It's Time

Remember way back in 2010 when I was pregnant with Walter and I wondered how adding another child to our family would impact my blogging? Notice that I haven't been commenting on any of your blogs? Notice that I haven't posted since May?

I miss all of you. I do. I talk to you often, writing blog posts in my head that never make it onto the computer. I still think I'll be back someday. I just have my hands full right now.

One thing I absolutely had to take care of was writing Walter's birth story. I've been thinking about it for months and months. I realized eventually that I would need to take a vacation day from work when the kids are gone to write it. So I did. And it really took me all day to write it.

I'm going to publish the birth story in a day or so. As I've noted with all my birth stories, you need to know that the story isn't written for you. It's written for me. I need to document my memory of the events. The result is that the story may not be interesting to you. I fully recognize that. If I wanted to make it interesting for you, I'd leave out all the prelabor events, and I'd keep the post to under 1,500 words. As it is, though, the story is for me. It's long. It's detailed. It's probably pretty boring. Deal with it. Skim it. Ignore it. Read only the parts that interest you. Whatever.

As I wrote this, I looked back on my medical records from the midwives, and I revisited the photos and video. I noticed a note that Clare and Emme, our midwives, wrote on the chart at one of our prenatal visits my prediction of when Darth would arrive. It matches what I put in my own baby pool at work. I predicted:

Predicted Birth Date: May 12, 2010 (Actual date: May 10th)
I figured I'd have him on Wednesday since I usually take Wednesdays off starting the week or two before my due date. I went into labor with both Bel & Frank on Wednesday nights after my day off. I assumed I'd go past my due date, which is why I chose the 12th versus the 5th.

Predicted Time of Birth: 9:00 am or 9:00 pm (Actual time: 8:31 am)
I knew that I would want to have Bel and Frank awake and with me when Darth arrived. That was very important to me. Since women tend to labor when they feel safe, secure, and fully nested, I assumed I'd wait until they were awake before giving birth if labor started at night. If labor started during the day, I figured I'd give birth before their bedtime.

Predicted Weight: 8 lb. 3 oz. (Actual size: 8 lb. 6 oz.)
I've attended about 60 births as a doula. Most of the babies I see are eight pounds. Some are nine pounds, and a few are seven pounds. I get an occasional ten-pounder and six-pounder in there. Most, though, are in the eights. Bel was 7 lb. 2 oz., and Frank was 7 lb. 14 oz. I felt like I had always given birth to little squeakers. Andrew and I both weighed in a 6 lb. 7 oz. at birth, but babies are bigger these days. I wondered why my babies were so much smaller than my clients'. It's not my size (I'm 5 ft 4 in and 115 pounds), because some of my biggest doula babies came out of petite little mamas. I figured Darth would be my eight-pounder. He was. He's like my prized fish. I should hang him from a scale and take a picture. Oh wait, we have that:

I love Andrew's face expression. He looked at Walter when he was born and said, "I guess six pounds, seven ounces." I looked at Walter and thought he looked normal sized, so I guessed he'd be an eight-pounder. Andrew thought I was crazy. That look on my face as the midwives weighed Walter is the "I told you so" look I often have because I'm often right about things.

Well, look for the birth story soon. I wish I could say I'll be here blogging often, but I can't. I'm hoping that as Walter gets older and needs me less and less in the evenings after work, I may have some time to myself to write again. I look forward to that so that I can reconnect with all of you and your families again, too.