Happy 5th birthday, C!

How is it possible...five years have passed since little C joined us! Below is C at 4 months (we weren't digital until then), then on birthdays 1-5 (click to see it bigger):


Here's a little walk down memory lane (includes a little bit of um...personal info for those who don't want to read it!):

C's birth. April 9, 2002

I was working as the Health Unit Coordinator in the local Intensive Care Unit during my first pregnancy. I worked nights, usually from 2p.m-2a.m. on Tuesdays, and 6p.m. – 2a.m. Sundays and Wednesdays. I was scheduled to work through my 40^th week, as I hoped to maximize postpartum time off. On Sunday, April 7 (39 weeks, 2 days), I went to work as scheduled, and spent the slow evening feeling oddly crampy. I thought this was in response to the intimacy we had experienced in the hours before I left for work…I had insisted to my husband D that I was ready to have the baby, so we’d better try to get it out! The cramping persisted through my shift, but did not intensify. I got home and slept fine.

On Monday, I experienced some Braxton-Hicks contractions which were coming at rather regular 10-minute intervals, occasionally demanding a little attention, but usually just noticed as an intense tightening. When D got home from work we decided to go out for what could be our last dinner with the two of us – I remember shifting about in my seat at regular intervals, but again didn’t think too much of it. I slept normally all night, but when I woke on Tuesday morning, I felt a little strange. I called into work, saying I just didn’t feel very good, and that I wouldn’t be making it in that afternoon. I also made sure to tell them to NOT remove me from the next day, as I was sure I’d be back (silly, silly me).

At 3:00 in the afternoon, I was sitting at the computer when I was slammed with a true, intense contraction. It took me completely by surprise, but when it was over, I just continued what I was doing. D was due home at 3:45, so I figured there was no need to call. I continued to have contractions for the next few hours – I would hang onto D or hop into the tub...I remember during a contraction telling D that it was the most painful thing I’d ever felt. Sometime around 5:00, I called my parents and left a message on the machine. For months afterwards, my mom had the message on the tape so I heard it later: “okay, Mom. Now it really, really hurts. Call.” At this point, I expected to be laboring through the night, and my parents were going to come up on the early flight in the morning. Mom called back at 6:15, and I talked for a while; I had the longest gap between contractions during this conversation – so she agreed that I had a long time to go. At some point during the evening, our friend J called from the East Coast. I also spoke with her for a while between contractions.

Around 8:00, we thought we should probably let the midwife know that I was having contractions, so she’d be prepared for a middle-of-the-night call when labor really kicked into gear. When she called back, I spoke with her for a few minutes, and she was thinking that I should call again in a while and give an update. Just after we decided on that course of action, I was hit with another contraction, and shoved the phone at D. I think the midwife changed her mind pretty quickly at this point, and told us to come to the birth center just to check on me. We arranged to meet there at 8:30. D put all of our bags, pillows, blankets, tennis ball socks, etc. into the trunk (where they remained!) and we left for the center. I had one contraction in the car – the birth center was all of five minutes away – and it was by far the longest, most painful one I had during labor. I can’t imagine ever driving any farther than that while in labor…(and in hindsight, now that baby #2 was born at home, I can’t imagine ever driving anywhere!). At the birth center, Y greeted us, and did a quick dilation check…fully expecting to hear three or four, I was ecstatic when she said “seven or eight”! D immediately called my parents to tell them to catch the next plane that evening, and I hopped into the Jacuzzi.

I labored for the next hour and a half in the tub, with D doing counter-pressure, as my contractions were concentrated in my lower back. I repeatedly got up to the toilet, thinking I really had to go…but was so far gone into my own world that I don’t actually remember time passing. I know there was classical music playing, and the midwife and her assistant A were preparing for the birth. I also remember Y really leaving us alone, and occasionally checking on me and using the underwater Doppler. By 10:00, I was out of the tub, completely dilated and dying to have the baby. I agreed to an amniotomy at that point, as I was promised it would get me pushing sooner. I sat in a semi-reclined position in the bed for part of one contraction…too many movie images in my head I think…and immediately jumped (as well as a full-term, laboring woman can jump) back out of bed and headed to the birth stool.

I did not like pushing. D kept cool washcloths on my forehead while Y and A tried to use hot compresses for my perineum. After some guidance, I was able to focus and direct my grunts, moans and pushes down, and soon D switched placed with A so as to get into position to help catch the baby. At some point I was told to feel the baby’s head, but I thought I was just feeling some of my flesh…it was so soft and nubby, not at all rounded like I thought I should feel. Around this same time, I vaguely remember hearing something along the lines of “now just wait a minute, wait…” but I didn’t connect that it was directed at me. With one final great push, I birthed our baby…no slow crowning, no gradual birth. With a shriek of pain emerging from my lips, Baby C came flying into Y and D’s hands and was immediately raised into my arms. I looked down and saw the umbilical cord and some very swollen genitalia…and said with question, “it’s a…girl?”

The midwife looked too, and humorously agreed. I awkwardly moved over to the bed with the baby in my arms and birthed the placenta five minutes later. I did receive a shot of pitocin to help control my copious blood loss, and also had a second degree perineal tear and bilateral periurethral tears…which explained the shriek at the moment of birth!

Baby C was wide awake and alert for almost the entire four hours until we left for home. My parents were greeted at the birth center door by D holding their first grandchild about 20 minutes after she was born. She nursed like a champ, and continued to do so for the next 26 months…even through my next pregnancy and for six months along with her home-born baby sister.