Kieran’s First Year

December 10th, 2009 by Dionna | 10 Comments
Posted in My Family, Pregnancy and Birth

At about 12:00p.m. on December 10 two years ago, I realized that my water had, indeed, broken.

So began 31 hours of labor.

I can recall the faintest scraps of that first 24 hours in vivid detail . . .

-a red light that lasted for an eternity on my way to see the midwife. I finally ran it and giggled hysterically at the thought of some poor police officer pulling me over;

-hushed and hurried conversations with Tom about the best place to labor. An ice storm was moving in and we didn’t want to get stuck delivering at a hospital (our birth center was 30 minutes away on a good day). We ended up going to the birth center around 7:00p.m., well before active labor started;

-the first contraction that felt like much more than a menstrual cramp: I was sitting in the car waiting for Tom to pick up a pizza. I don’t remember what it felt like, but I do remember laughing nervously (“so this is what I’ve gotten myself in to”);

-a steady progression of pain which resulted in absolutely no sleep. I sent my birth coach home around 10:00 after time spent  walking, laughing, and praying that I would progress. In most of the wee hours of that night, it was just me – rocking with the pain and staring out the window at the ice accumulating. The power blinked off sometime that night, and I felt incredibly isolated without the normal whir of heaters and appliances and the glow of the bathroom light. When the contractions finally started to take my breath away around 2:30a.m., I woke Tom. He held me, half asleep and loopy from his cold medicine, and we rocked together in the pre-dawn darkness.

For those of you who are interested, I will post a birth story tomorrow.

Today, please enjoy the slideshow we made for Kieran’s first birthday last year.

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