Zap sticks out her head

Tuesday 04/04/06

At 00:40 Sharon arrived as a second midwife to take notes, which was great as we had Bridget’s full attention. By that stage the epidural had worn off again and Sicily was trying to find I comfortable position. By 1 o’clock she was starting to push.

The pushing went on. I stood by Sicily’s head feeding her ice chips between pushes. By 1:45 Sharon notes, “we can almost see a peep with contractions.”

Throughout the pushing part. which looked like incredibly hard work, I stood by Sicily’s head and feed her ice cubes. After the intensity of breathing together at home the pushing made me feel slightly redundant. I, even at the time, suspected part of it was my own tiredness, exhaustion and the labouring kicks.

There was one particular pushing contraction that is still clear. After a long session of pushing, Sicily who is all grim determination, sweat and something else again, lets out a short sharp and single, “Fuck” to which Bridget replied “fair enough”.

By 2:10 the head remained visible and at 2:12 Zaps head was birthed. She had a headful of dark hair like I had dreamed and posted to this blog.

There’s this story, T. told me it once sitting round his fireplace, probably after a breather, talking stuff, not so much a story as a folklore, that the first sound a baby makes contains all the names of G_d.

When Zap stuck her head out she started to talk. Not cry or anything but talk. I swear it was the most unearthly sound I had ever heard. If ever the name of G_d was spoken I swear I heard it then. A minute later she was born, caught by Sunita. By 2:30 Zap had latched on and was feeding. Strange. Strange experience.