argus @ acmeme

Posting Post-partum

What hubris to think I was going to keep the blogging going!

In fact, we just got parted from network connectivity more than I wasn't able to keep going on the typing.

Enola Electra Yoder-Danewitz was born at 10:49am yesterday.

(That's 32 hours after the labor contractions began, and 12 hours after we finally checked into the hospital.)

Her eyes are full of deep blue watchfulness, more wise than a thousand sages.

More later, and we'll be sending an email update to all our friends and lists today.

love,
susanargus

Blogging Labor III

Ok, now I'm starting to understand why the pain is considered epic. Contractions getting serious. We walked up to Shirley's and then around the block with Dakota, which I think may have shrunk the spacing a bit more. I'm back down to 6/7 minutes betweeen, but they are each a much more massive project. John says they are much more regular now.

As the contraction hits, my back tenses, making my spine try to overly curl. A clenching pain grips my belly, with sharp stabs. My thighs pull on the front muscle, tightening and clenching like a charley horse. Actually, I think that's a really good description of these contractions - huge full-abdomen charley horses that unclench in about 90 seconds. It's the same kind of breathing to get through them, too.

I'm sleepy and hungry, which weakens my resolve on this stuff. At Shirley's I was feeling really futile and defeated like I couldn't even manage the current set on my plate, but I think part of that was having to be public and partly fatigue. Posting these posts now is a nice distraction. I'm still really glad that the worst of each contraction is right towards the beginning. Anticipating something like this would be really hard.

I talked with the next door neighbor over there about his newly adopted tiny chihuahua, who collapsed on his yard in LA. Apparently her name is starting to become Bubbles Laserbeam. Something to keep in mind in case Spiderbug doesn't match her planned name when she arrives. :>

Blogging Labor II

1:06 I'm sitting at FSI right now on a parking lot median. I am doing this because John is inside taking class. I woke him at 4:55 this morning and said, "I don't think you'll be going to school today." He told me later he regrets not responding, "Did it snow?" We spent the first part of the morning packing last little things, showering, and counting contraction timing. We drove to John's mom's house with Dakota to drop him off and then to the hospital. When we got there, I was concerned. THe contractions were slowing instead of gaining, and we could very well get all the way checked in there and be told to go home. Thankfully, we did turn around after parking and went to John's sister's house, near the hospital. The contractions slowed more. Required frequency is 1 every 5 minutes, each lasting 1 minute long, for 1 hour. While I had gotten to four minutes between some, eventually I slowed to one every 15, then 20. We chatted a while longer with Mary and then drove to Dunkin Donuts, and to home. It is a great and wonderous thing to be tongue-tied in Dunkin Donuts because one is having a contraction.

At home we both took naps - I got two 30 minute ones in as the contractions slowed. Got back up when doctor's office called to cancel my Wednesday appointment (!) expecting it would be the advice nurse calling me back (!) but it wasn't (!). Watched an episode of House, occasionally pausing it to stagger drunkenly in circles around the downstairs in pain.

Then John got up too, and he drove us to campus. Since they're only allowing him to take two days off school without having his Arabic class canceled, we figured it would be worth it to check the box for today. What an insane practice. He hoped that if I did end up having the baby at FSI, Secretary Rice would hear about it and learn WHY exactly a family member felt he had to leave his wife contracting in a parking lot.

It's a beautiful day to be born - breeze, bright sun, blue sky, humid Virginia air, cicaidas quietly humming on the trees.

And my emotions right now? Practical. Not really poetic at all. This morning as I crept into bed to wake John up, I felt a bit wistful, and wanted to treasure every moment left when it was just the two of us. Before that, in the dark house, downstairs, before he was awake, I felt watchful. Each day closer to this birth has been a step further from understanding what it means. I've given up even trying to visualize life when she's here - all I can think about are the practicalities of diapers and sleeplessness, and there's no way to anticipate the state of my heart.

She's still kicking around through all this. Shifting and squirming, doing her usual independant things.

Blogging labor

12:57 Definitely in labor. I woke at 2:30 this morning because of one of the contractions. Quietly felt the next one in bed, then got up to see if more would follow. As I began tracking the contractions this morning, I sat quietly on the sofa for a while. I became slowly sure that this was no coincidence, and that my daughter would be born today. She's earlier than expected, and yet not - we had been making plans for Monday and Tuesday because I'm scheduled for induction for Wednesday morning.

So far, they don't feel queasy like I have feared. They have a sharper pain, more like the wrenching pain of really bad food poisoning than of the nausea of mere flu illness. I can deal with sharper pain. It doesn't sneak around my capabilities - it is localized, a hurt, rather than dispersed, an emotion. I know eventually my belly will be doing so much that it will trigger all types of nerves, but for now it just triggers powerful clenching. One is happening right now and I can type through it as it begins to grow, then the clenching clamping swells beyond my ability to ignore it, and I have to stop and cling to something or double over. These are not pains to sneeze at. They hurt hideously, but they're like wasabi - a quick burn and then when they're gone, there's almost no aftertaste. I'm just back in normal-land and can go about my business. A bit of soreness at this point in the abdomen, in the gaps between, but just like a muscle that has been stretched or the beginning of a sore muscle from exercise.