Thursday, July 27, 2006

A drumroll please....


Ken and I are very pleased to announce the arrival of our little bundle of joy - Brand0n. He was born on Monday, July 24th at 10:58 pm. He was 8 pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches long and was delivered au natural.

This has been hands down the most amazing experience of my life. I can't quite say that you forget the pain immediately once you get to hold your new son or daughter, but it begins to fade the moment that you have your baby on your chest and the tears start to roll down your face.

All in all, it wasn't horrific, but they call it labour for a reason. Since we were a week overdue, and with the heat creating a rush of babies, we were induced on Monday morning at 7:30 am. Between the unknowns, we could narrow down the birth window to the next 48 hours but couldn't pin it down. The induction ended up being a day long process, and it was surreal sitting in a local restaurant for breakfast, replete with hospital bands, and just having a normal conversation. It felt strange. We went home for a few hours, frittered away the time, surfed the net, I tried to write something prolific to contemplate and waited until the contractions started to become more defined. The good thing was that I was already going in to early labour when we were induced, so this helped speed things up a fair bit. Or maybe not if we were already walking down that path.

Eventually I may just end up posting my whole birth story, but suffice to say that my waters were broken about 6pm, and the rest of my labour went pretty quickly, all things considered. I stalled about 9.5 cms and that created an attitude adjustment for me in terms of what I was willing to take for the pain (recalling there was a degree of back labour happening). I didn't need to go for the epideral, but the gas and shot of pain relief got me through to the pushing stage. Transition is probably the worst, but the pushing was a relief to start working with your body, and know you were getting down to the gritty bits, or to borrow an expression from a dear friend - the really "raw" parts. I made some gutteral noises I have never expressed before, and did crack some jokes, but I am not a screamer and never did cuss out my husband (like, what is all that about???). I am so glad it was Ken, our doc, and a nurse. It was an intimate birth and very profound. The lights were low, we did play some appropriate mood music (nothing like some African chanting music to match your contractions with, and then switching to a little Enya for good measure). When the going gets tough, it is your loved one's voice that you follow.

A hearty welcome to our son Brand0n!





See, our little darling already has "hockey hair"

6 comments:

Betty said...

Congratulations, friend of Refinnej!

Refinnej said...

Congrats again, girl!! I need to find a new word....LOL.

(btw, Trish is one of those infamous Babes I speak of on occasion ;) )

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS!!! What an adorable lil guy!

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS!! I can't wait to meet him! HUGS...

Florence Chee, PhD said...

Oh Karen, he's beautiful! Sooo happy for you. Thank you for sharing your journey and feelings throughout...

The hair is great :)

Love and hugs,
Flo and Tom

Anonymous said...

BABY!!!!! Oh so cute... love that crazy strawberry blond hair too much. Hugs and kisses to you both from us both!