The Birth of Curtis; Or, How Catherine Just About Killed Me and the Midwife with an Evil Look

So, we are now officially a family of four. Curtis was not due until Wednesday, but decided to get the party started early. Sitting in sacrament meeting Sunday morning, Catherine leaned over to me and said she was having contractions. Nothing serious, but just to be ready. She imagined them to be braxton hicks contractions and that the real labor would still be days off. We decided to be ready, however, and as soon as we got home we finished organizing all our hospital bags, overnight clothes, and all the other million little things you do in preparation for birth. I have to take credit for the best idea of the afternoon, though: while the contractions were still manageable, I forced her to lay down and take a nap. After the whole ordeal with Sara's birth, we have learned to always be well-rested going into labor or else the pain and pressure can just overwhelm your body more than it would otherwise.

The contractions were irregular but increasingly tense the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, and by dinner time it was pretty apparent that tonight was the night. After putting Sara to bed, we (Catherine, Catherine's mom Thelma, and I) gathered around the table and played card games while watching "Community" in order to pass the time and take Catherine's mind off of the increasing pain. It was a fun few hours and Catherine was a trooper, only having to pause every 6-10 minutes or so to breath out the pain. Finally, around 9pm they were getting serious and consistent enough that I decided to keep track of minutes between and during contractions. Within an hour after that, things were getting much more intense and we had to focus only on relaxing Catherine and reminding her to breath slowly. We called the "Rosie" (the maternal center at the hospital) to tell them we were on our way, finished our bags, and called a taxi to take us over there. When I helped Catherine into the taxi and closed the door, she immediately started having another severe contraction, because by the time I got to my side of the car and got in the driver had a look like, "Holy Crap! This isn't going to happen on my back seat is it?!?!" Luckily, we made it to the hospital. The time was 11:30pm.

Once in the hospital and directed to the midwife birthing room, Catherine was in severe---and I mean,severe---pain. She was yelling, screaming, and cursing me for putting her in such a position. Ok, I made that last one up. But she was in the pits: the most common words leaving her mouth were, "ahh!!," "whaaaa!!!," and "EPIDURAL!!!" The last of the three being the only common word found in her few and emphatic complete sentences, like, "I want an epidural!" Or, "Give me an epidural!" Or, "If I don't get an epidural I will tear off your arm!!!" Ok, that last one was made up again.

The midwife came in, observed how Catherine was doing, heard Catherine's robust screams, and somewhat smiled at Catherine's continued pleas for an epidural. She calmly replied, "Well, we don't do epidurals on this floor." Catherine then despondently told her to take her to the floor where they could do epidurals. The midwife examined her, then said, "Here's the thing. By the time we wheel you out, take you up a floor, get you prepped for an epidural, we could have this baby out and in your arms. This baby is ready to go. While Catherine was not thrilled with the news---her answer was not so much an, "Alright, let's do this!" as it was an "AHHHHHHHHH"---she handled the new situation like a trooper. She tried multiple positions, suffered for thirty minutes or so, and by 12:20 Curtis was ready to come out. Fifteen minutes later, Curtis was born. From entering the hospital to the time it was all finished was only a little over one hour. Adding in the intense two hours previous to that, labor only lasted about three hours. Compared to Sara's birth---which was a 23-hour labor---Curtis was a breeze! And Catherine did it au natural! She's officially my hero.

Anyways perhaps Catherine or I later on could give a more indepth narration of today. Until then, here are a few pictures documenting the last 24 hours.

Here is Catherine in-between contractions, just before we left for the "Rosie."

Catherine and Curtis, a little while after the birth.

Curtis Benjamin Park

Sara getting her first look at her baby brother.

Catherine, Sara, and Curtis

Curtis, all ready to go.

The family of four.