Sunday, January 30, 2011

Baby Monkey in the Garden

Hello hello hello,It's a fantastically crisp evening out here in Nicola Valley.We went for our first really nice walk today in the brilliant sunshine with our new best friend- our little baby girl Luna!!!Life has taken such a wonderful joyful little turn the past few days- we're loving how our little family is growing here. Luna Moon-Sprout Coutts-MacArthur was born just the other morning- January 28th at 3:05 in the morning- an Aquarius baby to join our little home of two Geminis and a Pisces.....We were in Kamloops a few days ago on Thursday for an appointment with one of our Midwives- Tatania. All that day Brandie had been having minor cramping going on- we weren't sure if it was dinner at a restaurant the night before and the coconut milk ice cream that we snuck into the movies, or if this was the early beginnings of labour. Tatania thought that it was just some early stage cramping that could be the beginnings of a couple of weeks preceding labour (Luna's predicted due date was February 9th).A little while out of Kamloops we decided to visit the Savannah 'Free Store' as we call it (we've been informed it's the dump- though very organized and clean). We collected a few Christmas trees for the goats (trees that folks had wild-cut), some tidy thick wire and fencing, and a couple of broken down freezers (which we'll have drained of freon, and will use for either grain storage or filling with soil and planting in as part of our 'ReUse It' Garden). Brandie's cramps at this poing starting seeming to her more like contractions.As we were driving home, I recalled how a friend had mentioned that babies always come with the moon (there's always a moon of course. She had meant a full moon- then how could you explain that there are babies born every day...). I joked that the cramps were either from the 'Luna and Larry's' Ice Cream we'd enjoyed, or labour was beginning a couple of weeks early. We were still in disbelief that labour was coming shortly.... We had a couple of friends coming for dinner that night- surely the timing wouldn't be that festivities and birthing were to coincide.The contractions were starting to come on stronger when we got home. We phoned up our other Midwife Joanna and told her how things were going. She suggested that Brandie take a bath and to let her know when the contractions were a minute long each with four minutes between them for a whole hour. Brandie got into the bath with these ever-stronger contractions. Char started timing them over a half-hour period- they were already a minute long and three minutes apart!!! Baby was coming fast. It was time to phone up Joanna.By this time my longtime school friend Tyson and our organic Farmer friend Urs from Quail's Farm had arrived. They didn't quite know what to think when I calmly mentioned that Brandie was in the bathtub going into labour and that I was casually finishing up the dinner that Char had started. 'Remain Calm'- this definitely was the most important thing that we've learned over the last nine months of reading books and talking with midwives and mothers. The night progressed. The birth tub that we'd picked up in Kamloops (just that morning, along with all of the other birth supplies) was inflated and filled with a salty brine- portuguese ocean water.... Tyson went home, Urs went to bed, the Midwives arrived, Char went to sleep.Brandie dealt with the contractions as they came- we would make low gutteral noises to keep in the 'Primal State' and keep relaxed. Brandie would sleep between contractions, and take sips from a bendy straw of water and labour aid beverage, like a boxer between bouts. Cold damp towels would be rested on her forehead to keep her from overheating. She would go from the bathroom into the birth tub- now in our living room with a roaring fire. The heat was up to thirty-four degrees and the walls were sweating.Joanna and Tatania were mostly keeping to themselves, letting it all progress naturally. Every so often they would check baby's heartbeat and make a few notes.The contractions got stronger and stronger. Finally there were some membranes that had come out- looking like JellyFish floating about. I would hold Brandie up and she would muster all of her energy to push. Joanna finally said that the next contraction would bring out baby's body. 'Baby's body?' I thought... I didn't realize that her head was already out, that the membranes were just covering her. Finally with a great push little Luna swam out into the water and came up to the surface and onto Brandie's belly, all pink and lovely! Our lovely little baby- unbelievably real- here and now! A real baby girl had been growing inside of Brandie all along!The rest of the night was a continuation of delerium. The placenta came out after a half hour of mom and baby sharing and staring at one another (causing a natural release of the Oxytocin- the 'Love Hormone' which causes a natural expulsion of the placenta). We laughed and cried and felt love radiating all about. Sometime shortly after Luna was born, the moon came radiating out in the sky from among the clouds, a half-crescent moon glowing yellowish orange.Hours went by until light crept in through the window. During that time Luna was checked all over, delicately weighed in a cloth (7 pounds, one ounce), she was measured, temperature taken and all of that. Much cleanup happened over that time- the midwives were really wonderful with leaving Brandie, Luna and I in our exhausted states and taking charge in reducing the carnage. Still over the next couple of days the house seemed as if a raucous party had happened!A couple of days have passed and we're really getting into the groove of being mom and dad. Our lives are perfectly suited to having Luna with us. Wintertime is slow on the farm, and our usual routine hasn't changed too much. We're still reading, making food and smoothies, keeping the fire going, looking after our animal friends, taking walks (no hikes up the mountain for a while), playing piano..... We haven't played any board games the past few evenings but have instead opted for watching films from the library- it's warm in the living room and we're all a little sleepy.Brandie's energy is increasing all the time. She's recovering amazingly well, and is going along with all of the changes that her body is going through. We're absolutely thrilled to be here now- with no desire to go anywhere.Life is fantastic. Our world has just been expanded incredibly. We're loving being parents.Peace and Love,Michael, Brandie, Luna, and Char Monkeys

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