“You’ve done your best; mama’s done even better; birth isn’t moving fast enough; the midwife hasn’t been here enough; it’s time to get your lady to the hospital.”
-Matt’s heart to Matt’s head
Sometimes, little voices speak into your ears; quiet, soft, messages of love and fear and caution. After trying to birth at home for four consecutive days, the voices grew more audible. Our confidence in the midwife was shaky (at best), contractions and dilations weren’t going anywhere quick, and mother’s energy and pain was becoming a concern—even for those prepared for the throes of childbirth.
St. Pete’s quickly checked us in and took us to one of their laboring rooms. Our obstetrician, Jack, treated us very well right away (and still does) and gave us our most objective and accurate insight into our status quo. Our birth landed in the “failure to progress” categories; labor can continue on and on and on until the mother finally collapses or until the uterus exhausts itself and quits pushing. We were in the right place and none too early; Amy was dilated to 7 cm. Jack punctured her bag of waters and the wait began. Shortly after, baby’s heart-rate dropped to 50-60 bpm, causing an armada of Hippocratians to descend on the nativity scene. Five minutes later—with the heartbeat stabilized at 130—we were discussing how wise (or unwise) it would be to continue laboring with the hope of a vaginal birth.
Men (despite their best intentions) are handicapped in their judgments regarding these kinds of decisions. 100 hours of muscle spasms is no joke. You can’t sleep at night when your gut is cramping up. It’s hard to eat. Any man can add up this many negatives and accept that surgery may be the most comfortable way to spare a mother and save a child. We had as much faith in the hands we were in as anyone could hope for when facing these mental and physical conditions; and there is no regret.
Hugo Etienne VanOppedahl was born by cesarean at 00:24 AM on Thursday, February 24th, 2011. He weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz, and measured 18.75 inches from head to toe. As could be expected, his hair is quite dark, and he may end up being a supermodel later on in life. Both mother and son spent an hour in observation to assure that their eventual transfer to “our room” would be satisfactory. The séjour could not have been more hospitable, contrarily to my initial suspicion of most things hospital. The slow climb back to normalcy and health began. Unknowingly, we could not have been in a better place—even if we called it Plan B.
 |
| First night as parents in "our room" |
Hugo's first capture on "film"
First family photo
 |
| Hugo's first bath |
No comments:
Post a Comment