The Story Of His Birth

Megan and Jason agreed that Luke’s steady but slow progress meant he would likely be born sometime after his January 2, 2008, due date. That night, they took a walk through their neighborhood to Jorge’s, in the hopes that some exercise and spicy green chile salsa would move Luke along.

On Thursday, December 27, 2007, Megan and Jason spent the evening with their good friends, Steve and Crystal, who were due to have a baby girl - Mila - a few weeks after Luke was due. After discussing Megan’s dilation and effacement (which had become a regular topic of conversation between the expecting couples), Megan and Jason told Crystal and Steve they expected an early to mid-January birth date for Luke. The couples then made plans to get together over the weekend.

On Friday, December 28, 2007, Megan and Jason got up around 8:00 a.m. They had both decided to take the day off, so they could finish up the final preparations for Luke’s eventual arrival. They agreed they would feel better knowing that everything was ready, even if it was going to be a while before Luke was actually born. 

After taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood, they installed Luke’s car seat and headed out to grab a spicy lunch at Thai Passion. After lunch, Megan and Jason went to Round Rock, Texas, to exchange a few Christmas gifts and do some light shopping. Around 2:30 p.m., they left Round Rock and headed for South Austin to return a baby rug and pick up a changing pad. 

During the drive back to Austin, Megan mentioned that she might be having some mild contractions. (Megan also mentioned that she had had two really mild contractions during the night but had assumed they were Braxton-Hicks contractions.) The contractions were coming regularly, about every ten to fifteen minutes. 

At about 5:30 p.m., after they had returned the rug, picked up the changing pad, and swung by Jason’s office, Megan and Jason decided to head home. By this point, Megan’s contractions were coming every seven minutes, so Megan and Jason started calling family members to get the word out that Luke might be born sometime over the weekend.

When Megan and Jason got home, they busied themselves with getting their hospital bags packed, even though they were still telling themselves that Luke would not be coming until Saturday or Sunday at the earliest. Sacha (one of Megan’s sisters) was already certain Luke was going to be born that night and came over with Caleb (Sacha’s son) around 7:00 p.m. to watch a movie and open Christmas presents.

By the time Sacha and Caleb came over, Megan’s contractions were five minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. Given their regularity and relatively tight spacing, Megan decided to call her doctor’s office. Not surprisingly, the doctor’s office told Megan to go to the hospital. Megan and Jason, however, were still not convinced they were having a baby that night, so they decided to order food from Kerbey Lane and watch Bruce Almighty with Sacha and Caleb instead. In fact, Jason actually called Jennifer (one of his sisters) and asked her to let others know that they would likely be waiting until the morning to go to the hospital.

By 9:00 p.m., Megan’s contractions had become much more pronounced and were coming at intervals of five minutes or less. Finally, Megan and Jason realized they were going to have a baby that night. As Megan finished packing her bag, Jason loaded the car, and Sacha took Caleb home.

At about 10:15 p.m., Megan had a particularly intense contraction and decided it was time to go to the hospital. After a short, surprisingly calm drive, Megan and Jason reached Seton Medical Center at 10:35 p.m. and were admitted to a delivery room.

Megan’s first nurse, Amber, welcomed Megan into the delivery room and explained that Dr. Bushart was the on-call physician and favored an active approach to delivery. Amber said Dr. Bushart would want to break Megan’s water straight away and that Megan would need to tell him if she did not want her water broken.

As if on cue, Dr. Bushart came into the delivery room, all smiles and enthusiasm. Amber explained that Megan had not yet had a chance to decide whether she wanted her water broken. In an energetic tone, Dr. Bushart asked, “Are you having this baby tonight?” Megan smiled and said, “Yes ... I hope so.” Dr. Bushart quickly replied, “Then we are breaking this water,” and he promptly did just that. Before leaving the room, Dr. Bushart reported that Megan was seven centimeters dilated and that Luke had dropped into the -1 position.

After Dr. Bushart broke Megan’s water, her contractions increased in intensity and duration and started coming much faster. Sacha and Jason stayed by Megan’s side and encouraged her as she worked her way through the new wave of contractions, while Jennifer brought CDs and a portable CD player up from Jason’s car.

As her contractions continued to intensify, Jason asked Megan if she would like some music. Megan said she would and asked for Cat Power. After flipping through the CDs, Jennifer found Cat Power’s The Greatest and loaded it in.

With a cool rag covering her face, Megan endured contraction after contraction (some of which lasted as long as five minutes) without any pain medication whatsoever. Then, after about an hour of hard work, Megan asked to be checked again. At Megan’s request, Jennifer went out and found Marty, Megan’s second nurse. Marty reported that Megan was somewhere between seven and eight centimeters and that Luke was still at the -1 position. 

After Marty’s visit, Megan’s contractions seemed to sharpen. With Sacha and Jason on either side of her, Megan worked her way through the now incredibly intense contractions for another forty five minutes or so, at which point she started saying that she needed to push. Sacha and Jason told her not to push (as they had been taught to), but Megan was the one having the baby, and she knew the time to push had come. “It’s not me wanting to push,” Megan (somewhat patiently) explained. “My body is making me push.” Megan said that if Sacha and Jason were not going to let her push, then she needed someone to check her again.

Jennifer left the room and found Marty. After Jennifer explained the situation, Marty said (using her best Prissy impersonation), “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies.” Somewhat disarmed by the humorous response, Jennifer replied, “Okay ... then I think we are going to have a problem.” Standing up with a smile, Marty said, “Nah. It just means I need to get my gloves on, because we are about to have a baby.”

With that, Marty came back in the room and reported that Megan had gone from seven centimeters to ten centimeters and that Luke had dropped from the -1 position to the +2 position. After prepping the room for delivery, Marty started coaching Megan on how to push her way through the contractions: “If you can do three ten-second pushes on each contraction, you are going to have this baby.” 

With Marty leading the charge, Sacha and Jason started counting with Megan through her pushes. At first, Megan was only able to sustain two ten-count pushes per contraction; she just was not feeling enough progress to muster the strength for a third push. Trying to keep her spirits up, Sacha and Jason asked Megan if she wanted a mirror so she could see the progress she was making on the second push. Megan said she would. 

With the mirror in place, Megan saw that the first push was bringing Luke into position, while the second push was starting to bring him out. Encouraged, Megan dug deep and - for each and every contraction that came after that - found the strength to make three consecutive, sustained ten-count pushes, despite the pain.

After thirty minutes of intense pushing, Megan was finally able to get Luke into a birthing position, and Marty brought in Dr. Bushart and the rest of the delivery team. After complimenting Megan on how far she had come, Dr. Bushart coached Megan through another twenty minutes of incredibly intense pushing.

Finally, at 1:57 a.m. on Saturday, December 29, 2007, Megan pushed Luke’s head out, and Megan and Jason saw their baby boy for the first time. Megan’s next push brought Luke fully into the world. After Jason clipped the umbilical cord, Luke was brought up to meet his mother face to face, skin to skin. Together for the first time as a family, Megan and Jason looked at Luke and could not believe anything else had ever mattered to them. With Sacha in the room (and everyone in the waiting room), the new family thanked God for the incredible gift of a first born son.