination of planes, trains, and automobiles were going to get me back any faster. I was sure that I wasn't going to make it, but Ronni was very calming and reassuring which kept me from getting pulled over and acting like a nut to a cop. Ronni and her mom said many

We were sure that Ronni was going to last up until 34 weeks, which was why it was so surprising at 11pm on April 2nd that

The moments leading up to Jill's birth we very stressful. The nurse and intern helping with the delivery were very relaxed, however as she became closer to delivering Jill's heartrate kept dropping. After this happened a couple of times the nurse said something about this being perfectly normal, then quietly went over to wispered into the intercom. Next thing we know the doors fly open and about 15 doctors, nurses, interns, and pediatricians came into the room almost at once! The doctor on duty came and took over, and decided to perform a rather dramatic forceps delivery. The entire delivery was very quick, although we still hadn't heard a peep from baby Jill.

The pediatricians took Jill from the side of the bed and wisked her to an incubator table. I didn't want to leave Ronni's side, but we were both very nervous at the lack of crying. Then, after a seemingly endless couple of minutes, we heard a little crying -- the pediatricians were tickling Jill's feet! They wrapped her up and wisked her off to the NICU, and Ronni didn't get to see her.

Shortly therafter I went to give Becky and Marianne the good news. They were relieved to hear that that Ronni and baby were OK. Becky and I went to see the baby shortly thereafter. She was so tiny and beautiful, though incredibly bruised from the foreceps delivery. At the time we didn't think it was abnormal that she was so bruised, although we looked at the pictures a few days after and almost passed out. Ronni wasn't able to get up to see the baby for several hours due to her surgery. Below are the picture of Ronni and baby together for the first time.

BTW -- I still haven't got Ronni her push present ...