The Story of You, Part 3

Mama was having back labor, which means the contractions were more in her back than in her stomach, and while I wanted very much to have you without any medical interventions or any medicine, I was starting to wonder if I could manage it. Liza helped me move into a better position on the bed though, and while the back pain didn’t go completely away, some of the moving shifted you enough that Mama was able to get a second wind. It was wonderful, like a fog lifted, and I started thinking about how close you were to finally being here. Daddy didn’t move more than two feet from us the whole time; he never trembled or needed to sit down at all and Mama was so grateful that he was there. (Even if she did tell him to shut up, just one time, in the bathroom when no one else was around. And she apologized right away.)

Everyone kept telling me to push, but I just couldn’t. Didn’t seem like the time somehow, but before long, the urge to push did hit and then I couldn’t have stopped if they’d asked me to! I still wasn’t sure I could do it, and I’d almost go to sleep between contractions, just dozing off, but Liza and Sue and Daddy kept telling me that I could, that I was doing great, that you were almost here, and it wasn’t long at all before they could see the top of your head. Daddy and Mama both touched your head – we wanted the first touches you felt to be ours, if at all possible, and Liza moved a mirror down so that I could see you as you began to come out.

You had so much hair! Daddy told people later that your hair was born seven minutes before the rest of you, and he was probably right. Liza thought you must be a boy, because she said pretty hair is usually wasted on little boys, but she told Daddy that she wasn’t even going to look when you came out, just turn you around and hold you up for him to see. (I remember feeling just a tiny bit disappointed when she said that, because I’d so hoped you’d be a girl.) Once you started coming out, Liza saw that your umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck, but she untangled you, helped turn you just a little bit, and the next time I pushed, you came right out! It was 7:35 p.m. on Monday, September 6.