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It's
a Boy! |
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It's
a Boy! |
Hello Family and Friends,
After 50+ hours of labor which began Saturday evening late, my wife gave birth this Dec. 7 morning at 9:10 to a healthy boy. Though coming just a few days prior to the Dec. 10 due date, he's a little guy, weighing in at 5 lbs. 8 oz., with a staggering height of 18.5 inches.
Cheri did an amazing job in this very difficult labor. The cervix was off center, making it difficult for the contractions to have any progressive effect in dilation.
We labored here in our apartment, spending much of the last 24 hours of hard labor in a large tub of water provided by our excellent midwife, Cassandra Westra, and kept up to temperature by Cheri's Mom, Susan Carter.
The Husband assisted childbirth class that we took paid off in a big way, if anything enabling me to feel like an integral part of the birth, helping Cheri through each one of her 300-some contractions.
By the time Cheri finally approached full dilation early this morning after a most exhausting night, the Doppler instrument used by the midwives was indicating that the baby was in distress during contractions, perhaps because of the umbilical chord position. Different positions of the mother did not alleviate the problem.
Because we did not know how long Cheri would take to push the baby out, and because prolonged distress could jeopardize the baby's well-being and even its life, we unitedly decided that professional support of hospital facilities was in order so we transported Cheri in her mom's van to Gunnison Valley Hospital, with Cheri in the very difficult knee-chest position and Cassandra pushing the baby away from the birth canal, as Cheri was now fully dilated and would want to start pushing if the baby began descending.
The hospital staff was very efficient, professional, and understanding of our desire to have the birth naturally if at all possible.
A monitor on the baby's head indicated that his heartbeats were stopping altogether during some contractions, but they would come back to normal within a few seconds.
The window of time was short. I told Cheri that if she didn't push the baby out that they would have to pull it out. Her understanding of the risks of these interventions was additional motivation for her to get the baby out as quickly as she could.
After 30 minutes of pushing, the baby was delivered. The only intervention we opted for was an episiotomy to speed delivery. After the cut, on the next contraction the baby was half way out and we had to tell Cheri to hold off on pushing while the doctor cleared the elbows. One more push and the baby was all the way out, having great color and a pouty cry as if to say, "Boy, I'm sure glad that is over."
He was immediately handed up to his glowing mother.
It was a glorious ending to an arduous labor.
Though in retrospect we see that the midwifes could have done what the doctor did, we feel that the course we chose was the best one nonetheless.
The adrenaline from decision to transport gave Cheri an added energy boost to help push the baby out so that no major intervention was required.
Had we stayed at home, the exhaustion of prolonged first stage labor could have been overcome by the adrenaline rush that would have come from fear for the baby's life, not having a back-up alternative at hand in case second stage took too long.
I believe that hospitals have their place. At the same time, so few people actually need the high-tec interventions of the hospital. I still maintain that giving routine births at the hospital is like driving around in an ambulance in case you get in an accident.
We are grateful for the skill and training of our midwives as well as of the hospital staff who assisted us in the birth of this our first baby. And thanks to all our friends and family who have made this a glorious event.
Sincerely,
Sterling and Cheri Allan
(name pending for our boy)
Hello, Fam & Friends,
We have decided on a name and middle name spelling for our new baby boy.
Christian Mechaiel Allan.
Christian, of Greek roots, means "a follower of Christ, anointed." Michael, the Hebrew name from which Mechaiel derives, means "who is like unto God." Allan, derived from Irish roots, means "peaceful." In Hebrew it means, "strong, mighty."
The middle name is spelled to come close to the Hebrew pronunciation of the very common name Michael. But we have altered it a tiny bit by adding a diphthong "ai" which does not exist in the Hebrew. We want to pronounce it Mee-khai-el. The German K is more Greek than Hebrew, for the Hebrew is a solid K, whereas the Greek pronunciation of the khai is the same as in "chiasmus." We have also altered the Hebrew spelling of the name, adding a yod after the koph. The yod is short for Jehovah. This, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has one of the neatest meanings as a letter itself. It stands for "word."
So together the name reads, "An anointed follower of Christ who is like unto the word, Jehovah, God -- strong and mighty."
I suppose you are not surprise that we have created a new name for our child. We like to be different, pushing the envelope in a positive direction.
Sterling & Cheri
Mechaiel
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Mee-khai-el
