Selina’s Birth Story – At Home
I’ve been dying to share my thoughts about Selina’s birth, and how the passage of my impending labor was so different than what I expected. I think in hindsight, there was some things I could have done better, and things that other people could have done better, but overall, I came home with a brand new baby girl.
The day of my induction was a series of errors and misunderstandings. My doctor, a resident, told me the day before that I could show up for my induction anytime after 7:30 a.m. So in my brain, I figured I could come in around noonish, which gave Gus time to go to work, and his family time to prepare for the wait. At 7:00 a.m., the induction receptionist called and wanted to know why I wasn’t there yet. I was still half-asleep, and said, “I’m sleeping!” and to my surprise, she said, “GET UP!”. I was awake by then, and I already got stressed thinking that we were late and the nurse was very adamant that we get there by 8:30 a.m., which is impossible if you are working on Indian Standard Time.
Gus was a lot more calm than me, which made me feel better, I was already nervous about the induction and being late made me feel worse. He told me to relax, and we got ready at our own pace, but that meant that we didn’t get there until 10:30 a.m. We ended up taking two cars, the van with my Mom, Gus and I, while Gus’ parents took their car and we met at Swedish First Hill.
