On Monday night I had lots of braxton hicks contractions. They weren’t really bothering me, but they were there every time I woke up throughout the night. When I woke up on Tuesday morning I felt a little crampy and had a little bit of pink show but not much and for the most part the contractions had gone away. I knew that the baby would be coming soon probably but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I went about my day and my midwife was supposed to come that night to do my prenatal and talk to Brady and everyone who was going to be at the birth about emergency childbirth. I felt very strongly that Brady needed to remember this stuff even though he had had the class when I was pregnant with Elijah. Anyway, my midwife’s car was having trouble and we decided that it was best for her if she take the car home so that if I did go into labor she could get to my house. I still felt like Brady needed to remember so I called Janell who was going to be my doula and asked if she would come over and review emergency childbirth with us. After Janell left I told Brady he had to make the family room nice and pick up everything that didn’t belong in there so I had a clean place to birth. I vacuumed and had him vacuum the dining room too. I then cleaned the kitchen so I could make our baby’s Birth Day cake- since there is only one Birth Day we have a family tradition of having a cake… As soon as the cake was out of the oven and cooling, we went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep and finally dozed off at about 12:30 or 1. At 2 I woke up to go to the bathroom and had a really strong contraction. These were very different from anything I have ever felt- even when I was in labor with Elijah. It was extremely different to get on top of it but I didn’t want to wake Brady up because I wanted to let him sleep as long as I could and I wanted to go back to sleep. I kept trying to go to sleep and rest but it wasn’t happening as every time I would start to fall asleep another contraction would run through my body. At about 3 I started asking Brady to wake up and rub my back so I could relax enough to fall asleep. He was sleep walking and kept getting out of bed to get me out of bed or he would doze off as soon as he put his hand on my back. I was feeling very angry with him that he wasn’t helping me because I was tired and wanted to sleep! At about 3:30 I gave up and decided it was time for a shower. I made Brady get up and help me in the shower because I didn’t feel safe having contractions in the shower. We were in the shower about half an hour and I told Brady I wanted to go back to bed but he better make the bed up first. I kept trying to help him but every time I changed positions I would have a contraction so I just knelt on the floor leaning on my yoga/birthball. While he was finishing, I went into the family room to lay on the couch and try to fall asleep. I was almost asleep when I had another really strong contraction. (I should point out that the contractions were totally random up until this point, both in duration and it time between them). It was about 5am and realized that all of my plans for Elijah had fallen through so I needed to call my stepmom to drive the 2.5 hrs to my house to watch Elijah. I called her and told her I was in early labor and needed her help. She said she would leave at 6 or 6:30. By this time Brady came out and timed 3 contractions and they were
about 5 min apart and 2 min long so he called Jacque. While he was on the phone I had 3 more contractions and she said to call if anything changed and she was on her way. We then called Janell. As soon as we got off the phone with Jacque I was hit by an extra hard contraction that had me jump off the couch onto the hands and knees on the floor. I then told Brady to fill the tub. He began blowing up the tub. I stood up and was seized by another and another contraction. I asked Brady why the contractions wouldn’t give me a break in between anymore. I laid on the ball while he finished filling up the tub and rubbing my back during contractions. As soon as he was done filling the tub with air, I told him I had to pee. We stood up and began walking to the bathroom. We got about 10 feet and I told him the baby was coming now. He said, “What do you mean the baby is coming now!?” I exclaimed, “My water just broke” and fell to the floor as Brady pulled off my underwear so he could see what was going on. I was on my back and our baby was crowning. Being on my back was the most excruciating pain and I thought, “I don’t know how anyone can ever give birth in this position!” and had Brady flip me over. Because I was in the middle of a contraction that was pushing out my baby I didn’t have the ability to get on my hands so I laid there on my stomach with my knees kind of propped up. Finally the contraction ended and I felt great. I didn’t hurt anymore, the baby wasn’t coming anymore, and I could sleep! I let my baby slide back in because I was not pushing… I was going to sleep and when Jacque came I would get the baby out… Just as I almost fell asleep another contraction began pushing my baby out. Brady was doing a great job of helping support her head as she was crowning. After the contraction I let her slide back because I still wasn’t pushing and Brady grabbed a chux pad and got me propped up on the
ball. I laid there scared that my midwife wasn’t there and still wanting to go to sleep but also a little excited that my baby was coming. I longed for the warm water that Elijah had been born in too. The next contraction came and with a very loud scream and an intense burn, her head came out. Great
my son was crying in his room. I apologized outloud to him that Mommy loved him and was sorry for waking him up but I couldn’t come. The next contraction brought our baby’s body with a little fist tucked up by her shoulder. Brady announced we had a girl and then passed her through my legs
to me to cuddle. I sad back as we waited for her to cry. She didn’t cry! We asked her to and rubbed the receiving blanket on her but no noise. I was almost in tears because I was scared she wasn’t breathing and kept asking her to cry. Brady grabbed the bulb syringe which was sealed in sterile packaging and neither one of us could rip it open because we were both slimy. He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife and sliced it open. When we suctioned her nothing came out- she just grimaced and didn’t like it. She grunted a couple times and her chest and face started to pink up so we decided she was fine. Brady called Janell and told her we had a daughter. He also called Jacque to tell her but said she must be on the road. I sat there and waited until Jacque and Janell got there to deliver the placenta. I had tried a couple half hearted attempts to get it out but figured Jacque would be here soon and that was fine. Marin Aurora was born at 6:30 am and everyone began to arrive at 7. She was 7lbs 4oz and 19 inches long. She nursed right away and had nursed 3 times before Jacque got to the house.

Brady had asked me about a month before the birth if he could catch. I had said of course… but this was not what either one of us had in mind!

Elijah was quiet after she was born so we figured he had gone back to sleep and left him there. He probably just talked to himself for another hour before we brought him out to meet his sister.

I learned 2 things with this birth…

#1 Water birth is the only way to go! Dry births are much more painful!

#2 Laying on your back is the WORST position to give birth in and HURTS…
roll over, stand up, whatever but avoid being even partially on your back at
all costs!

Marisa