Our Baby Story

Thursday evening I was having some sporadic contractions, but didn't pay any attention to them. They weren't that strong, or predictable. I figured it'd be at least another week before he decided to make his grand entrance. Around 4:16 Friday morning, I woke up with very strong contractions about 2 minutes apart. They went on for about 45 minutes before Joe woke up from my moving around so much trying to get comfortable. At this point, I still wasn't sure if they were anything to pay attention to. Joe immediately got the idea that they were. We were both awake and were not going back to sleep, so he decided to go get some coffee and scones; it was going to be a long day. While he was out I called Peggy, my midwife, and told her what was going on. She said to call again in an hour to give her an update. When Joe got back, I went downstairs and we stood around in the kitchen, timing and mentally preparing for the day ahead. Around 6 Kaela came upstairs (she had stayed over the past 2 nights), and knew something had to be up since both of us were wide awake and with coffee. At 6:30 Peggy called back and said they would be here in about an hour. Joe left to go pick up some Gatorade and melon for me, and Kaela and I talked about the birth process and kids in general. I decided to get in the shower now, so I didn't miss my opportunity. Nate woke up while I was in the shower, and Joe got to tell him the good news he had been waiting to hear for a very long time. Peggy and Louisa arrived shortly, and starting setting up. Joe had to rearrange our bedroom to accommodate the birth pool. They had accidentally forgotten one of their medical bags, so they checked my progress to see if they had enough time to go back and get it. I was only 4 cm at this point. While they were out, Joe and I decided to go for a walk to keep the labor moving along. When Peggy and Louisa got back they checked me again, and I was at 6 cm. Kaela had cut up one of the melons for me and I was resting and munching on that while they continued to set up. My contractions had slowed because I had been sitting for so long. After 2 attempts for an IV, they gave up, and decided if I needed fluids after the birth, they would have to use a butterfly. Good news for me, but I did pretty damn well for having such a needle phobia while sitting through the attempts! I was pretty distracted though... We decided to go for another walk and this time Nate and Louisa came with us. The contractions were still not picking up, so when we got back to the house at 11:35, Peggy and Louisa gave me and Joe some tricks to use to speed up the labor. (no, not that.) After about 20 minutes, the contractions were extremely intense, but not really coming any closer together. When Peggy and Louisa came back up to check on us, they obviously knew something I didn't cause the rushed to finish filling the pool. I was getting emotional, but not really bad. 5 minutes later my water broke, and he came down so fast, I barely had enough time to get in the pool. He was already crowning. I'm usually not a baby in labor, and I've never been vocal, but something was different this time. As he was trying to make his grand entrance, they could see an elbow coming out with the head, and the cord around his neck. Because of the position of his arm, he got stuck at the shoulders for a minute. Needless to say, the event was a traumatic event for both of us, and no one was really expecting a difficult delivery. When we finally got him out at 12:22, he was pretty unresponsive, and his color was not great. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally stimulated him enough to get a few cries out. Looking back, we all agree that he was just in a bit of shock. He does not have any damage. Thankfully, the cord was around his neck and arm, so it didn't cut off any oxygen. His head was bruised and swollen because everything happened so fast, but that's about it. I was definitely a lot more battered than I've ever been after labor, but we're all doing just fine now. Today his swelling has gone down almost all the way, and he is doing a lot better than yesterday. He cried a lot the day he was born, but I would too if I had to be on his end of it. Nate came in to cut the cord, but decided that was a job better suited for Daddy, and he would just watch. He was going to be there for the birth but we didn't have enough time to get him, and I'm glad. With the way things went, he probably would have gotten scared, and I really didn't want that for him. Unfortunately, because of the quick progression of the day, we have no pictures of the birth or labor. And honestly, everyone there was playing an important role, so no one was available to take them anyway. We did take some pics of the new baby right away though.

We are adjusting to life as a family of 5 quite well. My mom flew in from Florida this morning, and we are more than happy to have her. We are also happy to take any other visitors who wish to meet our newest addition. Further, a special thanks to Kaela: you were such a huge help, and we would've had a hard time without you!