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lisa had our baby boy this weekend!!! we're back at home now and doing very well, thank you..... we had planned on a natural childbirth without drugs and medical intervention (if possible) -- but we didn't exactly expect it to be *so* natural.... sunday june 30th 5:38pm | ....we almost had our baby at home. yesterday, june 29th, lisa woke up around 6:30 am feeling like she had gastronomical distress.... it didn't go away, what we thought was "false labor" contractions continued at irregular intervals. sometimes 5 minutes apart sometimes 30 minutes apart. it was very irregular. we knew - from class - that "labor" would be considered "in progress," when contractions were five minutes (or less) apart for an hour, so we figured this was just her body warming up. we did some gardening, went to buy some flowers, cleaned our bedroom. at around 7 pm, i called dr. leonard because i wanted to get a better idea of what was up. it has been almost 13 hours. our doct told us that this kinda thing could go on for a long while, or we could be almost there, so eat and rest. not long after, lisa's mucus plug began to come out and at 7:57 her water broke with a small gush. ok, now we had to wait till contractions were under 5 minutes for an hour. the first one was 8 minutes, but after that it was averaging around 4 or 3 minutes. the pain was getting pretty strong, and we had to use the lamazee breathing to keep lisa focused and calm. the last contraction we wrote down was 7:48. I had gone downstairs to get last minute stuff ready, and lisa was getting dressed to go. i heard lisa screaming and i ran upstairs.... "i'm gonna have him know!!!" she screamed. i felt down where the baby was headed, and i could swear i felt his head wiggling between lisa's legs. "i think you're right!" i remember saying, tho it might have been something more like "oh shit!!!" i got lisa focused on breathing, rather than pushing. ----- i haven't slept in a while, so i will skip over some stuff here, ----- but we got into the car and were headed to the hospital. fortunately there was no traffic, and we got to the hospital, the driver helping to drag all our bags up to the 7th floor. we probably were in the birthing room around 9:05, dr. leonard was called. we had brought all sorts of stuff to relax and get ready in the hospital (birthing ball, flowers, etc) but the only thing i had time to do was hook up the cd player and put on john foxx's cathedral oceans cd. lisa was on the bed thing, with her legs spread apart, ready to go. a few more painful contractions passed with breathing and no pushing... then the doctor said "you can push!!!" i think lisa was already 10cm dialated by the time we got to the hospital, by how fast the following went.... the first push was a mess, because the pain was strong and lisa wasn't focused, but the doctor gave some good instructions, and on the next push lisa held her breath, i told her to think that she was diving under water and was putting her energy into it, like a swimmer.... the head began to appear. i believe on the next push he was out to his waist, and then, without a contraction.... lisa pushed sasha out the rest of the way. after he was born, sasha was put on lisa's belly for a little bit, so they could get acquainted.... then the nurses took him over to "the warmer" a few feet away. we had planned that i would stay with sasha, so while lisa was getting a few stitches, i watched him. he was very alert with his eyes open, trying to figure out the new world he was in. the nurses wiped him and he held my finger.... i was surprised by how "developed" his fingers look.. thinking "we're gonna have to get this kid a violin.... and piano lessons!!!" While his knees looked like you would expect from a baby (sorta loose skinned and undefined), his hands and feet were very very much like minatures of mine). i stroked him; the books say that babies like massages... he was so tiny, but everything was perfect.... the doctor or one of the nurses said something like "hey, are you gonna take pictures?" and i said "d'oh!" because we had brought three cameras with us (the digital, black and white + color) and hadn't taken a shot yet. lisa and i were both amazed by how fast he came, that (naturally) we weren't exactly thinking straight. we expected a few hours (at least) in the hospital for transition and pushing... and here he was! we had planned on a natural childbirth without drugs and medical intervention (if possible) and that's what we got! it couldn't have been more natural, except if sasha had been born at home........
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