Last Saturday night, Adam Clayton '00 descended the stairs to the basement of Sigma Nu fraternity to greet his brothers, as he has on many nights during his Dartmouth career.
But the news he brought with him was so exciting that it prompted all of the guys who were downstairs to run up to the first floor -- grinding to a halt only when they were standing about five feet in front of Sara Largay '00.
The brothers proceeded to stare quietly at the person who was in Largay's arms -- seven-pound, eight-ounce Catherine Elizabeth Clayton, born at 12:15 p.m. on March 25, and fathered by Clayton.
"She was suddenly introduced to 20 uncles at once, all of them enthralled," Largay said.
It's a girl
Largay -- who found out she was pregnant last summer and, with Clayton's support, decided to keep the baby -- realized at 1:45 a.m. on March 25 that her water had broken.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Largay laughed when asked about her emotions upon arriving later in the morning at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
"Give me drugs," she recalled thinking. "It was incredibly painful."
For most women in labor, Largay said, contractions are about five minutes apart and therefore allow time for rest between them. But hers were only about 30 seconds apart, and they never spread out.
Largay said she did not want an epidural but was given narcotics to reduce the pain and increase the time between her contractions. However, the drugs didn't work.
Nevertheless, "she didn't scream that much," Clayton said on Wednesday as he held Catherine in his lap.
Largay said her labor went "incredibly fast and very well," but she was in pain and frightened during much of it -- particularly when the baby's heartbeat dropped before she was delivered, causing the doctors to call in a "high risk" obstetrician as a precautionary measure.
Largay said it was as if she had "a wad of cotton" in her ears when the doctors tried to explain to her what was happening.
"I couldn't hear [the doctor] telling me clearly and loudly what was going on, but I could hear the whisper in the back of the room," calling for the obstetrician, she said.
Largay became panicked when she heard the whisper, and additional drugs were administered to calm her down.
"Suddenly she could talk," Clayton said. "We could actually have a conversation with her, instead of just, screaming and breathing, screaming and breathing."
Mixed with the excitement of seeing his child brought into the world, Clayton said he felt some frustration while Largay was in labor, because there was not much he could do to help her.
Although Clayton said he felt "pretty useless," Largay said his breathing with her throughout the labor helped her focus on what she was doing.
