tangentalizingly delicious

Wednesday January 27, 2010

On Wednesday January 20, 2010 at 2:07am Jonathan Clayton Drimmie was born. At birth he weighed 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces and was measured at 21”. As of this writing he is approximately back in the neighbourhood of his birth rate as measured on a less accurate scale, and has been remeasured with more accurate tools to 19.5”. He is also fucking awesome.

Rewinding a bit, Jen first started feeling like something was happening almost a week before Jonathan was born and we spent a Thursday evening in the triage section of the Childbirth Centre (aka Maternity Ward) at Grand River Hospital. During that particular visit, not much of note occurred though the monitors recorded several moderate contractions.

On the morning of January 19, we returned to the hospital. We hung around for a while but progress stalled. We left the hospital and visited my parents (where Harvey was staying) for supper and celebrated Jen’s mother’s birthday. Through the course of the night the contractions increased in strength and lessened, increased in frequency and lessened. I was pretty obvious at that point that something was going to happen soon, but soon could encompass few or many hours.

We went home, leaving Harvey again in the care of his grandparents. Crackers was sent with my sister. The house was quiet, we watched some TV and headed to bed just after 11. At 11:16, Jen’s water broke. She thought. She wasn’t sure, it was a different experience and sensation than with Harvey. We sat on the bed for 10 minutes before deciding that even if we were sent home, we should go to Triage again to have a look taken. Around then, Jen’s water broke further, or more, or again, or.. something. Any doubt was removed, the van was started and phone calls were made.

We drove to the hospital. Our previous trips had led to a theory of a route to the hospital featuring both smooth roads and short travel time and were gratified in a very tiny way to have our guess confirmed. For the locals, from Homer Watson and Ottawa we travelled to Westmount then Glasgow, instead of Ottawa to Cortland or through downtown.

At the hospital nature took its course and labour progressed. We were moved from Triage to a room, waling down the hall this time pausing for several contractions instead of being hustled along on a gurney. In the birthing room the attending nurse (Judy, and I feel terrible for forgetting the Triage nurse’s name) talked Jen through several more contractions. Jen asked about the morphine that had been discussed but was told that she was much to far along to be able to take it and she buckled down and did another fully natural birth.

The details of the actual birth are hazy. It wasn’t as frantic as Harvey, there were moderately long periods (30-60 seconds) between the contractions through the entire process. The nurses kept talking about how great Jen was, and while they probably say that to most every woman who passes through there, it’s probably true in all cases. In Jen’s it absolutely was. She breathed through her contractions and was present throughout to the point where, halfway through active labour (after head, before shoulders) she cracked a joke that had the entire room laughing. Sadly, I didn’t make note of the joke. It was nothing complicated, just a simple one-liner comment but the awareness in the middle of it all required to pull that off is but a small testament to how amazing the woman I was luck enough to marry is.

As Jonathan was born, I heard the other nurse (Marjorie) mention something about a membrane and looked just in time to see her peel it off Jonathan’s face while the doctor (Schnarr, though I am simply guessing at the spelling) carefully but calmly unwrapped the umbilical cord from Jonathan’s neck. Within minutes, Jonathan was out and on Jen’s chest.

I’m pretty sure we spent less time in the birthing room leading up to Jonathan’s arrival than was required afterwards for all the post-birth tasks (everything from the placenta through to cleaning the linens). After hanging out on Jen’s chest for a bit Jonathan was taking for normal testing. We never did get his APGAR numbers but there was nothing to worry about.

Many months prior during a standard ultrasound, the technician suspected a sixth toe on Jonathan’s right foot. We got a 3D ultrasound a few weeks later – as we’d done and enjoyed with Harvey – and were able to see it we thought. He definitely has only five toes on the foot though. In the long run of course this is for the best, but I think we were both slightly disappointed; it would be a neat thing once he came to terms with it but not having to face that particular struggle is very preferable.

The rest of the story has only a few points of interest. We were told early on we’d be able to leave after the required 12-hour hearing test which went fine. Harvey came in to visit and mostly ignored Jonathan but returned to our house with his other grandparents to await our return. After getting home, he went with them to give us the night to figure everything out and we picked him up the next day.

In the week that has passed, we had minor concerns about jaundice that we seem to have gotten past and have started to get to know each other. Harvey is doing very well. There are some minor unconscious jealousy issues here and there as Jonathan somewhat diminishes the attention Harvey tends to receive but as a big brother Harvey has been loving and gentle.

So now we are four.