An end to our waiting

I got all excited/nervous thinking "today was the day"... only to have the contractions die down once I laid down to rest. This happened a few times over the course of a week and a half.  So many sleepless nights and restless days as my body prepared for baby to make an entrance into the world on this side of the womb.  I don't remember having so much early labor with previous births, but it really proved wrong the common belief that labor and delivery are supposed to happen in a short amount of time... all that early activity (contractions, loose stools, waking up every hour to pee because baby's head was dropping into my pelvis and pressing on my bladder) was part of the long process - unfortunately it made it very difficult to rest or work and I ended up starting my leave Thursday June 19th only to not have baby show up a week and a half later.

So what led up to the arrival of our tiny package... after all this waiting?  Many tactics are thought to bring on labor: going on long walks, eating certain foods, sex, raspberry leaf tea; but in reality God only knows the baby's true birthday. Nothing worked until it was time. In the meantime, the house got cleaned, the garden got plenty of attention, and the older kids got to see more of me than ever.

On Monday morning, I woke up with more powerful contractions than ever. After all the false alarms I didn't want to get any hopes up, but monitored the contractions throughout the day. They started about 20 minutes apart and continued throughout the day as I went about my activities. After dinner I had enough of the kids and urged Katie (my stepdaughter) and Lydia (my sister) to take them on a walk to the playground. I ended up going on the walk as well, quietly breathing through every contraction. When we got back, we put the kids to bed and calmly informed my friends Amy and Jackie of my symptoms - they were about 8-10 minutes apart by this point. As they made sure their own kids were taken care of, I called Birth and Beyond and told Andrea - the midwife on call - that contractions were still about 7 minutes apart but different from previous contractions - now they were extremely strong, I had to breathe through them, and they seemed to be much more effective.  She suggested I try a bath - this time the bath didn't slow them down and it was difficult to get in a comfortable position to labor in while in our small tub. Andrea and Debbie, decided to go ahead and make their way over as well. Between about 9:30 and 10pm, everyone arrived, and once they were all settled, Mike and I retreated to our room to labor on our own for a while. It was painful and uncomfortable to lay down at this point, so I leaned over the bed with Mike behind me for support and allowed my bladder to empty regularly into a little baby potty. After one particularly strong contraction I checked myself to feel baby's head and close to full dilation as well as notice mucous and bloody show.

We returned downstairs where I labored by leaning over an exercise ball with Mike behind me with his hands holding my belly from sagging over my pubic bone (common issue with mothers who have had previous pregnancies), with one person holding each of my hands and my eyes locked on Amy's calm eyes. Amy put on Enya for background music. I was close to being terrified with each painful rush of energy but through focusing and deep breaths I was able to take one contraction at a time.  

As the baby descended into the birth canal I moved into an upright position, hugging my friend Jackie for dear life, everyone providing me with calm words of encouragement when needed, Mike still behind me, supporting me as well.  

After a bit my legs and joints started to get tired of laboring standing up so I moved to sit on the edge of the couch leaning back on Mike just as I got the urge to really PUSH. I started crowning but needed an extra bit of energy so pushed the baby's head back in to catch my breath, then after a deep breath I gave one long push, when I felt crowning I fought the instinct to fight against the pain and gave every last ounce of energy I had in one huge PUSH and the baby was out (1:04am July 1).

The midwife flipped her around to unwrap the cord from around her neck and body and then put her on my chest. I couldn't stop exclaiming, "It's a baby! It's a baby!" I asked "Is it a boy or girl?" and they said "you tell us". It was a girl! We immediately named her Fiona Joy, the name we picked out well before she was conceived.

After that they told me the cord had detached from the placenta during the labor and in the next 20 minutes or so we cut the cord, the midwife fished out the pieces of the cord, and eventually I delivered the placenta and got cleaned up. Fiona pooped a lot and got meconium ALL over both of us. I got extremely wiped out for a half hour or so while they made me nibble some food and sip water. They checked and weighed the baby (6 lb 10 oz and 20" long), made sure she started breastfeeding, and cleaned up, and then everyone left. We decided to sleep in our own bed rather than on the couch and after a couple hours of adrenaline rush staring at a sleeping baby we were all asleep.

The next morning when the children woke I brought them the baby and their expressions of amazement were sweet to a mother's heart! They were sleeping during the whole ordeal so it was a huge surprise! 

Elinor had us make up a "Mommy Daddy" song while we were expecting that went like this:

Mommy and Daddy

Love all their children

Katie and Derek

Elinor too.

Soon there'll be another

Maybe it's a brother

Or a sister

We love Baby too.

We had to come up with new lyrics... so the last part was changed to:

Now we have a sister

We love to hug and kiss her

Mommy and Daddy

Love Fiona too!

What a beautiful birth, I am thankful to God and to my support team and wonderful midwives, and glad everything went so well. Our family is now rejoicing in this new little one who warms our hearts with her sleepy smiles.