The Birth Story

Armed with the knowledge about labor indicators from our birth class, I found myself Tuesday morning (1/18/11) with my bloody show. Typically, this means labor will begin in 48 hours, so we waited anxiously, trying everything to keep our minds off the coming event. It was only then that I truly realized this baby was real. Until my bloody show arrived, I somehow had kept this baby all hypothetical. Now the reality set in and we were nervous!!

That night, we went to bed with no real further indicators that labor would begin soon, other than that my body had been clearing itself out all day. At midnight, I woke up and was sleepless, though I specifically rememeber thinking labor wouldn't start for at least another day or so. But at 1:00am on the dot, I heard a pop and felt what I could only describe as a kick far too hard to be a baby, and I immediately awoke Kyle. I wasn't sure what had happened but I feared something was wrong with the baby.

Nervous that something wasn't right, I got up to use the bathroom and found that the pop I'd heard (and felt) had been my water. We called our doula to let her know we'd be needing her sometime in the next day. Then we called the midwife to get permission to labor at home (they often want you to come in after water breaks). I got the permission, and within 15 minutes, my contractions had started... they were timing at only 3 minutes apart. So much for having time to ease into this thing! We called our doula back and she was at our house by 2:00am.

I labored everwhere around the house - in the tub, on the toilet, in bed, on the ball, and finally wound up laying on the hardwood floor. At that point (about 6:00am) , our doula asked if I was ready to head to the hospital. I'd just been waiting to hear that question for hours, (that means she thinks it's almost over!) so we headed out the door.

We got to the hospital and I was dilated to an 8. An 8! YAY! Immediately they wheeled me back to a labor room, forgoing all other tests. By the time we got to the room, I had about 2 more contractions before it was time to push. I pushed in every position I could think of - on the squat bar, leaning over the back of the bed, and sitting up. After an hour and a half of pushing, little Everett Isaiah, 6 lbs 1 0z, entered our world. He was immediately put on my chest for skin to skin time. After about 40 minutes of uninterupted skin to skin, I attempted nursing for the first time. Everett latched on perfectly and nursed for 40 minutes straight.

Everything in our birth went exactly to plan. No drugs, no interventions, just pure, raw, natural birth. We feel so incredibly blessed that we were able to have the birth story that we planned, with a healthy, thriving child as a result.