Saturday, September 5, 2009

A Front Porch Entrance: The Birth of my Belle Part 5

The night Katherine began to have her contractions, we had climbed into bed at 11pm after a flurry of activity. At that time I was having more than a little consternation because we hadn't come to a definitive conclusion about a girl's name. The middle name that would pair with Gabrielle was still up in the air and the imminence of our nameless child's birth was pressing down on me.

On the bright side, I had packed my bag and made a short list of things of essentials that I would need to throw together before our departure for the birth-center, the Dr. Pepper two liter for caffeine, my Jack Daniel’s BBQ sunflower seeds in case the labor went especially long, and a pocket knife in case I needed to cut the umbilical chord in the car, which I am told you are not suppose to do. The whole time I wondered to myself, “How do you prepare for the arrival of another child?”

I went in to check on Luke. There by the side of his crib, I mourned the passing of his early years and the unexpected change that having a sibling would bring. He would no longer be the baby. He would now be the big brother. Along the side of my post-it note list, I summed my feelings, “Totally Unprepared!”

Katherine grimaced as another contraction swept over her body. I waited for it to pass and went to hunt for my stop-watch and the post-it pad from the night before. We began timing the contractions 2:56am – 30 seconds, 3:03 – 1 minute, 3:07 – 30 seconds. My sleepy brain struggled to do the math of the contraction duration. 3:11 am – 30 seconds, 3:16 am – 30 seconds, 3:21 am – 40 seconds, 3:25am – 40 seconds, 3:31am – 45 seconds . . . we began to talk about calling the midwife. We waited a couple more contractions and then made the call.

The transition for most first pregnancies from pre-labor to active labor is marked by 5-1-1 = contractions five minutes apart, lasting one minute each, for one hour. It is at the 5-1-1 benchmark that mother’s are instructed to start for the birth-center. Active labor for 2nd pregnancies is not as predictable.

In between the contractions Katherine answered the midwife’s questions though I suspect that at four in the morning the mid-wife was struggling. It was decided that we would wait until the contractions became more extensive (both lower and upper abdomen) and longer in duration. Katherine was ordered to take a warm bath in order to help her body relax. I made my third trip down to the car to make sure we were loaded so that when we decided to leave we would be able to make the 15 minute drive to the birth-center.

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