Baby!

Birth Story: Cast of Characters - my husband Travis

What can I say about Travis? He was incredible through the entire experience.

He told me everything would be fine, even when the doctor was telling us that the results were 'worrisome'. He held my hand when I needed it, tried to calm me when I was panicking, and was my sturdy protector. He wasn't going to let them do anything to me that I didn't really want, or was willing to take the time to convince me that it was necessary before letting them do anything to me. He made me feel safe.

Once labor actually started, he was there nearly every second, as far as I remember, and was always available for me to grab and squeeze, because that's what I needed. I needed him to share his strength with me. Actually, what I really needed was his calm assurance that everything would be fine. His confidence went a long way toward making me feel like I could handle this.

He was constantly reminding me to relax in between contractions, to conserve my strength. He rubbed my arms during contractions to remind me to keep my entire body relaxed while my uterus did all the work, again, to conserve energy. I was pretty lost in my body during labor, and he was there to remind me of things like breathing and relaxing. He always knew what to say to keep me going.

Physically, I think that he worked as hard during labor as I did. Possibly more so, because it wasn't involuntary for him. He provided a strong arm for me to pull on when I was pushing, even though he was pulling with one arm against my two. Good thing he's so much stronger than I am! Obviously, during the pushing stage, his was the harder job. At 195 pounds, I was not a light burden for him to support on his thighs, particularly when I was arching away from him at every contraction, trusting him to keep me from falling backwards.

Afterwards, he was as tired as I was, and the next day we were equally sore. He said that because of the way that I labored, relying on him so much, that he felt like he had really had a big part of bringing Alexander into the world, which is perfect. I had felt kind of guilty that I got to experience pregnancy, labor, and childbirth, and he just got to watch. I'm glad that it went the way that it did. I knew that he would be the perfect labor partner, and he was. It just made me love him more, and I hadn't known that was possible.