Juliette's Birth Story

In light of the fact that my memory seems to be rapidly disintegrating, I thought I ought to write down Juliette's birth story before it is forgotten.

Juliette was due on the 27th of January. Both of my other two babies were late and I didn't go into labor with either one. Annalise was induced nine days after my due date. And with Zachary, they broke my water five days after my due date because I was six centimeters dilated but not in labor. So we assumed that baby number three would take a similar course. But long before we were even pregnant, Jason and I had bought 1.20.09 shirts from the Bush's Last Day shop. With Juliette's due date so close to the inauguration, we joked about how awesome it would be to have a baby on that day. But in actuality, we thought it would never happen. (And if by chance this baby was early, it would be before that -- just to stick it to us that we would have THREE Bush babies. Ugh.)

When I was seven or eight months along, our doctor was a little concerned that the baby wasn't growing well, so he put me on a kind of a modified bed rest. I had to lay down at least 2-3 hours during the day (because that's easy with two other kids) and eat as much as I could. Fortunately, it worked and the baby showed some significant growth after a month. With a little over a week to go before my due date, our doctor was convinced that the baby was a good size and gave me the go ahead to resume my activities. Of course the next day I did four hours of gardening. (It was a lot after almost two months on my butt.) And did I mention how hot it was? All my kids were born when it was freakishly hot, so I should have known that a heat wave in January was a sure sign that a baby was coming.

The night of Monday, the 19th I started feeling contractions. I knew that I had a long way to go because on Friday I had only been one centimeter dilated. So I tried to read and then I took a bath. At some point I woke Jason up and packed my bag. After the bath, it became clear that my water had broken. After some discussion, we decided it was time to call my mom. Since Zachary had come so quickly, we didn't know how much time we'd have. My mom came over at about three in the morning to stay with the kids. Jason and I headed off to the hospital alone. This would be our first delivery without any other support staff. My mom had been at both births and my friend Jenn was with us when Annalise was born and Sarah was with us for Zachary's birth.

At the hospital they determined that my water had indeed broken but that my contractions weren't doing enough quickly enough for my doctor's taste. He wanted to put me on Pitocin. Now Pitocin and I have met before. Pitocin was in the house during Annalise's delivery. I know Pitocin and Pitocin is not my friend. I had really wanted to go all natural like I had with Zachary, but the idea of many more hours of Pitocin contractions and I was ready for an epidural. It was actually a really easy decision. So around six in the morning, I got my Pitocin and sometime after seven I got my epidural. In the meantime, we were able to relax and watch the inauguration. By this time, it was clear that we were indeed going to have a baby on 1.20.09. Unbelievable. We just hoped the baby would hold out a little longer so that she or he would be an Obama baby.

Watching the inauguration while in labor was a really surreal experience. We were watching what we thought was one of the most significant historical events to happen in our lifetime. And at the same time, on a personal level, we were having one of the most significant events of our lives. In short, it was amazing.

Our labor and delivery nurse stayed in our room all morning. Jason and I watched the whole inauguration with her. Right around the time that Biden was sworn in, she checked me and I was ready to push. She paged our doctor and was surprised to find out he had never left the hospital. We thought he would be right there and were pondering having a baby born while Biden was vice president but Bush was still president. Fortunately our doctor took his sweet time. (It turns out he was watching the inauguration in the doctor's lounge. He didn't want to miss it. Of course he had no idea we were watching it, too. It's a good thing I'd had that epidural and could hold off on the pushing for a bit!) Obama was sworn in, our doctor finally arrived and we started pushing. (In between pushes he would turn around and watch the TV!) During the singing of the national anthem, at 9:35 in the morning, Juliette was born. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. I was so glad I'd had the epidural because I was able to relax and enjoy her birth and the inauguration. I was so present in the moment. Her birthday will be celebrated by so many people. It really is the best birthday ever. I even have the t-shirt to prove it!