Little Lutes: The day you were born.

I experienced my first contractions with you Friday, August 3rd around 3:00 AM. I was just over 40 weeks pregnant then. We already had a visit scheduled that day with the midwife. When I went in for my check up I was 1 cm dilated and contractions were fairly steady. Everything looked great so home we went to wait for the contractions to increase. By 9:00 PM that night my contractions were fairly strong and frequent. We made our way to the birthing center to check progress. I was only 2 cm. They let me set in a hot bathtub for a bit, gave me something to try and help me sleep and sent me home.

Saturday your godparents Rob and Amy came over. They were with us all day as I labored with you. My conctractions were all over the place. They would go from being steady every 5 minutes down to every 12. I was exhausted having not slept well in days. Amy had suggested that I needed Glucose to regenerate my uterus which was tired from working so hard. She stated she had never birthed human babies but had birthed many a fury baby as she is a veterinarian. We sent your father and godfather to Maggi Moo's to get me a cake batter milkshake. Within a few sips we were back in business with strong regular contractions! We finally called the midwife around 9:00 PM and they said to come in for a check up.

When we got to the birth center they checked me and I was shockingly at 8 cm! That explained a few things. They immediately got the birthing pool set up for me to relax and labor in. Your father and I had studied and taken classes to prepare us for your big day. We chose to go with a natural UN-medicated childbirth with a Midwife. We were so lucky to get the midwife I wanted, he just happened to be on call that day. I really wanted to have you in the pool as a water birth.

Mommy laboring waiting for the pool to be blown up.

Laboring through a contraction in the pool.

I finally felt the urge to push I guess around 3:00 am. I so wanted to have you in the birthing pool. You had other intentions though. The midwife was concerned about your positioning, you never turned to have your back facing out. You were head down (thank god), but your back was arched to my right side. Because of this I was unable to deliver in the pool and instead ended up in the bed. I pushed for about 2 hours with you. What an amazing feeling as you came down the birth canal to make your appearance. Your father could see your head as you started to emerge. All he kept saying is that you had hair! I would push and could feel you move up the birth canal and as soon as I stopped pushing you would slide back down. Frustrating but amazing none the less.

Finally at 5:44 in the morning you came into our world and immediately into my arms. When you came out your father said "Survey says...IT'S A BOY"! At that moment it was as if the world stood still and all that existed was your father and I am this amazing creation screaming at the top of his lungs on my chest. All the hours of labor and the brief moments of pain melted away. Your father was a crying mess! I was too tired and probably dehydrated to cry. They let you cuddle with me for a while and then your father cut the umbilical cord. As you were such a big boy I needed a few stitches. I handed you off to your father who held you to his bear chest and he inspected his new son while the midwifes attended to me.

It was rather funny. As we did not know if you were a boy or a girl, the midwife brought in two little hand knit hats, a pink one and a blue one. When you came out they tried to put the little blue hat on your head but it was too small for your big head! They had to go get a bigger hat that would fit you. After I had a few minutes to recover your grandmother came in to see me and you. She was so excited to see that both of us were well. You then got to meet your pop pop and godparents.

You were born at 5:44 am on Sunday, August 5th of 2012. You weighed 9lbs 8.5oz and were 22 inches long. You were a very big baby. The only issue you had was a lot of fluid still in your lungs. The midwives had to pump your stomach to get some of the fluids out that you had coughed up and swallowed. In general though all you wanted to do was sleep. We tried to get you to nurse but you were just too tired to do so.