Briahna
August 22 will never be just another day. At 12:32am, Briahna Rose Kent entered the world via C-section. It was one of those surreal experiences that moved me in ways I had not expected.
The short story of her arrival began at 5am Thursday morning when Mindy’s started feeling small pulling sensations that was essentially her continuing to dialate. She held out calling our midwife until her appointment at 9:30 that morning. I rode my bike to work not really thinking anything was going to happen (caveate: it was 2 days before our due date and everyone knows that first children are late, so I’m preparing to wait another 2 weeks).
10:15am I get a call at work (unusual since no one wants to talk to me)…It’s Mindy. She can barely speak as she says, “So…(breathe)…are you ready to have a baby…(trailing off as she startes another contraction)?”
Whoa… … … I’m almost speechless because (as all men do) I’m very slowly trying to switch out of my mental “work box” and dig into my mental “wife box.” I rode my bike home because Briahna was facing out and there are some exercises our midwife wanted her to do to try to get her to flip over. I honestly don’t remember much of my ride home. It’s a 18 minute ride; I think I did it in 10 (I do know my legs were very sore later). I got home, showered real quick, packed the car and back to the hospital by 11:15.
For first time parents to be, a word of advice. Even if you THINK you’re going to get an epidural, be forewarned that Mindy had to cope with about 2 hours of unmedicated contractions before getting into a room and the epidural started. Moral of the story; lamaze was worth every penny for us.
Short story long, we got into the room about 1:15. The epidural was in her by 1:45. Life was good.
Fast forward to 8pm. Mindy hit the 10cm mark and the big push begins. Significant back labor because Briahna would not flip over (epidurals don’t relieve back labor) so, again, Lamaze paid off. Mindy pushes and pushes and pushes. 11:15pm our midwife says, “I want the on call OB doctor to see if he can help because she hasn’t moved very far in the last 2 hours.”
11:30pm the doctor advises us that our baby just can’t seem to make it around the corner of the bone and keeps bumping her head on it. He says C-section is the way to go.
12:25am I got my scrubs on, I’m sitting there with Mindy in the OR just waiting for that baby to start crying.
12:32am I hear Briahna start to cry. The anesthesiologist says, “If you want to peak over the curtain you can see you baby.” The moment was surreal. She was looking around in a daze as they clipped the cord and whisked her away to clean her up.
Moments later, they brought over our baby girl and placed her in Mindy’s arms. We stare. She stares back. Her fingers were tiny and really white.
12:37am The nurse takes her and I follow behind as we go back over to do the 2nd APGAR test. It was the first moment I started feeling the wonder of it all. She was stripped naked and I was standing their gently stroking her forehead with my finger. I swear she was looking right at me. I had my first father moment where I understood a little clearer what the love of a father, and of the Father, is like. It was a door that opened that I didn’t even know was there and a wave of love for this little girl welled up and saturated my heart. I even started tearing up. Surreal.
She was born on August 22, weighing 7lbs 3.7oz at 20″ in length, has auburn red hair and blue eyes (like her mother–we hope they stay that color!).
Mindy is recovering great. Briahna is getting more adorable by the hour. Stay tuned as I’m sure there will many stories to come.
Grace and Peace.
