Mind the Gap

"Baby" Ruth Bretzke

Kristy woke up with contractions around 5 a.m. on July 22nd and started timing them. They turned out to be “nothing” and subsided. Around 2:45 that afternoon, the contractions started up again, and we started timing them.

For the next 4 hours, they were sporadic and mildly painful and we debated calling Nadine (Kristy’s doula) for a couple hours. I was excited and even made a spreadsheet, graphing the frequency, duration and pain level of each one. After a couple hours of charting contractions, I decided to focus on Kristy and showered her with kisses and soothing words to help her deal with the pain. Finally we called Nadine and asked her to come over; she arrived about 8. The contractions continued sporadically for a couple more hours so around 10 we all went for a long walk to try to move things along. It seemed to work. Upon arriving back home, Kristy laid her head in my lap for a bit and shortly thereafter, the contractions started in earnest.

Like clockwork, the contractions came every 5 minutes and were quite painful. This started around 11:30. By 12, they were coming even more frequently (3-4 minutes). We waited until about 12:45 and decided to head to the hospital. It turns out that we left not a minute too soon!

The last contraction just before we left was a real doozy. Kristy got in the back seat and Nadine sat with her to help her with the contractions. I dropped them off at the emergency room and headed around back to park. This was 1 a.m. on the dot. When I got into the labor room, Kristy was already in severe distress and the nurse told us she was going to check the dilation to determine whether she “should call the doctor and give him time to get ready or tell him he needs to get down here fast.” Kristy was already dilated to 6 cm and stretched to 7! The nurse said we needed doc to come quickly!

While we waited for the doctor to arrive, Nadine and I coached Kristy through increasingly frequent and painful contractions. The doctor showed up around 2 and gave us some info and instructions which are hazy in my memory already. By this point, we’d both been awake for over 20 hours. Dr. Salminiw quickly left to change into his birthing garments and returned about 5 minutes later. It was now 2:10 a.m. As soon as the doctor was back, the nurse told Kristy, “Ok, the next contraction you are going to push.” We were ready to go!

Contraction 1, pushes 1 and 2: Baby’s head entered the birth canal and top of head started showing.

Contraction 2, pushes 3 and 4: Top of head was visible on the first push and came all the way out on the second! The doctor urgently called out for her to stop pushing so he could check to see if the umbilical was wrapped around her neck. It was not.

Contraction 3, push 5: After about 4 seconds of pushing, baby slipped out!

The nurse wiped her off and put her on mom’s chest. After about 5 seconds, baby took her first gasp of breath and started crying! Strangely, I started crying too! 🙂 I was speechless for about 5 minutes. The only emotional highs I can think of that even come close to that feeling was when I graduated from college and when I got my first job afterward. I have entered a whole new world and I am eager to learn about it. I truly understand the meaning of love at first sight!

Some details: The baby arrived at 2:19, 9 minutes after Kristy was fully dilated and gave her first push. We arrived too late to ask for an epidural, which we had planned to do if we had enough time. She was 8 lbs, 6 oz and was 20 inches long. She took right to the nipple, quickly forming a secure latch and fed for a while.

At this point, many details are still hazy and I don’t recall some things. I’m still very tired after only getting a few interrupted hours of sleep last night so I’ll write more when I remember it. The official naming will occur tomorrow (Sunday). I’m 99% sure we’ll go with Emily.

In love with a pretty little girl,

-Steve