Eliza's Birth Story
I had putzy contractions for a few days and all through my official due date of July 6. I went to bed that night with contractions that quickly became regular, though not painful or real close. Nevertheless I couldn’t sleep through them so I got Jessie up at two and we decided to go for a walk. Whoa! That really shifted me into active labor. After that point I never had any contractions that were less than four minutes apart.
When we got home I tried everything to see if it was real labor before we called Patrice. Finally convinced, we called her around 5:30 am and I told her that my contractions were really close and steady but that she didn’t have to rush over because I thought I had hours to go since they weren’t too hard to handle (I had overwhelmingly intense contractions for hours before Theia was born). Patrice said no, she’d better come over right away. Jessie filled the birth tub while we waited. By 7 am Patrice, Barb her associate, and Amanda their intern were all there. I was still feeling very in control, kneeling or rocking through my contractions. By 8 though I felt like I needed some help dealing with them so Jessie and I climbed into the pool (the water felt great!) And Jessie pushed on my back during contractions.
All of a sudden my contractions became very intense and I had to moan through a couple. I said to Jessie that I wondered how many more hours I had to go because in my experience with Theia it was about 5 hours of intense misery after about 30 hours of early labor. I saw Patrice and Barb moving their supplies close to the pool and I thought to myself that I must be complaining too much since they obviously thought I was close. Well, they were right. With my next contraction I felt the unmistakable and overwhelming urge to push. I yelled “I have to push!” And everyone sprang into action. Patrice informed me that the head was already trying to crown. Amanda helped me stay in control by breathing through my pushes with me (which was a huge help). After only 8 minutes and three pushes later I felt the head crowning and pushed out the whole body in one effort! Jessie caught her and brought her up out of the water and announced that we had another girl. I was so happy because I really wanted Theia to have a sister since they are so close in age. I couldn’t believe it had all happened so quickly and with so little pain! Eliza was 7# 13 oz and 20″ long. She was born at 8:32 am on 7-7-07 (that should be easy to remember!).
We are so pleased with our homebirth experiences. It is so empowering to give birth naturally with sensitive and very experienced support. I never had any fear throughout either labor because my midwives treated birth like what it is, an exhilarating and perfectly normal process.
