Suri’s Recap, The Delivery - Part II

It’s been 19 hours since they arrived at the hospital. Jim tells the camera that Pam is fully effaced and 10 inches–he means centimeters, dilated. Even though he has no idea what any of that means, he knows the baby is close. I guess Pam really could have waited until midnight. He is informed by the nurse that Pam is ready to push, so he goes into the room to assist her. Meanwhile, Michael comes in with a huge pink balloon bouquet and quickly enters Pam’s room without warning or knocking. We hear Pam screaming and Michael promptly leaves the room, turning a little white and horrified at what he has seen. I imagine it must have been a bit like the birthing scene in Knocked Up, when Seth Rogen’s friend goes in to see if he can help and the baby is crowning. I suppose that would have been a bit too graphic for network TV. He promptly reports to the camera that he has to go wash his eyes.

As Michael comes out he meets the other office mates coming in to check on the new family. He says the baby isn’t here yet and they ask if they should wait. Phyllis says she has an ice cream cake in the car and Michael tells her to go. He then goes to Pam’s room and waits outside the door this time and knocks, asking how much longer they think it’s going to be; of course no one can hear him over Pam’s screaming. But then the tone changes and we hear Jim and Pam’s voices relax as they start cooing over their new baby. Jim comes out and tells everyone that the baby’s name is Cecelia Marie Halpert and she is 7 lbs. Everyone is joyous and happy for JAM; Phyllis is already celebrating with a huge slice of her ice cream cake. Michael lights up a cigar and is doing a very impressive Edward G. Robinson impression (thanks to Kevin for mentioning this on the boards; I thought he was doing Groucho Marx) until a hospital employee informs him that he’s not allowed to smoke in the hospital and must put out the cigar. Everyone is excited, that is, except for Andy, who had a copy of The Times Tribune from the previous day framed as a baby gift so Cecelia can remember what was going on in Scranton on the day she was born. Now he’ll have to switch it today’s paper. As he holds it up we see the headline has changed from, “Spring Has Sprung” to, “Scranton Strangler Strikes Again.” Memories, Memories.

Michael comes into Pam’s room with the balloon bouquet and who does he run into? None other than his ex-girlfriend, Pam’s mom Helene. Now what in the world would she be doing there? Oh that’s right, she’s the grandma. As soon as she see’s Michael, she high-tails it out of there. No need to prolong the awkward moment; she’ll have plenty of time to bond with her new granddaughter without Michael around.

After she leaves, and Jim finishes changing her (because there’s nothing that he can’t diaper. He’s done little else in the past two months but practice and he even diapered one of Angela’s cats. I sure wish my husband would get that much practice, and I have two little butts to practice on). Michael finally gets to hold the baby, but only after two squirts of the hand sanitizer (I wonder what hospitals did before that stuff was invented). He is incomplete awe of little Cecelia.

Back at the Halpert home, Dwight says that he was “dispatched” (still thinking like a volunteer sheriff) to Jim and Pam’s house to find Pam’s iPod. After he unneccesarily broke a window to gain entrance, he looked everywhere, but could not find the iPod. However, he did find mold under the sink. So he did what anyone would do: He read a book, had a bath, had a good night’s sleep in Jim and Pam’s bed (without any underwear, mind you), made plans to ask Jim where he got his marvelous sheets, and set out to irradicate the mold. He then sets about the task of demolishing the Halpert’s kitchen with a sledge hammer.

Back at the office, Michael reminisces about Jim and Pam’s history and decides that he was the one who brought them together and made their family. He decides to play matchmaker to the rest of the poor single dorks in the office. When Michael asks, by a show of hands, how many people in the office are single, Ryan raises his hand. However, Kelly, who is standing right beside him, proclaims that she’s not single, she has a man; as she puts her arms around Ryan. Michael says that he’s going to help them all find someone and Stanley says he should find someone for himself first. Michael poses the question, “Who wants to live in a world where Stanley has two lovers and you don’t have any?” Naturally, Stanley raises his hand. Which is the defining Stanley moment of the episode.

Meredith says she’s never getting married again, like Clooney. Andy says his torn scrotum is still on the mend from Jim and Pam’s wedding and then in a talking head he says that he’s going to ask Erin out, he’s just waiting for the stars to align… literally.

Michael tells his underlings that he’s going to fill the voids in their lives with love and the empty holes in their body with another person. TWSS

Back at the hospital Jim and Pam are lying in bed admiring their new baby. Pam says, “Remember yesterday when we were terrified of being parents?” Jim replies, “We were just kids.” This is one of the sweetest moments until the nurse walks in and offers to take the baby to the nursery for the night. Pam asks if the baby can sleep here and the nurse says, “She can, but a lot of parents opt to have the baby spend the first night in the nursery so they can get some rest; they’ve been through a lot.” Jim replies that they’ll be ok. But as the night progresses, they get increasingly frustrated at swaddling the baby to get her to stop crying and Cecelia isn’t taking to nursing right away. I might point out that this is kind of an unusual situation, because in reality, the nurses at the hospital push mothers to “room in” and try to keep the babies out of the nursery. I mean when our twins were born, the nurses pushed the two bassinets into my room and just left. I was still coming off the anesthesia from my c-section and my husband and I just looked at each other as if to say, “Now what?” I can totally relate to the overwhelming feeling that must have come over Jim and Pam as they tried to deal with their new little bundle of joy. So when Jim secretly buzzed the nurse, I sure couldn’t blame him. The nurse offers, once again, to take the baby to the nursery and give her a bottle and then she’d bring her back later and try again. Pam says she’s read about nipple confusion and was worried about giving Cecelia a bottle. The nurse replies, “Great, you know everything.” This was such a natural response from a woman who sees thousands of new parents a year and has to deal with all their “book smarts”, but no experience. I don’t know who the actress was that played the nurse, but she was great. Just the right mix of fake sweetness and apathy.

Pam gives in and lets the nurse take the baby to the nursery and she rationalizes that maybe she can socialize with the other babies. Jim is just relieved that maybe Pam will now get some sleep.

Back at the office, Michael calls in Erin and tells her he’s going to change her life. She gets excited until Kevin pops out from behind Michael’s door, and Michael announces that he’s arranged for the two of them to have lunch together. Erin is a little disappointed and she confides in Michael that she likes Andy. Of course Michael insists that she give it a shot with Kevin. He tells her that Kevin has a elephant heart so that Erin will agree to have lunch with him. Back at the hospital, Jim and Pam get roommates since the hospital is short on rooms: Kathy, Dale and their new baby girl. Kathy gets wheeled in and Jim notices she’s nursing her baby. Pam and Jim can’t believe how easily nursing comes to her.

Dwight has hired a crew and they are in the process of demolishing Jim and Pam’s kitchen.

Back at the office, Erin and Kevin are having lunch. Erin is forcing a conversation, but it’s like pulling teeth. Andy is hiding behind a plant observing them. He says in a talking head that he took a botany class in college and he used to hide behind the plants and spy on the other kids talking about him. But in this situation he was spying on Erin and Kevin because it looked like they were hitting it off and he was jealous.

Meanwhile, Pam is still trying to nurse the baby, and a man who identifies himself as Clark enters her hospital room. He says that Josie, the nurse, mentioned that she might benefit from a lactation consultant. She agrees and Jim asks when she would be available. Clark says that he is actually the lactation consultant. He then proceeds to make a really lame joke which adds to the awkwardness, “Got milk?”

He draws the curtain and begins to consult with Pam about her issues with nursing. Jim looks extremely uncomfortable as Clark feels how full Pam’s breast is and flicks her nipple to stimulate it. Through their exchange, the camera is focused in on Jim who is giving us an amazing display of Jim expressions and short comments the likes of which we have never seen before. Once she starts to get the hang of it, Clark leaves, but then the baby falls off and she asks Jim to go and get him back. Jim doesn’t seem too thrilled with this idea and he offers to help Pam instead but she says she thinks it would be weird if he does it (as if he’s never touched her breast before). He hangs his head and goes to get the “other guy”.

Angela calls Dwight who is still at Jim and Pam’s house renovating the kitchen. She asks if he received the revisions on the contract. He says to meet him at the house at exactly mid-late afternoon. It sounds like they’re going to seal the deal at Jim and Pam’s house. Ewwwww.

The new family is finally sleeping with the lights down when the baby starts fussing. Pam has Jim bring her the baby and in a half conscious state, puts her on the breast (oh, I remember those days). Amazingly, Cecelia latches right on and starts to nurse. Pam is so happy they’re doing it. They’re finally parents. Jim gives a lazy, “That’s great.” And goes back to sleep.

Michael and Erin approach Kevin and Erin begins to let him down gently. However, she makes a mess out of it and Michael steps in, but then ends up insulting Kevin even more. All the while, Andy is spying behind a plant from reception and as he tries to duck, he hits his head on a filing cabinet.

Pam’s friend Isabelle enters the hospital room while Jim, Pam and the baby are nestled together in the bed. She asks if she can hold the baby, but Pam wants to burp her first so she won’t spit up on Isabelle. As she repositions the baby, she looks down at her face and then over to the other side of the room where Cecelia is peacefully sleeping in her bassinet. She starts to panic as she realizes she’s been nursing the wrong baby. This is classic office awkwardness as they quickly place Kathy’s baby back in her bassinet and Jim slides her over to her mother’s bed side. Isabelle brings Cecelia over to Pam as Kathy wakes and asks how long her baby’s been fussing. She’s astonished that the baby isn’t hungry. The Halperts and Isabelle are left with horrified and slightly guilty looks on their faces.

Josie, the helpful but less than sincere nurse, enters to check on the Halperts. Pam says she’s doing fine. She seems like she’s hungry, but she won’t latch on. Josie asks if they’re excited to take their baby home. Jim says yes, but he thought they could stay until 3:00. Josie acknowledges that this is correct, but she also reminds Jim that it’s 2:35. They only have 25 minutes to be out of the hospital, but it doesn’t seem like they’re ready to go anywhere. Jim asks for a late check out.

Isabelle enters the Halpert home to find Dwight in his wife beater undershirt working on the kitchen. She’s awkwardly surprised as she looks for the refrigerator to put her macaroni and cheese casserole away. Dwight says he’d take care of it. He tries to make nice with Isabelle saying that even though he’s a grown up, maybe he would come by her office for a cleaning, just for fun. Isabelle looks disgusted as she informs him that even adults need to get their teeth cleaned. He says he’ll call her and she looks kind of happy about that.

Pam is being wheeled out of the hospital by an attendant. Jim asks if he’s sure they should be leaving. The attendant confirms this, even though the baby is crying. Jim is carrying the car seat, with the base attached to it and the attendant prompts him by saying the father usually goes to get the car. Jim agrees that would be a smart thing to do and he goes off to the lot to get the car leaving Pam and the baby with the hospital attendant.

Back at the office, Andy goes over to reception and asks Erin to send a very important fax for him. The fax actually says, “Erin, will you have dinner with me?” and the number is actually the fax number to their own office. Amazingly, the number is busy when Erin dials it. Is that supposed to happen when you call yourself? I guess since your phone is off the hook, it is in fact supposed to happen. Erin offers to keep trying and bring the confirmation over to Andy’s desk once it goes through (which would actually never happen), but Andy says that’s unacceptable and she must send the fax right now, or she’s fired. Instead of picking up on Andy’s sarcasm, Erin starts to cry. She says that Andy can’t talk to her like that and she’s had a really hard day. Andy tries to console her by getting her to read the fax. She instantly perks up when she realizes that Andy is finally asking her out. She continues to try and send the fax as she checks her planner. Michael is watching this exchange from his office. He looks very pleased with himself as he fake shoots Andy and Erin with his fake cupid arrows and takes a bow. Looks like Michael will claim the credit if Andy and Erin actually happen.

Back at the hospital, Pam and the attendant are still waiting for Jim. He asks if Pam would like him to help her out of the chair. They both apologize to each other as the attendant mentions that they have a lot of discharges that day. Luckily there’s a bench right at the entrance to the hospital and Pam settles herself and her screaming baby on it to wait for Jim. She tries to feed the baby one more time. I forgot to mention that she has that cool nursing apron that goes over your head for total concealment. The baby finally seems to be taking to nursing, and Pam relaxes as Jim approaches the bench saying that there were 5 tickets on the windshield (I guess he had a spare set of keys in his pocket). He’s amazed to find his wife and new baby comfortably sitting on the bench engaged in feeding time. The camera pans out from the happy new family as we hear a Michael talking head which wrapped up the show and gave it some real heart, “There’s no greater feeling than when two people who are perfect for each other overcome all obstacles and find true love.” We think he’s talking about Jim and Pam, but then he goes on to say, “That’s what I thought that Erin and Kevin were going to find today.” before getting sick on his cigar.

In the tag scene we see Angela and Dwight sitting at Jim and Pam’s table. They are exchanging two forms of ID and we see that they both have notary public stamps and two copies of the “Baby Contract”. Dwight hesitates before signing and Angela wants to know what’s wrong. Dwight says it’s nothing and signs the contract. Could he be experiencing feelings for Isabelle? Who knows? Perhaps this will be revealed in a future episode. Angela seems happy and asks how Dwight would like to celebrate. He says that she should just pour herself a cup of apple juice, he’s feeling sick. He gets up from the table and starts walking through the kitchen and runs into Jim and Pam who have just entered the house with their new baby. With confused looks on their faces, they give the kitchen a once over. Dwight tells Pam that he couldn’t find her iPod. He says they just need to give him a few days and he’ll be out of their hair. They just shrug their shoulders and move past the kitchen, most likely to collapse in the bedroom. But I hope they wash the sheets first.

Well, that about wraps it up. I apologize for taking so long to get this posted; thanks for all your patience. Tomorrow night is the St. Patty’s Day episode, and the return of Kathy Bates. Let’s hope it lives up to the incredible quality of this episode. The writers, director and actors all did a stupendous job. It’s simply insurmountainable.