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A Birthday Story

The Arrival of Keifer Meade

Prologue - Monday, October 9 through Thursday, October 12, 2006

Monday: Keith and I headed off to our 38-week OB appointment feeling reassured that if our son came anytime now he would be a full-term baby. At the appointment the doctor declared that I was 2 centimeters dilated but 0% effaced (cervix had not thinned yet.) During the exam the doctor stripped my membranes, a process described in What to Expect When You Are Expecting as “painful for some women.” Yep, agreed - I am one of some women. After the appointment Keith went back to work, and I made one last trip to Babies ‘R’ Us.

Tuesday: For at least a few weeks prior people had been asking me if I had felt any contractions yet. According to the books you can have painless contractions for quite a while before you feel them, but even the doctor said Monday, “you’ll know it when you feel it now.” And on Tuesday afternoon I felt it. Severe pain – mainly concentrated in my back – came and went about every 20 minutes from the afternoon into the evening (about 7 hours) but never sped up. Promising (and painful)…but no real labor yet.

Wednesday: After a relatively good night of sleep, the contractions started up again in early morning at about the same pace. At this point, I updated my mother and step-father – who live about 4 hours away – and they hopped in the car to head this way. When Mom arrived, she found me hobbling around the neighborhood in an effort to deal with the pain and maybe speed things along. Later that afternoon, however, everything stopped again.

Thursday: Nothing in the morning. Nothing in the afternoon. Seemed like an early false start – the little guy was only fooling. Since Mom had a big work event planned for Saturday the 14th – an event that she had been planning for 6 months – she decided to drive the 4 hours back home late Thursday evening to go to work on Friday.

D-Day – Friday, October 13, 2006

A few weeks before, at a childbirth preparation class, the instructor had asked us to introduce each other by stating one quality about our partner that we would want the baby to inherit. I said “Keith’s sense of humor.” At 3:30 a.m. on October 13, little Keifer displayed some of Keith’s sense of humor. I awoke to the unmistakable feeling of my water breaking, so I had to call Mom – who had arrived home only a few hours earlier – to get back in the car and travel the same distance again. Such a little trickster.

I was confused because I was not having contractions at the time my water broke, and I had thought those things went hand-in-hand. I spent the time between calling the answering service and hearing back from the on-call doctor googling “water breaking without contractions.” A call-back from the doctor confirmed that we should make our way in to the hospital. While Keith loaded some items in the car and walked the dog, I hopped in the shower. A few minutes later that seemed like a very bad idea since I could barely stand up. These contractions were not in my back – they felt like very bad cramps along with the pressure of a bowling ball in my pelvis. The ride to the hospital was mercifully quick; traffic is not too bad in the 5 o’clock hour.

We checked in to the hospital at 5:15 a.m., and the nurse examined me to find out I was 3-4 cm dilated. I had planned all along to get pain medication, and the intensity of the contractions confirmed this beyond the shadow of a doubt. Keith and I practiced the breathing exercises we learned in childbirth education class while I answered a hundred questions, signed my name on at least 10 documents (I’d love to see those signatures:), and got an IV placed in my right arm and my blood taken for tests. About an hour after my arrival, they gave me a drug to help me sit still long enough for the anesthesiologist to administer the epidural. After some initial discomfort – vomiting and shivering – the pain subsided and things got a lot more manageable. I was able to talk, smile and even rest. All praise the mighty epidural!

Between 9 and 9:30 a.m. both sets of grandparents arrived and visited with us in the delivery room. Around 9:30, my obstetrician came in and found me to be 8 centimeters dilated. Keith and I were fascinated by the machine that records the contractions. Before the pain medication I feared the upswing on the graph that represented the beginning of a contraction. After the epidural I had no idea when they came and went so I could watch them on the monitor just like everybody else. The next few hours were a blur of visiting with relatives, resting, and various medical procedures. Then around 12:30 p.m. it was time to push.

After his experience at the childbirth preparation class, Keith had planned to be a “north dad,” i.e. a labor participant who stays at mom’s head providing encouragement but not really watching the particulars down south. When push came to shove (pun intended) however, he was right in there with the labor nurse and obstetrician, and he witnessed the birth directly. There was a bit of a scare when the baby’s head appeared since the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, but the doctor made quick work of it and the situation was remedied before I really understood what had happened. The baby was quickly checked and cleaned up, then handed to me as family members streamed into the room to celebrate the arrival of our new baby boy.

Epilogue - Monday, November 13, 2006 (one month birthday)

If you are wondering about the second half of that childbirth class introduction and what Keith wanted Keifer to inherit from me, his wish was for him to have my “ability to sleep.” Since newborns sleep around 16-20 hours a day, he has so far surpassed my considerable skills in this area – although of course they aren’t consecutive hours yet due to the rigorous feeding schedule babies require. Here’s hoping that genes from my side kick in soon to help him sleep through the night:) Keith and I look forward to discovering the bits of each other (Keith’s lips, my ears) as well as our son’s own special and unique qualities. Here’s to the beginning of the great parenting adventure.