Nat's Birthday

Larger verisons of our pictures are here but aren't organized in any meaningful way. I am trying to get the thumbnails to create new images, but relax people.

On Sunday morning (19 Sept), Deirdre woke up to either incontinence or broken water. Unfortunately for the adult protective pants industry, it was the latter. So, as photoblogged in previous entires, we took the bus to Chelsea & Westminster Hospital (hereinafter C&W). Scans showed little contractive activity, but the baby was doing fine. we were ordered to report back to C&W 12 hours later in keeping with current thinking on PROM.

So we went back. Once there, contractions strengthened. Nat's heartbeat showed a tendency to dip at each one (a deceleration in the lingo). This was distressing because it meant his oxygen supply would be reduced in the more active stages of labor. All looked well, though, when Deirdre changed position, so we were sent home, and ordered to report back on monday morning.

That night was long. At 0230, Deirdre started getting fairly strong contractions every 10 minutes. We packed our bag in anticipation of going directly to the labor ward when we were scheduled to go in for more monitoring at noon on Monday (20 Sept). But at 1030 on Monday, contractions stopped.

So we took the bus back to C&W, a little (OK a lot) disapointed. Back at the day assessment unit, monitoring revealed that Nat's heartbeat was still decelerating with every (by then fair weak) contraction. A doctor came in to look at the trace, and suggested that if the situation didn't improve, we would need a caesarian section, because of the aforementioned oxygen problem.

This diagnosis was enough to promote us to the labor ward for continuous monitoring. As it happened, contractions began in earnest, and we though we were on our way. At 1600 at the first vaginal exam, however, Deirdre was only 1 centimetre dilated. Worse, after another three hours of awful, awful contractions, the second vaginal exam revealed the same diagnosis, still 1 centimetre of dilation. We would have to induce, and given the pain of the useless contractions, Deirdre elected to get an epidural. To monitor the deceleration problem, we would have to keeping the monitor on throughout the entire labor.

Vitamin E is, as our friends across the channel term it, les genoux de l'abeille. Deirdre's total abstention from recreational pharmaceuticals (such as Fullers London Pride) left her totally unprepared for the delights of high grade opiates. The next three hours flew by and despite suspiciously small monitored contractions, by 2300, Deirdre was between 5 and 8 centimetres. At 0300, we were ready to go, that is, wait for another hour and then go.

I don't recommend the pushing bit of giving birth. (Note that this picture was not an actual push, as I still have possession of my equipment, but merely faffing about while we waited). But at 0449, it was done. A tremendous shout out is owed to Beverly, our midwife at C&W.

The results at 0510. These are two incredible troopers and the most important people in the world.

21 September was a busy day at C&W. Apparently, Londoners had little else to do during the Christmas holidays. So we hung out in our delivery room for another seven hours. Deirdre got to take a shower and looked little worse for wear, though she mentioned that she could go for a Vitamin E top up. I went home for six hours of shut eye, as no one gave me narcotics to sleep through bits of the first stage of labor or maternal hormones to let me stay awake after 48 consecutive hours. I note in passing that companies pay hundreds of pounds an hour for my and my colleagues' services after similar periods of wakefulness.

Technically, because Nat was born more that 24 hours after his amniotic sac broke, he is at risk for infection, so he and mom get to stay at C&W for another day. Not too shabby, because his early arrival meant that our house is not quite ready to take a newborn.

Nathaniel Edward Smith. Nathaniel, after Nathaniel Greene and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edward, for inter alia Robert Edward Davidson, Deirdre's dad, currently winning hearts and minds in northern Iraq. And Smith, for all the people with a surname so common they couldn't get decent gmail addresses.