With Connor now 5 years old, and in school, Denise was looking forward to going out and getting job, and getting a 'normal' life back. Well, the plans for that were shot to hell, when going in for her yearly check-up, the doctor tells her that she's about 5 weeks pregnant. What is usually joyous news, was kind of a depressing hammer to both of us. We had agreed after Connor was born, that we wern't going to have any more kids, but as time went by, our guard went down, and we didn't really take any precautions to stop it from happening. For a brief time we talked about what we wanted to do. Neither one of us could stomach the thought of terminating our own child, and the thought of putting him up for adoption scared us just as much. With that out of the way, we slowly started to accept the fact that we were going to be parents again. Unlike Connor, this pregnancy was fairly uneventful, and Denise never had any of the normal side effects. Well, 2 Nov 05 comes and goes, and we both go to sleep that night, wondering if Devlin will show up tomorrow (his due date was 3 Nov). At about 4:15am, Denise wakes me up to tell me that her water just broke, and that she had been up for about a half hour after starting to feel contractions. I get Connor out of bed, get him dressed, get myself dressed, and just running around like crazy. The whole time, Denise is telling me to calm down, we don't need to rush. Well, I continued to rush, called the doctor to let her know that we were heading to the hospital, and at 4:45, we were in the car (I'm now glad her car was blocking my car in
) and on our way. It's about a 20 minute drive to the hospital, and every second that ticks by, Denise is starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. Just as I'm taking the exit for the hospital, she grabs my arm and tells me to hurry (at this point, I'm wishing we were in my Mustang instead of her Mazda 626). I'm pushing the little 4 cylinder has hard as it will go, and just as we're turning into the emergency lane at the hospital, Denise lets out a screem, and starts stripping off her pants. I stop the car right in front of the emergency room doors, get out, run inside to grab a wheel chair, shouting to whoever will listen that my wife is giving birth, and run back outside. I open her door, she looks at me and tells me that it's too late for the wheel chair. I look down, and she's holding Devlin's head in her hands in the front seat. I'm a geek, and even with being right there for the birth of my first son, I have no idea what to do. I reach down to hold Devlin so he doesn't hit the floor of the car, and just as a herd of people in smocks are gathering around the car, he slides out into my arms. I'm freaking out, Denise is screaming, and Connor, who has since unbuckled himself, is now standing inbetween the two front seats, looking down at all the blood and mees which accompanied Devlin, looking as scared as I've ever seen him, is asking Denise, "Mommy, are you going to die?". With all that is going on, confusion, pain, etc., Denise manages a smile, looks up at Connor and lets him know that she's okay. I finally am able to make the switch with a doctor, they cut Devlin's cord, and get him inside as fast as possible (November in Buffalo, snow is on the ground and the temp is in the mid 20's ). I get Connor out of the car, he's visibly upset and crying right until he spots the wheel chair that I had brought out for Denise....now he's the happiest kid in the world. The doctors and nurses take care of Denise in the car, get her on a gurney, and get her into the hospital. After a few days in the NICU, Devlin is fine and ready to come home with us.
About two weeks after he was born, we get a call from Mazda. Seems someone called them with the story, and they want to know info about the car (how many miles, how has it worked for us, etc), and ask if they can use the story. We were like, sure, and they said they would send us some press releases that we would need to sign. About another week goes by, and we get a huge box from Mazda. Inside of the box is not only the press releases, but a bunch of swag (hats, shirts, baby clothes, key rings, etc), a $500 gift certificate to Delta Sonic (a car detailing place here, as the front seat was quite a mess), presents from Mazda employees, and a 'voucher' for any Mazda car we want, at cost, with guaranteed 0% financing.
We wern't sure about him at first, he had a rough entry into the world, and a battle with RSV shortly after he was born, but looking back on the last year, we don't know what we would have done without him.
"This Basil. This Basil's wife. This smack on head."
-- Basil Fawlty
I pestered her for an hour about calling the doctor, and she kept telling me that it wasn't time. Being hard headed, I called myself, and the doctor told me it wasn't time. 
So we wait. At about 7:30, I'm heading out to the patio to have a smoke (Denise quit while she was pregnant, and we don't smoke in the house), and she was following behind me, when she just stopped and uttered a little, "oh". I wheeled around and crazily started yelling, "Oh what? What happened? Are you okay?" She tells me that her water just broke, and now it's time to go. We get to the hospital around 8, and get to wait around for almost 6 hours in the delivery room. She's not really experiencing labor, not in any pain, just laying there wondering what the hell this kid is up to. Well, a nurse comes in to check her around 1:30am, and tells her that she's only 4cm, and that they may induce in the next hour or so (since her water had already broken). About ten minutes after leaving the room, Denise tells me that Connor is coming, to get the doctor/nurse. I go out and grab the first person in medical garb I see (it happens to be the same nurse who was in there ten minutes ago), tell her that Denise said it's time, and she starts going on and on about, "Don't worry sir, I just checked her, she's not ready". I basically drag her in the room, and she checks again, and for the second time, I hear a woman utter a tiny little, "oh". She sticks her head out the door, calling for this that and the other, comes back in and tells Denise, "honey, you're fully dialated, and the baby is crowning". People are running around like crazy, the doctor comes into the room, gets into position, and just as soon as she get's her face shield on, she's greeted with a spalsh of fluid and my son. Everybody's freaking out that in about 20 minutes, Denise went from 4cm to delivering the after-birth.
