With the wounds on my 9-month pregnant wife’s arm from a stray cat encounter getting worse by the hour, I wasn’t going to let another 12 hours pass without getting Katie on an antibiotic. After back-and-forth calls to the hospital ER, a second ordered prescription headed to a 24/7 pharmacy (since the first pharmacy had closed by the time we left). I hopped in my car for what would normally be a 20-minute drive but got stuck behind an accident. After a long round trip, I arrive to give Katie the first dose of antibiotics. She is in the living room, sitting and bouncing on an exercise ball chatting my ear off. I realize she’s quite hyped up and a light-bulb flickers regarding the “putsy putsy” stage we recalled from our birth class teacher, Rachel. In one class Rachel said the phrase “putsy putsy” several times as she describes the excited eagerness of early labor. Using the phrase became a bit of an inside joke between us. Combined with Katie’s continued cramping/contractions and diarrhea, I know she was likely beginning labor. What we didn’t know, is how quickly it would progress. Since I didn’t know exactly what her body was feeling, all I had to go on was her telling me things “were feeling different”, and less like period cramps at this point. Between 9-11pm, her total contractions averaged out to be about every ten minutes, but not quite an identifiable pattern. She was urinating like crazy along with frequent diarrhea. Figuring we were early on, Katie decided to head to bed and see if she could sleep through the night and reassess things in the morning. 

Around 11pm, Katie came out from the bedroom saying they are still coming on and she hasn’t slept any yet. We began to get tactical in our approach, pulling out binders and tools we had spent the last several months preparing. Katie requests two hair combs to squeeze in her hand, and I review the print-out on signs and stages of labor. As we get the “labor jams” playlist up and playing, the contractions start to really take over. To combat them, together we discovered that I needed to slam an ice pack onto Katie’s lower back and hold it there for the duration of the contraction, which were about 30-45 seconds at this point. When I asked her to describe them to me, she said that it felt like tree branches were growing through her back with lightning sensations and pressure. No thanks. Looking back, we really didn’t have a good control over these early contractions and were probably fighting against them more than allowing them to do their thing. As midnight turned to 1 am, we’re now in the guest bathroom as Katie has more diarrhea, and she vomits twice. This was the hardest time for me, as Katie was overwhelmed with the contractions and slipping into her own world. She is sweaty, tired, cold then hot, dehydrated, and looks up at me from the bathroom floor and weakly mutters “this is really intense”. A bit of me kicked into panic mode right then. In hindsight, this is probably when she “transitioned” into second stage labor. We had been texting with the midwives for the last 20 minutes, describing symptoms and what was happening. From their texts back I could tell they had dealt with anxious dads before, but at this point no one realized how quickly Katie’s labor was progressing. They had us time contractions to see if we were close to “4-1-1” (when you’re supposed to reach out to your midwife) which takes an hour to fully complete the count. About 20 minutes into the hour, I had seen enough! I texted them that things were getting extremely intense and that I needed support. Midwife Kate texted that she was headed our way. That provided some relief to my nerves, but I still had to focus 100% on making sure Katie was doing well and reassured things were going along fine. It was about 1:15am when I called Katie’s best friend Bailey. She had originally planned to drive from Lubbock to Brownwood and stay the night, then do the remaining two hours to Austin the next day. I told her not to stop now, and she better head straight to Austin. I also spoke with Katie’s mom who was packing her things at the coast and about to start her three and half hour drive.

Back to our guest bathroom, where a speaker is soothing us with “labor jams” and we’re working on getting as comfortable as possible as we anticipate each oncoming contraction. One begins, I slam the ice pack, she squeezes the combs and engages; rinse and repeat. With each successive contraction, Katie gains a better understanding of them and starts to get into rhythm with her breath. She’s now able to ride the rollercoaster of energy and pressure and breathe it out. I drew up an Epsom salt bath to help Katie’s hydration and to perhaps alleviate discomfort. Moving around between contractions was definitely the most uncomfortable, especially when splashing into a bathtub. Throughout this we do share a chuckle at how all our grand plans of movies, walks, and relaxing during early labor were long gone at this point. I dash over to our homemade affirmations wall and come back to Katie to read off Willie Nelson: “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.”

At 2:45am I heard a knock on the door and rushed to let in our midwife Kate. Thank you, Lord! She comes into the bathroom and checks on Katie, then begins to set up her equipment. With each contraction, Katie continues to adapt and learn to breathe and moan during them, and does a wonderful job of resting and relaxing between them. Kate and I move Katie from the guest bathroom to our bedroom, and Kate continues to monitor and set up. All three of us are happy that we escalated things and now have Kate with us, as Calvin’s arrival is inevitable in the next few hours. Our friend Bailey finishes her six hour drive from Lubbock, clocking in at 4:00am. Midwife Kate wants to test Katie’s urine to check hydration in case she needs to administer IV fluids. Bailey and I help Katie over to our bathroom toilet where there is a basin to collect a sample. As we sit her down on the toilet, another strong contraction hits and Bailey and I surround her with support and ice packs. Splash! 4:11am Katie’s water breaks right there on the toilet. Instead of collecting Katie’s pee, we collected her amniotic fluids. I text Katie’s mom Marcia the news, who is still driving back to Austin.

With her water broken, things step into another gear as we prepare for birth. We return Katie to the bed. Midwife Kate says to me “If you want to have this baby in the birthtub, you better go get it”. Oh yes… let me go get that out of the box in the garage! I rush to 1) find the damn thing 2) get it out of the box 3) loosen up the tight plastic folds and find all of the air inlets, and hook up the air compressor. I apologize to Katie for the loud noise, but she couldn't care less as she’s fully in her own world with the contractions. She has mastered her breath and moan and relaxation between them. She is focused on the words of the worship music, connecting with God and pulling in His strength. Once I finally get the tub inflated, I rush to connect the hose to the guest bathroom showerhead. I crank on the hot water and run back into the bedroom where I find the untamed water hose flopping around and spraying the room indiscriminately. Kate guards her laptop and equipment and I wrestle the hose into the tub. Katie didn’t even notice. The three of us comfort and support Katie, feeding her sips of water and working with her through continuing contractions. While on the bed, Katie announces that she is pooping, and is shocked when we tell her she’s not. Midwife Kate jumps up as we know that sensation means it’s getting time to push! With the tub filled, we move Katie into the water.

I join her in the tub initially, as right when she gets in a contraction knocks her on her knees. She squirms around a bit as her body changes to the new positions and sensations of the pool. She ends up in what looks like an awkward and uncomfortable position with her arms and legs spread out and her body bobbing in the middle; I later described it looking like a cat who didn’t want to get into a bathtub. For whatever reason, this ends up being the position she sticks with. I get out of the tub and kneel near Katie’s head, pressing a cold rag on her head and neck.

Our other midwife Sam finally arrived from San Marcos at 5:15am, and the timing was essential. Katie has started to use each contraction to begin pushing Calvin out. Sam works with Kate on any quick final arrangements to receive the baby. I can tell Katie has been through a lot, but I have no doubts that she is about to beautifully give birth to our son. For the last nine months, she was so focused on the pregnancy, exercise, sleep, reading and preparing, praying, and doing everything possible to make our home birth the miracle that it was. As Calvin began to crown, Katie roared and roared. We were grabbing each other’s arms and I was just doing everything I could to calm her, reassure her, and keep her breathing and focused. The time between contractions Katie does a great job of relaxing, as she had all night. Another one comes on, and Katie pushes and roars with all her might. Calvin’s head appears! The pushing and contraction finishes and Kate takes Katie’s hand and has her feel his head. I know Katie was always looking forward to that moment. In the commotion of the birth tub and a contraction, we lost the heart rate monitor to the water, so we’re left with Calvin’s head out but no way to monitor his vitals. Kate tells Katie that we’re gonna push him out now before a contraction starts, and Katie prepares her breath and takes a moment. Then with us surrounding her, she digs as deep as she ever has and roared and pushed him out, as his shoulders plop through and Kate swoops him up right onto Katie’s chest. After a couple of seconds and some stimulation, he lets out a few squeaks and cries! Immediately I felt the entire world lifted off our shoulders and just sobbed while staring at him and Katie as she glows with a massive smile. All I could say was “Calvin’s here!” and Katie had the absolute best reply with “Happy Father’s Day”. I sob with happiness, exhaustion, and relief. The three of us moved to the bed where we melted into the cushions. The midwives examined him and Katie, and after about an hour or so of relaxing on the bed, I cut the cord. Midwife Sam makes us a gigantic omelet and plate of fruit. They needed to give Katie a few stitches, so with Katie’s mom and Bailey all hands on deck, I slipped out to the living room couch. With so much happiness and relief that he finally made it safe and sound, I immediately fell asleep for a couple hours. My very first Father’s Day may never be topped.