Day Eighty-six - Birth of the three (The unification)

I'm not going to lie - when we found out that Dora was expecting in March, we already knew that he'd be due by December, and a big part of me hoped that our son - and we had found out some time back that it was indeed a boy we were going to have, though I woulld have been just as happy had it been a girl; so much so that having a baby girl became that one unfilfilled dream I have, one that will always remain thus - would be born on December 31st - I wanted him to have been born on the last day of the century.. or of the millenium... or none of those really because I'm just a bit dumb. But I hoped for that date, I really did. After we returned from London, we made sure that everything at home would be ready for his arrival : we had the stroller, we had the cot, we had all the necessary baby appliances. There was a supply of diapers on hand already, and baby wipes, and talcum powder. We were ready, or so we thought. As December trudged on, my hopes of that birth date were looking increasingly good. But on December 16th, I was asleep and around 3 A.M. Dora woke me up saying that her waters had broken. She'd called up a taxi, and before 4 A.M. we were in the hospital. I wanted to stay there as long as I could, as long as I was allowed, and to keep me entertained I brought along a healthy selection of comics and magazines, and maybe a couple of books, to keep me entertained. Dora was soon admitted into the maternity ward, and I would only see her again a few hours later. I waited in the waiting room, tried to read a little bit, but I was just too tired and couldn't really concentrate. Somewhere along the way I fell asleep on the chair I was sitting on, and I was woken up by Dora, who had been advised by the doctors to walk around for a bit, so it might help induce labour. By that time she'd taken an epidural, the pain had been far too much for her to bear. She stayed with for a while, but then returned back to her room. A few hours more passed, I read some more, I played 'Snake' on my Nokia mobile phone, and eventually a nurse came asking for me : it was time. So I went with the nurse to the delivery room, and to this day I can't fathom how long I spent there. Minutes? Hours? The only clear memory I have is being always by Dora's side, and no matter how much she pushed, the baby wasn't coming through. Then a nurse leaned beside us and told her to push as hard as she could, or else our baby would die. Internally, I went into a panic, but I couldn't let it show. Dora was being incredibly strong, and I had to be strong for her. She pushed hard, and then the baby came out. Ian came to this world at precisely 4 P.M. 

Did he cry when he came out? I don't know. Did any of us cry? I don't know. Did me and Dora kiss each other like they do in the movies? Who knows, by now. Not that it mattered, our son had arrived.