Peter’s birth story - by David

Last night I attended a beautiful Easter vigil mass where one of my close friends went through the rights of initiation of the Catholic Church. When I arrived home my wife had thoughtfully prepared a pasta dinner for me and my daughter Sarah to munch on before we went to sleep.

Carlana was nearly overcome with excitement. Her birthing area was nearly complete. The final piece, the indoor pool, had just been filled up earlier that day. She decided to take a quick dip before sleeping.

After Carlana completed her late night swim, the three of us, Carlana, my daughter Sarah, and I cuddled up in bed to close a beautiful day.

…

At about 1:00am today, Easter Sunday, Carlana gently awakened me to say that she was feeling strong contractions and felt like the baby was coming soon. Being pulled by a strong urge to sleep and remembering Sarah’s lengthy birth, I asked her to awake me when the contractions became regular. So Sarah and I went back to sleep and Carlana proceeded to walk around downstairs.

I woke with a startle from a noise downstairs. I quickly ran down the stairs and saw Carlana’s reassuring face. She had accidentally knocked over something. False alarm. I want back to bed.

Again, I woke from a noise. This time Sarah woke up to and began to ask for her mother. Before I descended again I took the one tool I had at my disposal, a cross, and put it around my neck. When Sarah and I arrived there was Carlana smiling and happy to see us. In the moments that followed Carlana was intermittently beaming with joy and being tossed to the ground by the intense force of the contractions she felt.

Sarah, being concerned, stayed beside Carlana and carressed her while my wife was undergoing a pain I will never myself fully appreciate. I started taking down on a piece of paper when she was contracting. It read, 2:33, 2:35, 2:41, 2:46, and 2:48. After that I stopped writing. This thing is real. She’s going to have the baby.

I started to frantically call the midwife. After getting an uninformative message with her main number, I tried other numbers we had for her. No luck. One unfortunate got woken up by my mistake.

Carlana, clearly seeing something in my face, asked me if something was bothering me. I replied that YES, there is something bothering me, I CAN’T GET A HOLD OF THE MIDWIFE! By this time, Carlana’s mother woke up and was downstairs. She asked me if the midwife is coming? A surge of acceptance flowed over me and I replied that no, we couldn’t get ahold of her, but the doula was on her way.

Carlana said she wanted to go into the pool. She was told that when she was going through transition, it would be a good time for that. I didn’t believe she was in transition, so I encouraged her to wait. How could she be in transition while in such good spirits? I remembered the Lamaze training I had with Sarah . . . when a mother is in transition, there is no happiness.

In spite of my objections she went in. Sarah and I sat outside the pool doing little else than observing the intense journey Carlana was on right now.

After she complained a bit of being cold, I urged her to come out. I thought this would be best anyway as she wasn’t in transition. I noticed she was shaking.

Carlana asked me if there would be enough towels to warm her. I looked around and saw two. I told her this much and she got up and stepped both her legs out.

Immediately she had an extremely strong contraction with her arms around my neck. It took every bit of strength in me not to topple over, yet I felt a surge of strength. I assume adrenalin was being streamlined through my system.

Sarah was scared and crying with that one. I quickly grabbed her and handed her to my mother in law and Sarah screamed in even more terror at that.

I got back in time for Carlana’s next contraction. This time she screamed at the top of her lungs. ITS COMMMMING!!! A primal scream immediately followed. I looked down and saw the head of my son emerged from my wife. We squatted down.

Carlana looked down and then up at me and asked me to pull him out. I told her I couldn’t and that she’d need to push him out. With another scream my son’s entire body was in my hands.

I handed his slippery body to her and with an outpouring of tears she sobbed, “Oh, my baby!”.

My mind focused in on an immediate concern. Was he breathing? He wasn’t crying! He had a couple encouraging coughs as my mind flashed to pinching him to get him to cry. After a couple minutes which felt like years, he began to cry and I felt relief.

Carlana looked in my eyes and said “I want Sarah.” I ran to get her and she was still screaming in terror. When she arrived Sarah had the look of relief in her eyes as tears streamed down. She kept saying “baby!” “baby!”. We were all there cuddling on the living room floor.

After one of the most memorable 6 minutes of my life, our doula Kim finally arrived. After taking in the surprise that the birth had already occurred, she immediately got to work checking the temperature of the baby and advising us on our options (our doula was getting help on the phone from another midwife she knew). We took no time to decide that we wanted to stay home, Midwife or not. We were happy, healthy, and together.

Carrying the placenta in a bucket, the four of us moved over to the couch to sit. After some more special time, I cut the umbilical cord with some scissors that were boiled. The cord itself had a tourniquet made with pieces of my shoe strings.

The three of us then went upstairs to sleep for a few hours. When we woke up, Carlana and I found our front runners for a name (Curtis, and Rudy) were terrible (no offense to those with those names). We decided on Peter James Sankel. Peter was the first person Mary Magdalyn told of Jesus’s empty grave, an event we celebrate today. James is named after the book of James in the bible, which outlines a way of life that my wife and I aspire to live. I’ve called our new son PJ a few times today.

It’s now 3pm and I’m still in awe at what has happened today so far. We are truly blessed with our new healthy son and unforgettable Easter experience!

David Sankel

Comments

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

URI

Your Comment