The due date was August 22nd and Cherity's Sister and Father booked a ticket that had a return flight on August 28th during the day. The 22nd came and went and Cherity finally started having contractions on Thursday. She told me that she might have to call me home that afternoon based on how the contractions were going. She didn't and the contractions subsided and pretty much stopped altogether. Friday morning I actually stayed home because Cherity was once again having contractions. Cherity got very stressed out because she felt bad that her sister and dad would miss the new arrival. I think we went for four walks on Friday. Some of the contractions started to come on again during our evening walk. Even to the point that she had to stop in the middle of walking across a street to wait for the contraction to subside. They were still pretty far apart and nothing was worth getting excited about yet. We went to bed.
Cherity woke me up at 1:00 AM and said that contractions were coming on at regular intervals. So my excitement set in, Robin was soon awake, and we started getting things setup: lit the candles, setup the relaxing music on the computer, put the plastic liner in the birthing tub, put the plastic under the birth tub, filled the birth tub, checked the birth tub water temperature, etc. That was the easy stuff, Cherity was doing the real work. She had her game face on and was working through each painful contraction. She was handling them with amazing composure, quiet and focused. About 5-8 minutes apart. I wondered aloud if we should call the midwives yet. When Sebastian was born the contractions were heavy like this and went on for hours. I think when Cherity went in to labor with Seb it was started at 3:00 in the morning, he was born at 7:00 in the evening. It was 2:00 AM now. We would wait another hour. When Cherity would lay down the contractions were much more intense but further apart, when standing they would get closer together and were not as intense. An hour passed and they were consistent and strong. Just to be safe we decided it was best to call our midwife, Julie. We didn't want to wake the midwives if it was too early for no reason but didn't want to make the mistake of waiting too long. I called and told her what the situation was and Julie later said that she thought I said that the contractions would slow down when Cherity would stand up. That will have to be left up for debate: ) Either way Julie said she would get her stuff together and head over just to be safe. I hung up the phone and Robin and I worked on trying to comfort Cherity the best we could which is a pretty helpless feeling.
Somewhere around 3:45 to 3:55 the contractions started to pile on. Less than a minute apart if I'm remembering correctly. This is when things REALLY started to speed up. I called Julie just to see where she was at. I was still pretty calm at this point, a little concerned, but still calm. Julie was on Hampden and had just crossed Hampden. Hampden ave. and Hampden circle was about 8 minutes from our house. Good. That's a tolerable amount of time to wait. I hung up the phone and Cherity is in the birthing tub being very vocal during her contractions. As soon as one finishes another comes on. I can't remember if Robin said "I think she needs to push" or "I think she's pushing". Either way I'm having trouble processing this information but Cherity is definitely responding to some primal instinct and I'm a little frantic and immediately juiced. At this point some of the details are a little hazy. Cherity said later that Robin tried to feel for the head and Cherity had told her something like "Don't touch me!"... something to that effect. At that point I don't remember if Robin had said the heads out although I think that's what I was told by Cherity later. I don't think I believed her because I specifically remember putting my hands down to feel and feeling a little infants head and saying something like, and since I can't remember I'll paraphrase "Holy Crap! The baby's head is out!" Robin was on one side of the tub and I was on the other and it seemed like an awkward reach to catch the baby for me. I was in shorts and a t-shirt so I briskly stepped in to the birth tub because I wanted a better feel and there was no way this baby was going to drop without me catching her although since Cherity was in water my fears probably weren't warranted. Either way, I wasn't taking any chances and as soon as I was in the tub I could feel Annalivia's nose and cheeks... and I was amazed again. Robin said later that she was worried about the baby getting stuck where the head is out but the shoulders were stuck. I was just thinking "push it out!" I can't remember what I said but I'm pretty sure I didn't say that. Cherity was on her hands and knees and Robin told Cherity to turn around so she could take the baby right to her chest as soon as she came out since the umbilical cord would still have the two of them attached. I think somewhere about this point Cherity's primal instinct met up with her cerebral thought processes because she was asking questions now when Robin would recommend doing anything. It would have been nice to have video because how I remember things and how they happened I'm not quite sure of. I remember after she turned to face me that there were two more pushes. The first one, I think, pushed the baby's head completely out and the second shot Annalivia completely out in to my hands. I handed the tiny little masterpiece to Cherity. There was probably a half second pause before Annalivia started crying.... she was showing off her new lungs. She was not too happy with how things went down.
I forgot to mention that when the contractions started to come on hard Cherity had quickly said between the contractions "Go get the boys!" Which was another adrenaline push for me because I knew something was serious. Cherity had wanted the boys to be there for the birth. Cherity's mom went down the stairs and by the time she actually got the boys awake and the boys and Grandma and Grandpa were headed up the stairs Annalivia was crying in Cherity's arms. Seb didn't want to come in the room and Owen was the opposite. He wanted to drink in the whole experience. It took a while for Seb to come in the room to see the baby but he had a sheepish smile on his face. I still don't think Sebby knows what to think about all of this.
So Cherity is in the Birthing tub sitting there with a grayish purple baby with placenta blood on her little head screaming her head off. I'm standing there soaking wet watcing this; and Robin is helping Cherity situate herself. My number one thought at this point was "boy or girl?" and second was "where's the midwife?". I checked the window from the bedroom and saw her car heading up the road. I ran out to the front and got there as she had pulled to the side of the road and was getting out. I just said something to the effect "the baby's already born". Her response was "What!?". A lot can happen in 5-10 minutes.
The rest is all details. Jennifer, Julie's assistant, showed up five minutes later and I think said the same thing as she walked up the stairs "What?!" and then she started trucking it up the steps.
So that's it. The result: a very annoyed 19 3/8" long, 6 pounds 3 ounces beautiful little girl who is so tiny and perfect I can't believe it.
Of all the congratulations I've received via email etc... was when my brother-in-law Jon emailed and stated the following:
I should also say, congratulations Doctor!! That musta been nerve wracking. You've done something very few have ever done.
It's a picture of what you'll be for her for the rest of her life. There to catch her!
Love you, man.
