Cameron's been with us for 6 days now.  Lots of things have happened, I'll try to catch up with notable events.  Let's start with the labour story.

Rewind back to Tuesday September 18, about 9:30am.  Sara was experiencing painful contractions in regular 4 minute intervals, so we headed into the hospital.  The nurse there was very kind to us and very apologetically told Sara "you're what we call 'fingertip dilation'" which is less than 1cm dilation which really means "uh, what are you doing at the hospital?  You're nowhere close to being ready" and we got sent home.  Sara felt rather sheepish.  Later, at about 4pm, Sara started feeling contractions again but didn't want to say anything out of embarrassment.  7pm... 8pm... contractions are getting more and more painful and are once again 5 minutes apart.  10 pm and the contractions are now level 8 pain and only 3-4 minutes apart.  We give the call to the doctor, and she says "okay kids, come on in."  So off we go - luckily we had a practice session heading for the hospital so this time we weren't rushed or panicked.  :)

When we checked into the hospital, Sara was mortified when the nurses said "oh, you're the Huang" - they knew she was the one who came in and was only 'fingertips'.  So the nurse checked and reassured Sara that she was 3-4 cm dilated, which means we get to stay.  *phew*  We headed up to the birthing ward where Sara was checked again and the nurse up there said "you're really barely a 3 but you made it in."  Needless to say I was extremely amused by the whole thing and Sara was not.  :)

So we were settled into the birthing room by about midnight on Tuesday night.  The contractions are very painful for Sara at this point and she's barely able to breathe through them.  Epidural was ordered right away, but it's a very busy night and we're on a waiting list for the stuff.  They did give Sara some other drugs which mellowed out her pain, and we went we sleep - I had a cot in the corner.  The nurses came in and out to check on Sara through the night which kept waking us up, and then the epidural guy came in at about 3am to apply the stuff.  I'd heard a lot about Epidural but I wanted to watch it being applied.  The nurse asked me to sit down as many fathers had fainted during epidural; in fact it was now procedure to get the father to sit down.  Not sure why, I watched the whole thing while sitting down and it's not faint-worthy: they put a largish needle into your lower spine, then insert what looks like a long wire into your back.  No biggie.  Sara could feel the cold epidural trickling through her legs, and shortly afterward didn't feel anything from her legs - in fact, we had to lift and move her legs around as she had zero feeling in them.  We settled back into sleep, then a nurse popped in once again to check on Sara.

By this point, I'm extremely groggy when I wake up at about 5am to see a few nurses rushing about in a panicked state and a quiet alarm bell going off from one of the machines.  I have no idea what's going on, but it ain't good.  I overhear one of the nurses say "I feel a cord on the head, I feel the cord!"  My worst nightmare - the umbilical cord wrapping around the baby's neck.  They stop one of the drugs (pitocin, which increases the contractions) and immediately call the doctor to come in.  The baby's heartbeat is also on a speaker at this point.  The doctor comes in, and goes "it sounds good to me, what's the fuss about?"  The nurses tell her and she basically shoos them away and tells them to start up the pitocin again.  A very nonchalant reaction and you could tell the nurses were annoyed, but in the end she was right.  She is the doctor, afterall.

So through the night we're waiting for Sara to fully dilate before going into active labour.  By 10am, she was only at 9cm instead of the full 10cm.  The doctor said let's just start anyways, so away we go with the pushing.  Three big push sessions and baby's not making an appearance - doctor's a bit worried, checks, and discovers that the baby's sideways in the birth canal.  Not good - in her words "baby's not happy in there."  So, we'll try one more push with a vacuum and if that doesn't work, c-section time.

An extra nurse was called in for the vacuum and she's short and kinda thick and when the doctor saw her she goes "ah, good, you're the muscle."  I'm thinking muscle to help control/pull the vacuum, but then the nurse climbs up onto Sara's bed!  And lowers her forearm onto Sara's belly!!  AND PROCEEDS TO HELP PUSH THE BABY OUT!!!!!  What is this madness?!?  Vacuum in place, Nurse Strong-Arm in place, we start pushing (well, not really 'we' start pushing, I'm just kinda standing there in a daze holding Sara's leg up).  One biiiiig push session, and Cameron Hector Tay enters the world at 11:05am on Wednesday September 19.