Zivia’s Birth

Megan is still processing the birth, but I can give my side of things.

In the beginning….

It started on Saturday at 1850 when Megan’s water broke. I believe the direct quote was “either I just peed myself of my water broke”. This was a little nerve-wracking because my labor started the same way and we are still a bit burnt over that one.

Megan had actually been contracting regularly for days but she’d been doing a good job of ignoring it. We called all parties involved (midwife, doula) and headed out for a late dinner out, our last as a family of three. We came home, put Finn to bed, then cleaned the house. Finally at 2300 we decided to try to get some sleep.

Sleep fail.

Megs was contracting too much to sleep and worried about getting her parents up here to watch Finn, and my thoughts were racing, so we ended up back up, pacing around the living room, me contemplating making a coffee cake. Nothing like a little stress to trigger a baking urge. We timed the contractions. They were short, ranging from as long as seven minutes to as short as three minutes. We called our midwife again who said GET SOME REST, then decided to lie down for an hour before calling our doula again.

The time we slept.

We woke up in the morning with stalled labor. Okay. No, NOT OKAY. Well, okay because I finally make my coffee cake. But still, we have to get this labor started. Megan’s parents showed up to watch Finn. Our neighbor is an acupuncturist and was home, so she came over and did an induction treatment. We headed out for an hour and a half walk. Then thirty minutes of nipple stim later, contractions are back and very regular. It’s the afternoon now. We call our doula to bring over her tens unit. I notice as she’s applying the pads that Megan seems to be contracting quite frequently, but she’s doing really well. Our doula leaves, the inlaws put Finn to bed and we head out again with the intent to walk at the mall for a bit. Well no, let’s go to Alki Beach. Wait, we’ll just stop at Metropolitan Market on the way. And this is how it goes…

Megan contracts in the cheese department. Down the aisle. In the produce section. And the dairy section. At the checkout stand. These seem to be coming pretty frequently. We decide that maybe we’re just going to go back home and skip the walk. We get home and start timing the contractions. They’re every two to three minutes. We call our midwife, our doula, and it’s Go Time. This is at about 2100.

The Birth Center

Not much to tell here. Megan rocked labor. Her Hypnobabies WORKED. I just remember her lying wrapped in a blanket as she transitioned and she was just relaxing and breathing, and it was amazing that she was in TRANSITION. She had this amazing sense of humor the entire time, even when things got rough during pushing she was cracking jokes here and there. She got into the tub and started pushing, and this is where things started to become more challenging. She was exhausted and that baby wanted to stay inside as long as possible. I was really tired, the room was hot, and I started to panic a little. I kept thinking that we had no options at this point. It was either an emergent ride in an ambulance to the hospital for a c-section or this baby coming out vaginally, and that was proving to be really challenging. Megan looked so tired, resting between pushes, barely able to talk, her eyes rimmed in black circles. They cathed her to get some urine out of her bladder and we end up on the bed. That’s when her determination kicked in and she started working HARD, gritting her teeth with each push, bearing down with all her strength, occasionally yelling “GET OUT”. I kept watching the head show more and more, then it finally popped out with a massive push, body on the second push and the baby was whipped up to Megan’s chest. And the first thing Megan says is…

“it looks like a girl!”

She was right.

It was such a different experience than Finn. It wasn’t that same overwhelming moment, it was a little more matter-of-fact. Baby. Okay. I felt a strange disconnect. Where my connection with Finn, and I think Megan’s as well, has always been strong and intense, it just wasn’t quite there with Zivia. Then I held her for a little bit and this kid, well, she loves me. She really does. She calms down when I hold her. And I love her. It’s amazing. She’ll never be Finn because no one can, but she’ll be our Zivia, and she’s pretty awesome.

More about the sibling adjustment, which is rough. Now it’s time to feed my family.

August 25, 2010. Zivia.