Walking back from pre-natal yoga class Monday night, I started having what I thought were just “practice” contractions. Although they were fairly regular for a couple of hours that night, they died down and I put a full day of work in at the office on Tuesday. Tuesday night the contractions got more regular again, about 10 minutes apart. My water broke around 1 am on Wednesday, at which point the contractions got much more intense and came every 2 to 4 minutes. Around 2:30 pm I walked across the street into the hospital and was examined by the midwife on call. We had been hoping and preparing for a natural, unmedicated birth at the Cambridge Birth Center, part of Cambridge Hospital. The breathing and relaxation techniques we’d learned from Hypnobirthing were helpful in coping with the contractions. However, there was a glitch in the plan.

We had known for a few weeks that Petra wasn’t in the correct position most of the time – she liked to move around into various positions. In fact, I had appointments on both Wednesday and Thursday for procedures to try to turn her into the correct position. But she wasn’t waiting that long! She was breech when we arrived at the hospital, and various factors meant that a C-section was necessary. Although it felt like an eternity to me, from check-in at the hospital to Petra’s delivery was only about an hour and 15 minutes. Matt stayed with her during weighing and other procedures, while our doula stayed with me.

The C-section definitely has not been a pleasant experience, and I will take a few weeks to recover. I’m not used to being an invalid. However, Petra is very healthy (she could have left the hospital Friday; it was me that kept us there until today), and that is the most important thing! We’re very happy to have such a wonderful baby, and hopefully that will sustain us through the sleeplessness and (on my part) pain and mobility restrictions.

Sorry we haven’t posted photos yet, although we’re lucky the new Flip video camera arrived by mail the afternoon before she was born. Cambridge Hospital’s internet blocks Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, LJ, most blogs, etc. Now that we are home we will eventually get stuff up on Flickr.

Tour of ~s nursery from Matt on Vimeo.

Alison’s sister and 5 & 1/2 month old niece:

Alison’s cousin and -2 month old nephew:

We learned how to wrap up a baby in a sling:

Matt helped crew Alison’s uncle’s sailboat to 2nd place in a series of races:

It’s a good thing we have lots of friends and relatives with babies to test drive the gifts! Milo approved of “Where the Wild Things Are,” and Iris liked the playmat and the rocker, but she wasn’t sure about the polar bear puppet.  Thanks to everyone who came, and to our families for organizing it!

Tilde at 20 weeks

After a marathon session on the ultrasound table, we are now reassured that the baby has all 10 fingers and toes, 4 chambers to the heart, the appropriate number of kidneys, and otherwise is in good working order.

Also, continuing a theme among our relatives and friends with recent babies, it’s a girl!

Tilde at 12 weeks

We went downtown to a more high-tech hospital for the “early testing.” This included our first ultrasound. We were surprised at how human the baby looks already at 12 weeks.

The test results came back just fine. They also confirmed the estimated due date – June 17th, 2009. Mark your calendars!

Fall Leaves on Maiden's Cliff Hike

We were heading up to Maine for the weekend, where we were going to see both sets of parents. So, we decided it was a good time to take the pregnancy test. As I’d suspected (I’ve been charting my cycles pretty closely), I’m pregnant! It was nice to be able to tell the folks in person. The rest of the weekend was spent picking apples, hiking, and otherwise enjoying the spectacular fall weather.