Tomorrow is my daughter Elizabeth’s 26th birthday. She is coming over so we can celebrate. Waffles and turkey bacon are on the menu for brunch, then we have a few movies to watch before having the “official’ birthday meal, which will be of her choosing.
It is a tradition in our family that we talk about our children’s births on their birthdays and since I had all three of my children at home with a midwife, the stories tend to be slightly different from the, “We drove to the hospital” fare. In Liz’s cause, the midwives – yes, two – arrived around midnight with a big oxygen tank on a dolly. I’d had a complication with big sister Sarah – the placenta wouldn’t detach from the uterus and I lost a little too much blood. These midwives had heard stories of that first birth and came prepared for the worst. Hence the oxygen tank.
All three of my babies were born early in the morning, which meant there were an all-night labor. I went into active labor with Liz with the same schedule as I had Sarah – a few cramps in late afternoon and by midnight I was on my way. The highlights of the labor are few:
Sarah – age three and a half – was up and in the bedroom with us, in fact she was my calmest coach. “You’re doing fine, Mama,” she’d say and pat my hand. I remember her eyes the most, calm and looking straight at me. “You’re doing a good job,” she said as my labor progressed, and despite the early morning hour, she was alert.
My best friend Patricia was present for all three of my children’s births and she and Ray would dress up in green scrubs while I was in labor. (I still don’t know where they got those scrubs!) But they were not calm. They zipped in and out of the room, getting food for the midwives and making sure that I had water or warm towels or a wash cloth. I halfway imagine that the midwives had them off “boiling water” to get them out-of-the-way. But that was only during the early stages of labor, once I started moving into transition, they were both right there, lending their support.
The best part of having a baby at home is that you are not strapped down to equipment that makes it difficult to move. I was on the hands and knees for much of my labor because my back was hurting. It became Ray’s job to rub my back as the labor got more and more difficult. “Rub!” I would say when a pain was coming and then shout, “Harder!” This went on for a long time. The next day I was surprised to see that I had a bruise the size of a small dinner plate where Ray had rubbed. At the time, however, the pressure he applied made everything a good deal better.
Elizabeth arrived at around 6 in the morning without complications. She weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces and she was 19 inches long. She had a head-full of dark hair and she was pink as she could be. The grandparents began arriving by 7 am, and then more family and friends streamed in over the course of the day. It was a happy event and we were all glad to have the celebration. The problem came around 8:30 that night when everyone had finally gone home and we were all heading to bed for the night. I lay down – Ray was already snoring – with Elizabeth next to me, nursing. She finished, and I closed my eyes to sleep. I had been up for over 24 hours and was so tired. Unfortunately, Liz didn’t settle down. Unlike Sarah, who had gone straight to sleep and had made it almost 7 hours on night one, Liz began to fuss. She wiggled in my arms and clearly was unhappy. I found myself sitting in my living room with my newborn until almost midnight while the rest of the house slept. Finally, Liz fell asleep in my arms and we headed to bed. The next day we had our follow-up appointment with the midwife. She immediately knew what was wrong.
“The baby has gas,” she said, “and she doesn’t know how to get rid of it yet.”
“Oh,” I said, “so what do we do?”
The midwife bent Liz’s little legs at the knees, then rolled her legs up over her stomach. Immediately, Liz emitted a sizable bit of gas. “Ah ha!” the midwife said. “Just as I suspected!”
Ray and I laughed all the way home. Sarah joined in. Our baby needed lessons we hadn’t quite expected.
That night, Elizabeth got fussy again, but we were ready to roll. Literally. And when we did, we were not disappointed with the results.
Baby Liz fell straight to sleep from then on out. Before long, she didn’t even need our help in that way.
Thank God the midwife showed us the secret. I might still be awake with that child if she had not…
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