Peanut becomes a Person

Merrick with Dr. Christine Brass-Jones at our 6 week check up.

FYI I have been trying to post and upload pictures of this, the most blessed and incredible event of my life so far, to no avail. Anyone know how to shrink images or expand my brain? Any help is appreciated. Here goes another try...

Peanut was a happy baby boy inside of his mommy. He kicked a little, squirmed a lot, and looked forward to being born. So much, in fact, that he decided to make his grand entrance in a beautiful fashion nearly a month early. September 20, 2008 was a pretty day. A little warm, but my garage was a mess. Cleaning it was urgent, even though I was too pregnant to think about doing all of it. That morning, with the garage door open, my neighbor, Bill, walked past and insisted that I stop. "You're going to put yourself into labor!", he said. "You must be nesting". "I've been nesting since I was born. And my husband isn't cleaning it any time soon, so I'm going to do it. Can't have Peanut comming home to a garage like this.", I reasoned.

The day turned into night and I got all dressed up to go to dinner with Eddy's lovely client, Linda Coll, at her clubhouse restaraunt. Prime rib was the special that night, with a side of fries or a salad. Anyone who has ever eaten with me knows that I'm more prone to ordering grilled chicken with steamed veggies than that fattening option. Seriously. After Eddy and Linda both ordered what I was wanting so bad but trying to resist, I caved. I mean, I wasn't getting any skinnier at this point, was I? So I took the prime rib. And fries. Why the heck not? We were force-fed the chocolate lava cake afterword and finished off the night visiting with Linda at her lovely home.

Any of you who have been pregnant know that sleep in the 8th month doesn't come so easy. This night was no exception. As I finally drifted off to sleep without Eddy (there were some fights he had tivo'd and wanted to watch before joining me), I was rudely awaken by my "pot-smoking hippy" neighbors. Now I say that because they were holding a seance or poetry reading by light of a bonfire accompanied by some random drum and stand up bass in thier back yard. And because they work at Trader Joe's. Not necesarily because they smoke pot. Or are hippies. I actually like them a lot and have more in common with them. But this is beside the point. I was being woken around 2 am by the "ba-du, ba-du-ba... dadada-ba-ta!" over and over. Eddy finally crawled into bed with me and we fell asleep inspite of the arts festival going on behind our house.

Then, without warning, I felt like Peanut was massaging me. From the inside out. Really hard. And it sort of hurt. Like deep abdominal cramping. No water broken, no sudden realization that Peanut was to be joining our family later that morning. Just a deep tissue massage. What a nice baby. I called my mom and dad (in Duncan, AZ of all places) to alert them of my status, then tried to go back to sleep. After another 30 minutes of deeper and deeper massaging, I realized that sleep was a luxury I would be replacing soon enough for late-night feedings and diaper changes. I called my mom and dad back and encouraged them to join me at thier soonest convenience that following morning at the hospital, if they intended to be there for their newest grandson to be born. I also called Tiffani and Chad, who were visiting them for the county fair that weekend (and who had tried to convince us to join them, reasoning I was far enough from my due date to travel 4 hours by car to a remote and medically unadvanced town of 700.) to invite them to join us, too.

Around this time I also called Jessica Wild, my doula and birthing educator. She taught us several wonderful classes and had consulted with me about my idea of the birth I wanted to have. Then she encouraged me with all sorts of ideas on achieving that ideal birth, complete with meditation and affirmations (everything short of pot smoking- I am the same hippy as my neighbors :). We had several meetings to discuss our plans before Peanut's birthday. I intended to have a natural childbirth experience, laboring mainly at home. "I want to walk into the doors of the hospital pushing", I told her. I knew that it would be uncomfortable to say the least, but for some reason I really wasn't afraid or nervous for the experience. (my mom's best efforts to scare me about every single pain and trauma I would encounter aside)

Jessica arrived around 3 am. She filled my bathtub with hot water, cracked open some young coconut and poured the juice into a few water bottles for me (excellent source of rehydration- nearly identical to our plasma). She lay behind me in my bed, Eddy in front, and they massaged, encouraged and comforted me for the 5+ remaining hours that we were at home. I was in the tub, she poured hot water over my huge tummy and Eddy gathered the things we were going to need for the hospital (my bag, of course, along with Peanut's, was already packed. I was so anxious and excited for him to come home with us!) The experience was intense, other-worldly, and beautiful. It was a huge excersize for me in mind over matter, and I was very blessed that so many things fell into place to allow me to have the amazing experience that I did. So much worked together in our benefit, and I know it was just an incredible blessing, all of it. We decided that it was time for the bumpy and seemingly endless car ride to the hospital, and mom, dad, Tif, and Chad all arrived at our house right about then. Francie took the still shots, Tiffani manned the video, Dad and Chad were the drivers and Eddy carried our things to the car and drove as quickly and safely as possible.

The Banner Gateway hospital is only 5 miles north of our house on Higley, but I was in a time warp. It could've been 5 minutes, it could have been 5 hours. I didn't know. All I had energy for was to breathe in, then breath out. After being quickly admitted and checked, I found out I was at a 9 1/2 cm. It was time for Dr. Christine Brass Jones to come and catch him. I had about 1/2 hour in the hot shower before I was helped back to the bed to push. 45 minutes later, the biggest conehead known to man dive-bombed out. He was healthy, alert, and well. I was so relieved and grateful and overwhealmed and tired and happy and shakey... welcome to motherhood. I had him placed on me so I could hold my new baby and nurse him. He wasn't really hungry, but it's amazing how their instinct kicks in and they just know what to do. From day 1 he's been a great little nurser. He's so easy to take care of. After that, they took him to measure and weigh him, clean him off, and bug him. 6lbs 12 oz and 19.75 inches long. Daddy went with the nurses and Jessica helped me back into the shower. I just sat there on the chair and cried with relief and gratitude. I am so humbled to be blessed with a sweet little angel boy and I realized what a miraculous gift that was.

After all the hoopla settled down, my mom and dad went to Crackers and Co. to pick up our huge breakfast order. I ordered eggs benedict and pancakes with fruit. Mmm... Lay off, I'm starving. When it was time to be moved into our room, the nurses came to get me and my sweet boy and my sweet bigger boy to go. I got up and gathered all of my things and COULD NOT WAKE EDDY UP for the life of me :). He just kept sleeping on the couch. Finally I told the nurse to just give me the wheelchair, I made Eddy get in and pushed him and the baby. It was pretty funny to see. Picture to prove it is included. We loved having so many of our friends and family to come and visit and welcome Merrick into the world. We needed all of their help naming him, after all.

Ryan had all sorts of great ideas. Ryan, Ryaniha, Ryanicus, Ry Ry, etc... Any way, after borrowing the hospital's book of names and narrowing it down to Luke, Bryson, and Merrick, and asking every nurse's opinion, drumrolllll please... MERRICK WILLIAM TORRIENTE!

We didn't decide until we were leaving the hospital, all packed up and checked out. Eddy made the big call and we were glad to be on our way home to start life as a very happy little family.