Well, it’s been six weeks since Lizzie was born and I haven’t provided the narrative for it. I have some time to jot down stuff so here goes.
We went to bed happy and healthy at 10:00 on Thursday the 4th. We had had a pretty good day. After visiting our midwife first thing in the morning and hearing everything was going great, we went to the Babies R Us in
Then Peter woke up at midnight and cried out for Mommy. That isn’t necessarily strange, but he usually calls out for whoever puts him to bed, and I had been doing that for the past several months, so usually he calls out for me. So I got up and went to him. He was groggy and fell back to sleep pretty quickly, and I shuffled back to bed.
At about the same time Mommy started getting contractions. Real ones, not them fake Braxton Hicks contractions. They started at the same time Peter woke up. Coincidence? So anyway, she starts getting contractions, but doesn’t tell me until about 2:00, when they started getting closer. We quietly went to the living room and started timing the contractions which were about 8 minutes apart. Mommy was able to put her head down and rest a little between the contractions, but I stayed somewhat alert so I could watch the clock.
Ginnie, our midwife, got to the house at 4:30. We started filling up the birthing tub with hot water, but otherwise it was a period of waiting until 6:30 or so. Mommy was listening to her Hypnobirthing CD on the iPod and was walking around the house between contractions.
Peter wound up waking up about 3 more times after midnight, each time going back down easily. Waking up that many times was out of character for him. He finally woke up for good at 6:30. Mommy was at 7 cm and wanted to get into the tub around this time, so we arranged for Peter to get picked up by his Auntie Truc. She came for him at 7:00, but between the time of him getting up and heading out he was remarkably nonplussed. He heard the tub being filled and wasn’t drawn to it. It was a morning completely different from every single morning in his life, and he was cool as a cucumber. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by that. It’s as if he knew exactly what was going on and was OK with getting out of the way.
Ok, so it was 7:00 AM, Peter had left the building, and tub time started. Mommy got in carefully and made her self comfortable. I knew she was comfortable because she was asking if anyone knew any jokes and asked to eat more cheese and crackers.After awhile, the contractions were getting more intense but not as frequent.Between contractions she wanted me to massage her lower back, but when her contractions started, she would politely ask me to stop the massaging and to turn off the relaxing Zen music.She was in there for 2-3 hours, but she thought it was only 1, so in a way it worked really great. In another way it did not help, because she got so relaxed the contractions got less frequent, but all in all it was a good thing to have.
After she got out of the tub the 2nd midwife (Kristie, assisting Ginnie) came over and the work began. Without getting too graphic, several different positions were tried out in 3 different rooms. Mommy was in the pushing phase for a good 2 hours when Ginnie informed us that if there was no delivery after 3 hours of pushing we’d have to stop and resort to other means. Basically, if it goes that long the risks escalate significantly. Ginnie told us, though, that she was sure it didn’t need to come to that because we were close. We could see Lizzie’s head, so it wasn’t that far from being over. So Mommy pushed like crazy when the contractions came. She pushed and pushed and pushed. And pushed some more. It was a very intense time, to be sure. When it had been 59 minutes and 59 seconds past 2 hours of pushing for about 5 minutes (ahem) Lizzie came out. She had her left hand on her right cheek, so she was in a less than ideal position at the time of delivery. But once she was out she adjusted to life on the outside very well, and latched on for nursing almost immediately.
After that mother and child rested as clean up got under way. Peter came home about 2 hours after Lizzie was born, and while tired and cranky at first (he had been having a good time all day with his aunt) once he got in to see his new sister he was very happy. He still thought there was another baby in Mommy’s tummy for a while, but he eventually caught on that Lizzie was who he was kissing and saying hi to all the time.
The entire labor took about 15 hours, which is not unusual for a first time labor (Mommy never went into labor when Peter was born, so in a way Lizzie was like a first pregnancy). I was in the weird situation of being an active participant in it but also being a witness to my wife under extreme physical duress. So the witness part was upset by the fact that she wasn’t feeling fine and dandy, but the active participant was in amazement by what was going on. I managed to stay in control throughout the process, leaping into action when Mommy wanted or needed something, and sitting close by when I was "on the shelf," so to speak.
It was an awe-inspiring day, but it’s an ordeal for sure. We were running on adrenaline for about 3 days afterwards it seems. We didn’t really get to crash afterwards as much as we may have wanted to, as having a newborn in the house keeps you on your toes. But it should be said that she was a really good sleeper, and still is. But that doesn’t mean she’d let us pass out for 12 hours straight as we may have wanted. Them’s the breaks.
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