The saga of Augie’s birthday (and the day before) (and the day before)
Zero Hour
On Thursday, October 9, at around 8:30pm, after getting back from my little niece Lila’s dinner/birthday party, Suz started to feel something that resembled gas pains, only it was clear after twenty minutes or so that the pains came and went at regular intervals: she was in labor.
I was on task, digging out my old-school calculator watch, with its handy stopwatch mode, timing the contractions.
This went on for hours, in and out of the bathtub and our bed. Neither of us got any sleep to speak of.
When I asked her what a contraction felt like, she said it was like "someone is stuffing towels up my butt."
Hour Nine
We knew we needed to go into the hospital when the contractions were less than 4-5 minutes apart (check), going on for at least an hour (check), and lasting at least a minute long (uh… sometimes). Usually, they were a minute long, but sometimes much shorter. We decided to go in to the triage room of the Meriter Birthing Center to get checked out at 4:40am.
Susanna wants to point out that, on the way, we had to "run many errands". The car had no gas (fill-up). We had no cash (ATM). I was starved (McDonald’s). She had a contraction while we were stopped at the drive-through window.
And when we arrived, we were discouraged to learn that after nine hours, Susanna hadn’t dilated at all; her cervix was still 0cm.
Hour Thirteen
By 9am, she’d finally progressed to 4-5cm dilated, and it was clear this was no false alarm, so we checked into the hospital and got settled in our own birthing suite, where we planned to labor, deliver, and room in for a few days after. (The best laid plans . . .) At this point, Susanna could finally hang out in a bathtub, which was a relief, and I had a nice long couch to stretch out on for a bit.
When we’d checked into the suite, we’d met the first of three — yes, three, one after the other — nurses who would take amazing care of us that day, night, and next day. First there was Jackie, and when her shift was over there was Jen, and then when Jen’s shift was over, there was a different Jackee. All three of them were warm, friendly, helpful, and extremely competent, and we were so grateful for their support and patience. These were just three of a whole staff — RNs, NAs, residents, and even cleaning crew — who would make our hospital stay comfortable. We can’t say enough about the Meriter Birthing Center staff.
We called my mom and dad at this point to let them know we were in labor, and insisted they not come until later as it was obviously progressing slowly. Within 90 minutes or so, they were at our suite door with both of my sisters, a brother-in-law, and our niece. It was great to see them, but we let them know we thought they would be hanging out in the waiting room for a very, very long time.
Again, I asked Susanna what it felt like. She said, "Like an enema, except with towels instead of water".
Hour Fifteen
At just before noon on Friday, the doctor on call, "Dr. Jenny," did another exam and Suz was still only 5-6cm dilated. The doc recommended we artificially break her amniotic sac to speed things long a bit. Suz had decided before the birth (with my blessing, but I was willing to support whatever her preference) that she would try to labor and deliver as naturally as possible, with a minimum of medical intervention.
I asked the doctor and nurse to give us a few minutes to talk it over. I looked up the procedure in the tome I carried with us, The Birth Partner. Artificial rupture can speed up delivery, but not much on average (up to 90 minutes). Nevertheless, we decided it was time to do something to move things along.
After we said we wanted to go ahead, the doctor used a plastic tool the length of a knitting needle to tear the amniotic sac. When the fluid came out, they found that it had meconium (infant poop) in it, which can be a sign of fetal distress. It happens more often in longer-term babies, but August was a few days early (our due date was Tuesday, the 14th).
So this was a worry, and it meant that we would have to do more constant monitoring of the fetal heartbeat. Thus it was time to scrap another item on our birth plan, which was intermittent instead of constant monitoring of the boy. They strapped on a belt monitor, which detected fetal heartbeat (pretty well) and contraction strength (pretty poorly). Augie’s heartrate was fine, and would continue to be for the duration.
Hour Eighteen
At around 3 in the afternoon, the check of Susanna’s cervix showed that nothing had progressed much… she was still only 6cm dilated. While the contractions were frequent and brutal, they were apparently not getting the job done.
The doctor recommended pitocin (an artificial hormone) to stimulate stronger contractions, and we agreed. They added an IV and a pitocin drip, and over the next hours the rate was progressively increased.
Hour Twenty
One drawback of using pitocin is that a side effect of stronger contractions is more intense pain during them. Around 5:30pm on Friday, they had become painful enough that Susanna called her code word, and we ordered up some pain killers, starting with a narcotic.
Soon thereafter she said getting the narcotic was "the best decision I ever made." The contractions were still painful, but she was much less bothered by them. She kept saying she was so happy, and had been contracting while standing for much of the time until now. However, with the narcotic in her, I saw her knees buckle once, then twice, at which point I insisted she sit or lie down.
A short time thereafter they put in an intrauterine pressure monitor so we could get more accurate measurements of her contractions. The pitocin levels kept going up.
Around 7pm, the narcotic had worn off enough, and the contractions were severe enough, that we decided it was time for an epidural. Within an hour, Suz had a spinal block and an epidural catheter. Suz had been really struggling with contractions before, but after the block she didn’t even realize when the next contraction came.
Relief.
A cervical exam showed she was 7-8cm dilated. The baby’s heart beat was still fine. The doctors and nurses more or less let us be for a while. Both of us got a little, much needed sleep.
Hour Twenty-Six
At 11:13pm a cervical exam showed Suz was fully dilated — finally! The nurses and doctor kept up the pitocin so Susanna could "labor down" for a couple of hours and try and keep the boy moving.
Hour Twenty-Nine
After laboring down for a while, it was time. This was the moment I’d always thought of as "labor." It was time to actually push.
Susanna’s legs were totally numb. She could sort of move one. That she couldn’t at all move the other really bothered her.
My eye was on the monitor. When I saw a contraction coming, I would grab Susanna’s right leg, the nurse her left. Three times per contraction, Suz would take a deep breath, then push down as if pooping.
This went on for two solid hours. The nurses said Susanna was pushing as hard as she needed to be. However, instead of getting the final push he needed to progress down the birth canal, the boy hadn’t moved at all. Dr. Jenny felt strongly that a vaginal birth was not possible at this point — we would learn later that his head was 38 cm in diameter — and recommended we move on to a c-section. We had known this was coming, and agreed. Whatever we needed to do to make sure the boy arrived safely, we would do it.
Susanna was completely, totally exhausted, and I wasn’t far behind.
Around 4am, I walked out to update my family. My sisters and husbands had hit the sack for the night hours before, but my stubborn parents were still there. My mom was just outside the door, so she had a good idea what had been going on.
Hour Thirty-Two
About a half hour later, Susanna was being wheeled down to the operating room. I had to stop before going in and wait while they prepped her. For the first time in 33 hours or so, I was apart from her and felt totally helpless. Her fate was completely in someone else’s hands.
She saw me waiting outside, and we waved to each other. A second later she was out of my view. I stepped aside a bit into the corner and for the first time let myself stop being strong. I sobbed for a few seconds; it felt like we’d been defeated after working so damnned hard for so long.
Suz was completely spent. I know she worried that after all of this that she wouldn’t have the energy to interact with our baby, or breastfeed.
I donned scrubs and was ushered into the operating room and led to the Susanna’s side. There was a blue sheet separating Susanna’s head from the rest of her, so we couldn’t see what was going on. There was much commotion, and I resisted the urge to look around the sheet to see.
However, 15 minutes or so in, the doctor asked if I wanted to see the birth. With not a small bit of trepidation, I looked around the sheet as they pulled my boy out of Susanna’s abdomen.
Almost thirty-three hours after it started, Susanna’s labor was over. On Saturday, October 11th, at 5:22am, August Collier Stewart was born.
Despite her fears, once she heard him squawk, Susanna had plenty of energy to meet her son. Twenty minutes or so later in the recovery room, we did get Augie on the breast for his first meal. After a while, I was able to take Augie out into the waiting room where my parents and sisters fawned over the new Stewart.
It was over. And just beginning.
Wow, congratulations from a fellow XS1100 enthusiast!
I was just poking around lamenting my current lack of a bike and I came across your blog. I live in Evanston, IL and it was cool to see familiar places in the pics from your trip. How long ago was your trip? Do you still ride? How will the baby effect your biking?
Best Wishes,
Ian
(ianwarsenault@gmail.com)
Fuckin’ A, brother!
Looking for some comic relief, I typed in JohnStewart.com and expected to find a few Daily Show videos to laugh along with.
Instead, I find your blog.
First, let me congratulate you for turning down all of those lucrative offers for your domain name. Obviously a man of principal – or just holding out for more?
Secondly, I appreciate a well written commentary on such an important topic, your well chosen quote and an excellent diety disclaimer.
If only the rest of the blogesphere were as well educated.
Keep up the good work, John Stewart
Congratulations to you both! Jane alerted me to the news. This is very exciting.
Everyone around me is having babies!! There must be something in the water.
Send my best wishes to Susanna as well!
Eiher the guy above me was being sarcastic or he really doesn’t know you…I kid yer pretty smart. I wonder if they let you out of GitMo early if you convert to Chris
+T
haha, thats funny cause I recieved an Obama ad in my ancient yahoo account, musta bought some pretty old list. Can’t figure it out though cause I’ve never voted for a democrat, and there’s no way in hell I’ll vote for this one. Not that I want McCain either.
Hahaha, he spoke at Sturgis and they played a clip on the radio. Is it just me or does he sound like Little Nicky(adam sandlers movie)?
Red and irritated, eh? You sure it’s not just the game?
Found via Google blog search; thanks for the call-out.
Let me put it this way: this is why you care. While Washington negotiated, we lost yet another bank yesterday, Washington Mutual. There are only two levels of safeguard left that prevented everybody with their checking and savings accounts in WaMu from losing everything yesterday, and we used up one of them. WaMu was put into a forced buy-out by JP Morgan Chase, a clear violation of anti-monopoly law we wouldn’t put up with if we weren’t desperate. How desperate were we? Had WaMu simply gone under, as it would have done today without this, 2/3rds of the entire reserve of the FDIC would have been gone. So if we lose two more banks that size, the American people lose their checking accounts and savings accounts. OK, more likely, the taxpayers end up on the hook for it, but we are at serious risk of a cascading bank failure.
Also, your employer depends on those banks being at least minimally healthy and able to operate. So does everybody’s employer. The last time we had anything resembling a wave of bank failures, unemployment roughly doubled. So take the number of friends and family you know are out of work? Roughly that many more of them will be out of work.
Yeah, it maters.
Congratulations John and Susanna! We’re extremely happy for you both!
Great looking boy. Glad everybody is okay and now the fun begins. lu
That kid’s head is like Sputnik!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmLGYSc0XQ&feature=related
I was wondering what was holding everything up. 33 hours!!! And then a c-section? Herregud!
Congrats!
Hey congratulations guys! Can’t wait to see you all.
Lor & Kell
Congratulations!! We will miss you at our game(s), but you are definitely needed elsewhere! Wow, sounds like a very healthy (future-frisbee playin’) boy!
Congratulations!
Congrats Guys, August looks very cute!
Wow, 33 hours! I certainly hope Amy doesn’t try to beat that record
-N8 and Amy and ???
Congratulations!! August is adorable!
Wow, I’ve been wondering how that all turned, then ding! check his site! Congrats on the cute kid! And hats off to wifey, thirty-three hours?! Man,i can relate to the towels in my butt but not for that long. Looks like a scholar to me!
Congrats! Very cute baby. Way to go guys!
drew
LoL!
Welcome to the world of parenting!
Grats, by the way, you 3! He is *adoreable* !!! I stalk your pictures now
~Crystal
In the case of Obama, the term African-American is neither imprecise nor inaccurate. In fact it’s one of the most precise applications of the term that I can think of…
Why is he African-American? Because his father was born in Kenya? Barack himself was born in Hawaii. That makes him an American-American, or just plain American.
His mother is from English descent. That makes him as much an English-American as African-American.
Yet why do you use this term to refer to him? BECAUSE OF SKIN COLOR.
So let’s use the right term. We’re talking about skin color; let’s call him black. I’m white. I may also be a Scottish-American, but it doesn’t say anything about the point at hand, which is a discussion of my skin color… THIS is why it is imprecise.
What about white people from South Africa? I saw an episode of Top Chef where a white woman, who had a parent from South Africa, describe herself (half-jokingly) that she was a very pale African-American. People GASPED as if this was some huge racist comment. It’s not and shouldn’t be perceived as such. We should stop giving reverence to a term which isn’t useful and was invented to dance around people’s perceived sentitivities.
Furthermore, on more general terms, “African-American” is in most cases an INACCURATE term (admittedly, it’s only half-inaccurate in Obama’s case).
In fact, I recall reading recently (can’t find it right now, so obviously this is not gospel) that genetic testing shows that a high percentage of those who self-identify as African-American actually have no African ancestry!
Should we call black people with no African blood African-American? How about we just use the more precise and more accurate term for what we REALLY mean… black! It’s not an epithet!
Not all Africans are black and not all black people are from African descent! Also, not all black people in America are actually American citizens.
Drilling further, if we want to get into the roots of human ancestry, we’re ALL descended from homo sapiens originating in the horn of Africa. Therefore, we’re all African-American in this country.
Does that make it a useless enough term?
Whoa, apparently I touched a nerve. I was just trying to be snarky.
But I stand by my point, that he is correctly called an African-American, in the sense that he’s a hybrid between an African and an American. I do agree that the term is all but meaningless in everyday use, and is just a polysyllabic way of saying black. Like my high school English teacher said, never use a 50 cent word when a nickel word will do.
Also, I’m not sure the term was “invented to dance around people’s perceived sensitivities.” I think it was adopted by black people as a way of describing themselves, in the 60s and 70s, presumably because the term black was becoming an epithet.
You’re right, Malcolm X first popularly used the term in the early 1960s, and it became more popular through the 1970s over the term Afro-American. Jesse Jackson further pushed for its adoption in the 1980s:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/African-American%23African-American-population
This about surveys of the black population on the term:
http://volokh.com/posts/1204569019.shtml
However, this from a black man on the subject:
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-why_im_black.htm
It’s time to move on.
Great write up, I came over for your election thoughts, but this brought a tear to my eye. I think the birthing process is something you really can’t fully comprehend or appreciate until you’ve been through it. Congratulations.
Now, more importantly, when are you going to introduce him to the MSOP.
robert
awwww, now that is sweet! Is he sleeping or just being cute?
either that or u better start calling me Irish-american…and my ancestors were slaves too so I want my reperations from the British
Fuck yeah, that’s in Tulsa, baby! Those gold skyscrapers visible in the background at around 1:40 are part of Oral Roberts University. I could tell you exactly what coffee shop she stormed out of if I knew south Tulsa a little better (haven’t lived there in about 6 years).
ORU is pretty much Crazy Christian Central.
I have always insisted on calling white people of undetermined/mixed ancestry (including and especially myself) Euro-Americans. No matter how hard my relatives look for a darker, more ancient American ancestry and despite the fact that my people arrived in the early 1600’s, we still have an identity based from Colonial European culture, and anyway — why are mine the only people who are deprived of a hyphen?! The only (blank)-Americans are the tribes, and even they migrated from somewhere, but at least they did it first.
That said, “black” is more inaccurate than any geo-political designator. Most people are some shade of brown. But the WORST is calling people “non-whites”! If you’re going to be on a mission about language, blast any media source that uses that repulsive term. Hopefully soon, any mention of skin color will comply with the Crayola Appearance Descriptor System.
Hi
As a fresh johnstewart.com user i just want to say hi to everyone else who uses this forum
Aloha guys!
You have a very interesting forum.
So i’d like to know if someone of you or your frineds was fired because of a financial crisis?
LOL – Jeff felt exactly the same way until Marin was at least 9 months old. You’ll have to swap fatherhood stories when we get together. (Suz … shh … we’ll keep the fact that we’re right about the “going out” clothes between us.)
dude. you actually have a cute kid. who woulda thought!
Nice work.
You totally stole my name though.
I enjoy reading your posts on fatherhood. you funny guy.
You must get alot of trafic being the first google result for John Stewart!
First off, his name is Jon Stewart, not John Stewart.
Secondly, I’m nowhere near the first result for “John Stewart”. I’m curious what search strings you used to find this place.
Every time that dude does something (now, Cramer, previously, Crossfire), I get some response like this. I wonder how you find me!
You lucky bastard. Your boy is a gem.
you can try
john stewart is a badd ass name a name they only give to gods