Fervor

After two weeks of contractions that were enough to get our hopes up and stop suddenly, late in the evening Sunday September 23, 2007, his due date, it became apparent that he would take after his father and be fashionably late.

Jenn started having some contractions right before going to bed that night. Early Monday morning, (around 3:30am) the contractions had become strong enough and frequent enough that we called our mid wife around 6:45 in the morning.

She arrived around 7:30 at which point Jenn relaxed completely- her contractions immediately slowed down to the point where she was able to talk through them and was concerned we had made the call to early. Abi checked Jenn anyway and found that she was already 7cm dilated! We immediately got our things together and headed for the hospital. Jenn's water broke in the hospital parking lot. Things seemed to be happening really fast, we were even told we would should be home in time for lunch!

A quick aside, for months when I would mention to anyone that we had chosen to have a mid wife the next questions was usually "Are you giving birth at home?" Heck no! Abi was amazing through the entire process. Jenn would have bi-weekly appointments so you developed a strong rapport with her care giver. From the moment she arrived at our house she was with Jenn and completely committed to her care and was with us until well after Gavin was born. (Although her ability to work through the delivery and type on her blackberry made me envious) In the days following the delivery they have now done 3 visits home and two while Jenn was in the hospital. The level of care and commitment to their patients is remarkable and something I would recommend especially when contrasted to the rather cold and clinical experience with K, where we shared one nurse with two or three other patients . The soothing word and encouraging suggestions were enough to allow Jenn to do deliver sans epidural. They truly were committed to her care and during the morning, Abby did not hesitate to have to arrange consults with the Obstetrician at the hospital.

On with the story.

Jenn's contractions slowed down during the course of the morning. As we were soon to find out, Gavin was not descending as he had his hand beside his head, something I think he will be hearing about over the course of his life from Jenn. Because of his Superman presentation they needed to work his arm out before his head. Some remarkably hard work by Jenn and out he came 8lbs 1.5 oz. I even managed to cut the cord, something I had been dead set against, but well I 'm allowed to change my mind and manged to cut the cord without damaging my son or my wife.

Jenn's plan had been to shower and come home that afternoon. We learned with K. that we could manage on our own and would be more comfortable at home. Unfortunately, they were some concerns over blood work. What follows is my feeble attempt to describe it. Jenn's body had developed an antibody to an antigen in Gavin's blood, if during the delivery Jenn's blood became mixed with Gavin's it would increase the rate at which his blood would break down his fetal blood cells and would cause jaundice and possibly brain damage. After many picks of his heel for Biliruben tests ( not enough fingers and toes to count the we little scabs on his heels) everything turned out the be fine and the two night stay was purely precautionary, although we are grateful to the hospital staff for the help over the stay.

Gavin did receive some light therapy (E has been calling it photosynthesis) to help fight jaundice.

Everyone is home and doing great!