Monday morning, about 1-1:30 AM, Chilkat woke us up by saying, “Mommy?” — we could hear her, but we couldn’t hear her on the monitor, which meant she wasn’t in her room. She was on her way down the stairs, looking for Mommy. She was up and aware, and wanted Mommy to read to her and various other things. Between 1:30 and 3:00, KrisDi got her back to sleep two or three times, but she woke up screaming each time when KrisDi tried to leave. Then the ultimate threat was given: If you don’t stay in bed, Daddy’s coming in, not Mommy.
She was asleep (not without further ridiculousness) by around 3:30. KrisDi and I never made it back to sleep. Our alarms are set for 4:30. KrisDi had started having mild cramps that came around an eight minute interval, but she recalled she might have had something similar about a week before Chilkat was actually born.
We went to work exhausted and came back exhausted. I had a night meeting with Japan from 5-7 PM. KrisDi was having contractions that were irregular but stronger than the morning ones. Some time afterward, they started getting a little closer together and occasionally a little stronger, and we figured:
- It will take P Dubs (our designated Chilkat-sitter for this occasion) about 30 minutes to get down here after we call him, and we’d rather have him here than need him here.
- It will take about 15 minutes to get to the hospital.
- Chilkat was born in a pretty short amount of time, and conventional wisdom says that second+ children take less time than the first.
- Because KrisDi tested positive for Group B Strep, we wanted to be in the hospital long enough for her to be on intravenous antibiotics for four hours, as the medical community recommends.
We concluded that maybe it’s not a great idea to wait until we’re absolutely certain. I picked up the phone to call P Dubs, just as P Dubs called me. He’d been talking to KrisDi over the day about periodic contractions, so he wasn’t terribly surprised. He came down around 10:00 PM or so, and hung out with us while KrisDi’s contractions got fairly steadily stronger and closer together. Around 10:30 or 10:45, she was averaging a little over 5 minutes between and a little under 1 minute per contraction over the previous hour. We decided to go to the hospital, even though the recommendation is 5-1-1 (five minutes between contractions, one minute per contractions, for one hour).
We were let into triage at 11:20, where they took interest in Chilkat’s fast delivery. She was 4 cm, 100% effaced, -1 station, bag of waters was taut, but the baby was sunny side up  (not desired). Antibiotics got started at 11:45, they took us to our room at 12:10. I went out to the car to get bags, and while I was gone (about 12:20 AM on Tuesday) KrisDi’s water broke. At that point, she was 8 cm dilated. The nurses had KrisDi do a bunch of weird things to get the baby into a better position (hands and knees, leaning on the bed, a weird position sort of on her stomach). Baby went transverse at some point, according to the doctor. KrisDi started getting the strong urge to push, but was getting a “no” from the staff, maybe around 1:10 AM or so. Around 1:25 or so, she was cleared to actually push. Baby’s head got about halfway out on the first contraction/push. Baby was born on the second contraction/push, at 1:28 AM.
Chilkoot was born a healthy baby boy, 9 pounds 0.1 ounces (75th-90th percentile). 20 inches in length (50th-75th percentile), 35.5 cm head circumference (25th-50th percentile). Strong little guy seems to hold his head up better than his sister did, and can already roll from his back onto his side. If he’s awake, he’s hungry, and he’s quite vocal about it. He’ll fall asleep while eating, wake at the slightest provocation, and then demand food.
Chilkat’s been pretty friendly about him. She typically responds to any questions about him with, “He’s just little!”