1+1=3; the story of Ivy Dawne

Hello Blog World. This is my debut as a blog-author, or as I call it, a Blauthor. Kara usually keeps everyone up to date, but I decided to take a stab at this. Be warned: it's long!

We heard a lot of commotion from our friends and family when they heard that we were bringing our little Ivy into the world going completely natural (that's right, no epideral, no Tylenol, 100 percent natural)... We thought you might like to hear the story!

Friday morning the 16th we went to see our midwife to find out where we were in the process of delivery. Kara's due date was on the 8th, and being over a week late was a little discouraging. She (the midwife) told us that it could be up to another week. Kara wasn't dialated or effaced at all, and had only had a couple of minor contractions. Our nationals competition for clogging was at Lagoon, and I toyed around with the idea of traveling up for the day, and coming home the same evening. I couldn't bring myself to do it, however, so we planned for a very uneventful last weekend together. We tried to book Kara's dads boat for Saturday, but it was already spoken for. We spent Friday cleaning house, and spending time together, and going to visit our good friends, Greg and Stephanie. We decided to take the advice of some of our family and friends to watch a movie together, and soak in the moments before we were to give birth. We planned to go for a drive Saturday, and made a reservation at a fancy, shmancy restaurant for one more expensive dinner before parenthood set in!

Saturday morning about 7:00am, Kara woke up and had her first real contraction. She started timing them about 9:00am and found them to be 8 minutes apart, and only 20 seconds long. She made a couple of phone calls to her mom and sister to ask if what she was feeling was what she thought it was. When it was confirmed that we were in the early stages of labor, we finished packing our bags to go to The Baby Place in Meridian, a natural birthing center, and began preparing for birth. A lot of the day was spent trying to provide distractions in between contractions, and using the methods brilliantly taught by our various natural birthing instructors. Kara's mom also came over and helped time contractions while we worked through them.

We feel like Kara went into active labor about 6:00pm, according to textbook labors. We made a phone call to our midwife, and then at 9:00pm made the trip to Meridian. I was begging for the excuse to run stop signs, red lights, and pass other vehicles but imagine my surprise when Kara didn't give me the go ahead! We arrived and found that Kara was then dialated to a 4, and 100 percent effaced, which the midwife said was an excellent sign that she was working WITH her contractions, and not against them. Later, our midwives said that if they would have not known our situation, they would have thought this was Kara's 2nd or 3rd baby by how well she did it all. MY WIFE ROCKS!!!

Instead of the traditional hospital birth where women are encouraged to lie down on their back, Kara was on the bed for about 2 minutes the entire labor. She found it more comfortable to be on the birthing ball, AKA the yoga ball, in the garden tub, walking out back, or my favorite, slow-dancing with me. As long as she could sway her hips, she dealt with the contractions a lot better. The lights were dim, and the atmosphere was peaceful the entire time. During contractions we found the most relief and ability to cope by hugging one another and swaying her hips side to side while doing some deep breathing and moaning exercises. At about 11:00pm Kara had dialated to a 7, with Ivy dropping significantly closer to the real world! 1 hour and 45 minutes later, Kara was ready to push. She had to hold off for about 10 minutes, which was the hardest part for her. Patience is usually a strong characteristic of Kara's (look who she's married to), but she was having a hard time waiting!

At last, our midwife told Kara to go to the birthing stool, and start to push. 5 contractions later, at 1:04am, Ivy Dawne Walker was born into the world! She weighed 8lbs 6oz, was 21 inches long, and had a head full of thick black hair. She was immediately placed on Kara's chest for some mother/daughter bonding time. I got to cut the cord (guys like to cut stuff), and then we held our precious jewel for a couple of hours. After that the wonderful midwives came in and cleaned up Ivy in the room with us, and then left us with her to love and bond with. From a first- time dad's perspective, I completely underestimated the overwhelming array of emotions sweeping over me as I got to hold my new child in my arms for the first time. Tears flowed more freely then than at any other time I can remember (yep. Mr. Sensitive; I feel totally comfortable writing this, because I'm assuming that NO guys will be reading this. They stopped at "here's the story of my wife's labor!")

We came home Sunday afternoon at about 4:30pm, and have been trying to sleep ever since! :)

Many people have been interested to know about the experience at a natural birthing center as compared to a hospital. We have nothing to compare it to, but we found a lot of things that we really appreciated in the birthing center. It was a peaceful room. The lights were dim, and the only people in the room were those that Kara and I knew and loved. There were only 3 nurses/midwives in the room for the delivery, and were very respectful to allow us to hold and be with Ivy before they cleaned her. It was an amazing experience, that we wouldn't do any different if we could go back.

Being a dad is the best job in the world. Every day seems like another miracle. I feel so blessed that I have the 2 most beautiful girls in the whole world with me every day. (Don't worry mom, you still rank pretty high up there!:)