While she's napping, I thought this would be a good time to tell the birth story (at least from my side).
Tuesday morning began like any other day. When Amy woke up I had already been to the gym and was working Owen into the tub, where he was looking forward to playing with his new Crayola bathtub crayons. Amy came in and took over. They played, I showered. I took over and got Owen ready while Amy showered. And when I went to work at 8 am Amy said, "See you at lunchtime!"
A morning like usual.
A little after 9:00, Amy called and said. "Hey. Just a head's up I'm having some cramps that are a little harder than normal. Nothing major. But make sure you keep your phone with you."
We talked again at 10:00, as I was on my way to an interview at WJBC. Again, things were status quo. Amy's contractions were harder, but again nothing imperative. She'd arranged for Owen to go across the street to play with his good friend Philip and had called our doula, Rachel (below), to give her a head's up as well. Rachel was going to put her stuff together and come up to B-N from her home in Clinton to be close when we needed her. Amy told me to go ahead and do my interview, but call before I went in to record two radio ads at 10:30.
At 10:30, I asked "Should I come home now, or can I get these ads done quickly?" "I think you're OK to do them," she said. "OK," I said, "but I'll come home right afterward."Looking back at all of these conversations, it's easy to see how they were based on the timeline we had in our minds from Owen's birth. The day before he was born, Amy began having regular contractions. We timed them from one every 10 to 15 minutes down to one every seven or eight throughout the day. She then began having them more regularly throughout the night until we finally went into the Birth Center around 4 am and delivering Owen, in a water birth after 45 minutes of pushing, at 7:21 am.
Boy was this different.
I got in the car at 10:55. My phone rang a couple of minutes later: Amy's sister Pam saying, "Amy says come home ... hold on, just a minute ... she says come home NOW!"
I made it home as quickly as I could. At 11:05 I arrived home to find Rachel already with her. Amy's water had just broken. Pam and I quickly gathered all of our stuff, I got the car pulled up, and we were off.
I my haste, I forgot to get my bag packed with my swim suit. We were hoping to have Amy labor in the tub again, so I called Pam, who was going to get Owen his lunch and off to daycare, and asked her to bring it.
We arrived at the hospital at 11:40.
The valets took the car, I missed the elevator with Amy and Rachel, but met them in the OB area, birth ball in hand. The nurses found a room for us. They were moving with no great haste, no doubt also thinking there was plenty of time, as evidenced by their trying to get Amy to pant away contractions and not push.
While they were still asking us questions about her name, social security #, health history, etc., a nurse came in to check how far Amy was dialated. Amy said "I can really feel her head down there ..."
Obviously the nurse could too. "Yep, she's fully dialated."
For me, this was the best moment. All of a sudden our delivery room turned from a lazy walk in the park with the OB nurses to a major code red operation.
Impressively, the nurse who had just checked Amy never broke face, She turned on her heels after announcing the dialation and, without losing her cool in front of us, walked out of the room. I'd love to know what she said outside, because all of a sudden there were four more nurses back in the room pulling equipment together. Machines were plugged in, blankets came out of nowhere, plastic bags and towels appeared.
Hocus-pocus!
The next thing I saw, Amy, who was still on her side lifted a leg and there was the baby's head. Nurse Karen (below) moved into position and, after no more than 45 seconds of intense pushing, caught caught the baby.
It was 11:56.
Amy got to hold her immediately. Then I took her over to a warmer where a nurse and I cleaned her up and got her weighed and measured. The doctor arrived, laughing at being too late.
Around the same time, Pam arrived with my bag ... Amy was getting a few stitches, so Pam had a great opportunity to hold the baby, who at that moment was just 20 minutes old.
