forty weeks: a live birth story: Portia Liberty

On Easter Sunday, April Fool's Day, as the weekend came to a close, we waddled into our friends' apartment to give Matt another opportunity to beat us all in a board game. On the way back to the car, I paused in the parking lot, wincing, and we started timing my contractions again. Two hours later, just after midnight, at forty weeks and three days, we made the drive to the hospital.

My water still intact, I labored for hours while my family slept nearby. 4 cm at 12:30 a.m., 5 cm at 4:00 a.m...

The nurse joked about how I wasn't sweaty enough to request an epidural, but at 6:30 a.m., I insisted. Once it was in place, they checked my progress again. 10 cm. I was pain-free and comfortable, and they wanted me to wait to give my last dose of penicillin a little more time to help keep Portia safe from bacteria. They broke my water. After 7:30 a.m. the nurse came back and started talking about pushing.

She used some verbiage that sounded familiar, "We're going to try to push." Legs up. One push. "Wait, wait, wait!" She ran for the midwife, but returned immediately, alone, "Looks like I'm delivering this one."

There she was. Portia Liberty Nowak arrived at 7:42 a.m. on April 2nd, 2018. She was 21 inches long, 7 pounds and 8 and a half ounces. She was a brand-new Nowak person, similar, surely, to her sister, but possessing her own features and brightness.

The next day we brought her home to Krick St., surrounded by family and friends, where we've been learning and growing in love.

Photography by Hannah Grace