Why they call it “delivery” I don’t know. You have a pizza delivered – it’s cheap, instant, and painless. Delivering a baby on the other hand, is anything but. A healthy Judah Emrys Bruerd was born 4pm June 4th, 2010 after 13 hours of labor culminating in a dramatic, but uneventful c-section. Araella’s birth was a c-section, and being the natural folks we are, we decided to do a VBAC. We gathered from the surprised expressions of the nurses that VBAC’s were a relatively foreign concept. But it was the blank looks laced with total confusion that made us realized that, at least around here, the concept of “natural birth”(i.e. no pain meds) was an idea utterly alien.
Tara was amazing, and went through all 13 hours without a drop of pain meds, right down to the final moments. Unfortunately, just before Judah began to crown, Tara started having intense sharp pain during and between contractions, which is one of the primary indicators of a uterine rupture (from the previous c-section). We waited a few contractions to see if the situation would change, and when it didn’t, she was rushed off to the operating room for an emergency c-section. Both Tara and the baby did fabulous, and in the end Tara showed no sign of rupture for which we are thankful. The best guess at this point was Judah’s shoulder was braced hard against Tara’s old incision from the inside which may have caused the pain (it’s always been sensitive).
Judah was born 10 days early and a fuzzy 6lbs 7oz and 20 inches long and sleeps and nurses like he was born to it. Tara, with her half-day abdominal work-out and invasive surgery, is happily accepting all forms of pain medications and is recovering well. We expect to be discharged (now we’re using military terms) in 48 to 72 hours. 3 times a day something laughably called “nutritional services” delivers jello, an orange *flavored* drink, and a watery concoction that tastes remarkably unlike soup (probably laced with MSG). Time for that “delivery” concept I mentioned earlier.
I’ve tossed in a few obligatory photos and may post a few more later on.
