Aidric's Birth Story, Part I

There are many reasons to write your birth story. Because everyone has asked for it. Because I never want to forget the moment I was able to touch you. Because someday you might want to know.

You were born 12 days ago. And this is the first moment I have had to write because we have been completely selfish and in love. You absolutely love to nurse. And I absolutely love to nurse you. This morning, when I was nursing you in bed, Daddy snoozing next to us, you grasped my fingers with your little strong hands like usual. Except, you started to gently, lovingly stroke my index finger with your fingers. It was so deliberate and sweet, that I sobbed tears down onto you.

When you sleep, I sleep. And since you do nothing but nurse and sleep, that's been my life too. Your Daddy has been wonderful; washing our clothes, making food, cleaning up, and video taping every second. Be assured, we have video of you sleeping, eating, waking, looking around, and then sleeping some more.

We have taken you outside a few times to show you the silhouette of the trees against the sky, and feel the breeze on your skin. And so I can get a few minutes of sunshine. I have sung a million songs to you. It's funny, I felt a little weird singing when you were in my belly. Now I can't stop. We call you "Little Man" and "Baby Boy". Yes, I know, very original.

Okay, well onto your story. I wrote before about how, starting on August 4th (your due date), I had 10 days of 'false' labor. There was nothing 'false' about the pain, though. On Monday, August 11th, we went to see Dr. Wu for the Non Stress Test and to see how much amniotic fluid you had around you. Throughout all the contractions, your heartbeat was always so strong. You were always, like, what contractions? And the same went for the test. But your little house was drying up.



Rebecca, wonderful midwife, taking my blood pressure.



To speed things along, I took castor oil, a very tried and true midwife solution to getting labor started. It is by far the most disgusting thing I have ever done. And daddy and I walked and walked. And walked, until I couldn't be far from the bathroom. And again, the contractions came on strong and regular all night long, and again, slowed down towards morning. On Tuesday, we tried acupuncture to get things going again. And they did, full force that evening. We all thought this was it. Your waters broke, nice and clear. But again, things petered out towards morning. We didn't need to worry about infection because we had tested negative for Group B Strep. But by Wednesday your waters started to tinge a little greenish. You had pooped.


Mark, helping me through a contraction.

So Wednesday, after contractions started up again, and I was at 4 cm for most of the day with no further dilation, we decided to go to the hospital for some medical assistance. It seems I have a super strong cervix, one which Dr. Wu said should be studied, because there are so many women with weak ones. So off we went, in rush hour traffic, to the hospital. Ana Paula, our doula, and Rebecca, our midwife, came along.
They had been so patient, coming over so many nights when I was sure that was the night, and then going home in the morning. They are angels in the real world.

We had called ahead, but when we arrived at the hospital, there were no rooms. And we were ushered to the claustrophobic triage area, where my contractions decided to come on again full force.

to be continued.....