9 Days Old

Birth Story:  Act II

   One of the most helpful things I did over the last few months was to watch home birth videos.  Lots of home birth videos.  The midwives gave us several to view.  And Youtube is a running font of birth videos.  I could not have watched enough of these.  I took a lot of information from these: how to massage my wife; where to put pressure; how to support her physically and emotionally.  Give her water between every contraction. This information was very helpful. 

   In between contractions I managed to set up the birth pool in the living room and got things ready for the midwives before they would arrive around 7:30 pm –ish. 

   I started filling it and realized the water was running cold after not very long.  This was a bad time to discover that when I turned the heat up on the water heater weeks ago, I actually turned it down.  Oopsie .  Not to spoil the end of this story, but this was the worst thing that happened.  And it was quickly remedied by pouring pots full of water from the stove into the pool.  Crisis averted.

   The next 10 hours are a blur.  Some of the videos we watched showed women looking very zen in their birthing pools with soft music and lit candles in the background.  Lots of soft moaning and ohming.  So of course, this is how we imagined it would be for ourselves.  Wishful thinking. 

   There was much more gripping, screaming and gritting of teeth.  (both hers and mine)  At least this is how it felt for both me and my wife.  Our midwife assures us that it was a very “mellow” birth.  However, it’s hard for me to imagine the birth as mellow with my wife clutching the collar of my sweater while leaning over the side of the pool, trying to deal with one of many, MANY contractions.  I guess compared to all the other births I’ve witnessed first hand (zero) it was the most mellow.

   I checked the clock a couple of times but not for any real reason.  I think I was just trying to make myself look busy.  I yawned… a lot.  I couldn’t help myself because by now I had been awake about 33 hours which for me is an exceptionally long time.  Our bedtime is usually between 9 and 10pm and a full night’s sleep for me is typically between 7 and 8 hours.  I was apparently annoying my partner with all my incessant yawning.  In a moment of impatience, she uttered the words “Don’t. Yawn!”  From then on I tried to hide it a little better.  I failed.  This was the worst thing she said to me throughout the entire birth.  Ergo… My wife is a Rock Star!


Act III coming soon.