Zachary John Wesner

... or, as his close friends call him Z-dubs. Born Friday August 28th 2009 at 9:58 pm. 6lbs 13.7 oz and crying his head off.

He was a long time coming. Heather and I were hoping to have a completely natural labor. We hired a Doula (labor coach) had read books, watched movies and felt we were totally prepared for things. Of course not everything goes as planned and on Wednesday after a routine visit to the OB Heather was admitted to the hospital because of pregnancy induced hypertension. It wasn't horribly high but enough to cause concern and enough to make the docs want to induce labor. Heather and I were tempted to go home, monitor the blood pressure on our own, and hope for normal labor to begin but we decided it wasn't worth the risk.

At 6pm on Wednesday they started induction with a mild drug that is supposed to get things going. 12 hours later, after a night of little sleep for Heather and maybe a couple more hours of sleep for me, they checked how things were progressing and nothing much had happened. It was time for the next step.

We were both nervous. Every intervention they need to perform usually leads to further interventions, less natural labor and a more likely C-section. The staff was very receptive to our requests and took things very slowly so Heather did not have to deal with the extra painful contractions that can be caused by some medications. So after allowing Heather to eat an Au Bon Pain breakfast, a rarity in in the hospital when you are in labor, they took another small step and this got things going.

By 3 pm Heather was 3 cm dilated (the goal is 10cm) and having regular contractions that were becoming more frequent and more painful. We kept in touch with the doula, we used all of the pain coping techniques we practiced and let things happen. Heather was amazing, from the very start she dealt with the contractions gracefully.

By midnight things were really going and we called in the doula to help us out. She had Heather walking, squatting, lunging, bouncing and swaying to try and get that baby moving around into the right position. All the while it was contraction after contraction anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes apart. We spent a lot of time on the Jefferson Hospital bridge which connects two buildings across Sansom street. Right there on the 7th floor. Watching the city wake up, the day proceed, evening rush hour, sunset and then back to night.

I was beginning to tire and can only imagine what Heather was going through. We kept it up all night. We were now 24+ hours in and it was beginning to seem endless. In the morning they checked for progress again and Heather was at 6cm and the baby was further into position. not as far as we had hoped but getting there.

Friday morning was much the same as the night. I could see the fatigue on Heather's face. I was feeling ragged, emotional and a little like this was hopeless without more intervention. I know she was dealing with way more then me and I can't believe how well she held her composure. Never complaining, nothing more then a whimper on the more painful contractions. I seriously was in awe of my wife. I thought I knew what she was capable of but I didn't.

By noon things were slowing down. Heather had been in active labor for 30 hours and in the hospital on little sleep for 44 hours. The contractions were slowing down because she wasn't in natural labor and the inductions techniques used so far were no longer driving labor. It was time to move to Pitocin. A manufactured form of the normal hormone Oxytocin that your body produces to drive labor. It makes contractions longer, the peak of the pain is higher and sharper.

Within minutes of starting the drug Heather was in much more pain but still held her composure. For a few hours she managed to deal with these harder contractions. By 7 pm she was falling asleep between contractions, and just could not take it anymore. We decided to get an epidural to to remove the pain and hopefully get Heather some time to relax. We were both afraid that it would cause labor to stop and she would be forced to have a C-section. They finally placed the epidural at 9:00 pm. Heather was now comfortable in bed but it didn't last long.

Within 20 minutes she was feeling the urge to push. I couldn't believe it. I was elated. This was really going to happen. All the hard work that Heather put in was going to pay off. Minutes later Heather was actively pushing. I can't describe the excitement I was feeling.

From here things moved very rapidly. First the water bag started to emerge, it had never broken and the baby would be born in the bag. A rare occurrence in modern medicine, most of the nurses there had never seen it. I had never even heard of it. It's called being born in caul. And depending what culture you look at it either means the baby will never drown, will be a vampire, or will have prophetic powers. I'll take the first one.

Within 35 minutes after Heather started pushing Zachary was born. A beautiful baby boy. The birth went perfectly and Heather bounced back on a huge high caused by hormones released during birth. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. To go from such a tired low caused by hours and hours of arduous labor to such a high in less than an hour was spectacular.

Heather and Zachary left the hospital on Sunday afternoon and everybody is doing very well. I am losing a lot of sleep and today went for only my second run in the past week but no matter. They'll be plenty of time to run in the weeks and years to come.