The Birth of Estella Maris
This is the long version...it's the only way I know how to do birth stories. :)
On Estella's due date, Luke left town for a
soccer game in Charleston, SC. {Several people thought we were
crazy...but I didn't feel like the baby was coming anytime especially
soon}. His team left
earlier that morning on the team bus, but to hold out leaving as long as
possible, Luke drove himself and
didn't leave until about 5pm. He also only drove half way on Friday
and drove the last three hours Saturday morning to minimize his distance
from us should he have to turn around.
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| What I thought would be my last belly pics--either 39+2 or 40+2 (I just know it was a Sunday :)) |
I
had some
contractions Friday and Saturday but nothing painful or close
together. As soon as his game ended Saturday night, Luke started the
six hour drive home to us {It makes me tired just to think about him
driving a total of nine hours that day and playing a soccer game!} Luke
was anxious
the whole time he was gone, worried that I would go into labor while
he was away. Both of us were relieved when he started his drive
home. Ironically, as soon as he was on the road, my contractions
started getting more painful and consistent. We were hopeful that I
would have the baby Sunday or Monday. But...that wasn't the case.
Having been through two labors before, I knew these contractions were
not labor contractions. They were {mildly} painful and
consistent,
but they were also dependent on my position and didn't get progressively
closer together or more painful. After days of having these
contractions, I decided to stop taking the herbs my midwife had
recommended to tone/prepare my uterus for labor. They were doing their
job, but I figured all the
contractions could be causing undue stress on the baby if my body
wasn't ready—which is clearly wasn't.
I
was supposed to have a
prenatal appointment on Tuesday, but my midwife, Nancy, had to cancel
just as I was leaving to go to her house. I was disappointed because I
was overdue and just wanted to know how I was progressing. So, the
next day I called expecting to have an appointment, but Nancy said we
would have to hold off another day because she needed to go visit the
two new babies she delivered the day before. Emotionally, I wasn't
doing well at this point. After a weekend of false labor contractions
and then having my
appointment postponed twice, I just wanted to be seen...and I was
ready to have my baby.
Thursday afternoon I finally had my
appointment. Luke and the kiddos came with me, which was great because Nancy hadn't met them yet. At
the appointment, my midwife checked my progress. I was 2-3cm, and we
asked her to stretch and strip my membranes. I was six days late, and
I didn't feel super comfortable going past a week overdue.
The evening I lost some mucous and had
some cramping. More of the same continued in the morning. I
remember calling my midwife on the way to an 11am doctor appointment
for Gemma {she had a cough} to give her the update. At that point, I
was having contractions that took my breath away for a moment but
nothing too crazy or consistent. After
Gemma's appointment, Luke and I got the kids lunch and
tucked them in for their naps, and I did last minute nesting! I was
running around getting laundry finished and cleaning up the
house.
At
1:30pm, I called Nancy to let her know I was having
very painful contractions—I knew they were the real deal. Yet, I
had been so busy running around that I hadn't timed them. Nancy said
to time them for half an hour and then call her back. During that
half hour Luke and I hung out—me lying on the bed during
contractions—and took a couple final belly pictures. I think that is
also when I called my family to ask them to say some prayers for us.
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| 41 Weeks! Just 2 hours before we met our sweet Estella! |
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| Smiling in between contractions. |
Just after
2pm, I talked to Nancy and told her that my contractions were
between 3.5 and 6.5 minutes apart--she said that she needed to
be there!
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| Breathing through a contraction before Nancy arrived. |
I am guessing Nancy arrived at
2:30/2:45pm, and I was 6cm dilated at that point. She worked on getting
her supplies set up, and Luke
filled up the birthing tub. I labored in the water for a little more
than an hour. Probably around 4:30pm, I asked her to check me again
because I was in so.much.pain, and I figured it must be time to push.
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| Rosaries hanging on the edge of the tub in my line of vision to encourage me in my suffering. |
Meanwhile, the kiddos woke up from their naps...and we were still without a sitter, as the people on our "list" were not yet available. Luke turned on a show for them and came back to be with me. The sitter showed up shortly.
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| My little Gem coming to say hi to Mama when she woke up from her nap. How could I not smile with that ray of sunshine in the room? |
Sure
enough, I was ready to push. I got back into the tub--we weren't insistent on having a water birth, but we were open to it. However, I
found myself to be too physically uncomfortable in the water and got out
and onto the birthing stool. Both Augustine and Gemma were born while I
was in a bed, so the birthing stool was new for me but I thought it was
good and helpful.
The
last twenty minutes of being pregnant, starting just before I got
checked for the last time and ending with the birth of Estella were
probably the most painful twenty minutes of my life. Then again, maybe
it just felt that way at the time! Labor pain is so hard to
remember--thank you, Jesus, for that! Anyway, I pushed for probably ten
minutes {my most common phrase during that time being, "I can't do
this"--not great, but an improvement over the, "I'm going to die" that
prevailed at Gemma's birth} and then our sweet Estella Maris was born.
While
on the birthing stool, Luke was sitting on the bed right behind me to
support me, and Nancy was in front of me to catch the baby. It was
neat being able to, more or less, see the baby being born. Right when
she came out, Nancy rested Estella on her leg so she could unwrap the
cord from her neck, and then Estella came right up to my chest. The way
I was holding her was concealing her gender. I asked Luke and Nancy if
they knew if she was a boy or a girl, and neither of them did. I
rolled her away from my body to check and announced that she was a
girl! We were all happy and surprised--the same reaction we would have
had if she was a boy, I suppose :).
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| Healthy baby! |
I
took an amazing herb bath that smelled delicious! When Nancy left,
just 3 hours after Estella was born, everything was all cleaned up, as
though we had not just had a baby in our room!
Our
sitters arrived home with the kids around 8pm, bringing with them big
smiles and sweet gifts for the baby. Luke got them tucked in, and one
of our sitters {who also happens to be a post-partum nurse at the
hospital where Augustine was born} stayed around for another hour to to
help us as needed. She joined us for our sushi and wine, and then we
called it a night.
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| Our friend/babysitter/postpartum nurse, Priscilla! |
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| My midwife, Nancy. |
Having
a home birth was everything we imagined it to be. It is definitely not
for everyone, but it is the ideal situation for Luke and my
preferences. We are so thankful that Nancy was willing to work with us
so late in the game {I didn't meet her until I was almost 38 weeks
pregnant!} and that we had a safe labor and delivery. Glory be to God!!
j
