Saturday Night

Saturday night actually started very early in the day. Carolyn woke up sometime before 5 am with a strong desire to prepare food. She had some contractions or something so we got up and I made coffee. I was tired. Dawson woke up around 7:30 and we all spent some time in the living room before we decided it was time to go back to bed.

I had a photo assignment on Saturday so at 12:30 I left the house. We also had dinner plans, so Carolyn drove the little man up to his grandparents' house for an overnight stay. At 3:30, I was standing on my porch when some friends walked by on their way to the brewery; Carolyn was not yet back from a visit with her parents so I tagged along. I was just along for the ride, though, I didn't have an appetite for beer. At 4:15 or so I got back to the house and Carolyn was having minor but continuing contractions. We put on an episode of the miniseries Fargo and we made plans to stop by my buddy's food trailer on our way up to our dinner event... as long as the contractions didn't continue.

At 5:30 or so, the contractions were still going, so naturally, I renewed a couple of craigslist for sale ads and watched another episode of Fargo. Phil the neighbor needed ice for his dog who had been through surgery earlier in the week, so he came over for a few minutes. Someone replied to my advertisement for a smartphone I had listed for sale on craigslist and he agreed to stop by my house. He was 15 minutes late so I was pacing as Carolyn experienced early labor on our couch. I got my cash and he got his phone and made some weird incomprehensible excuse about why he was late, but it didn't matter.

We had started timing contractions at around 6:00 and starting at 6:22, we kept a detailed log.I went out to the store to buy something for Carolyn and also to pick up a copy of the New York Times, which I consider a good and important souvenir to have for your birthday. Fortunately it was a Saturday so the local newspaper had been delivered to our doorstep.

At 7:00 or so we went upstairs.At 8:00, we called the midwife Lauren and asked her to be ready - we knew the baby was coming. At 8:51, we asked her to come in an hour. At 9:51, we called to make sure she was on her way. She was, and she showed up very close to 10:00 pm. Carolyn had been in and out of the bath already and had labored some in our bed and also on an inflatable exercise ball. Everything was going well and Lauren prepared her supplies and checked the heart rate of the baby and Carolyn's vital signs. Everything was going fine.

The next two hours were something of a blur for me, Carolyn's contractions continued and by midnight, were passing back and forth between extremely intense efforts by her body followed by complete calm. Several times I wanted to remind Carolyn to breath but before I did she would roar back to life to begin another contraction. Lauren announced the passage of midnight and we now would need to get newspapers from Sunday to save for the young child. At this point things were getting intense for Carolyn. She was back in the bathtub and she sank lower and lower and continued to cycle between periods of pain and extreme calm. A few times I almost spoke to remind her to breath, but each time she would take a breath right before I did anything. The child was dropping and I stayed by her side and Lauren silently observed, checking the heart rate a few times through the ordeal.

Finally, at just before 1:00 am the child emerged, head first, face down into the bath water. (I was not watching the clock but Lauren was). First, it was just the head, looking left and right but unable to move otherwise. I put my hand on its face inadvertently before realizing what exactly was going on, then adjusted my grip. Lauren offered a little help pulling the child out by its armpits and I held the baby in the water for a moment and lifted it from the water and onto Carolyn's stomach. Lauren announced the time, 1:01 am, Sunday, February 21. Without any drama, the baby gurgled to life, first with a whimpering cry. We scooped warm bathwater onto the baby to keep it warm. We had no idea the sex.

Finally, Lauren offered help in orchestrating Carolyn's exit from the tub and helped us get into the bedroom, about 5 steps away. I put my head down low to look up and determine the sex. We had another boy. Carolyn lied on her back and the baby, still attached by the umbilical cord, began the process of bonding and finding food. Exactly as nature designed, our boy began squirming up her belly, kicking and punching at her stomach and searching for her breasts, while smelling his own hands and rooting around. He found his food source quickly but took a little time to latch on. After an hour, Carolyn helped the young man and he was able to get his first meal.

Lauren stayed and cleaned up, and prepared for the first minor exam of the child. We obtained his birth weight of 7 pounds, 0 ounces. Together, we used candles to burn the umbilical cord to sever the boy from his placenta, which had come out without drama. It was large and healthy and Lauren made us a "print" on a sheet of Dawson's art paper. I placed the placenta in a plastic zip lock bag and into our refrigerator for later use. Lauren and I stripped the upper layer of sheets from the bed which we had specially prepared for this event, and Carolyn and I crawled into bed and slept. The boy wore no diaper his first night and ate and had his first several hours of life without incident.