The Birth Story

A brief recap of the birth story:

Monday, March 31 -- I had a bad sore throat and came home from school at 2:45pm to take a nap. Dave had classes all day in Cortland. At 5pm, I woke up from my nap to go to the bathroom, and as I sat up - Whoosh! My water broke. As I stood up, amniotic fluid poured out of me, soaking everything including my socks.

Dave and I had a plan for communicating about emergencies while either of us was in class - usually we call each other, but we decided that for an emergency, we would text message so the other person would know that it wasn't just a phone call asking the other person to pick up some groceries on the way home. So I texted Dave the following message: Water Broke. What a Mess.

Dave called immediately and said he was on his way home. Cortland is 45 minutes from Syracuse, so I laid back down on the bed and waited for Dave to arrive. At 5:30pm, the contractions began. I contemplated calling some friends to come over and help me until Dave arrived, but I had an unexpected labor coach right in the house - our cat Purna. She climbed up on the bed and laid next to me as I breathed through the contractions, and she licked my hands and put her paws on my arm. Anyone who has met Purna knows that she does not like to sit on laps or be touched, so this behavior was out of the ordinary and very, very welcome.

Dave came home and bounced around the house. He called his parents and my mom. My mom was scheduled to fly out to Syracuse the next day, but Dave convinced her to change her tickets for an overnight flight from Oregon to New York. Then he began gathering up our hospital gear - one giant red suitcase, a yoga mat, our winter coats, etc. He draped Mardi Gras beads around my neck. Then he made us dinner, because once you arrive at the hospital, you can't eat anything else. We ate macaroni and cheese and chicken sausage in bed, me on my side, and talked about how excited we were.

When we arrived at the hospital, we parked in the garage and walked through the underground tunnel to the elevators. A group of nurses was leaving the building, and upon seeing our giant red suitcase they said, "First baby, huh?"

Once we checked in at the labor and delivery floor, we were scolded by the nurse, who wanted to know why we took so long to arrive at the hospital (about four hours). How do you explain that lying on your own bed, with your cat helping you through your contractions, while your husband bounces around the house packing his toothbrush and preparing dinner, is exactly how you want to bring a baby into the world? The hospital is a nice, state-of-the-art facility with wonderful staff and great rooms - but it's not my house, and it doesn't have my cat, and their rocking chair just isn't the same.

I don't think it was a particularly hard birth or a particularly easy birth, and since I have nothing to compare it to... I guess it just was what it was. I'm glad I was able to experience it, that it brought my husband and I to a point of intimacy I'd never imagined, that the end result was a little human being who is perfect and healthy and very, very tiny.