Time-Line of a Birth

Thursday, Sept. 6:
10:00 p.m. Arrive home from a large group meeting on campus. No indication of baby on the way.

11:00 p.m. Go to bed. I fall asleep, Kelly can't. She's having contractions. She stays up reading, wondering if she's going to have a baby soon.

Friday, Sept. 7:
2:00 a.m. Kelly comes back to bed and snoozes a little bit.

4:20 a.m. Kelly wakes me up with the news that she thinks she's in labor.

4:45 a.m. Kelly calls our midwife on call and tells her that she's having contractions and might need to come in. Kelly sounds pretty controlled at the time, so the mid-wife is a bit skeptical but she agrees to meet us at the Birth Center.

4:50 a.m. We call our dear friends on stand-by, Mike and Michelle McClure, to come over for when the kids wake-up.

5:10 a.m. Head over to the Women's Birth and Wellness Center.

Sidebar/unpaid endorsement for your local birthing center: they're great, but not for everyone. The focus is on low-intervention, natural births. So no drugs, that's part of the deal--no pain meds, nothing. It tends to be fairly granola-feeling. But the beauty of it is that they don't immediately hook you up to a bunch of stuff and treat you like you're sick. You're having a baby, not going through chemo. And they get you out quick (as you'll see) which is great if you've got good help waiting for you back home.

5:30 a.m. Arrive at birth center ahead of midwife. Kelly at this point is still chatty, we pray on the way over in the car, laugh, are deeply grateful for our friends home caring for our kids.

5:35 a.m. Midwife arrives, we open the center up and upon brief examination the midwife confirms that Kelly's definitely giving birth to this baby today. We unpack our bag, put some music on, Kelly walks around the facility and we chat about various things and fill out some paperwork.

6:20 a.m. Midwife asks if we're hungry. I am, granola bars not withstanding. Midwife is too. Kelly kind of is.

Midwife asks if we're vegetarians or vegans. I shudder at the thought and shake my head. "Good," she says, "so you can go and get us all a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen." I'm shocked. Aren't you supposed to be some sort of vegan, shade-grown, organically orchestrated, fair-traded-person only? " C'mon man," she says, "it's locally owned." I heartily agree and get everyone's order and make my first ever, long-awaited trip to Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen on Franklin Street.

6:45 a.m. I return triumphant with grease and cholesterol-laden biscuit goodness.

7:00 a.m. Kelly can no longer walk around and talk through contractions. It's getting serious.

7:15 a.m. Kelly starts pushing.

I'm her coach, which means I hold her hand and tell her that she can do it when she's not sure that she can. I'm pretty good at it. Except that during one set of contractions, Kelly squeezes my hand so hard that I'm afraid she's going to break my pinkie. Being the liberated male that I am, I realize that at this particular point in global history, I'm not exactly going to get much sympathy from my wife-in-labor, the midwife and the nurse for my little finger. I subtly shift my hand position and my finger manages to emerge without any permanent damage.

7:45 a.m. Emma Kate arrives, much to the delight of her parents.

8:00 a.m. Kelly and I have both already called her "Zoe" at least once. Emma Kate goes through a couple of tests, we play and hang out and hold her and take pictures.

Noon: Nurse gives us final okay to leave.

12:30 p.m. We pull through Wendy's drive-through. Drive-through lady looks sweetly at our daughter and asks how old she is. "Five hours," we say. She's shocked, not entirely sure what to do with that information.

1:00 p.m. Arrive home to Nanny and two sweet older siblings eager to meet their new little sister.