Teensy Little Bird

When the hospital called on August 17th to schedule a C-section for September 3rd, I got off my computer, and walked and walked and walked. Every day, for days. My best shot at avoiding surgery was to go into labor naturally. (My oldest was born by C-section, so the doctor didn’t want me to go full-term at the risk of uterine rupture.) It was over 110º each of those days, so I would head out at 8pm after the sun went down and make laps around the neighborhood in my fluorescent-orange shirt -- the Great Pumpkin.

I did it! With four blisters on my left foot and three on my right, our new little bub was born at 1:59pm on Thursday, August 25th. No C-section required -- phew. My feet only stopped aching this week.

I had never gone into labor before on my own, so I stayed in bed that morning longer than some might have, timing my contractions on my iPhone (standard clock app, lap function – awesome). Once I could no longer sleep, I started posting my progress on Twitter; it was a fantastic distraction. We got the kids ready for school and called in my mom to make the rounds, then headed out to the hospital. Of course, we had to make a stop at the store for an SD card for our camera. (I wanted photos!) At that point, my contractions were a minute long and three minutes apart, from start to start.

At the hospital, when I walked from triage to the delivery room, my doctor announced that I was at a 7 or 8 and everyone at the nursing station stood and clapped, saying “Wow, you’re still walking!?” I wonder if that’s such a big deal or if they stand and clap for everyone. “You’re dilated to a 1? And you’re still walking!?” “You’re dilated to a 3? And you’re still walking!?” Might be a good protocol.

I had a big, goofy smile on my face -- between contractions. The staff was baffled by me. Sure, it hurt. Of course! I was just ecstatic that I beat the scheduled surgery and that I’d get to meet my new kiddo. Good thing I was in an excited stupor too, because my doctor had to attend to three emergency situations in the course of my labor. She held off on me a little bit so she could help the other mothers get through their ordeals. After she broke my water, everything went very quickly and the baby was born within the hour.

And here he is! The inventory is complete. He’s all here, with all his teensy parts. And everything appears to work as it should: cooing, gooing, squeaking, squawking, spitting, squirting, grinning, grunting. He’s so new and tiny that all of these functions still have us mesmerized.

I'm saving his name for another post -- as that's it's own story. When it comes to names, I'm a waffler. Why can't we all go by three for four different names -- that would be so much easier! (Well, maybe not.)

Two days after the baby was born, Isaac and our talented friend, Jared Platt, met up to take pictures. These lovely shots were snapped by Jared. Jared is a professional photographer who travels the U.S. teaching photography workflow and file management to other professionals.

Isaac has typed up his thoughts on little bub's birthday as well -- more revealing perhaps than my polite assessment. Here's his take...

The night before the baby's birthday, I was going to join Heather for another of her long walks and try to get the ball rolling. She had been having contractions every night for months, but they were getting stronger and more frequent each night. One thing after another came up and by seven or eight in the evening Heather turned to me and said, “I’m not sure if I want to go into labor tonight. I think I might prefer a good-night's sleep first.” So we put off the walk. Her hammered feet needed rest anyhow.

As Heather, at this point, was a very restless sleeper, I told her before we went to bed that I was going to ignore any tossing and turning unless she grabbed my arm and gave it a good squeeze. Around 4:30am, however, I noticed that Heather was fiddling with her phone a lot. I woke up and asked her what was up. She said that she was timing her contractions.

“Well, how far apart are they?” I asked. “About four minutes” she answered. Any thought of going back to sleep fled as the likely-impending event dawned on me. Heather reassured me that the contractions had only been four minutes apart for half an hour and that if she stood up they might very well stop; "Don’t get too excited about it yet.” She wanted me to wait till they had been consistent and mighty for a full hour.

I turned to Google to reassure myself that this wasn’t a total emergency. The all-knowing repository of cyber-knowledge informed me that I had a good thirty-more minutes before I could panic. After telling Heather she was right (of course), I went back downstairs, cleaned the dishes, and made lunches for our two children who would need to head to school in another two hours.

Checking on Heather periodically, she convinced me that she was OK and it wasn’t yet time to go. I think she still had aspirations of dropping the kids off at school ourselves before heading to the hospital. At 6:00am or so, as I was putting lunch bags into school bags and wiping down the counters, Heather came to the top of the stairs and told me she was going to take a shower. Then, soon after that, we should think about calling her mom who was on deck to see to the kids in the event of incontrovertible contracting.

I was in favor of calling Granny right away, but Heather wanted me to wait another twenty-five minutes, just in case these pesky, fake contractions went away now that she was standing; the kids needed to be picked up by 6:50am or so. I agreed to do what she wanted ("You are totally in charge") and started gathering up a few things for Heather (cooler bag of contraband chocolate and Italian soda, camera, makeup bag… you know, the essentials). Five minutes later, after only managing to undress through the contractions, Heather came to the top of the stairs again, wrapped in a towel, and said “Isaac? It’s time to call my mom.” (Her subsequent shower was performed to the following rhythm: contraction, shuffle to the shower and turn it on, contraction, take towel off and get in shower, contraction, soap up, contraction…) They were three minutes apart, lasting a minute each.

Granny arrived a few minutes early and we had time to grab a few shots of mom and kids before we each headed off to our respective destinations. We took family portraits for two minutes between contractions and then waited for Heather to stand up straight and get the very serious look off her face. Once she was smiling again, we took a few more.

By 7:00am, the ex-utero children were squared away with Granny and all of the hospital gear was packed in the car. Heather, with perfectly-maintained good-humor, was ensconced in the passenger seat. House locked and dogs fed, we pulled out of the driveway and headed to a Wal-Mart near the hospital to get an SD card for the Leica point-and-shoot. Though I had all of the big cameras packed, Heather was hoping for some video too. Around 7:30am, we finally made our way to the emergency room where I had called ahead to let them know we were coming.

When the orderly came through the doors pushing Heather’s wheelchair, he only had to wait a moment for me to finish capping and stowing my 200mm lens. The light in the hall was so beautiful it was the perfect opportunity for a pre-delivery photo-op -- nevermind Heather had been in serious labor for a few hours at this point.

Heather was perfectly cheerful as we headed upstairs to the labor-triage room. The only exception being that she didn’t like it when I tried to make her, or anyone else laugh in the middle of a contraction. “No joking! Actually just shut up when I’m having a contraction; make jokes in between.” One minute out of four she could get testy if I didn’t zip it -- but hey, the other three she was throwing out zingy one-liners.

All of the nurses and the doctor were sweet and pleasant. They were so excited to perform a delivery, it was as if they only got to do that once in a long while, not every day. Some of the highlights included the following:

• The anesthesiologist using hospital vernacular to describe an emergency procedure and then blushing and apologizing, as if mentioning such things as “ruptures” would shock our delicate sensibilities (Heather's always asking for the gory details. She loves to watch surgeries on t.v. too.);
• The doctor and the nurse counting the twenty-some-odd metallic and medieval-looking implements in an official fashion after the delivery (You wouldn’t want to lose one of those suckers -- somewhere);
• The super-friendly, motherly nurse who was quite a good photographer, picking up my great big camera and zooming around the room snapping shots of the big moment, while assiduously avoiding the “zone”;
• Heather asking to get a good look at the placenta ("Fascinating!");
• And last, but not least, the witty banter between contractions. After all, a Heather Bailey delivery is always a party.

Once the pushing started, things progressed rapidly and before we knew it Heather held Noogie (that was his nickname) in her arms. I cut the cord -- an honor I hadn’t done much to deserve. Mother and child were separated, yet they were truly together for the first time. Heather held the baby against her as one tiny hand groped for the other. His miniscule fingers interlaced as if they had spent the last few months in an attitude of watery supplication. (Heather imagines he twiddled his fingers while formulating a plan to take over the world. Mwah-ha-ha-ha.)

His baby face, though somewhat puffy and blotchy, was angelically-formed, his every diminutive feature perfect and his beet-colored, vernix-be-smeared complexion pronounced just-right. 6 pounds, 3.4 ounces of achingly-beautiful, ferociously-hungry-when-not-sleeping, implacably-bi-hourly-insistent, narcolepticly-inclined and charmingly-appealing baby boy. When I hold him in the crook of my arm with his cheek cupped in the palm of my hand, even on 3-5 hours of sleep a night, I know that this is what makes life worth living.

Comments

[mrs d]

congrats! what a beautiful story to tell. such a beautiful family and what great pictures to document everything. He is a very precious little boy!

[Carol Dee]

Sending love, hugs and blessings to your family. You post (especially Dad's ) made me tear up! I am such a sap for a happy baby story. Best wishes for a happy ever after, life time of love.

[Kellie]

You look radiant! Congrats!

[Caroline]

He's so spectacular! My goal was to avoid the section too...Maura had some deeper, more serious plans...but we survived! He's such a handsome little man!

[Tammy Edwards]

Congratulations! He is soooo handsome! What a beautiful family you all make :0)

[Lindsay Sherman]

Congratulations to the Bailey family of 5 now! So exciting, and I'm so happy for you guys. We welcomed our little girl on the 14th of August, and I've been wondering when your little man made his debut. Glad to see it all turned out (we ended up with an emergency c-section, and wow, those are no fun.) Miss you guys and hope everything is going well!
Love, Linds

[laura huffman]

so glad things went well, and that you have a healthy baby and mama. beautiful story, so glad all is well.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! from Canada

[Elizabeth Mackey]

Beautiful baby, to add to the already adorable family that you have!!!

Congratulations, and you are a picture of beauty even in the hospital! I only wished I looked that great after giving birth!!!

[Gillian]

How beautiful... Thank you for sharing your birth story! Congrats!!

[embracingitall]

What a little sweetie. Sounds like you birthed beautifully. Enjoy that sweet little boy. Jacinta

[Clarissa Henderson]

Congratulations. Glad to hear it went well. By the way, you look very radiant for having just had a baby. I was as puffy and red-faced as my new baby daughter.

[Mia Zucca]

Precious!

[Pamela Graham]

Heather...thanks so much for sharing...how precious, God is surely good! Pamie G.

[Pamela Susan]

Many, many congratulations to you and your family! What a precious little boy. My blessings to each and every one of you!

:) Pamela

[ruth jakiela]

congratulations! Enjoy!!!

[Natalie VV]

A very good baby story... and such a relief! I have been peeking in, regularly, hopefully, mindfully. I tried to calm my anticipation with the reminder that of course this is a personal event, and as eager as I was to hear good news, I was hardly entitled to knock on your *cyber door,* demanding an update!
Congratulations. A beautiful family, more to love, more to celebrate... it's wonderful.

[Kelly Irene]

Congratulations, Heather! He is beautiful!

[Diana]

Congratulations! What a beautiful family of 5 you have now! God bless your new sweet prince!

[SuzK]

Congratulations Heather. Thank you for sharing both posts and the photos-beautiful!

[Donna]

Congratulations! You have such a beautiful family and you look so gorgeous!

[Kristy DelaCruz]

Heather and isaac, i am so happy for you both! What a beautfiful baby! And of course, Mom looks absolutely gorgeous, too. Love the pics! Congratulations!! Love, Kristy and the DelaCruz fam

[Katherine M]

He's beautiful! Congratulations!!

[Sivje]

Congratulations Bailey family! He is a beautiful baby! And Heather, I can't believe how beautiful you look through the whole thing. Truly beautiful!

[Lindsay]

So glad everything is ok. You had me worried for a little while there! Congrats on your best new unveiling of the year.

[misty boston]

Tears in my eyes!
I wanna be like Heather if I am lucky enough to be with child!
Such a lovely story and I like that there are two sides written here! :)

[Seanna Lea]

That is a beautiful birth story from both of your perspectives!

[margot]

congrats!!!!! he's gorgeous!!!!

[gina f.]

amazing photos! Congratulations on your beautiful son!!

[Colleen]

Precious Baby Boy! Congratulations! What a beautiful family you have

[Nicole]

Congratulations! What beautiful pictures of your wonderful family. I especially like the shot of your husband's hand holding your new one's feet...so sweet!

[angie]

Well, I'm a labor nurse and we don't stand up and clap for everyone! Just the true labor godesses as you obviously were. Congrats on the VBAC, so exciting for you.

[Stella]

Congratulations. this is God's blessing

[kim]

Eek! The last couple posts haven't shown up in my bloglines...just popped in just in case and he's here! Congratulations, Heather & family!! Beautiful baby boy indeed!

[Suzanne]

Awwww....what a sweetie!

[Paula Prass]

Oh Heather, you should have just run the Boston Marathon (like that lady this week) right before delivering.
Congrats to you and the family!

[auntie pami]

Congratulations all of you! I adore those photos. Just can't get enough. Hope you are healing well and are actually getting some rest. Hope to visit sometime at your HQ!

[leslie]

awesome! just popped back in to read your story and what an amazing thing! so glad you didn't have to go through surgery again!! he looks absolutley perfect!

[Jean Mateychuk]

Thank you for sharing. You have a beautiful family. Cannot wait for the name story!!!!