Brian and I welcomed Jordan Rose into our lives at 0915 on January 25, 2009 in our home. She weighed 7 lb 6 oz and was 21 inches long. Since this was my first pregnancy, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect and wasn't even certain I would know when labor actually started. My midwife had been preparing me that it would at least 2 days since my body didn't appear to be "ready" to have the baby immediately. She also suggested that I try to ignore labor for as long as I could and it wouldn't seem as long. Well I took her advice to heart and ignored the first 12 hours, because I didn't even realize I was having contractions.
Around noon on Saturday, the 24th, I started to feel slight cramps. Since I had been feeling these periodically all week I just tuned them out. I even fit in a nice energetic walk in the afternoon. It wasn't until around midnight when I tried to go to sleep that they became uncomfortable and I realized that this must be it. I got up and took a shower to try to relax a bit. At this point, I wasn't really sure how long things would take and we still hadn't set up the birth pool. I went down and vacuumed our den, where the pool was to be set up. I didn't want our child coming into this world covered in dog hair even though she might end up covered in it at some point. That's just reality in our house! Once the den was clean, I tried to start setting up the pool. It was good to have something to do so I wasn't focusing on the pain. I was only able to get so far though because the pool was a bit challenging to maneuver with just me.
I think Brian and I had a bit of nervous energy going because neither one of us had yet slept by 3 am. By now the contractions were coming about every 5 minutes or so, so I called Nancy, our midwife, and told her about the progress. I had tried to wait as long as I could to call her so she could get some rest, but I was starting to worry about how long it was going to take to get the pool set up. She said not to worry, we had time for that later. She suggested that we try to get some rest, because who knew when we might get another opportunity. After making some suggestions to change my breathing, she told me to call her back when the contractions were 3 minutes apart and 1 minute in duration and had been happening like this for an hour.
Brian proceeded to bed upstairs with our dog Rembrandt, while I tried to rest in a rocking chair in the den with a nice fire going. Our other dog Rigel to kept me company. I rocked and counted seconds during the contractions and tried to sleep in between. Petting Rigel during some of the contractions helped distract me. All through these contractions I had a feeling similar to heartburn in addition to the crampy feeling. At around 5 am the contractions were coming at 3 minutes apart so I gave up on the rocking chair. I tried sitting on the birth ball, but it was rather uncomfortable. Ultimately, I ended up kneeling on the floor with my upper body bent over our couch and swaying from side to side. I continued like this until 6 am when I called Nancy again as directed.
With Nancy and her compatriot Therese on their way, I called to wake Brian up and get him started on the pool preparations. While he came downstairs to get started on the pool, I continued to breath through the contractions and try to help him figure out how to set up the pool. At 0615 I had the sudden urge to throw up. As I tossed my proverbial cookies, I had my water break at the same time. This part wasn't glamorous, but at least I had gotten rid of that heartburn feeling.
I must interject here that if I had to do this over again I would have set the pool up earlier. I kept having visions of not having it set up in time and having to resort to having the baby on the couch or something. Brian's take on it is that it was good to have some reason for me to play "foreman" and give him directions. He thinks it distracted me from the contractions. Maybe it did, but it became rather difficult to speak with those contractions coming fast and furiously.
Nancy arrived at our home at 0645 and checked and found me to be 4 cm dilated. She had me shift positions and lie on my left side on the couch in an effort to get the baby shifted around a bit more. I have to say that this position was not all that comfortable, but it was what Captain Nancy directed. I considered myself lucky as I had heard of her making one woman run up and down the stairs 2 at time to get things moving.
While this was going on, Brian was trying to fill the birth pool with hot water. We were using the Aqua Doula, which has a heater that can maintain the heat, but can't heat the water more than it already is. This is where Brian got to be distracted from what was going on with me - Ha! Ha! While filling the pool, he used up all the hot water and had to resort to boiling water on the stove and heating it in his electric tea kettle. That kept him quite busy!
At around 0830 I moved into the birth pool and things really picked up speed for me. They had me lying on my left side again at first to continue to shift the baby. This position felt much more comfortable in the pool than on the couch. All of the positions in the pool felt better! Yay warm water! By a little before 9 am I was already dilated to 9 cm.
Now I have to add here that all along we had planned to have my friend Tracy, and my sister-in-law, Mel over to assist and observe at the birth. Mel is an excellent photographer and I had hoped that she could take some photos of the birth. Both of them are pregnant for the first time and I was hoping that this might give them some idea of what to expect. Well, since things were progressing so well with me without the audience, Nancy suggested that we wait until I was pushing to call them. Since they both live a few doors away, it wouldn't take them long to get here. She estimated that I would be pushing for at least an hour.
So when they figured I was dilated to 9cm they told Brian to call Mel and Tracy. 5 minutes later they told him to call them back and tell them to hurry because the baby was coming NOW! It was a good thing he called when he did for Mel at least. She had been contemplating breakfast and a shower and only got to our house just in time. Tracy missed the birth by 5 minutes. It turns out that it only took 3 pushes and about 15 minutes for Jordan to work her way out. She bashed me a bit with her head on the way out in her haste so I needed 3 stitches, but all in all the birth went swimmingly. When all was said and done we had a beautiful little girl on my belly, testing her lungs. It didn't hurt as much, or take nearly as long as I had expected. I only had to do the hard stuff between 0500 and 0915 and it was all over. I didn't even curse or swear once, even if I am a sailor! Brian was very proud of me.
Mel did manage to take some great photos, and she was crying the whole time while she was taking them. Therese got a great photo of that too! Now Mel has decided to have Nancy as the Midwife for her birth as well. She has already been warned not to expect her birth to go as quickly as mine did. Well, heck, I didn't expect mine to go that quickly either. There is something to be said for ignoring labor for as long as you can. Now we have an adorable and chirpy little daughter and the real challenge begins.