Day Nine.3

Lara went from 10 mph to 100 mph in what seemed like seconds. It was such an intense, sudden pressure, an almost overwhelming pain that she could not hope to endure. The onset of contractions and the pain associated with them was supposed to be like a tea kettle set to simmer and slowly coming to a boil. It was not supposed to be Mt. St. Helens.

Lara is now in active labor. Actually, more than that.

Lara is now at 9.5 cm.

This is not a typo. She’s about to give birth to a melon.

At about 5:00, Lara complained about an intense pressure. We called nurse Liz. We called the midwife. At 5:13, she had what appeared to be an incredible pain. There was no Lamaze. Lamaze had no place here. They put her on nitrous oxide, which took a millimeter’s edge off of the pain.

During this most painful of moments, Margaret the midwife checked her cervix, “4.5 centimeters, zero position”. Just a few hours ago, Lara and I were joking that baby Fife-Myers would wait another week to come. Well, he didn’t like that presumption. By checking the cervix, it meant that she has to place her hand on the cervix while all this was happening. She came back alive.

Tomorrow, if there’s time, I’ll try to provide details regarding what we think happened. It looks like the event opened Lara’s cervix to about 5-6 cm. Given the babies position, contractions are still difficult to judge, but we think they coincide with pressure. The baby did have a elevated pulse for a brief time (170 – 180) but it has since fallen back to its normal pattern.

Again, she may have this baby tonight. We’ll see.