Odds are, when the ball drops tonight and 2019 begins, Isaac, Maxwell and I will be soaking up sleep. With much left to learn, one thing we grasped quickly in the past 2 months as new parents is the importance of rest. But looking ahead to tomorrow and the new year, I’m excited for what it will bring. Although I’m not so sure what to do with this blog. If I keep it, it’s bound to become a monthly summary of what our son (and maybe his parents too) did. And then maybe I should make it private so that I can comfortably post lots of cute baby photos. I guess that I’ll decide before the end of January and post the magic password if necessary. If you have any ideas, please let me know what you think.
With that said, here’s what you’ll find below. Some awesome pictures, but mainly a verbose G-rated account of the best day of 2018 and the best day of Isaac’s and my life together - the day we met and held our son.
“I just wish it would’ve happened at home on its own. But then again, maybe I just want a good story.” I was bemoaning the thought of induction to my sister via texting, and said similar things to my mom and Isaac in the days following October 27, our son’s uneventful due date. We’d taken long walks, I hiked up and down the two flights of stairs in our apartment and consumed ungodly amounts of pineapple and raspberry leaf tea with no signs of change.
It’s not that I was uncomfortable or that we wanted to “evict” him, but after talking to our doctor, going more than a week past our due date seemed to carry more risks than anything else. And so we scheduled an induction for the coming weekend. Wednesday night while prepping for dinner, my voice croaked as I repeated that first thought once again to Isaac. I had pictured this whole birth thing starting peacefully and sweetly at home with him, cozy and comfy in our bed, or maybe in the living room with Cookie there too. Sickly hospital lights and muffled voices and scratchy fabrics and lots of waiting sounded like the worst way to start. By the time dinner ended, Isaac had me grounded again. Some things are out of our control, and this was definitely one of them. Later I petted Cookie and talked to the baby in my belly. I said that I would finally stop worrying and think about the joy of meeting him. The induction date was set, and good story or not, it would help ensure that our son joins us as safely as possible.
It’s not that I was uncomfortable or that we wanted to “evict” him, but after talking to our doctor, going more than a week past our due date seemed to carry more risks than anything else. And so we scheduled an induction for the coming weekend. Wednesday night while prepping for dinner, my voice croaked as I repeated that first thought once again to Isaac. I had pictured this whole birth thing starting peacefully and sweetly at home with him, cozy and comfy in our bed, or maybe in the living room with Cookie there too. Sickly hospital lights and muffled voices and scratchy fabrics and lots of waiting sounded like the worst way to start. By the time dinner ended, Isaac had me grounded again. Some things are out of our control, and this was definitely one of them. Later I petted Cookie and talked to the baby in my belly. I said that I would finally stop worrying and think about the joy of meeting him. The induction date was set, and good story or not, it would help ensure that our son joins us as safely as possible.
In the end, after giving up the urge to write the narrative myself, I got that good story. And it was better than I could’ve ever hoped for, even sweeter than I could’ve imagined.
On the first day of November, I found myself awake at 4:00 am as usual. “The witching hour”, one of my teacher mentors called it, that hour of wakefulness I filled with audiobooks and baby musings for all of 2018. For the past many days it was the time I spent wondering if the big day had come. I rolled onto my left side and lay as still as I could, trying to sense any change in my body. Nothing, but after a few minutes I felt our son moving around. I smiled and repeated the silent message to our baby, “whenever you’re ready, I won’t try to rush you” even if it isn’t exactly true in retrospect since we were planning to induce soon! I felt fluttering kicks beneath my right ribs. Then there was one strong thump down between my hips followed by a wave of pain rising up to my chest and then sinking down again. It was the first contraction.
I had nothing like practice contractions during the pregnancy save for one evening when an after dinner stroll set off a few hours of periodic back and abdominal aching. What I felt that morning after the initial thump was so new to me and so distinct - the rising up through my torso, the crescendo then decrescendo of pain - there was no doubt to me what it was. Maxwell had just hit the eject button.
A few taps on my phone and I found the contraction timer app I had downloaded a few weeks ago. The waves came 8-12 minutes apart, so I put in my earbuds and listened to a book. After an hour or two contractions were becoming more frequent so I started searching the internet about the stages of labor, feeling like a procrastinator trying to brush up on notes before the final exam. When Isaac’s alarm went off at 7:45, I was kneeling beside the bed. I waited until he turned the alarm off and looked over to find me before saying “I don’t think you’ll be going to work today.”
Isaac got everything ready to go and I squeezed Cookie and kissed her forehead to say goodbye. Around 9, we drove through the super cold and rainy morning to the hospital. I remember struggling to recall the numbers of our address, stepping on a scale and then being admitted.
Isaac got everything ready to go and I squeezed Cookie and kissed her forehead to say goodbye. Around 9, we drove through the super cold and rainy morning to the hospital. I remember struggling to recall the numbers of our address, stepping on a scale and then being admitted.
Between contractions the nurses talked us through forms and paperwork, and then Isaac and I just had to wait. He put the tiny tv on fx movie channel, I just closed my eyes and alternated between resting and counting/breathing through each wave of pain. That’s all there was to do, just wait until my body and son were ready to go. At some point in my young adult life, counting and deep breaths became my calming method for anything uncomfortable. I must have counted to 4, 6 and 8 a thousand times in the delivery room - even the following days when I finally drifted in and out of sleep, I caught myself counting again just out of habit.
The hours passed - we walked the halls in slow motion, I tried sitting on a big ball (no thanks), I crunched on ice nuggets. Isaac tended to my requests as they shrunk from interrogative sentences (“Can you get me that pillow please?”) to one word statements (“Hot”). He flipped the thermostat back and forth about every half hour at my request. Each wave of pain made me wonder how long I should or could wait before asking for nitrous oxide or an epidural. Then it would pass and I would regroup and tell myself I can make it through another one.
There was a shift change perhaps after lunchtime, and the new nurse checked and informed me we were about halfway through our waiting. As the minutes dripped by, she gently suggested a few things to help pass the time and the pain. One thing she mentioned especially stood out - a warm shower. I’ve always been a horrible water waster because I love showers. It’s a serious challenge to shorten one to less than 20 minutes. So she and Isaac got the water running, and positioned a seat just beneath the warm spray. There I sat, leaning forward against the cold tile and loving the sound and sensation of warm water on my back - familiar and soothing distractions. I have no idea how long I sat in that shower, but the hot water didn’t run out and nobody banged on the door telling me to hurry up.
Next she suggested an all fours position which reminded me of doing yoga and felt all right too, again providing distractions from the waves of pain. I returned to lying on my left side, always most comfortable to me for some reason. I kept imagining our son wearing the black and white wool hat I knit him, wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh map swaddle. A few times when the image wasn't quite strong enough, I asked Isaac to tell me happy things. Our son laying on the bed between us, Cookie hopping up, sniffing and poking him gently, holding him in our laps, laying him on top of our bellies.
He looked even cuter than the dream I held onto that day. But go figure, he hates this itchy too thick hat.
There was a point in the afternoon when the contractions began to shift. Each wave would rise, the pain peaked, and as it receded my body felt the overwhelming urge to push. I told this to the nurse, she checked and told me that it was indeed time to start pushing. A short while later several nurses appeared dragging various equipment, the doctor came in and those tell-tale stirrups clicked up onto the bed.
It was about this time that my parents arrived.
Already planning to join us for the induction, unknown to me they had decided to come up a day early. So they were already driving whenever things were first getting started that morning.
Isaac stayed at my left shoulder, my mom at my right, and my dad cheered us on from just outside. The doctor was a saucy lady who brought out my competitive nature with her commands and taunts. “Come on, you can do better than that… give me one more, the strongest one yet.” I just kept my eyes closed, then opened and looked at her when I was ready to go again. I remember them making comments about how I kept smiling and how calm I was. I remember Deadpool playing on the tv and laughing because of all the Marvel movies we love, our son is born during the only one that I really dislike (and didn’t even watch).
I told myself that the harder I try, the faster it would be over. So I kept at it, and then suddenly (really about 90 minutes later) I heard “Open your eyes and grab your son.”
I swear the world became one soft sepia-hued scene as I pulled our baby up onto my chest. “He’s so perfect.” I looked at Isaac and he was entranced too as we heard Maxwell let out his first strong cries.
Sweet time has trickled by in the hours, days and weeks since. It goes without saying that November first was one of the most significant days in our lives. That’s the main reason I had to pluck the time out to write about it.
Thinking back to how I wanted to orchestrate how the big day went makes me chuckle. I tried to stay in shape and fortify my mind for a natural birth, envisioning how the two of us will spend our last hours before baby. And maybe my planning and wishes helped, but ultimately I think the day unfolded just how it was meant to be, in spite of my efforts to control it. Like sharing a decadent dessert, or polishing off the last of an overly filling meal, Isaac and I worked through that day one bit at a time. A little part of me is proud of completing a natural birth, but mostly I know it’s not because I was strong or anything special, but just because we took it piece by piece.
There’s a thousand cliches for a reason - climbing a mountain is just a string of steps, making a masterpiece is just a succession of strokes, having a baby is just a series of breaths. I don’t mean to downplay childbirth, but rather to consider what can be accomplished by chipping away bit by bit. As Isaac and I embrace our new roles as parents, I want to keep in mind the value of small moments each day, for their cumulative worth can be tremendous.
We are so happy I can’t put it into words. What a year!
Thinking back to how I wanted to orchestrate how the big day went makes me chuckle. I tried to stay in shape and fortify my mind for a natural birth, envisioning how the two of us will spend our last hours before baby. And maybe my planning and wishes helped, but ultimately I think the day unfolded just how it was meant to be, in spite of my efforts to control it. Like sharing a decadent dessert, or polishing off the last of an overly filling meal, Isaac and I worked through that day one bit at a time. A little part of me is proud of completing a natural birth, but mostly I know it’s not because I was strong or anything special, but just because we took it piece by piece.
There’s a thousand cliches for a reason - climbing a mountain is just a string of steps, making a masterpiece is just a succession of strokes, having a baby is just a series of breaths. I don’t mean to downplay childbirth, but rather to consider what can be accomplished by chipping away bit by bit. As Isaac and I embrace our new roles as parents, I want to keep in mind the value of small moments each day, for their cumulative worth can be tremendous.
We are so happy I can’t put it into words. What a year!