2014, SEPT. 21st Born at 01:39 PM
My due date finally had come around just the day before I had been at Yui having a pre-natal check-up, and no surges had been seen yet. I hadn’t felt any yet either. That was nothing different to my first birth, so I didn’t think that was strange. I knew when my body was ready it would go into labor.
Overnight I felt some cramping, but just went back to sleep determined to get a good night rest. The next morning I went about my day, took my dog to the vet, took care of my 2 year old. It was around 3PM on the 20th which was my due date that I started to feel cramping low down in the cervical area. I still continued with my day, drank plenty of fluids and got my things ready to go in case this was the real thing. We had dinner at 6 and I was having to start to stop what I was doing during a surge. I let my doula, Amanda, know what was going on. I took a bath with my son, and then my husband put him to bed so I could start concentrating more on following my body’s lead. I took a shower and got ready. About 9:30 I laid down for a nap for an hour. My surges slowed a little but then I felt I needed to get up and change position. Once I got up, the surges came on stronger and very regular. I leaned onto the dining room table, surrendering to each surge. We called Amanda and she got to our house around 11:30PM. She saw how close any surges were and advised we get to Yui. Our babysitter arrived and my husband loaded up the car. We headed off to Yui around midnight.
We arrived at Yui around 12:20AM on the 21st. my surges had stayed strong in the car, and I let them wash over me like waves, all the time listening to the hyprobirthing CD.
We made our way upstairs to a birthing room. I leaned over the bathroom sink with another surge. The midwife needed to put the monitor on so I kneeled on the floor with my head and shoulders on a birth ball. The surges kept coming, growing in intensity, very close together.
The midwife asked if she could get a cervical check to see how far dilated I was. I agreed however this never happened. The next couple of contractions I wondered if she was going to check. When I asked Amanda, she said she didn’t think it needed to be done at this point. I felt myself starting to lose my ability to keep myself together, but Amanda kept me focused. During one surge, my bag of water suddenly burst like a water balloon. I continued to try to completely let go. I didn’t fully realize how close I was to meeting my baby. I believe the head started to crown at this point. I was losing my focus a little bit panicking that I couldn’t keep this up for hours. Then Amanda told me to do whatever my body was telling me to do, and to follow its lead. As the next contraction swelled up, I did, and sitting back a little I felt my body pushing the baby down. I suddenly realized her head was right there, and she was about to come out.
With the next surge, I surrendered, and I could feel her head start to come out. I gave it all I had, although I tried to allow my body to self expel rather than “push” to avoid tearing like I had with my first. The head was out! I had to apply pressure to support my perineum. With the next surge, I leaned back sitting back on my feet and her body came out. The midwives passed her forward to me, telling me to receive my baby! They helped me back to a lying position and my baby was now on my abdomen. The cord was too short to bring her up to my chest. We had kept the gender a surprise, so I had to check…a baby girl! I was thrilled!
Our little princess lay with me waiting for the arrival of the placenta. The cord was left to finish pulsing. Surges continued until the placenta was expelled.
1:39AM she was born, just an hour and 15 minutes after arriving at Yui! I had not expected it to all move along so quickly! However I was so thankful it did, and that we welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world.
