Look how GREAT Andrea looks here just a minute after giving birth. Click on the photo for a complete set of Soren's birth photos.
What an incredible journey it's been for the three of us over the past 8 days. Here's my take on the whole birth.
Wednesday 01/03 - Something was up as Andrea was awake for 3 hours that night watching late night TV. This is so unlike her so I just knew that things were starting to happen.
Thursday 01/04 I was working on a project around the house and at 10 pm Andrea called out my name saying that she thought her water just broke. She made it to the bathroom and we sat there a few minutes. At about 10:20 I convinced her that we had better call our mid-wife just to let her know. The mid-wife told her to go to bed and to try and get some sleep. I knew that was not going to happen because as soon as she got off the phone her contractions were about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes apart. We were both a little out of sorts and in shock on just how fast this seemed to be happening. I was trying to remain calm as I worked to get myself ready, get our bags together and try and be with her in the bathroom as much as I could. After 2 more phone calls to the mid-wife we left for the hospital at about midnight.
Friday 01/05 - We got settled into our room, the water birthing room, at about 12:45 am. Andrea was already at 6 centimeters. She tried a few positions on the bed with a birthing ball, then decided it was time to get into the birthing tub. The water tub was our birth dream. We had taken classes in HypnoBirthing so that Andrea could remain drug free and deliver naturally - a requirement for water birth. Andrea was nothing short of amazing, completely focused on her breathing and relaxation techniques. At times she would smile and even make jokes. The mid-wife kept thanking us for being so great to labor with. Most of the remainder of the contractions were done in the tub, but with the warm water, they started to become less effective. Andrea finally went back to the bed after the mid-wife convinced her that the water was taking away some of the intensity of the surges. Soren was born about 5 minutes after Andrea was back in the bed, at 3:14am. I knew he was going to be big as even his shoulders were difficult to deliver. I am still in complete awe over the strength that Andrea showed to be so focused, calm and strong to deliver such a big baby so fast, with no drugs, and only needing one little stitch.
The baby was placed immediately on Andrea's chest and to my disbelief and tears of joy, I announced to Andrea that we have a boy. I was convinced due to my male intuition it was a girl. I was able to cut the cord and after a few minutes Soren was taken to be cleaned up. To me the afterbirth looked to be more difficult than the delivery itself and Andrea looked to be in a fair amount of pain.
Soren had a very wet cry so they immediately tried to remove as much fluid from his lungs as possible. Since he inhaled so much fluid they decided that it was best that he be brought over to the special care nursery (level 2 Nursery) for some work and observation.
Saturday 01/06 through Tuesday 01/09- For the next 4 days Soren was under constant observation for heart rate, respiratory and oxygen care. He also had two small holes in each inner lung sac that needed to heal, so his risk of pneumonia was high at the time. Each day Soren got stronger and stronger and finally was off the monitors.
Woodwinds Health Campus treated us incredibly well. It was almost a blessing to be able to stay the extra 2 days, as we received wonderful 1:1 care that helped prep us better for bringing Soren home. On Tuesday Soren received a clean bill of health and it was time to head home for the next chapter in our lives.
