Pre Labor
At 39 weeks, Amanda was about ready to get Baby Luckie out. We spent the weekend eating foods known to induce (not necessarily scientific) and walking all over downtown.
Some Brazilian style cinnamon roasted pineapple.
We went to the park.
We walked up to Church and Washington and Amanda helped unload some glassware at FireForge Crafted Beer. Opening May 2018!!!
The next morning was Easter Sunday. After church, we had lunch on the porch at Mary’s.
Then went for another walk, bringing some gelato to the park.
And then we waddled back up Church Street.
Early Labor
We had elected to deliver at the Greenville Birth Center at the Greenville Midwifery, (our primary prenatal provider) because of the relaxed atmosphere it offered and our belief in the philosophy of their practice.
Wednesday night, as I was preparing for a 3 hour meeting I was hosting Thursday at 1 PM, Amanda looked over to me and said she thought she was about 1 hour away from calling the birth center. I quickly jotted off an email letting my manager and client know that the chances of me being in tomorrow were diminishing. But just 10 minutes later Amanda indicated that things had slowed down. I wrapped up my preparation and we headed to bed, getting a full night’s rest. Amanda had taken the day off Wednesday, suspicious she might go into labor, and that evening decided that she would begin her maternity leave retroactively that day. I was very relieved as her 45 minute commute had always worried me.
Thursday morning, Amanda began having contractions around 4:30 AM. Amanda’s mother was on spring break and was hanging out with her during the day, so I went into work, with my ring tone jacked up to full volume. Around mid morning, Amanda stopped by the midwifery with her mother. They checked her over, told her to go take a walk, and that they’d see her soon, before she left the midwifery, she put on an adult diaper.
They had lunch at Panera, and then on the way out of the restaurant, in the foyer, Amanda’s water broke, luckily the fortuitous diaper prevented any scene from being made. At that time I was in the Fluor parking lot, grabbing something from my car. I quickly sent an email to my team announcing that I would be out the rest of the week, effective immediately, and raced home.
The Birth Story
We re-grouped at home before heading to the Birth Center. Within minutes of arriving, the first examination found a small amount of meconium present in Amanda’s amniotic fluid. This is an indicator of possible distress and it removed the possibility of delivering at the birth center. We were transferred across the street to the hospital, where Amanda would have to wear monitor straps continuously and would not be able to have the planned water birth.
Our first three hours, or so, at the hospital were mostly squats and positioning activities in order to get baby in position.
Birth ball stuff like this…
Some hip sways like this… before it was time to push.
She pushed like this for a while before she got on her back… she’s not letting me show any of those pictures.
And it wasn’t very long before we were like this. About an hour of serious pushing after some preliminary practice pushes.
Addison Rowen Luckie was born at 7 lbs, 3 ounces and 20.75 inches long. Amanda gave birth without any pain medication and in true Amanda fashion, was very quiet and calm the whole time. In the first 6 hours of Addison’s life we had a little trouble with her keeping her body temperature where we wanted it, so Daddy spent some time with her in the nursery under a heat lamp. She got a good night sleep, except around 4 AM when she started coughing up some of Amanda’s blood she had swallowed during delivery. Daddy and Addison made a quick visit to the nursery where her stomach was suctioned. It wasn’t long before we were all back together and we all got a little bit more sleep.
We had lots of family visit the next day in-between hearing tests, blood tests, our pediatrician practice checking in, and administrative paperwork. We finally were able to check out around 9:30 PM, 27 hours after birth, and about 33 hours after checking into the hospital. The experience was very different than the 6 hour after birth discharge we had planned for, but Mommy and Baby were healthy, and that was all we cared about. In a few days we’ll try to share some of the stories from her first week at home.
