October Baby

During the summer of 2010, I usually went to a class at the gym on Fridays. But on Friday October 22, I was at a prenatal visit with our midwife, Lucinda. And it was a worrisome visit too, because my blood pressure had been a bit high, and she mentioned inducing. I went home worried about choosing whether to be induced or wait, worried about whether we’d still be able to have a home birth, and worried about my blood pressure (which, I realized, was rather counterproductive). My husband and I discussed and prayed it over for several days.

We went to bed like normal Sunday night, mentally prepared to embark on another long week of waiting and another prenatal visit Monday morning when we’d have to make a decision. But at about 2am I was abruptly awakened with a strong sensation (not realizing I was actually having a contraction). We waited for the first three contractions before calling Lucinda, who answered the phone, “This is exciting, isn’t it?” She came over within the hour and took my vitals – which was quite suspenseful because I was worried my blood pressure would be too high for the home birth, plus we were very excited. But everything was satisfactory, and she started bringing in her supplies to set up for the birth while I went back to bed to try to rest.

Lucinda came back to the house later on that morning. Since my contractions were irregular and it appeared that my water broke (possibly with meconium), we were on a time frame and got started with some inducing techniques. Most of Monday was spent taking short walks. That night when she went home, we continued timing and recording the contractions, getting our hopes up when they went to 5 minutes apart, and getting frustrated when they were back to 7, 13 or 12. It was the same all day Tuesday, which kept all our close family wondering if we had the baby yet, and my husband was often on the phone keeping them up to date.

By Tuesday night, we had been in pre-labor for close to 48 hours (the mark where we’d need to go to the hospital to be induced) and we talked about the next step to increase labor – breaking my water. We really felt this was a last resort (besides the hospital) so we chose to rest awhile before making a decision. I tried to sleep sitting up on the couch so the contractions were a bit lighter, but I was only able to rest between contractions for a few hours and then was kept awake thinking about our decision. At about 2am, after talking it over, we decided to go ahead with it. We called Lucinda and told her we were ready for the next step, but amazingly, thankfully, in the time it took for her and the assistant nurse to get here, the real labor began!

Early Wednesday morning the contractions intensified, got close together, and my legs started shaking/vibrating constantly. At this point, my husband began filling the pool and I worked alone in my own little world in the darkened bedroom while everything was set up. Sometime around 5am, I went into the pool, which felt quite a bit nicer, and soon I started having the urge to push. After awhile, Lucinda put me in an extreme side-lying position in bed and I had to stop pushing. How can I stop pushing?! This was the most challenging half hour of the whole thing. But with the help of Lucinda’s gentle coaching I made it through and was able get back to pushing.

This stage was a lot of physical work but very bearable. My husband was great by handing me water to drink between each contraction. I pushed for probably an hour and a half. It was exhilirating when I could tell the baby was almost out; I sensed a lot of commotion so I looked down and saw a tiny arm! A bit more pushing and I looked again and there was a wiggly, pink baby! Amazing! I was astonished and speechless. I rolled onto my back as the midwives worked to get the baby’s breathing cleared and dry her off. Then our baby was in my arms! I cried tears of joy and amazement! I couldn’t stop staring and taking everything in. Eventually we wondered about the gender since no one (but my husband) had thought to look. He double-checked and confirmed we had a girl! He also got to cut the cord which was surprisingly tough and had big dark clumps in it. (At first glance it appeared to be knotted.) She started to nurse almost immediately.

Once everything was cleaned up we took some new family photos, and baby got checked up and weighed: 8 pounds 10 ounces, and 22 inches long. The biggest surprise had been when she came out – her arm had been born on top of her head! When she was a couple hours old, the midwives gave us some parting instructions before leaving and the three of us settled in together. We were busy on the phone calling lots of family and friends to tell them the good news. We said prayer of thanks and praise to God for such a gift that He gave. A complication-free birth at home, with a beautiful, precious baby girl ending up in our arms!

Newborn Exam