9-13-2011 birth story written by Greg (aka the hero of the day~)
approx. 2:00am
Rachel wakes me up to say that she has been having mild contractions since 12:01am. I figure if they’re only “mild” then there isn’t any reason for me to be awake. I roll over hoping for a little bit more sleep before the action starts. That feeling only gets to live for about 20 seconds. I get up and help Rachel through the next contraction. They surely don’t seem too severe at this point. At 2:17 we call the midwife to let her know what is happening. Rachel tells her that it doesn’t seem that she is into active labor yet. The midwife asks what time we feel the baby may come, how far along do we feel we are. Rachel is thinking that we shouldn’t expect a baby before 8 or 9 that morning. With that, the midwife recommends that we call her when things seem to be proceeding to second stage labor. So we go along as we had been. Contractions are lasting less than a minute and spaced between 5-7 minutes apart.
At about 3:45 the contractions go from moderate to the light side of severe. Spacing is still about 5 minutes apart, but the severity prompts us to call the midwife at 4:00. Rachel desires that she comes to help with the pain. We still don’t think that there is a way the baby would come before 8 or 9 o’clock. The midwife recommends Rachel get into the bathtub as the water would take the edge off the contractions. At about 4:15 Rachel gets into the bathtub. The first contraction in the tub is quite severe. I believe it was now that we took the time to say a prayer asking for God’s protection over all involved. Two more contractions and on the third she jumps and exclaims, “I feel like pushing!!” At which I reply, “No, no, nooo.” She tells me to get our midwife’s cell phone number dialed into the cordless phone, so in case we need it all we’ll have to do is hit redial. I decide we better just call her cell phone to see how close she is. While I’m dialing the number Rachel hits another contraction with the urge to push. “Sweetie,” she says. “The baby is here!”
I detect a sense of urgency in her voice. Not panic, but extreme urgency.
The midwife answers her cell phone the same time I see that the baby is crowning. I ask her where she is because the baby is being born.
I detect a sense of panic in my voice. Not urgency, but extreme panic.
She’s still 30 minutes away. One push and the head is out. One more push and “Whoosh”, there he is. Our baby boy. I pick him up out of the water, unwrap the cord from around his neck and put him on Rachel’s chest. The midwife tells me not to worry. The baby is crying and by my account, there is no sign of distress. She comments on how fast this baby came. Even though she is the one with all the experience, we were actually able to figure that out on our own. The whole sequence had a dreamlike quality. I was literally “buzzing” from head to toe. I certainly needed to sit down and take a deep breath. It was such a blessing to witness that miracle first hand. Isaac William had been born at 4:30. If this would have been a planned hospital birth, we would never have made it in time. The first feeling we had that would have gotten us going to the hospital was the contraction with the desire to push. This would have put us about three miles down the road when the baby came, if we made it that far.
All in all, I wouldn’t want to go through it again. Although having been through it once, I might have a cooler head if the situation repeated itself. God answered our prayer and like I said before, the whole experience was a true blessing.
Isaac William Somero8 lb 8 oz
22 inches long
Mommy's version: Since all my other labors were much longer, I was totally taken aback by the speed of this one (21 hours (induced after 18), 16 and 10 hours respectively). Although the pain level in this one was incredibly worse, I figured it was because it was the middle of the night and I was just "being a wimp" because of not much sleep/energy. The contractions confused me too, as I was still getting 5-7 minute breaks between them all, and they only lasted 30-45 sec. I was waiting for the increments to get closer together or the contraction lengths to increase, which never happened until about 5 minutes before he was born. The whole day before baby was born though, I felt weird (unexplainably) and figured our time was getting close. I rested alot and went for a few walks, hoping to move things along. When I went to bed, I just prayed for a good night's rest before I went into labor, as starting out tired is not very fun (been there with baby #1). But, other things were in order and I thank God that He orchestrated things like he did, because I don't know how I would have made it very much longer with the intensity of the contractions. When baby was born, I was amazed at the perfect working of a woman. He was born so smoothly, and without my interference much at all. I just let my body do what it was supposed to be doing, and I think that is what made things run so smoothly. As our midwife reminded me, "a birth will not be pain-free, but it can go smooth". A major change of view from the hospital scene. I wouldn't have known it could go like it did, but am still in awe at the workings of a woman's body without the interference of IV's, type and screens, epidurals, fetal monitors, uncomfortable hard beds, bedpans, episiotomies and all those other things that us women are subject to while laboring in the hospital. I won't recommend a home birth for everyone, but feel a woman should do her research and weigh the options in their own life. Many complications are caused by (unnecessary) interventions, and if a woman was left to herself (and a competent caregiver) in a relaxed, comfortable environment, it is an amazing process that God has perfected and how He made our bodies so perfect to bring children into this world.
John 16:21
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
