Egan Russell ~ Sept 24th

Egan Russell Sewall
Alternate blog title:
The couch will never be the same again


Sept 24th at ~1am
6 lb 4 oz
19 1/4 inches

First, I would like to mention that my labor with Elena was 36 hours from water breaking to baby coming, complete with pitocin, hours of walking, hours of hospital labor, and over an hour of pushing. I think it’s important to just make sure we are all ‘starting’ from the same place.

I guess you can never really know what to expect during labor. Each time is different. I’d been getting increasingly uncomfortable. This is not unexpected, at 39 weeks the condition is obvious, and so is the ‘cure’ – have a baby. Monday I started to lose my mucus plug. Internet research (as well as polling a few friends) indicated that this mean I had anywhere from 6 hours to 2.5 weeks. Excellent. I love some hard data. I’d stopped going into work for the most part and spent the day working on my computer at home, napping, and running a few errands. I was getting contractions (as I had been for several weeks) though more frequently. But they were irregular and didn’t have a pattern and would decrease as soon I as decreased my activity. I wondered if it might happen sooner rather than later…but this is a dangerous though when considering labor because if you go late, it makes it a terrible wait. I slept surprisingly well on Monday night. Tuesday morning I went up to work in a futile attempt to deal with POP email servers and three different work computers. I went home for a walk and lunch. Then I got a desperately needed hair cut and a nice pedicure. I was having contractions through out the day, but again, not much different than I’d been experiencing for several weeks. After that I made up a big batch of tomatillo salsa and canned it. Jake and Elena arrived home and we went for a little bike ride (well, Elena rode her bike, I waddled, Jake walked). Again, I was getting some contractions and I had to slow down, but I figured like most nights, when I laid down, they would die away. By dinner time, dinner didn’t sound so good and I was having to get up and squat a bit during contractions or lean over the counter. So I didn’t eat and Jake gave Elena a bath, while I cleaned the kitchen a bit. I found that kneeling took some pressure off – and Elena thought this was a great time to rub my back to help. It was very sweet.

The last thing Elena said before she went to sleep was, ‘Tell momma, babies come when they want.’ (of course just repeating what we have been saying to her for the last weeks, but turned out to be very true) After Elena went to bed, I got into the bath. The contractions decreased in intensity and frequency, but it seemed like things were really getting started – perhaps in a day or two, there would be a baby. So, Jake made tea and we watched the Daily Show. We took these photos of my belly...



The last one Jake insisted on to prove that the funniest thing about this pregnancy is that from behind, I never looked pregnant.


The contractions came back to previous strength. Jake got ready for bed by taking breaks to rub my back during the contractions. I could tell that they were getting stronger and suggested we call his mom to tell her drive down, give the doula a heads up, or let Brad know we might be dropping Elena off tonight. Jake didn’t want to rush things and worry people and said, let’s just go to bed and I’ll rub you back. So we went to bed about 10 pm. He rubbed my back during the contractions. By about 11, I couldn’t lay in bed, I needed to knee over Jake during the contractions. He was really focused on us staying rested to have energy, fully expecting for things to last a long time like with Elena. I was aware that things were definitely happening, but my water hadn’t broken yet (like with Elena) so I figured we had time and I was quite aware that once my water broke, it would get harder. At 11:30 I couldn’t stay in bed. I had to get to the bathroom (and throw up). So into the bathroom. Jake brought the birth ball and I alternated between the toilet, the birth ball, and leaning on the wall with my foot on the tub. At about midnight I couldn’t handle the contractions with Jake anymore. He was helping me, rub my back, support me and go ‘low’ while moaning, but I was feeling extreme pressure in my lower back. His rubbing almost hurt. I asked him to call our doula, Michal. At that point I was experiencing sort of double contractions. I was able to talk between the major pluses with Jake about them, ask for water, etc. It was like a contraction that peaked, ebbed into a lower contraction, peaked again with slightly less intensity, then diminished. In the time between calling Michal and her arrival, the intensity cranked way up. I was bracing against the ball, resisting the contractions. I knew it was time to go to the hospital soon, but I wanted Michal to be here to help assess how soon and I was worried about Brad getting here to be with Elena or dropping her off or what would happen. I wasn’t however able to really communicate these concerns to Jake. I knew once Michal arrived I could just say ‘hospital’ and the two of them would make it happen for me. The contractions were too close, recovering from them took every moment in between. I thought I was experiencing back labor, this would explain the extreme pressure in my tailbone and lower back. At about 12:45 Michal arrived. I knew I had to get off the birth ball and lean forward. I thought to help with the back labor. I had a massive contraction still in the bathroom, Michal couldn’t get in the door. Then I asked to get out – lean on the couch. Jake transferred me to Michal in the hallway and she lead me toward the couch. Jake put a towel down and brought the barf bucket in case I needed it. Just to show how quickly things went, at this point Jake was planning on starting up his computer to send an email to cancel his classes for the next day. On the couch I had another contraction and in this position (rather than against the resistance of the birth ball) I could feel the head low in my pelvis. IT was the pressure – and it wasn’t in my back, it was low on my perineum. I knew at that moment we had to go quickly to the hospital. So I was yelling (saying?) ‘call brad, call brad’ – knowing that someone was going to have to be with Elena. Then I leaned back down a bit, when I sat up, my water broke. With an audible pop. The amount of water was truly impressive. My first thought was, ‘man, that’s a huge mess.’ Then I thought, ‘what I am going to do, the contractions are going to get really bad now.’ Apparently I was less calm in reality – Michal was petting my back, urging me to say calm, saying what a good job I was doing. My third thought was a shocking one – I feel the head coming out. So I start yelling, ‘baby! Baby!’ Michal is kneeling on the couch with me, urging calm. Jake said he was trying to calm me down when he looked down and saw the head crowning. Then another contraction comes, I’m thinking, ‘don’t push, don’t push’ and in a huge gush from the contraction itself the baby comes out. Jake said before he could even tell Michal that the baby really was coming out, the face and body just appeared. I think at this point I’m yelling, ‘911, 911!’ No one is sure if Jake actually caught the baby or scooped him up afterward. Michal is saying, ‘erin turn around, turn around.’ I’m afraid. I don’t know how to do that, where is the baby. She says, ‘What do you see?’ (I really wanted to announce the sex and was worried the doctors and nurses might instead.) I’m thinking, ‘Holy Crap, I see a baby on my couch.’ I say, ‘It’s a boy.’ Jake is there holding the baby. Michal is trying to turn me around. They put the baby onto my belly. I think I’m still saying 911 at this point. Michal tells Jake to rub the baby’s back, and he makes little squeaky noises. Michal insists the baby is OK and is running for towels to throw over us. Jake and Michal are rubbing the baby. Michal calls 911 to send the rescue squad. Jake and Michal are assuring me the baby is OK and he is…all grey, but breathing, making little cries occasionally and moving. I say to Jake, ‘we have to get Elena up – the sirens will frighten her.’ Jake wakes up Elena (who yes, slept though all of my moaning in the bathroom, the screaming to call brad, 911, and about baby.) Jake had to really rouse her and finally she popped up at the phrase, ‘the baby was born in the house.’ She rushed out to the living room, say the baby and then insisted on getting him a toy. Unfortunately, the few snapped pictures of this time didn’t turn out, but our hands were a little full. At this moment, I say, “I guess it is Egan for a name.’ (we had never agreed on a name. I preferred Elliot and Jake preferred Egan. Elliot seemed calmer, a bit bookish – in a good way and Egan means ‘little fire.’ I told Jake we’d just have to look into his little face and decide. After such a dramatic arrival, ‘little fire’ seemed appropriate, so Egan it will be.) We heard the sirens and Michal went out to meet the ambulance (and police car). In comes the 5 person rescue squad and police officers. Everyone is calm, happy, and controlled. I’m shaking like a leaf. They are asking questions, how far along? When did the baby come out? Elena is talking with the police officer about her new baby brother. Michal is with me while I just keep shaking. They clamp the cord and cut it. A woman takes Egan and they are blowing oxygen on him. They get me stabilized, I was really in pretty good shape, little bleeding and aside from the shakes (which I had after Elena as well and that wasn’t even as extreme a situation). They took Egan out to the ambulance and loaded me onto the stretcher. We were to be transported to the closest hospital, not the one where we were preregistered or where my doctor was. Jake didn’t even know how to get to their birthing center, so the police officer said that he would wait while Jake and Elena got dressed (both in their PJ’s) and got the things and they could follow him. Michal road with Egan and I in the ambulance while Jake called Brad to meet us at the hospital and loaded up the car. Once we arrived at the hospital, everything was pretty much fine. They checked us both out. Egan was a bit chilly from the excitiment and not being well covered, but I wasn’t bleeding badly. It was a bit stressful as since we arrived with no records, they were going to treat us as a mom with no prenatal care and wanted to do IV antibiotics, many shots, STD prevention, etc all on Egan. Luckily with my doula’s help I was calm and adamant that nothing could happen until they called the hospital where I was to deliver and confirmed that I had been seen throughout my pregnancy. Evenutally everything worked out, but as they started to try and hook us up to IV’s, etc, I was a little worried. Elena and Jake arrived and we were able to cuddle and take some pictures.

Our first family photo



Jake finally gets to hold Egan again after the EMT's, police, nurses, all had their turn


Kirsten showed up to be with Elena and shortly afterward they left. A doctor (a bit of a harsh lady) came in to stitch me up and deliver the placenta. That hurt! Last time with Elena it happened right afterward during the still on birth high – this was nearly 2 hours later and the shock of the event was starting to wear off. Plus I think at first the nurses and doctors mistook us for a panicked home birth – that Michal was our backwoods midwife and I couldn’t handle it in the end. The eventual production of our records from the other hospital, typed out birth plan, and Kirsten’s shock upon arriving and saying, ‘what happened?!?!?’ I think ‘proved’ to them that it wasn’t what they thought and made them a little more sympathetic because they got nicer.

So then it was pretty much ‘normal.’ Jake spent the first night sleeping on the horrible hospital ‘dad’s fold out bed,’ I snuggled with Egan and waited for room service to open – I was starving!, and the nurses kept double checking that Egan’s temperature came back up.

So, as often happens with big blog entries, a few thanks are in order:
- To our doula Michal, who wasn’t really here for the labor, but was so calm and organized during the birth and hospital transfer. I cannot imagine not having her with me.
- To the Blacksburg Rescue Squad – Thanks for getting here so quickly and taking such great care of us.
- To Kirsten and Brad – thanks for coming at all hours to take care of Elena and be with her so we could take care of and be with Egan. Not to mention the living room clean up, daycare drop offs, and everything else.


Our little monkey is now a big sister!