1 week old: Introducing Oliver James Zuber-Harris

Our beautiful baby boy, Oliver James, entered the world at 6:18 AM on Saturday, May 9, 2015. He weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and measured 21.5" long at birth. This picture was taken the day he was born.

When I was 37 weeks pregnant, I learned that Oliver had flipped to breech since my last prenatal visit. It was really unusual at that point and unlikely that he would flip back to head down. Nevertheless, I tried many techniques over the next few days to get him to turn including a couple appointments with a chiropractor certified in the Webster technique, moxibustion with an acupuncturist, Spinning Babies inversions several times a day, playing music low on my belly to draw his head down, doing handstands in the pool, and finally an external cephalic version at the hospital. At my follow up "position check" appointment five days later he was still breech so a c-section was scheduled for May 13. After a day of wallowing, I got back on the horse and began doing inversions again and scheduled another appointment with the chiropractor and for another version. One day I felt his knobby little head just above my right hip, so I quickly got into an inversion, played Beatles low on my belly, and begged him to keep turning all the way head down. After about 20 minutes his head disappeared but I also couldn't feel what his position was at all. Same with all day the next day - no knobby head, but hard to tell what position he was in. The following day at my chiropractor appointment, she said she thought he was indeed head down, so I drove straight to the OB/GYN office and walked in asking for a position check ultrasound. The lovely nurses obliged and, thank goodness, he had flipped! I cried with relief.

After he flipped, I started having more contractions and more downward pressure. I could tell things were moving along. A few days later I had another prenatal appointment and learned I was 5 cm dilated. My midwife and I looked at each other in disbelief - isn't that technically active labor? - but she sent me home because my contractions weren't regular nor very intense. That night my contractions indeed became regular and intense so we called my mother-in-law to watch Eloise and drove to the hospital arriving around midnight. At admission I was 6 cm dilated and definitely in active labor so we called our doula to come to the hospital. She was fabulous, just like last time, and coached me through increasingly intensifying contractions. I got into the birthing tub immediately, which felt great, and within about an hour I was dilated to 8.5 cm. Since I was advancing so quickly, staff got the delivery table ready and I got out of the tub since they don't allow water births. I sat on the birthing ball for a while, and my labor slowed down a bit, so I did other standing, sitting, hands and knees, and side-laying labor positions. I hung out at around 8.5 cm for about 3.5 hours despite the efforts and decided to have my bag of waters broken. I remembered being stuck at this point of labor with Eloise for 10 hours - also unmedicated - and decided ahead of time I wouldn't let that happen again. Oliver's head was positioned in an awkward position - head back instead of chin tucked to chest - so there was a risk that breaking the bag of waters could result in him descending in a bad position. But, nothing else was working, and he was essentially bobbing around in the amniotic fluid. As soon as the bag of waters was broken, I had an overwhelming urge to push and the midwife said I was dilated enough to do so, so I did. After his head came out, his shoulder got stuck, so I had to hold off until the midwife could reach in and attempt to corkscrew his shoulder around. Another good push and he was out, just 13 minutes after breaking my bag of waters. Just like his sister, he came out with a hand by his face. Unlike his sister, he had a full head of dark hair already about an inch long. He let out a SUPER loud cry - what a set of lungs on this kid! Healthy all around, and after two hours of skin-to-skin first with me and then with Evan, he was weighed and foot printed and all the other usual newborn things. Also just like his sister, he latched and started breastfeeding like a pro immediately. We are so grateful for another healthy baby to complete our family.

Later that afternoon, my mother- and father-in-law came to visit along with Eloise. Eloise said hello to Oliver and gently petted him, then barely paid him any mind after that. There were too many interesting things in the hospital room to explore! Here she is meeting Oliver:

We stayed at the hospital two days and then returned home. The day after we got home my mom arrived from Phoenix. We've been settling into life with two kids with the support of my mom and also Evan has two weeks of paternity leave from work. It has been challenging to manage two kids - a tiny newborn on an eat-sleep-poop 2-hour rotation, and a rambunctious toddler. However, even just a week into it, it's hard to imagine life before. It feels like Eloise and Oliver have always been here. What a joy they both are.