The (belated) Birth Story

The following events occurred May 15th, 2009, on a sunny Friday in a house on Jacobia Street as told by Jason Hart:

6:57am: I woke up and looked across the bed at Shauntel. She told me that she had been having regular contractions most of the night and they were a tad more painful than they were the previous few days, but they would stop whenever she got out of bed. Abigail was now nine days overdue, and we were wondering if she even wanted to come out and join our crazy family. Shauntel had been having irregular contractions for well over a week. Quincy and Isaac both provided regular and painful contractions for many hours before they came, so we didn't think anything of the contractions that night. I pushed myself out of bed and took a shower to get ready for work.

7:16am: While searching my dresser for some clothes I found my shirt (that I had bought for myself a few months earlier) which said, “Worlds Greatest Dad.” I looked over and jokingly told Shauntel, “maybe this will get things going!” I put the shirt on, sliced myself a piece of fresh bread, kissed the wife, and left Snoqualmie for work.

12:45pm: I took a break from work and left Mercer Island for a used computer parts shop in Seattle. I wanted to trade some old, but working, computer parts for a used laptop hard drive. My choices were a 2 GB drive (not nearly enough to run XP) for $4.95, or a 100 GB drive for $79.95. I chose not to choose since my choices were not charitable.

3:40pm: I got a call at work from Shauntel. She said that the contractions were getting more painful, very regular, and closer together, and asked me to come home. She seemed quite calm, but I could tell that things were finally progressing because Shauntel is not the type of person to ask for help unless she has exhausted all available resources.

3:45pm: I hopped in my green 1997 Honda Civic that gets 35 mpg and left Mercer Island.

3:51pm: I got another call from Shauntel, this time a litter more distressed. She wanted to make sure I was on my way. I assured her that I was and told her to remember to breath. I would have driven much faster on my way home had there not been so many cars in front of me.

4:07pm: I arrived at home in Snoqualmie. Shauntel was in obvious pain and struggling. The contractions began to be 3-4 minutes apart and we expected them to continue at that rate for at least a few hours.

4:15pm: The contractions were now 1 minute apart. We made the decision to get to the birthing center and pronto. I called the midwife and told her what was going on and she said she would meet us there. Leticia, Shauntel's sister and certified Doula, was already on her way to join us at our house, so I called her as well, and told her to meet us at the birthing center. During the contractions I stayed with Shauntel to help her breath through the pain. In between the contractions I frantically scrambled around the house and out to the car to get everything ready to make the 20 minute drive to the birthing center.

4:23pm: Shauntel's contractions were now excruciating, or they at least seemed so. She had just visited the bathroom and was on her way to the couch and another one hit. She didn't quite make it to the couch when I came in to tell her the car was ready to go. She told me to wait for this contraction to pass, and then we would head out. She laid down on her side next to the couch on the floor. She then began shaking as bad as she did when Quincy came. Just as I was able to get her breathing again, I heard a balloon pop. NOW it's time to go!

4:26pm: I helped her up and walked with her down the hallway towards the front door. Just as we passed the stairs, she began to have another contraction and told me to stop. At this time she was hanging onto my shoulders facing me. When the contraction ended I started towards the door again, but Shauntel wouldn't budge. I tried again, but still no budging. She said that she couldn't move, there was too much pressure and pain. I rationally explained to her why we needed to get moving and get to the birthing center as quickly as possible, and she irrationally explained to me, “I-CAN-NOT-MOVE!!!!” She told me that she thought the baby was coming right now, and asked me to feel around to see what was going on down below. The rest of the story is a bit of a blur as my body began to produce massive amounts of chemicals that it only produces in emergency situations, but I'll do my best.

4:27pm: I reached down and felt a hard, very round ball in between Shauntel's legs. I quickly realized that pregnant women don't usually carry around hard round balls between their legs while they are in labor unless the hard round ball was not actually a ball, but a baby's head! I quickly told Shauntel what I was feeling down there and lowered her to the floor. I took off her pants, but this time there was a surprise. Abigail's entire head was already out! Hello! I called the midwife and re-routed her to our house.

4:29pm: Shauntel made her first push and I was doing my best to keep my own head from exploding. The baby budged a little. I noticed that her tiny left hand was up near her cheek. I will now explain why this was an adorable moment: During the pregnancy we had 3 ultrasounds, and at each one we tried to get a good 3D image of her face. And had you been there you would have known that each time we tried to get the picture, her tiny hand was covering her face and she wouldn't let us see her. Last Tuesday when we went to our midwife appointment, the midwife offered to check in up there and strip the membranes. While she was doing so she felt the baby's head, which was normal, and then she felt something strange. After a few minutes of Shauntel and I freaking out, wondering what this 'strange' thing was, the midwife realized that the thing she felt was Abby's tiny hand up there covering her head! So to now finally see Abigail and her little hand still there trying to cover her face was perhaps the most adorable little 'hello' a daddy could have received.

4:31pm: As Shauntel, who was doing amazing considering the circumstances, made her second push, I tugged a bit on Abby's tiny hand and it popped out so that her entire arm and head were free from Mom. We shook hands for the first time!

4:32pm: Shortly after, the rest of her came out, and we finally had our little baby girl! She wouldn't come when we wanted her to come, and she wouldn't stay in when we wanted her to stay in. In that beautiful moment we realized who was in charge, and we were happy to finally have her.

4:33pm: I gave Abby to Mom and made sure she was breathing and crying and moving. I then called Leticia, explained what had happened, and told her to re-route back to our house.

4:35pm: Shauntel was still lying on the floor. We had the midwife on speaker-phone and she was instructing me what to do and what to look for. I stole a shoelace from one of Quincy's shoes to tie off the umbilical cord, then covered Shauntel and Abby with blankets and waited for the midwife to arrive.

5:00pm: The midwife arrived just in time to deliver the placenta and take care of other midwife stuff. Leticia arrived at the same time, and I could finally calm my nerves. We had a beautiful new baby in our family! Everything seemed absolutely perfect in a moment that could have been absolutely devastating.

Lauren the midwife:

Leticia, my sister, the Doula: