Putting my story into writing has taken me some time. Grace was my third pregnancy and each delivery before Grace had been in a hospital while I was under the care of a medical doctor. With the birth of our first daughter, I was induced due to my blood pressure being elevated but never had preeclampsia. With our son, after 26 hours of labor and an hour of pushing, I ended up with a c-section.
THIS PREGNANCY MY HUSBAND AND I WANTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
We wanted to be active and involved in the decision-making process of how we brought our next child into the world so we decided on Brookhaven. I also felt that going to Brookhaven was my best chance of having a successful VBAC. We decided early on that we did not want to know the gender of our baby until after he/she was born. It drove some of our family members crazy, but I loved not knowing. It made me excited about labor because I knew the result would be meeting our beautiful child and finding out who I had been carrying in my body for 40 weeks.
On June 17 I woke up to slight bloody show. Since my due date was June 21 I looked at the bloody show and got excited but didn’t expect much to happen. Will called me from work checking in on me and I informed him of the bloody show.
He wanted me to call the midwives right away, I didn’t listen. I knew that bloody show could happen hours or days before labor so I went on with my day and ran errands in town with my other kids. We were in town all day and nothing happened, not even one contraction. Our oldest daughter had ju-jitsu practice that evening so I went along. I was tired and our son was asleep in the van so we decided him and I would leave and go get something for dinner. He and I pulled into Wal-Mart and I had one contraction but nothing else so we went ahead got our shopping done and headed home. I had another random contraction at home and Will told me to contact the midwives and let them know. I finally listened and contacted them letting them know about the bloody show that morning and about the random contractions I had. They informed me to get some rest and make sure to eat something. Will had me go to bed early with the kids so I could get some rest.
At 1:00 am a contraction woke me up and I couldn’t sit still. I went downstairs and paced in the living room until 2:00 am. At 2:00 am I went to our bedroom and woke Will up to let him know I had been having strong contractions for one hour, he told me to try to lay down with him and rest. This lasted for all of 10 minutes because laying down intensified the contractions. I told Will I had to get up and asked him if he would put some water in the bathtub for me, I still hear his response perfectly “you want a bath now?!” He got my water ready and I told him to go back to bed to get some rest. I figured I was in the super early stages of labor and there was no use for both of us to be up. I got in the bathtub and listened to some music and I stopped feeling the contractions. I got a bit upset because I thought that was it, I am going to be in the early stages of labor for a few days. I was closing my eyes in the bathtub trying to relax and became so relaxed I drifted off to sleep for a few minutes but then woke back up to a contraction. I got out of the tub and went to sit on the toilet. That would get uncomfortable so I would get back in the bathtub, once in the bathtub, I got super uncomfortable so I went back to the toilet. This time sitting on the toilet it felt different. I was sitting there and pulled up google and searched for signs of transition in labor. I knew I couldn’t be that far along so fast, I figured I was 3-4 centimeters and I was NOT going to the birth center that early.
We had planned to labor at home until about 8 cm and then go to the birth center, get to the willow suite and have a water birth. While on the toilet I got this extreme amount of pressure and screamed for Will to wake up. He came into the bathroom and I told him we needed to call our chain of people and we needed to think about heading to the birth center. He quickly said ok and grabbed my phone to start calling. He called my mom first to come to get our kids and take them back to her house, then he called his mom who was our doula. While he was on the phone with her I got a huge urge to push. He relayed the message to not push because everyone truly thought I was just in the early stages of labor. Then he called the on-call number to let them know we were going to head in. After calling everyone Will suggested we load up the van take the kids to my moms ourselves then head to the birth center. I shouted back No!! I am not riding to drop them off just wait (my mom lives 5 minutes away.) I insisted on getting back in the bathtub I reached down and felt the baby’s head! I told Will, he felt it too and called his mom again to tell her. She said to call 911 but once Will started doing that I said: “NO, CALL THE MIDWIFE!” He hung up the phone and begins to call and my body pushed the baby out at 3:33 am. Will lifted the baby out of the water and when Emily answered the phone Will informed her I just had the baby. They let us know they would head over. I then took the phone and called my mom asking where she was, she let me know she was turning on our road and I informed her I was holding a newborn baby. Will and I finally looked together to see what the gender of our new baby was,
A GIRL!!!
Will ran upstairs and woke the kids up so they could meet their little sister before they left. Will’s mom and Will helped move Grace and me out of the bathtub and onto our bed. Shortly after that Emily, Danika, and Kai arrived to check over me, Grace, and help deliver my placenta. Having only Will and I there was nothing short of amazing. I had my VBAC and ended up having an unassisted birth as well, although I did not end up at the birth center I still got my water birth; it just happened to be in my own bathtub!
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