Melissa and I are the proud parents of Kaitlyn Mary Letchford, born on October 8, 2009 at 9:48AM. She was a healthy 7 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long.

Melissa first started having contractions a couple days before the 8th. On Wednesday morning she was awakened by more severe contractions although they were inconsistent. By that evening the contractions were becoming more regular and by 8 o’clock she felt that she needed to go to hospital to get some “pain relief”. We arrived at the assessment area and Melissa was hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby’s heart rate and her contractions. After 30 minutes and a physical exam the Dr felt that Melissa might have as many as two days before the baby would come because she was only 3cm dilated. On our drive home from the hospital Melissa was brought to tears with the thought that she would have to cope with the pain for any longer. At 1 AM that night I was awakened to panicked screams as Melissa’s water had broken. It was a frantic dash to the car and off to assessment again. This time the contractions were minutes apart and she was 5cm dilated. The Dr asked Melissa if she would like anything to help with the pain and she immediately said she would like an epidural ASAP. The anesthesiologist was soon there and I quickly sussed her out. I have been nervous about the idea of an epidural ever since I heard about them. Having back problems of my own, I found it hard to believe that it wasn’t extremely risky to put a needle into your spine. It was this combined with the young age of the Dr and having to wear a surgical mask that made me feel nauseous and then an overwhelming urge to pass out. I decided that my best option was to leave the room. Well when I returned Melissa had a big smile on her face and I knew everything was alright. After that it was pretty much a waiting game as the nurses and Dr’s came in every 30min or so to check on her condition and progress.

At 8:15AM the pushing began and that’s when the “fun” started. Melissa had a hard time feeling anything because of the epidural and I think this actually caused her to have to push for much longer than she should have. The nurses began to turn the epidural down so she could have more feeling because progress was quite slow. After about 45min the Kaitlyn’s heart rate began to get quite high and the Dr’s became quite concerned about the length of time she was in this state. During one of the exams meconium (Baby’s poo) was discovered which increased their concern. The perinatal department was contacted because of the possible side effects of the meconium and it was decided that the baby had to come out soon. By this point Melissa was making great progress, but still not fast enough so the Dr’s felt that they might need to use the vacuum to get her out. Melissa and I shared a glance and we were both clear that we didn’t want it to happen this way. I could see Kaitlyn’s head clearly at this point and began to really cheer Melissa on with the equally enthusiastic help of the nurses. The Dr’s began to set up the vacuum, attached it to her head and realized that it didn’t have any suction because of a leak in the line. We all continued to rally around Melissa and the Dr caught on to our enthusiasm and proclaimed that the baby was going to come out unassisted. By this point there were between 10-15 people in the room because the perinatal team had showed up to assist with checking over Kaitlyn as soon as she came out. With incredible strength Melissa dug down deeper than any man could go and pushed Kaitlyn out. It was the single greatest moment of my life watching Kaitlyn slide out and begin to cry. Not a day has gone by since then that I have not thought about that miraculous moment. I have never been so proud and amazed by someone in all my life as I am of Melissa and what she was able to do.

Oh and Kaitlyn came out perfectly healthy.