Grand Junction, Colo (TANG NEWS) -- Legendary Grand Junction sportscaster Jason Tang and his wife Heather welcomed a new bundle of joy to the world on Wednesday Sept.27th, 2006. After 24 hours of labor the little 6lb 6 oz girl decided it was time to come out.
"It was the hardest, most painful thing I have ever done," said the new mother. "That is until they gave me my epidural, then it was a cake walk."
The couple, along with Tang's mother-in-law, Kathleen Horspool of Yucaipa, California entered the hospital on Tuesday the 26th fully expecting to have the baby within the next 12 hours.
"Even the doctors said he was sure that the baby would come out by 8pm that night," said Horspool. "Man, was he wrong."
After placing a cytotec tablet on Mrs. Tang's cervix in order to soften it and induce contractions, things just seemed to be flowing smoothly for the soon-to-be-family. In fact, 4 hours later Mrs. Tang was given assurance that dialation had begun.
"One of the resident doctors told me that I was dialated 5 centimetres," said Mrs. Tang. "I couldn't believe it, neither could anyone else, I pretty much felt no pain."
"We all had our hopes up, we thought this baby was going to be here before 8pm," said Tang.
However, the good news soon turned upside down. On suspicions that the resident doctor was too young and inexperienced, the nurses came in to give Mrs. Tang a second opinion. Soon after, the nurse delivered the bad news to the trio in the delivery room.
"It broke our spirits to be honest," said Horspool. "I was very disappointed in the doctor who told us the inaccurate progress, but most of all, I felt bad for my daughter. She thought she was at a 5, but really she was only dialated to 1 cm."
Since so many hours had passed and Mrs. Tang had only dialated the one centimetre, her doctor prescribed another cytotec to be administered. But not even that helped out much. Before they knew it, the trio had spent over 12 hours at the hospital, and not much progress had been made.
"I should've just went to work," said Tang, who always seems to think about money or the lack thereof. "But I knew I needed to be there for my wife."
As the clock struck 11 that Tuesday evening, Horspool decided to head back to the apartment to get some sleep since the baby most likely wouldn't be coming till the next day. Meanwhile, Tang and his wife slept in the labor and delivery room.
"I guess you could call it sleep, but there really wasn't much to be had, especially because labor pains really started to kick in for Heather at about midnight," Tang recalls. "They couldn't give her any pain medicine so she got to sit in the jacuzzi which helped relax her. I was even tempted to get in too!"
But he didn't, and the labor pains continued into the early morning. Finally at about 3am, Mrs. Tang dialated to 3 centimetres, and the anesthesiologist quickly came in to give her the epidural.
"The feeling of that needle in my back was like tasting the best chocolate cake ever," said Mrs. Tang. "I definitely knew from the beginning I wanted the drugs, and I was so glad when they finally gave it to me."
After receiving the epidural, progress really began. At approximately 5am, Mrs. Tang's water broke naturally, and the doctors and nurses began to prepare the room for the new life which was about to be delivered. By 7:30 that Wednesday morning, almost 12 hours after the doctor's first estimation of when the baby would be born, Mrs. Tang was pushing with all her might.
"I didn't feel much pain during the pushing, but I was sure tired and almost fell asleep when I was supposed to be pushing!" said Mrs. Tang.
One hour later, the baby was born. The exact time of birth was 8:38 in the morning.
"When I saw her head pop out, I almost passed out she looked so gross," recalls Tang with a laugh. "She didn't look like a new born, more like a smurf covered in cottage cheese. They asked me if I wanted to cut the cord, and I politely declined. Mom Horspool did it for me."
After the nurses cleaned the baby up, the new father quickly fell in love with his daughter. And the new parents brought her home the next day. The Tang's named their baby girl Ashlyn May.
"Being a dad is the best thing I have ever experienced," said Tang. "I'm really tired these days, but it's all worth it. I don't even want to go to work anymore, I'd rather stay and play."
"I always thought it would be strange being the mother of a half-asian baby, but it's really not," said Mrs. Tang with a huge smile while gently elbowing her husband. "She's the most precious thing ever. She's only 2 weeks old now, but I already feel like she's growing up too fast."
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*Editors note* Some or all of the quotes in this story have been paraphrased or completely made up. While the events and the people in the story are real, the strictest of journalistic policies have NOT been followed.
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