The birth story - in mom's words (briefly)

Photos were taken about 1 hour after his birth...

• In hindsight, the only odd signal that Deven was coming sooner than expected was my incredible urge to clean the tile-grout in the shower, on the morning of Tuesday 4/3. Otherwise, I felt great - jogged up & down the stairs at work, worked a full day; sent my last email of the evening at 10:45pm.


• My water broke @ 11:15pm on Tuesday 4/3; contractions started soon thereafter. I couldn't sleep, and in hindsight should've eaten a huge meal then.


• After calling our doula and midwives, we stayed home overnight, and went in to St. Luke's ~ 6am on Wednesday morning. They confirmed Deven was head-down & doing well, and we went back home.


• Our doula, Sarah, was a lifesaver. She kept us home far longer than we would've stayed on our own, and had all sorts of tips & tricks to ease my significant back labor pain.


• Water is good. Very, very good. A ball in the shower, sitting in the birthing tub - both fabulous.


• When our birth class instructor, Nancy, taught us the "make low sounds" birth tip, I thought it'd never work for me. Then I ended up low-humming my way through the final 6 hours of labor...and when I found the pain made my sounds higher-pitched, my pain increased. Keeping that lowest-possible pitch hum really helped.


• Interestingly, after being awake for over 36 hours and in labor for ~22 hours with little food (despite Yogesh's & Sarah's best efforts), I "zoned out" and actually don't remember much of the final few hours of pushing. So much for being "mindful" :-)


• The midwives, Yeshi and Becca, were fabulous. However, they didn't realize that he was face-up (most babies are face-down). Only our doula, Sarah, got it right.


• We were able to have a natural birth, despite Deven's "sunny side up" position.


• He came out with a head shaped like an iguana (no kidding), because of how he had to fit face-up. His head was normally-shaped within 1 hour.


• Yogesh was able to 'catch' him, @ 1:28am on Thursday, April 5, 2007.


• I felt great, after sleeping most of the 4/5 morning.


• Deven was "tongue-tied" - meaning his frenulum was connected by more tissue than normal, making breastfeeding somewhat painful at first. At his first doctor's visit, Dr. Schwanke snipped it a little (no blood, no crying - Deven didn't even awaken), and it's been much better since. It ain't easy! But we're getting it.