He Has Arrived

Emmet Johann Petranek
Born August 15, 2008
Born 4:45pm
7lbs 50z
20" long

This story is a long one, that started with an appendectomy, was jostled by a small car accident, and was nearly headed for a caesarian. After the first version (manual turning) attempt, the acupuncturists were called (3 of them), the hypno theropist was brought in, the moxabustion was carefully tended to, and the prayers went up, but their was no shift; the breech persisted...So the caesarian was scheduled for August 13th. The favored Dr. McNanley was called in for the surgery. One last attempt would be made to turn the baby on the 13th and if no turn could be made, Emmet would be born on his due date.

After 25 minutes under epidural, many attempts had been made and the doctor's face looked skeptical. This versions seemed to be almost an exact replicate of the first and Christina and I both felt skeptical too. But we were at peace with the idea that a baby would come one way or another and if it was to be Wednesday, then we could live with that. Even though a natural delivery was what we had desired from the early stages of pregnancy. And then as if by magic, or to prove our relative powerlessness in this whole endevor of bringing a new life into the world, Emmet turned in one single brief moment.

It almost seemed impossible, at the very moment when we accepted that he would not turn from his breech position, everything shifted, but this time for the best. And although Christina came down with quite terrible back pain, side aches, and vomiting after the successful version, the day of the birth (about 48 hours later) went as perfectly as it gets if you want a natural birth experience.

Christina started to have regular contractions about 4 minutes apart at 4am Friday morning. They continued for the next several hours slowly gaining in intensity but not really changing their period gradually from 3-6 minutes over the next 8 hours. At 9am our Doula, Sherry Sugrue Smith, arrived and helped me coach Christina through the next series of concentrations. Christina was simply amazing. We encouraged her and massaged her. Pelvic squeezes, lower back massages, and head relaxation were her friends, but she honestly made it look easy. At 1:25 pm, right when Christina needed a signpost to gauge where she was in her labor, her water broke and then we hastily gathered our birth bag and left for Highland Hospital in the doula mobile. Christina was 8 cm when we arrived at 2:15 and by 2:45 she was starting to push. Polar bear, squat, knees to stomach she tried them all and was amazingly strong. Oh, and I didn't forget to include it, she plain skipped the whole transition stage graduating from active labor to pushing in the process of getting from home to hospital. after 2 hours of pushing and less than 13 hours of total labor, Emmet was born at an Apgar 9! We couldn't have done it without so much help so thanks to Sherry, Helene, Dr. McNanleyHeather, Brigette, Oma, and of course Emmet.
We are truly humbled by and proud of his beauty.

And here are some visual highlights of the whole process:: enjoy!

After a successful version in the OR on Wednesday!

early labor 4:37am

more labor around 11am

Only 45 minutes old and already in love with mom...

A very happy Mama

Sherry gives pointers as Emmet gets his first meal

The breech baby flail.

Emmet weighs in...

Hello there says a proud new papa.

Our doula with her latest accomplishment.

Greeting Oma for the first time!

Nana meets Emmet for the first time!