April 4, 2001 was a Friday evening, and we had just
finished eating takeout and watching 12 Angry Men.
Madalyn had gone to bed nicely, and we were thinking about
getting a good night's sleep. Were looking forward to a
productive day working around the house on Saturday
getting everything ready for our new arrival.
We didn't realize just how productive that day would be!
With our last pregnancy, Madalyn arrived two weeks early. But this time around had been entirely different. This time, we weren't in the process of moving and painting in the weeks before this birth, as we were with Madalyn. Everything just seemed to be taking a slower pace with our second child.
Even though the due date was upon us, we had both begun to believe that we had plenty of time before this next child would arrive. Stephanie's "practice contractions" were nothing like those she had with Madalyn, so maybe we were lulled into complacency.
As we were getting ready for bed around midnight, Stephanie began to feel some small contractions. She thought that they might just be a bit of "practice", but perhaps not. Curt said that, knowing this was going on, he wouldn't be able to sleep all night long. Of course, he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Stephanie had a different sort of night. She laid in
bed for about an hour, but couldn't sleep. She got up
and put in a copy of When Harry Met Sally. That
took her until about 3:00AM, when she awakened Curt to
help her work through the contractions.
Now that we were both up, it was clear that we would be having a baby soon. We waited a bit, then called Stephanie's parents to come and take care of Madalyn. We told them not to rush, as Stephanie's experience with Madalyn's labor was that the contractions stayed like they were at this point for several hours.
At about 4:00AM, the contractions began to be about
five minutes apart and lasting just a little less than
a minute, although we weren't timing them. That was
our signal to call the birthing center.
Barbara D'Amato, our midwife and the director of
Valley
Birthplace, was on call that evening. She asked us
to time the contractions for about twenty minutes.
When that time was up, the contractions were only about
two-and-a-half minutes apart and lasting a minute.
When we called her back, Curt gave Barbara the report on the contractions. She told us to meet her at the birthing center in about twenty minutes or so.
Barbara also likes to speak with the mother to gauge how she is doing. Unfortunately, she caught Stephanie in the middle of a contraction, listened to her work through it. After that , Barbara revised her estimate and told us that she could be there in ten minutes, and to come as soon as we could!
Stephanie's parent's hadn't arrived yet, so we called Curt's mother, who lives less than a mile away. We asked her to come right away. Of course, both sets of parents showed up simultaneously, so getting out of the house became quite a frenzy. Our neighbors definitely knew that Stephanie went into labor!
When we got to the birthing center, Barbara was expecting us. It took us a while to get there because the contractions were so close and so strong that it took a while to get Stephanie to the car. We later found out that Barbara had called our house to find out if we had left yet. If we hadn't, she was going to come over with her home birth kit!
Once we were in Barbara's care, things settled down a bit. Stephanie was already at 7cm, so a lot of the work had been done. By this time, it was past 5:00AM, and Stephanie just had the last phase of her labor to complete.
Stephanie worked like a real pro for the next two hours. The entire labor and delivery was done naturally. It was looking like we wouldn't be going to the hospital this time!
Two hours later, at 7:12AM on May 5th, 2001, Stephanie gave birth to Matthew Bayard Equi. He weighed 8lbs. 2oz. and was 20" long. Madalyn had her little brother!
The experience of the birthing center was everything we wanted. Stephanie was able to hold Matthew as soon as he was born, and wasn't interrupted by tests and shots. They were able to be together in quiet stillness and get to know each other in those first moments together.
We weren't quite finished, though. We still had to wait for the placenta to be born. Apparently, that will typically happen spontaneously, especially as the newborn begins to nurse. But after an hour had gone by, Stephanie had not yet delivered it.
Barbara checked, and it appeared that Stephanie's cervix had closed. It looked like we would be making another trip to the hospital after all. To make matters worse, the hospitals won't allow newborns not born in their facility to be with mothers who are patients there or to stay in their nurseries!
Just as Barbara was explaining to us how all of this would work, she got a call from her son. While she was out of the room taking that call, Stephanie's body suddenly decided to cooperate and the last part of the delivery was complete.
With the transfer to the hospital averted, the Equi Family was able to spend the next several hours quietly in the birthing center, eating breakfast and enjoying each other. Madalyn joined us later, followed by the proud new grandparents.
We all came home that afternoon, ate a nice dinner with our families, and rested.
Matthew is settling in to his new routine quite well now, although he's got his days and nights mixed up. Ah, the joys of a newborn baby!