I am obviously going out of order, but because that phrase about sums up the rest of my life, I don't see anything wrong with it.
I wanted to do "birth" today because today is my birthday. I obviously don't remember the morning I was born, nor the night before, but I have heard the stories from my parents and my Godmother. I know that my parents had eaten supper at my grandparents' (Grandmom & Grandpop, my dad's parents) house that night and my mom started to feel bad afterwards. The Oscars were on that night and I have started watching them (at least partly) each and every year for as long as I can remember. She went into labor and I was born at 950am the next morning, Tuesday, April 10, 1979.
That makes me 36 today.
"Birth" is defined as "the time when a baby comes out from the body of its mother" and "the beginning or origin of something." (Merriam Webster online)
While I think the second definition is both interesting and over-used in some instances, it is not the one I will be focusing on.
Have y'all seen those neat pictures of babies born en caul? It seems to happen more often with c-section babies, but today I saw a picture of a baby who was born vaginally that was en caul. How neat is that!
I remember the births of three of my five children.
First Mimi and Liz-
When Mimi was born, July 20, 1997, I remember getting an email from Jason's dad, with a picture of Mimi being held by Jason's mom and all of Mimi's stats. I printed saved that picture, wrote her stats on it and it is in the baby book I made for Mimi. So I count myself as remembering hers-I was made aware of it just moments after it happened.
When Lizzie was born, June 19, 2000, I remember getting the announcement card from Becky & Jason, and seeing her name. Then not thinking much of it, and later hearing her called Sissy and thinking "what kind of nickname is that for a little girl named Elizabeth?"
Alex, Bub & J-
Alex was born in room 138 of the Maternal-Child Health Center/Birthing Center at Day Kimball. I had had a tour of MCH when I was pregnant with her, as part of my prepared childbirth classes that I had taken. I got to see room 134 and thought it was beautiful. Wood floors, floor-to-ceiling window, large private bathroom. I also saw the nursery and the family room and got to peek into the OR if (for whatever reason) I needed a c-section when she was born.
I went into labor with her around 2am on Wednesday, March 15, 2006. When my mom got up for work around 6, she told me I must be having Braxton-Hicks contractions, because "first babies are never early!" She was born 18-ish hours later, at 958pm. I'll spare you the gory details, but I remember all of it. The pain, the sick, the blood, the dizzy, the spilled milk, the yellow baby. My midwife was off that day-she didn't work Wednesdays, but rather than just coming in to deliver Alex (or worse! passing me off to a coworker) she came in right after I got to the hospital and stayed the whole day with me. She sat in my room and talked to me at first, then changed into scrubs and helped me as labor progressed. She was wonderful. And when she moved to Vermont when I was about 30 weeks pregnant with Sebastian, my heart was broken.
The one thing I will share is that the night after Alex was born, there was a childbirth class in MCH. Alex was the only baby in the nursery that had been born the previous day. There were others, but they had just been born hours earlier, so the nurses asked me if they could use her for the bath demonstration for the childbirth class. I said yes, of course, and we walked from our room into the nursery and the nurse teaching the class gave her a bath while the class looked on. I got to sit in a rocking chair and watch.
We went home the next day.
Sebastian (Bub) was born in room 137 of MCH on Monday, March 23, 2009. I had wanted to be in room 136, since it was the biggest, but it wasn't ready when I got there. 137 was. I still don't know exactly what made 137 "ready" and not 136, given as I was the only one in there, with the exception of a girl in the triage room.
Anyhow... we had had Alex's 3rd birthday party the weekend before (on her birthday, the 15th, which was my 40 week mark) and I remember thinking to Sebastian, "please, please just stay in there until we're done with her party. You can come later tonight, even if I have to deliver you at 2am." He was stubborn and stayed in until my induction date, the 23rd. I was skeptical about being induced, because I really felt strongly that babies should pick their own birthdate, they shouldn't be forced to be born due to medicines. But when the nurse checked me before they started the medicines, I had dilated to 2, when previously (like 3 days previously) I had been a finger tip. So I knew Sebastian was coming on that day anyway, it was just a matter of helping him along. He was born at 728pm that night. Jason almost missed it! He was going to leave and grab some food, but the midwife figured to check me first, and found Sebastian's head! So that put a quick stop to him leaving. I ended up with a spinal headache after he was born and the next 3 days were excruciating. We finally got it to go away on the Friday after he was born with crazy amounts of Mountain Dew! No fun and not something I would wish on my worst enemy.
And Baby J. Jason Junior. He deserves a quick mention, because he's the Goob, but he's one who's birth I don't remember. All I remember is the Versed and then Jason showing me a picture, and me asking him if that was my baby. Oddly enough I remember, one of the days after he was born (but before the thoracotomy), my surgeon Dr A standing in the room with Dr Hurd, my OB, and Dr A saying to Dr Hurd that he "should probably deliver that baby if we're going to do a thoracotomy in the next day or two." I still had the belly, and surgeons tend to be a little self-involved, so... but Dr Hurd just graciously said that the baby had already been delivered.
Something else that came to my memory while I was writing this...
I once worked in a women & children's program. We had several clients that would come to us pregnant and deliver their babies while in our care. The hospital was nearby so it made transportation easy when we had a woman in labor. The staff of the women & children's program would make a point to visit the women in the hospital and see the newborn baby before they came back to the program. However, we always had to do this in secret (even in our off time) because the Program Director forbade it. It wasn't in the official rules/staff handbook that we couldn't, he just didn't think it was a good idea. I never understood why, as the majority of our clients came from the other side of the state and often couldn't have anybody in the delivery room with them. The only way it would happen was in the case of an induction or a planned c-section.
I always wonder if he ever found out that I was in the delivery room with one of my clients when she actually gave birth. It was the first time I had seen a baby born before and it was a magical experience. It was an HONOR to be there for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment