Saturday, August 13, 2011

Alyse - A Dad's Perspective

Kristin gave birth to our beautiful daughter Alyse on Monday afternoon at 12:40. Quite amazing, really. Below is the experience from a dad's perspective.


The hospital turned us down at 6am, only to tell us to hurry our butts in at 8. We arrived at 10 and the midwife broke Kristin's water at 10:30. Speaking of the midwife, she was incredible. Nancie Mooy is her name. If you are in SLC, I highly suggest looking her up. It was like having a doctor and a doula in one. The nurses respected her and did what she asked, and yet she understood and respected Kristin's desire to birth Alyse without medication. She was awesome.

But back to the story. After the water breakage, Kristin and I paced the halls for a good 45 minutes. I know some husband's fear the thought of natural birth because they fear the responsibility involved. They'd rather just sit back and let the epidural do all of the work. That's fine, and I'm not here to judge natural vs. medicated (Patten's birth was medicated and it was great), but I for one enjoy the husband's job in a non-medicated birth. At least with Alyse's birth, I noticed this most acutely while Kristin and I paced the halls. At times we could walk 100 yards without a contraction, at other times we couldn't walk 5 yards without a contraction. But the whole time it was as though no one else existed. Sure, we were walking by the nurse-hub quite frequently, and 10-15 nurses were watching our every move (they aren't sure about the whole labor while you walk thing). But to Kristin and I, it was just the two of us. We talked, we laughed, we cried (during contractions), we reminisced, we anticipated our daughter, and, generally, we just loved each other. What a special time. I won't soon forget it.

After pacing, we headed back to the hospital room. Kristin spent some time sitting on the birthing ball (medicine ball), used the restroom (I must say that "used the restroom" does not adequately describe the drama involved in that bathroom stop), and then headed for the bed. She first labored while laying on her back, when at some point the midwife said (in her respectful way): "now, Kristin, you can reject this, but I suggest you turn to your side to help that baby get over the pelvic floor." Kristin's response? "Let's do it." And, just like that, within 3 or 4 contractions, Alyse was out.

Alyse had a lot of white stuff (don't remember the name) on her, more than the boys. And despite Kristin's valiant efforts to be healthy during the pregnancy, she was still a large baby girl (8lbs 4oz; 21.5 inches). It took her 5 or 10 seconds to let out a cry, and she didn't cry incessantly like Kimball or Patten.

It took us a few minutes to decide on her name (which proves that all of you people who think we know our children's names 4 months before they are born are wrong). But the name settled in, and it wasn't long before I couldn't imagine my life without my baby girl. I can already tell the boys have a lot competition for my attention, and she's probably gonna win.


5 comments:

miss said...

Thanks for the story! Love you all lots and moss you already.

Barb said...

What a lovely birth experience! Thank you for sharing it. I especially loved hearing it from your perspective, Dave!

ebv said...

Adore this name. I'm pretty sure Erin and I would love to chat with you about the doola thing when that step in our lives comes up.

Anonymous said...

Love the story, Dave. Thanks for sharing.

Kristin is one of my heroes.

Love Alyse--she is such a doll!

You guys are wonderful!

Dad

P.S. I'm guessing the discussion about her name focused on whether it would be "Elise" or "Alise" or "Alyse?" But, that's just a guess. :)

Mame said...

Both of your posts were so sweet - and so real!! I love your thoughts about it being just the two of you. That's really great.