Dear Alatha,
You were born today.
You are 9lbs, 8 oz.
You are 21.25 inches long.
You have a full head of dark black hair, a strawberry (Timothy calls it a "twa-bebe") on your left eyelid, and your daddy's alien feet.
Your head was 14.5 inches around, but you had your left hand up beside your head, so the midwife said we could call it 15.
Your belly was 16 inches and took two contractions to get out.
You are beautiful and perfect and we are madly in love with you.
On Saturday the 30th, I had intermittent contractions all day long. I had 2 contractions during church on Sunday, but nothing for the rest of the day. I was so ready to be done being pregnant, but I just assumed you'd be born on your due date.
*side note: Your due date was 9-5-14. I really, really, REALLY wanted you to be born on 9-5-14 because it's a math birthday (9+5=14), and Timothy's birthday is a palindrome(11-02-2011) and I am just that nerdy. I had decided, however, that I would be cool with you being born on Labor Day because, well, that's just funny.*
Anyway, Pop and Momo took Timothy home with them from church because neither of them had to work because of Labor Day. Daddy and I went over to Bryce and Terri's so Daddy could help Bryce with their suburban issues, and I sat and visited with Terri. Around about 1130, I started having cramps, which wasn't great fun, but it didn't hurt. We went home to eat lunch and watch tv, and at 1, I decided to take a nap. I laid down for an hour, but as soon as I woke up at 2, the cramps started back up. We decided to watch an episode of White Collar. For the last couple of months, it had been nigh unto impossible to watch an entire tv show without at least one bathroom break, and this was no exception. I paused the tv for my 2nd or 3rd bathroom break, stood up, heard (I think I felt it more than I heard it) a loud POP!, and my water broke. It was 2:50pm.
So, we called Ms Kim and she said to call her back when my contractions were 10 minutes apart. Nobody was expecting what happened next. Typically a VBAC is a very long labor. We'd read that the average labor was 15-17 hours (eep!), with first-time births taking significantly longer than subsequent ones. So, Ms Kim decided to finish her shopping for her Labor Day family get together. Well, after the water broke, the contractions actually started to hurt. Quite a lot! I had one, and 10 minutes later, had another. I got in the shower and after about 5 minutes had another. I remember thinking T
his can't be right. This is too fast. The book says it's supposed to be a gradual decrease in time between contractions. This isn't gradual. Daddy called Ms Kim and she assured him that things were not as bad as we thought, that I was just finally feeling real contractions and it would most likely be a long time til things really got going. I knew, though, I knew that things were moving faster than we thought.
Ms Kim called back after a few minutes to say that Ms Donna, her assistant, was in town and asked if we'd like her to come check things out and see where we really were. I quickly said "yes, please!". Ms Donna got there and watched me go through a couple of contractions that were only about 3 minutes apart. By this time it about 4:00 and I was really starting to worry. I knew that I was not going to be able to handle that level of pain without any real breaks for 15 more hours. It was too much and it was becoming physically more challenging than I'd anticipated, just going through the contractions, because I couldn't sit or lie down between them. I was getting no rest. We were finally able to do a partial exam, during which it was determined that I was
much further along than anybody expected. Ms Donna said "You're at least at a 5" and Daddy said "see, you're halfway there!" Ms Donna shook her head very quickly and said "I think she's much further than that." She called Ms. Kim and said "you need to get here, NOW!"
In the meantime, Daddy started setting up the pool, which was difficult, because he was being interrupted every 3 minutes to help me through a contraction. He was wonderful, your Daddy. He just held me and talked me through them, and even though I wanted to inflict bodily injury on him when I'd say "I can't do this" and he'd say "yes, you can!" (because, he doesn't know! He doesn't know what I am feeling. How does he know I can do this?!), I needed to hear his confidence in me, and to feel his arms around me, and to let him support me. Finally, Ms Donna told him to just stay with me and she got the pool set up and filled.
I can't even begin to describe the pain I was in. I felt like the contractions were coming one on top of the other, no relief, and I just could not find a way to handle them. A small part of me was embarrassed at how big of a baby I was being, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't control them or ride them smoothly like we saw in the birth videos. I just could not. But then the pool. Oh yes, the pool! If I ever have another child, that pool will be there. It was so amazing. Around 4:30, I got in that nice, warm water, had a nasty contraction, and after that, things settled down. The contractions were still coming hard and fast, and they were still awful, but I was able to get in front of them. I figured out that if I moaned through the whole contraction, and just concentrated on making that sound and on making it last, I could kind of ignore the pain. It gave me something else to do and to focus on, rather than just being consumed by the pain. I don't know what it was about the water. Maybe it took away some gravitationally (is that a word?) caused pressure? I don't know, but I highly recommend it.
Around 530, Ms Kim came screeching in. (She told us later that she'd gone 90 the whole way, just hoping she wouldn't get pulled over). My memories of most of this are pretty vague as I was concentrating on getting you out, but I remember her asking if I wanted to try a birthing stool, and I remember saying "I like the water". That was an understatement, but it was all I could think to say. I think I had maybe two contractions after she got there before I felt the urge to push. That's when I knew, I mean really knew, that it was for real and that you'd be there before I knew it.
At one point, they decided to warm up the water in the pool and went an turned on the hose. The hose was connected to the shower nozzle and then draped through the hall into Timothy's room and hooked on to the pool, with a couple of feet just lying in the bottom of the pool. Well, they turned on that hose, and, in your Daddy's words, "the only way things could have been better is if the theme from Jaws had been playing. The water came on and that hose shot from one side of the pool to the other and straight up your back!" It was COLD! And they
laughed at me! I was in labor, and they
laughed. How dare they?!
And finally, at 6:05 pm, you were here! Ms. Kim got all soaked because she kind of had to dive into the pool across the water to catch you. You didn't breathe at first, but just looked around. Ms Kim got you breathing and then we had time to admire your dark hair (and so much of it! We knew you'd have a lot, and didn't necessarily expect red, but we didn't expect black, either!) and count your fingers and toes. Eventually, Daddy cut the umbilical cord and took you so that we both could get cleaned up. He sat there on the bed, holding you in a towel and I asked him if he was smitten yet. He smiled and said "oh, not yet." A few minutes later, he was still sitting there, holding you and staring at you, and Ms Donna walked by and snorted and said "not smitten, huh?". He just grinned.
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Just minutes old, and already so loved
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Love,
