Birth Story

We've put together as many details as we can remember, it's written from my perspective primarily because Leslie was so much in the zone for the entire labor that many of the details are only now coming back to her. I'm still reminding her of some things that happened :-)

Leslie's first official day of maternity leave saw quite of bit of excitement. She spent the day at home taking care of things around the house, getting laundry ready and napping when she felt tired. That evening we both went to Leslie's volleyball practice and she was feeling great, even able to demonstrate passing and digging techniques. We ate dinner after practice and Leslie started feeling wavy contractions around 9:30 pm. Noticing that they were more even and regular than her practice contractions, we started to time them. The first two were 20 minutes apart, then one after ten minutes and another one after 8 minutes. By 11 pm, with contractions about 5 minutes apart, we were starting to realize that maybe this could be real labor. Our thoughts were confirmed by Leslie's water breaking at 11:30 pm. When we called the birth center, they said to call back after Leslie's contractions got to three minutes apart for 45 minutes. Surprisingly we reached that point only slightly more than 45 minutes later. At 12:40 am, after 45 minutes of contractions spaced out by 3 minutes, and increasing in intensity, we called the midwives again. Maureen, the midwife, told us that we should give her a ten minute head start and then leave for the birth center, but made no guarantees as she was skeptical of things keeping up this pace.

After only one wrong turn--it was our first trip to the birth center in the dark--we arrived just after 1:30 am January 17th. Maureen found that Leslie was 4 cm dilated which meant we'd gotten there right when they wanted us to (and after only 4 hours of labor). We still expected a long night but were hopeful we'd meet our baby sometime in the mid morning. Leslie's laboring at home had been eased by spending some time in the tub and also leaning forward against the birth ball or the bed while I applied counterpressure to her lower back. This continued at the birth center in their larger and more comfortable tub. Trying other positions just confirmed that she had naturally found the best one already. After an hour in the tub it was time to try the bed again and another exam revealed 6 cm dilation and still going well.

Another hour of counterpressure from me and excellent relaxation and breathing on Leslie's part brought her, to everyone's surprise, to 8 cm with more intense contractions coming every 2 minutes but occasionally double-peaking. At 4 am we heard from Maureen that we should start to figure out which position would be most comfortable for pushing. This came as a bit of a shock to Leslie who was still thinking she had a ways to go. When Maureen said that we'd have the baby by 5 am Leslie was pretty confused since she was sure it was at least 8 or 9 am already.

During Leslie's next internal exam Maureen was able to slide the cervix over the baby's head which meant it was now time to push. It was most comfortable for Leslie to push while lying on one side and holding her top leg. Regular monitoring of the baby's heartbeat showed everything was going smoothly. Leslie was convinced she needed to take a bathroom break but was assured the feeling was simply the baby's head in the birth canal. The ability to push came naturally and was very satisfying because Leslie could now be an active participant in the labor. After a few pushes the baby's head full of dark hair began to crown and on the next contraction Leslie pushed hard, and was told to push again quickly. After doing so she heard Maureen tell her to reach down at take her baby. She brought a squirming wide-eyed baby up to her chest and we both hugged and kissed it ecstatically. The nurse asked Leslie, "Well what is it?" To which she naturally replied, "A baby!" Not being completely satisfied with this answer the nurse helped Leslie hold him up to reveal that we had a son. He quickly climbed up Leslie's chest only to find that his umbilical cord wasn't quite long enough for him to nurse. Andy remedied this with some careful snips and Carter Gates Dawes was officially brought into the world.