Welcome Lyell Todd Marcis!

Born June 24th, 2009 at 2:54 in the afternoon at Clovis Community Hospital.

Matthew and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on Tuesday, June 23, with a trip up to Wawona. It was a warm day and we had lunch by the river, swam and rested. Then we went up to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias for a walk. I wanted to take Matthew up to the upper grove but I was feeling tired and in the back of my mind I had an idea that something was up. It was such a beautiful, loving day for us, and set the stage perfectly for what was to come. We were debating where to go out to dinner, when I had some bloody show and we decided to go with the take and bake option and head home.

Things started happening from there. We called my parents and our doula, who told us to start getting ready. I walked up and down my driveway watching the sunset and feeling the rythyms of contractions- which made me so excited and giddy- I had no idea what was to come! Alison (my doula) came over and we made parsley tea from our garden and got in the car. The car ride was actually pleasant as my contractions were not so strong.

When we got to Clovis, we checked into a hotel and stayed there for about 3 hours laboring. Alison and Matthew helped me walk and sit on the birth ball, which really helped. My folks and brother arrived and my mom joined the team. They were constantly massaging my back or neck and right there helping me.

When we got to the hospital at 3am, I was only 2cm dilated, but almost totally effaced, and then let me stay to see what would happen. The next 10 hours are something of a blur to me, although I am sure that Matthew, Alison and my mom remember much better. I just remember the waves of contractions coming on and trying my hardest to ride them through. Every step of the way someone was there to guide and support me through it. As it got more intense for me I stopped moving around and just knelt on the bed. The big issue was that my water hadn't broken, and it seemed that my labor was stalling. We discussed artificially breaking my water, and decided to wait a little longer. Actually, I didn't do any discussing- I just screamed and everyone else discussed. About 2pm I was leaning over the bed with a contraction when I felt a whoosh, and down the water came.

Things went very quickly after that. I got into position to push, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. My midwife coached me until I started to bear down. My eyes were closed the whole time (I actually broke many blood vessels in my eyeballs and eyelids.) I felt like I was pushing so hard and there was no way I could keep going. Everyone could see the head and kept telling me he had brown hair. His head was so big that it wasn't coming out very easily. His pulse was getting low, and the midwife had an idea that he had some trauma going on. She did an emergency episiotomy and his head was able to come out, but his shoulders were stuck. Apperently he has big gardening shoulders just like his daddy. So the midwife performed an amazing maneuver (which has a name that I forget) where she manipulated one shoulder back inside to pull the other out.

Lyell was pretty blue when he entered the world, with the cord wrapped around his neck and meconium (sp?) everywhere. I didn't see any of this as my eyes were still closed, but he started breathing within 20 seconds and all was well! His shoulder wasn't broken, which is very common with this kind of birth, and he came over to meet me.

Our afternoon and evening in the hospital is a time I will never forget for the rest of my life. As my body relaxed and started to recover I could meet my son for the first time. His little body clung to mine as we just stared at eachother through the night. My hospital room had a window out to a small pond and fountain outside. He seemed just as in awe as me as we passed the night together looking the fountain outside.

Lyell recovered very quickly from his grand finale trauma, and we were discharged the next afternoon. Now we are home with dad, grandma and grandpa VK, uncle Peter, Lyell and me.