Kaylie's Birth Story

For those of you who are interested, here is Kaylie's detailed birth story :)

Monday March 9th. I was having sporadic surges all morning long. My visiting teachers came over for a planned visit at 9:30 am. Crazy times with the kids frolicking all over. Jason even took it upon himself to go potty by himself while they were here—he neglected to put the little shield on the front of his seat (no suprise)—resulting in pee shooting across the bathroom. YIPEE for me. They left around 11, and we made lunch, and watched tv. At that point I was pretty much counting down the time until 1pm when they could go down for naps. Surges were coming every ten minutes and they were very tight. Because of the Wednesday night episode, where the surges felt the same but went away after a few hours, I still wasn’t planning on having a baby that day. I figured they would dissipate this time too.

I put the kids down, and laid down myself. Every few surges woke me up. We all got up around 2:40pm. It had been about 4 hours now that they were coming 10 minutes apart—very weird for labor, especially my labor. Around 2:45 I called my parents to say that it could be today, and since they were coming the next day for a funeral anyway, it couldn’t hurt for them to head down. They said they would set off in about 30 minutes. I immediately began cleaning out the computer room so my parents would have somewhere to sleep that night. Keeping busy helped me work through the surges—if I stayed still they became very uncomfortable.

At 3:25 I called Jason to say that it could be today, so don’t stay at work late (he is supposed to leave at 3:45). At 3:43 I called Richelle, the midwife, to tell her I thought it was time for her to come. I told her that for about 4 hours they were coming 10 minutes apart, and right around 3pm they suddenly jumped to 3 minutes apart. She said she would go ahead a come. Jason got home a few minutes later. I set about changing the kids out of their jammies, and gathering snacks, movies, and art supplies for them to use at our neighbors house. Jason set to work preparing and filling the tub. It’s snowing—a lot.

At 4:20 Jason took the kids next door to Corina’s—no one was home. Called Traci—no one was home. Called Stacy Lamb—success—Jason took the kids over right away. We forgot Addie’s blanket—he came home and took that back over. He got home about 4:30pm—I tell him we’ll have our baby within an hour.

In the meantime, Richelle called to say she would bring a different hose to fill the tub if we hadn’t already (we had half way)…and I’m thinking “Oh no, she hasn’t left yet.” She finally arrived just before 5pm. I had already begun feeling the pressure of the baby moving down. I had been trying to relax on the couch, I could not relax--too many interruptions. I got in the half-filled tub just before Richelle arrived because of the pressure I was feeling.

Richelle quickly set about getting things ready and listening to the baby’s heart. Everything is good. My arms are falling asleep and very uncomfortable feeling because I was not breathing in deep, full breaths of oxygen--I know better, but can't seem to concentrate on those breaths. Lots of pressure, Richelle gets Jason over by her because the baby’s head is beginning to show. Next surge, baby comes out and Jason works hard to receive it—it was quite slippery. It’s a girl!!! I snuggle the baby. Richelle gives her a quick puff of air. She begins breathing, and crying. She won’t stop crying. A few minutes later the assistant midwife arrived—whoops—she was disappointed to have missed the birth. It was all so fast that I didn't even have a chance to employ the HypnoBirthing techniques I advocate--but it was still an amazing natural birth.

My parents went over to pick up Jason and Addie, they came home about 5:30. The kids are enamored with their little sister. We all snuggled with our new little girl.