Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 17:46:08 -0700 From: Maddi Hausmann Sojourner To: The June '97 parents list Subject: Birth story: Aidan (first time ever told!) I joined this list when Aidan was 2 months old, and never got around to writing his birth story. Since everyone is reposting them now (and I am enjoying reading them, since I wasn't here the first time round), I thought this was a good time to write up ours. My due date was June 23, which was a Monday. I had been having regular Tuesday appointments with the ob/gyn, and at the previous week's visit (39 weeks) I was fully effaced and one centimeter dilated. The Tuesday June 24th visit had me up to 3cm. My doctor, Cathy Hill, said she suspected I'd have the baby either that night or the next day. I was really surprised, because getting to 3 cm was really painful the first time round, including 12 hours of timing contractions that didn't progress anything. This time I had hardly noticed it! That night, I began getting noticeable and regular contractions every twenty minutes, and realized this was the pre-labor that had kept me up all night with Diana's birth. I did my best to ignore it, but went out for a walk at 9 pm, and then attempted to sleep as best I could. I gotup around 4:30 in the morning, and told Cliff I was going for another walk because the contractions were getting more painful and coming more frequently. I remember looking at the moon while I walked around the neighborhood, it was a Last Quarter, so it was high in the sky as the eastern horizon started lightening and fading into dawn, and finally sunrise. At some point I remembered that Diana was also born during a Last Quarter, and that this was a mighty interesting sign. I must have walked for about an hour, watching the moon grow less bright the whole time. It wasn't until much later that I realized I had gotten to watch one of the earliest sunrises of the year, since the Solstice was on June 21. I came back to the house, and the neighborhood was still mostly asleep (it was now 5:45). I paced around the house, thinking that continuing to walk was the best thing I could do to get the process moving faster than last time (eleven hours of labor). At 7:30, I called the doctor, to let them know that things were progressing, I was having one-minute contractions every five minutes, but they were still bearable through breathing. They said to come call when I was ready to go to the hospital, and I said that would probably be in a few more hours. It seemed that Cliff was really taking his sweet time about getting Diana ready for day care. I became absolutely emphatic that he take her to school THIS MINUTE because I was not going to relax until I knew that she was safely there, and he was back home, car at the ready. When he finally started getting her dressed, I called all the friends on our back-up list to let them know that Cliff was about to take Diana to day-care, and to stand by in case I needed to go to the hospital before he returned from day care (round trip was about 30 minutes). Also, these people had volunteered to pick Diana up at the end of the day if necessary so they needed a heads-up. When Cliff finally returned, I felt more relaxed, and suggested we go for another walk. It was now around ten or so. We walked pretty slowly, looking at some remodeling projects on the next block, then returning to a typical route we take we call "the loop." It's a little under a mile, and I really didn't want to be so far from the house in case things changed, so I suggested we not get more than 3 blocks from the house, and then walk back toward it. I remember commenting that this would be a good day for the baby to be born, because his birthday would be "625" which was both a perfect square and a perfect fourth, as well as being a fraction for 5/8. The contractions were getting more severe, and several times I had to hang on to Cliff with both hands around his neck, while I breathed through them. At one point, a friend drove up to us and asked "Is this what I think it is?" and we told her yes, the baby was probably coming today. Soon Cliff pointed out that my contractions were coming every two minutes, and maybe it was time to go to the hospital. I was really suprised when he told me that, but agreed right away. The hospital is six minutes away. We know that it is six minutes away, because we had to drive there a number of times when Diana was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for a week after her birth and I insisted on breastfeeding every meal to her. It was a little before 11:30, so there were no traffic worries and we did indeed get there in six minutes. Checking in was easier than last time, too; back then all the birthing suites were full and they put me in an extra operating room until one opened up. This time, with a second baby, I had a higher priority and got the last suite (of 12). I was 4 cm, and had to do the lie-down-for-20-minutes-on-the-monitor thing, which promptly slowed down the contractions. Then they told me to walk around for half an hour, and I was up to 5 cm. The doctor-on-call (who happened to be husband of my ob/gyn) came in, and I asked how long this was going to take, and he said if he ruptured the sac, it would go a lot faster. After assuring me this should not harm the baby, I told him to go ahead. No meconium this time (that was why Diana had to stay in the NICU). I will never know the feeling of my waters breaking, as it seems I have Amniotic Sacs of Mylar. And just like the other birth, Cliff hadn't brought any food with him, and had to go off to eat something. (He's a vegetarian and did not want the proferred turkey sandwiches kept for expectant dads.) Right after he left, I felt a REALLY big contraction. Wow. I pushed the call-button and told the desk I wanted an epidural as soon as possible. If Cliff wanted me to do it without drugs, then he should learn to go without food. I hate pain. The anaesthesiologist showed up right away (amazing) and got it put in in less than ten minutes, with no problems (last birth, they had to put it in three times). So, I just kicked back and had a few pleasant daydreams. At 3:00 I was up to 8 cm (what? in only an hour!) and paged Cliff, with the message "888." He was parking the car at the hospital when he got it, and was also surprised. He came back in and seemed disappointed that I went with the drugs, but I grumbled something about him trying to pass a watermelon through his garden hose and he knew better than to say another word. He settled into a chair with a book. The doctor kept stopping in, also very different from last birth, since this was during "normal business hours." I asked if the baby would be born today. He said the baby was probably coming before he left the hospital at five. At 3:45, I was at 10cm, and happy to say I didn't feel a thing. They called the doctor back, and I started pushing at 3:56. Seven minutes later, our son was born. I was absolutely thrilled; none of this two and quarter hours of pushing, or too tired to want to nurse feeling. I wanted to hold him right away, and I just felt...proud? Glowing? This was so different than the other time. They weighed him, measured him, and brought him to me, and I put him to my right breast. I had this nice, snoozy, comfortable feeling. The phone rang right then, one of our good friends wondering if I had the baby yet. Cliff said, yes, he got here ten minutes ago. We still weren't sure what his name was going to be, but we had settled, for the moment, on Blake Aidan Hausmann Sojourner. (Since I wasn't on the list before his birth, you all weren't party to the gyrations were were going through on coming up with a name for him. We didn't even consider Aidan until I found it in a name book, the 14th one I'd read, that previous Friday.) A nurse came back into the room and looked at me kind of oddly. Suddenly she pulled Aidan out of my arms, ran him to the warm table, and began punching the emergency call button franticly. "He's not breathing!" she shouted. When no one came in the room, she shouted at Cliff to get someone in here, now! Cliff got off the phone (I can't clearly remember if he hung up before or after the nurse came in) and started out the door as eight people came running in. Our son was turning blue and I hadn't even noticed. I thought he had fallen asleep nursing. They vacuumed out his nose again, gave him some kind of resuscitation, and he started crying. If the nurse hadn't come in when she did, he could have had some serious brain damage, or even died! And yet, he was fine again. Looking back on it later, we realized she never should have left them room in the first place while I was nursing. It turns out incomplete fluid vacuuming is fairly common in newborns, and they choke on it when nursing. Maybe some of the experts on the list have some useful comments since we don't know of anyone else who had this happen. Anyway, after all the excitement died down, I went back to nursing him some more, and then they took him off for a clean-up, shots, etc. Cliff then called our friend Charles to pick Diana up from Day Care, and went home to have dinner with her. That evening Diana got to meet her baby brother Blake Aidan. If you go to his webpage (http://www.employees.ord/~ahs) you can see his day-of-birth picture and another of Diana holding him when he was all of four hours old. She was VERY happy to be a big sister now, and she was wearing her new Big Sister T-shirt. There's also a nice one of all four of us that same evening. The next day, Diana and Cliff came back to the hospital, and Cliff told me that the baby's name was Aidan, because Diana preferred "Baby Dan" to Blake. I think we always knew we liked that name better, but hadn't gotten used to it yet. And since Aidan is an anagram of Diana, it really is the right name for him. Now I can't imagine him as Blake. I got to stay for two days (I needed the rest!) but was very happy to go home, and even happier that Aidan got to go with us (unlike last time). No having to put on clothes and get in the car for late night feedings! Aidan Hausmann Sojourner Born 25 June 1997, 1603 (4:03 pm) -- Maddi Hausmann Sojourner madhaus@netcom.com Professional Pundit: Don't try this at home, kids