***Headline***Baby Arrives On Earth***Headline***
His Royal Highness, Prince Joachim Thomas Kynvi, known to dear friends as Joa, arrived into our world this Friday morning, the 21st of August at 5:15 am after nearly five hours of labor. He weighs 6 pounds 4 ounces, is 19 ½ inches long, and absolutely splendid. His moms report never having been happier.
It’s true! This very morning it happened!
(This is Lisa’s version of labor. Andey may write hers later.)
Andey woke up with a strong contraction at about 12:30 am, thirty minutes after Joa’s lease ran out on the womb. She decided to let me sleep because that’s first-time mother protocol: let the support folks sleep until you’re really having trouble handling it alone.
So a little after 3:00 I wake up to go to the bathroom and find Andey in labor. Yippee! I take a shower, start getting things ready, and call friend Denise. Soon after Denise arrives, contractions are down to 1 ½ to 2 minutes apart. I get the car loaded as fast as possible and we leave home at 4:25 am. Every time there’s a contraction, I drive a little faster.
We arrive at the Birth Center (Wellesley) at 5:00 am after a difficult car ride through the transition stage of labor. Andey is 8 cm dilated! Her water still hasn’t broke, so Chris (the midwife) breaks it to check for meconium. It’s fine, so Andey proceeds to the two-person birthing tub. As she’s getting in, she exclaims, "He’s crowning!" After that contraction, she sits back in the tub with me behind her, and with two contractions Joa slides out and up onto her chest, and I get to have my left hand down his back and under his butt. It’s 5:15.
The clever, busy boy has tied a full, tight knot in his cord, so it stops pulsing quickly and I cut it. He’s amazing and beautiful, lots of brown wavy hair, long fingers and legs. He’s wide awake.
They drain the tub and Andey delivers the placenta. The nurse arrives at some point in here. I bring Joa into the birthing room (furnished like a bedroom) and he engages in serious, heavy eye contact with me for five or ten minutes while Andey is transferring out of the tub. She has torn, so Joa and I quietly gaze at one another while she’s getting stitched. He’s totally amazingly and perfect.
The rest of the morning was about sweetly getting to know one another. We left around noon and returned to a home that had been visited by good friends who washed the sheets, vacuumed and swept, did the dishes, walked the dog, and left flowers and sweet notes all over the place.
We napped and nursed the afternoon away, and tonight Denise brought us the wonderful photographs she took after the birth, and our family doctor, Lisa Levine, came over and did the sweetest housecall I’ve ever experienced, and checked Joa out as his pediatrician. We popped the cork on the champagne.
When he’s awake, he’s incredibly alert and attentive, eyes open, wanting to take everything in. He’s so beautiful. And he’s nursing great. I can’t imagine ever taking a step out of this house without him ever again. Hmmm.
Andey’s doing great, though she’s very sore both from the tear and from the bones and muscles that got moved around so fast in a very quick, intense labor. She’s such a sweet mom. The whole place is as if dripping in melted sweetcream butter. Delicious.
Life doesn’t get any better than this!
Love you all,
Lisa (& Andey & Joa)
p.s. "Joa" is pronounced like "Noah" but with a "Y" sound at the beginning.
You can also read some of the responses we got via email.
