The Beginning

Birdie's entrance into the world started the morning of September 8th 2008. By this date she was 9 days "late" and I was ready for her to come! The whole pregnancy went well and it wasn't until the very end that I was "ready."


You may wonder why write about this, but the thing is that if I don't get these details down, I will forget. I have a bad memory and forget a lot of things. I think this blog will help me to reflect on the details of "My Life with Birdie" and to just plain remember them.


So the morning of Monday September 8th 2008, M and I went to the midwife to see if Birdie was ever going to come. The Friday before there were no signs of her and we were anxious to see what, if anything, happened over the weekend. Indeed I made progress and was 2 cm dilated and was a candidate to be induced with a Foley catheter. I will spare you the details, but it was painful and we went straight home from the appointment.

Around 3 pm that day my water broke! And at 5 pm the catheter fell out. This meant I would have been around 3 cm dilated. About 6 pm I called the midwife. Thankfully the midwife that I love, Mary Kaye Mackanin was on call and would be the one to deliver our baby. At this point I was having contractions about 6 to 8 mins apart and they were not too painful. Mary Kaye said she would call back in a couple of hours. Around 8 or 9 pm she called back. The contractions were about the same and she said to come into the hospital by 3 am at the latest, since that would have been 12 hours since my water broke.

At this point, we both laid down to try to get some rest. I didn't sleep much and around 11 pm the contractions were much stronger and I was not comfortable in bed. So I went and laid on the couch. At midnight, I felt like the contractions were much closer, so I woke up M so he could time them. We counted them to be 4 mins apart and about 45 seconds long.

We took a Bradley class, which is a husband coached, drug free child birthing method. At this class our teacher told us that we should go the hospital when the contractions are 4 mins apart, 1 min long for an hour.

At this point, I thought it was time to go to the hospital. M thought we should wait because there were not a minute long, but I protested and we ended up leaving around 1 am. We got to the hospital around 1:30. The drive was not too bad and of coarse there was no traffic. We were all settled in by 2 am. When the nurse checked me, I was 4 cm dilated.

I thought I would be further along, but I was glad there was progress. Right away the nurse asked me if I wanted to know my options for anesthesia, but I said no. In my birth plan I said that I did not want any, nor did I want an IV. They did not push either on me.

For the next few hours, I walked around. I would lean on the counter in the room through the hard contractions. Around 4:30 -5:00 am, I was at my wits end with the pain. I wasn't sure how far along I was and I was told by the nurse that I could push from anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. I was exhausted, so I decided that I would need to get the epidural. I just couldn't do it any more. I was really disappointed and so was M. The nurse was even shocked that I wanted it and tried to persuade me not to get it. I also think secretly she wanted to see a natural birth.

So while she was gone to call the midwife and tell her of my decision to get the epidural, I used the restroom. Every time I went, they would examine it, YUCK, and when she saw there was a lot of blood, she decided to check and see how far a long I was. She was going to wait until I got the epidural, but decided to do it before. When she checked I was 9 cm dilated and the baby was coming. Needless to say, the epidural idea was out!

Unfortunately, Mary Kaye had not even left her house yet! So basically, I had to hold her in for about 45 mins! This was the worst part of the whole process. M and the nurse kept yelling for me not to push, but to breath through the urge to push. Finally around 5:45 am Mary Kaye arrived and was ready for me to push around 6:00 am and Birdie was born at 6:14 am!

The whole thing happened so fast. I was grateful and thrilled that I did not have any drugs. Birdie was so alert when she was born and I was up and walking around within an hour of having her. We went home the next afternoon and started our new life as parents!