Our family was delighted to welcome Theodore Amos Green Beilfuss into our fold on the first day of February.The waiting period leading up to Theo’s arrival seemed endless: I had received three due dates from three separate medical providers during the course of my pregnancy, and we had chosen to believe the earliest of these, January 19th. Actually, truth be told, I believed Theo would arrive earlier than that, and hence when January 15th passed, and then the 19th, and still no sign of baby’s arrival, we began to go a little stir crazy. The latest due date we had been given, January 24th, even proved to be a bit early. All babies come in their own time!
Theo also had been breech. He was in the “right” head-down position when we arrived in the States, but then flipped head-up in early December. With some effort we got him turned back around (playing Afro Cuban All-Stars at the bottom of my womb seemed the most successful technique for getting him moving in my belly), but all of this movement had its price, which we learned when he was born!
Theo’s birth was very dramatic, and not just a little scary. After the peaceful and uncomplicated natural birth of Ian in a hospital 5 years earlier, we were good candidates for a home birth. Seattle has one of the best-developed “alternative” birthing communities in the nation, with many experienced midwifes. There was some irony in our trying a homebirth, considering we didn’t have a “home” in Seattle! Several friends offered us their homes, however, and we ended up staying in the home of family friends I have known nearly since birth (the couple was staying at their other home in the mountains, so we had the house to ourselves). The home was on the crest of a hill overlooking Seattle neighborhoods and the Olympic mountains in the distance. It was also at the end of a steep, narrow, one-way road.After a week or more of occasional contractions, I went into labor sometime on Thursday January 31. By 11pm things were getting more serious, and we called in the support team: my mom and best friend Christy. By 2am we called in the midwives, Beth and Bev. At about 5:30 Theo’s heart rate began to concern the midwife who, after experimenting with putting my body in different positions to see if this would resolve the baby’s stress (none did, entirely), wasted no time in ordering a hospital transfer.
First the fire truck arrived to “triage” the situation to see if we were a true emergency. The fire truck had difficulty coming down the steep, narrow street, and so parked in the middle of the street. This of course blocked the way for the ambulance, which showed up soon after. The gurney wouldn’t fit around the corner of the hallway into the bedroom where I was waiting and the firemen couldn’t figure out how to lift a naked laboring woman on her hands and knees to move me to the gurney. Finally, I walked to the gurney myself. I traveled on the gurney – on my hands and knees (the position in which Theo’s heart rate was most stable) – in the ambulance all the way to the hospital, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Rich and Beth accompanied me in the ambulance, thankfully, or I don’t think I would have stayed on that gurney.We arrived at the hospital in 6 minutes flat. Theo was delivered by c-section 18 minutes later thanks to the speed and skill of the surgical team. The cause of his distress had been that his umbilical cord – short to begin with –was tightly wrapped around his neck, preventing him from descending to the birth canal and tightening around his neck each time I pushed – the result of too much in-utero flipping and moving around?
Theo spent about three hours in the neonatal ICU to monitor him for problems (none materialized, mercifully – he is perfect) while I slept off the general anesthesia. The whole family was reunited within about 4 hours of the delivery, mom delirious from the drugs but happy and safe with her new babe in her arms.
I had feared lectures from the hospital doctors and staff about trying to birth at home. I got none, but instead heard praise for our midwife who “called” the situation just right and in time to save Theo. It was lovely to be delivering in Seattle where the “alternative” birthing community is well-established and (generally) well-regarded by the medical community.Ian is a loving and doting big brother, holding Theo gently and sharing kisses and cuddles, helping mom and dad, and paying attention to the ways he can help Theo be happy and comfortable. We are super proud of him.
