Amber was born on February 9th, 2021 at about ten to three in the afternoon.

Our appointment was originally a couple of days earlier, on Sunday February 7th at 8pm. It was Super Bowl Sunday, when I would normally be at a party at Shawn's watching the game, but because of the pandemic there was no party, so I was watching at home on a video conference with Shawn and also Phoenix. The timing was kind of tight, but I ended up leaving the game early because it was already decided (Patriots beat the Chiefs handily) and I still had some packing to do. I'd been packed for a couple weeks, in case we had to go, but just that morning we had finally been able to watch an orientation video that gave us some other ideas of things to pack and bring. So I was darting out every commercial during the game to prep this and that and load my truck, and toward the end I just didn't come back very much.

Then they called us and delayed our appointment about 12 hours, until 8am Monday morning, apparently because they had a full load that evening. It was kind of a blessing; after all the stress of getting ready, and everything was done, then we got to have a good dinner (what did we have? some takeout I think) and a nice nights' sleep. Later I joked with them that they should do that with everyone.

All this appointmenting was for induction; they recommended inducing about a week before the due date because of Vera's age; apparently the placenta wears out or something and that last week can be risky.

So we got settled in to Room LD7 and they started the induction chemicals about 10am. And then nothing happened. They could measure that she was having contractions, but too weak for Vera to even feel. That went on all day without particular advance. We just chilled in the room, read books and things, and watched some baby-education videos that they supplied.

By late evening they were getting impatient and suggested that we break her water. We were hesitant to do this, even though they recommended it, because we felt like if still nothing happened it would eventually result in a C-section, which we didn't want, so we'd prefer to be patient. So we declined to break the water that evening, and again when they came in the middle of the night. But by morning we were running out of excuses, so we let them go ahead and break the water about 10am.

Still it seemed things weren't progressing, at least not very quickly. The contractions did increase, and about 1:30 Vera was having enough pain that they started the epidural on her, and then that pain went away, which again made it seem like nothing was going on, even though it was starting to. We watched a movie, "Mr Rogers' Neighborhood" starring Tom Hanks. It was pretty good.

Shortly after the movie was over one of the nurses came in to adjust the monitor, because she had lost the trace on the baby. She started feeling around and was like 'where the heck is she... oh, she's way down... here!' and within about 5 minutes the room was full of doctors and nurses. It was time!

There were at least five of six of them, and a cart of equipment, and suddenly things were happening quickly. They were crowded around her, doing this and that and whatever they do, telling her to push during her contractions, then sort of just chilling for four or five minutes until the next one. During one of the lulls Vera introduced me to one of the nurses saying "this is Amber!" and at first I didn't get what she was talking about, I was too focused on the birth process. At that time we hadn't quite decided on the name yet - we'd been working on it during the last day or so - but Amber was on the short list.

Anyway it was only like the third push - perhaps 15 minutes of labor that Amber's crown was poking out. They asked Vera if she wanted to touch her, and that seemed a little weird. But the next push, and she just popped right out, all at once! They checked her minimally and plopped her up on Vera's chest to rest. At the right time, they guided me in cutting the cord (which I didn't care too much about, but they kept thinking I should, so finally I just played along). She rested there for a while and then latched on for her first meal. It was about an hour before she was done feeding, then it was our turn. I placed her on my chest and we listened to Dvorak's 8th Symphony together.

After a couple hours they moved us to a more comfortable recovery room. Amber the nurse had been very excited that we might name our baby after her, so she said she pulled a few strings and got us the best room. Not sure really, but it was a nice corner room. Sometime around there we decided on her name.

We still had a checklist of checkups to complete before they sent us home, and one of them, the next day, was a visit to Amber the nurse for some measurements and stuff. By that time we had decided on Amber Susan, so that made her happy. Amber the nurse had been doing this job for like 18 years or something, and I was impressed with how she could sling a baby around like a New York Pizza. She had to prick Amber's foot and draw some blood, and she made me sit down before she did it, just in case I passed out.

That was about it. We stayed one night in the recovery room, and they bought us a nice breakfast. It took most of the day to get through the checkups, and we just rested, and I got to sit with Amber in the sun in front of the window and listen to some more music. The playlist I chose for her was Dvorak's 8th, Mozart's 41st, and Haydn's 64th and 96th, and we listened to those quite a few times for our skin-on-skin sessions in the next few weeks.

Around dinnertime that evening of the 10th we cleared all our checks, loaded her up in her chair and very carefully drove her home.