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<\/a>When Sarah was about 20 weeks along with this baby, she began to lobby for us to not<\/em> find out what the gender was until the baby was actually born.\u00a0 After all, she figured, we could be surprised by learning if it was a boy or a girl at 20 weeks, or at 40 weeks.\u00a0 Also, we already had one of each, so she wasn’t especially pining to have either a girl or a boy, and we already had the clothing for whichever kind of baby came out.\u00a0 She figured that if she didn’t know, she’d also end up spending less money on clothes and stuff.\u00a0 I supported her decision, even though I personally would have rather found out.\u00a0 So we never got an ultrasound.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But as the weeks wore on, we began to regret our decision to not find out.\u00a0 We had a great name picked out for a girl (Claire Rebecca Gibby), but we struggled with coming up with a good boy name.\u00a0 We considered several — Seth, Henry, Thomas, Joseph — and spent hours trying to find one that had all the right qualities.\u00a0 For me, that meant it couldn’t be too popular, but it still had to be common and recognizable;\u00a0 Sarah wanted something distinctive, with character.\u00a0 But we never settled on anything, even as Sarah’s due date drew closer.\u00a0 We realized that if we’d gotten an ultrasound like most people do, we would have known whether it was a boy or a girl, and if we even had to worry about thinking up a boy name.<\/p>\n
Baby Time<\/h2>\n
Our other two kids were early — 12 days for Audrey, and 10 days for Nathan — so we weren’t expecting Sarah to even make it to 39 weeks.\u00a0 But as 39 and then 40 weeks came and went, Sarah started getting more miserable.\u00a0 “I want my body back!” she’d exclaim.\u00a0 Every time Sarah had a few good contractions, we’d hope that this was it… but then she’d get up and do something, and the contractions would peter out.\u00a0 “I’m going to be pregnant forever,” she moaned.<\/p>\n
By the time I got home, her contractions were almost a minute long and less than four minutes apart.\u00a0 She really was in good labor.\u00a0 Judy took Audrey to school, and my mom took Nathan to the store with her to keep him out of our hair.\u00a0 Dr. Wright came back and we got the pool set up in our bathroom by about 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Eventually, Sarah could reach down and feel the baby’s head.\u00a0 It only took her half an hour to get from that 5-6 to 10 centimeters.\u00a0 When she actually pushed the baby out, the doctor grabbed her and placed her onto Sarah’s chest. We covered the baby with towels and got them wet to keep her warm.\u00a0 We didn’t even check to see if she was a boy or a girl for a few minutes; we just looked and looked at her head and fingers, so happy that she was finally with us.<\/p>\n When the doctor peeked under the towel and announced that it was a girl, we were very relieved.\u00a0 And we immediately said her name, “Claire.”<\/p>\n<\/a>On Monday, September 13 (three days after her due date), Sarah woke up with the same kind of contractions, but they were pretty regular.\u00a0 I went to work, confident in the knowledge that I could get home within 5 minutes of when she called me.\u00a0 Sarah got her doctor to come check her by mid-morning, and she was at a 4-5 cm dilation and 90% effaced — it was going to happen sometime today!\u00a0 He went back to work (probably to cancel a bunch of other patients!) but promised that he’d be back when she needed him.\u00a0 Sarah called our moms and her sisters to come down to our house, and got me to come home from work at lunch time.<\/p>\n<\/a>I got my swimsuit on and jumped in the tub with Sarah, and she got to work having good contractions.\u00a0 I was against the back wall, and she was leaning back on me for support.\u00a0 I rubbed her back and tummy, poured water on her belly, whispered encouraging words.\u00a0 Being in the water helped her manage the pain.\u00a0 A midwife and a midwife-in-training showed up to lend a hand to Dr. Wright, and Alaura started snapping pictures.\u00a0 Once between contractions, my mom brought Nathan up to see what was going on, and he was happy and shy.<\/p>\n<\/a>When the doctor checked her again, she was just at 5-6 cm dilated and fully effaced.\u00a0 She was afraid that it would take a long time to be fully dilated, but soon Sarah’s “vocalizations” got louder and more intense and she felt the urge to push — it was really baby time.\u00a0 At one point in the middle of a contraction, she cried out, “I’m so excited to have this baby!”\u00a0 The midwives had never heard someone so enthusiastic and happy to be giving birth.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Sarah’s sister Zilpha missed the birth by five minutes because she hadn’t gotten the first messages that we’d left for her, but Judy and Alaura were both there to witness it, and Mom and Nathan came up to see the baby while we were still in the tub.\u00a0 Audrey got home from school an hour after Claire was born, and she was so happy that we’d had a little sister for her instead of a brother.<\/p>\nConclusions<\/h2>\n