My version of our son’s birth story

This is crossposted at Siever.ca, our family site.

I’m starting to think going to the temple is a labour inducer.

The day Mary went into labour with Aoibheann, she and I had gone to the temple. With Quillan, who was born early yesterday morning, we had gone to the temple the day before (actually, one of the things we did there was have the marriage of my great great grandparents sealed for time and all eternity; they had immigrated to Canada from Austria).

Shortly after I started supper, Mary came to me with a feeling she might be going into labour soon. A few minutes later, she came back to confirm it. After supper, we had the children clean up the house a bit (do dishes, sweep, put away laundry, etc), then we sent them to bed. I knew I was teaching seminary the next morning, so I prepared my lesson after they went to bed. I wanted to get that finished early.

Labour progressed fairly slowly and it was less uncomfortable for Mary than the other labours. Around 23:00, Mary started spending more time in the washroom. She would have a hot bath, walk around some, and so forth. Within the hour, labour started to pick up more, and she knew it would be a standing birth (like Aoibheann).

Mary leaned on me for support as she switched from standing to squatting, but then eventually moved into the tub for a hot shower. About 01:00 or so, she asked me to join her in the shower, and I did. She leaned on me, and I massaged her back and shoulders. As she felt the baby descending, I sat on the tub floor to catch. It is very uncomfortable to sit in a tub while another person is in it trying to stand with legs apart to birth a baby, but we somehow managed our impromptu game of Twister.

About 01:35, Mary felt a sudden urge to push. One moment, I see no sign of him, and the next moment, opps, there he is. I placed one hand behind his neck and shoulders, and the other under his bum. I felt a bump in the latter hand, and I had a sudden thought that he could be a boy (our last two were girls, and we had only one boy). I turned him and confirmed he was a boy.

He was healthy, pink, and screaming. He had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, so I simply lifted it over his head, and handed him to Mary.

She sat with him on the toilet while she waited for the placenta to come out and nursed him almost immediately. He was our earliest nurser. I dried off, got dressed, and woke up the other children to come see their baby brother. They were all pretty excited.

After the placenta came out, we cut and clamped the umbilical cord, and I took him to the bedroom to clean him up (he had already passed meconium), and get him dressed. After the excited settled down a bit, we sent everyone back to bed, and I got a couple of hours sleep before having to get up to go teach.

Quillan is a healthy baby boy, and we are happy to have him in our lives.