Today’s extra special announcement brought to you by guest blogger Baby Papa.
The Stowaway disembarked from the Mothership on Monday, Feb. 19, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. He arrived a generously proportioned 8 lbs. 6 oz. (approx. 3.8kg) in weight, and 22 inches in length (approx. 56 cm).
His name is Calvin George Accone Huber: Calvin, well we just liked that one and agreed immediately on it; George, in honor of the many generations of German Ohio farm folk; Accone, the nom de emigration of an illustrious line of South African Chinese fortune seekers, healers, numbers runners and writers.
He arrived after an epic 24-hour labor, which began in earnest in the early morning of Feb. 18 (his original due date), accelerated at around 4pm when our fantastic doula Sarah Pancake arrived at our apartment, and took a turn for the home stretch a little after midnight when we began to prepare to go to the hospital. We walked into Lenox Hill around 1:40am, and the good news came quickly: Tanya was already 7 cm dilated at arrival, and had achieved 9 cm dilation by the time attending physican Dr. Karl Moehlen examined her about an hour later (full dilation is 10 cm).
The contractions came more swiftly, with brutal ferocity. Tanya declined pain medication for the last time, encouraged that she had come so far under her own steam. She began to push, and visible progress was made in the company of Jay, Sarah, attending resident Dr. Borodo, and excellent delivery nurse Diane. Dr. Moehlen arrived and immediately set to work to bring little Calvin into the world. At 4:54 (Sarah tells us; official time is 4:56) Calvin slipped the comfort of the womb and arrived in the material world. He was almost immediately deposited on Tanya’s grateful and loving chest.
A word here about Tanya’s strength and beauty. It is unnerving, to say the least, to watch your most precious loved one endure excruciating, extended pain. Especially when pain relief is possible, in this case via the epidural anasthaetic. But Tanya made the decision to go without, and Sarah and I did our best to give her all the support and comfort we could. But we felt no pain. We held Tanya’s hand, and looked into her eyes, and told her what a great job she was doing, and yelled Push! when it was time to push. But Tanya walked this one alone, and was alive and aware and so very in the moment. In the end she overcame her fear and achieved one of the greatest moments any human can ever know.
We have a beautiful baby boy in our midst, and we look forward to you making his acquaintance. Much love to all the friends, family, co-workers and hangers-on (you know who you are) who gave us so much love and support through this phase of the adventure.
To be continued…
Technorati tags: birth baby infant Labor childbirth
6 Responses
This is wonderful. Please give Tanya my regards, and the best wishes of the people she used to work with at MWEB in SA, back in the day when the net was still in black and white.
No painkillers…. Ah well, she’s always been a show off.
Congrats and love to all. Well done Tanya.
(Here speaks one with 3 children and 0 labour pains thanks to the wonders of Caesarians.) I am in awe of your bravery! Love Peri and co down under xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Welcome to the world, baby boy, have a great time! Lots of love to your mom and dad from Rudy, Tanya’s old colleague in Cape Town, South Africa.
CONGRATS, CONGRATS ALL ROUND on the arrival of Calvin!! Naturally, one isn’t surprised that Super Tanya managed the whole thing without drugs, but it remains an awesome feat nonetheless. Well done to Jay for posting the announcement and I hope everything goes swimmingly.
dear jay, tanya, & calvin,
we are so pleased and happy for all of you. we can’t wait to meet calvin! he is a fortunate child to have been born of such loving parents.
love & warmth,
pat & carol
What a beautiful baby boy! Congratulations to you both. He will be a joy to you both. We look forward to meeting Calvin.