look, a birth story!

Thank you all for your generous praise of my less than 15 second home improvement.

Two of you were surprised (maybe, is that the right word?) that I have come through the gauntlet of natural childbirth. This is because a) I hate needles (Rachel can attest to the fact that just SEEING someone on a video get an epidural gave me a panic attack freshman year. Remember talking me through not fainting, Rach? Good times) and b) my babies come way way fast.

For proof (and to record it somewhere) here's Chris's play by play of the day Moira was born. Enjoy.

October 9th, 2006

On Monday, I went to school not realizing that my wife was experiencing contractions. I finished my first class and was on the way to buy Microsoft Office 2003 for my notebook computer when I checked in with my wife. She told me that she'd been having contractions about 10 – 15 minutes apart. I asked her what that meant and she didn't know, so I told her to look in the packet that they gave her when we took the hospital tour. She called me back and said that we'd probably better go in, but not to hurry. Meanwhile I bought the computer program and was installing it on the laptop and she calls me and tells me to come home in the next hour so we can go, no rush.

So I finish setting up Office and give my laptop to one of my class mates so he can take it to class and let the professor use it for his presentation. (I was in charge of the audio visual setup, but the department equipment was already checked out, so I was going to use my own computer). Then I went to my car and was pulling out when she called and said that she wasn't sure who to ask to babysit as several people had offered. I told her to ask Sister Christensen (my advisor/mission president's wife) to come over in case we went later into the evening. So I arrived home shortly before Sister Christensen arrived, and we dilly dallied around and finally got on the road to the hospital.

As we are getting into the car Reba pauses to let a contraction pass before she gets in. Bad sign. On the drive to the hospital they start getting more intense. Hmmmm. Reba insists that I not pull into emergency parking, but that I should just park 6 miles away in student parking and that she could walk. Another warning light missed. So I park and we make our trek into the emergency room, where they find a wheel chair for Reba. She wanted to walk but it's a good thing they found one for her. The contractions were getting stronger and more frequent but the girl pushing Reba doesn't seem phased by it. So I'm thinking "no big deal" On the elevator ride up to the Labor and Delivery ward Reba's water breaks, and she's singing through the pain. (She's really singing) Also not a good sign not to mention all the weird looks we're getting from everyone looking at the singing-laboring woman. (Editor's note: This book says that singing vowels helps you to dialate faster. My singing was very scientific, people, even if it embarassed my husband.)

By the time we get to the registration desk, Reba is hooting and hollering and they want her information. Yeah right. I end up signing half the forms because Reba can't hold the clip board. So then they rush us over to the triage room (where they examine the patient to make sure they're really in labor before sending them into a labor and delivery room) and before Reba was half way into her gown, the baby was crowning. Well, let me tell you how fast the nurses were running at this point. I was just trying not to get run over and stay out of the way. Pretty soon we had a couple of residents in our room because no doctor was in sight and they were catching the baby. From the time we were in the elevator till the baby arrived was about 10 minutes, and about 15 minutes after we arrived at the hospital in the ER. So much for parking 300 miles from the door. Had I made a wrong turn, I could have had my first experience as a "doctor". We're pretty grateful that that didn't happen.

The baby and Reba are doing fine and we feel extremely blessed with how things have worked out thus far. They didn't even have time for heart monitors or an IV (Reba was happy with the no IV thing) and she delivered like a pro. Somehow I don't think Reba will go "Pro", though. (instead of WWF Monday Night Raw it could be Monday Night Delivery . . . Raw! . . . I know I'm weird)

So, to make a short story long, Moira Alice arrived at 1:03 pm this afternoon and she is beautiful. At 6 lbs 4 ounces and 19.25 inches she's a perfectly healthy light-weight. We're so happy and blessed to welcome a new addition to our family. She's been pleasant so far and we expect it to continue. She's got a wee bit of hair that appears to be wavy. At first we didn't think she looked much like Ellie but as she's nursed and stopped scrunching her face we changed our minds. We'll give you more updates in next weeks letter and perhaps tell you the saga of "Eliza meets Moira".