Wednesday, May 28, 2014

My Complete Gift From God

As most of you know, I (Kelli) had a baby on May 24th.  A lot of people have asked for details so here you go...

I had been having contractions off and on for the last month so when I hit my due date on the 21st I was shocked that I had not had a baby yet.  In fact, I was kind of irritated and ready to lose my mind.  I was even more frustrated by the fact that all contractions had stopped for the last week so I had visions of being 42 plus weeks and getting referred to a doctor.  My midwife said that that wasn't likely but I was imagining the worst and scouring the internet for any off the wall way to kick things into gear.

On Friday, we ran some errands and I told my husband that I needed to go to the store because we were out of food.  I was tired and so we talked about me going home and taking a nap while the kids rested and he would hit the grocery store after bedtime.  However, we got the kids down late and I hadn't really started a list so I told him I would hit the store Saturday after taking the kids to a birthday party.  Then, I joked; "you watch the baby will come and I will never make it to the store."

Saturday morning rolled around and I woke up with intense contractions.  I woke Rusty up around 5:30 because I was in so much pain and I was pretty sure that we were going to have a baby soon!  They were hitting seven minutes apart and then at 7 everything stopped.  I hit the shower to get ready for the day and to cry over the fact that I was going to be pregnant FOREVER!

Then, I took the kids to a birthday party and the friend that had agreed to watching the kids while I had the baby offered to watch the kids while I went to the store.  I took everyone home to change because they were wet from shooting water guns and my contractions seemed to start again but I figured that this was all fake so I didn't even get my hopes up.  Rusty decided to come with me though because he noticed that these were more intense than what I had had previously.

We dropped the kids off and decided to grab lunch before going to the store.  About halfway through lunch we decided that we should probably scarf our food down and head home because sitting was uncomfortable and I didn't want to have a baby in the middle of Costco.  I called the midwife and she was excited for me and told me to let her know when I wanted them to come over.  I also let the sitter know that I was definitely in labor and that I would keep her posted.

Then, I decided to fold some laundry and straighten up because I didn't want our midwives to think that I was a slob.  Rusty and I straightened up and whenever I had a contraction he would rub my back and then we would go back to what we were doing before.  It was very unreal to me because I knew the baby was coming but there was no rush or bustle; it was just me doing whatever I felt like.

I threw together a bag of clothes and overnight stuff for the kids and sent Rusty to drop it off and to switch cars with the sitter so that she could take them to church in the morning and then I hopped in the tub to see if that would help my back.  Then, everything stopped again and I got really worried.  I got out and told Rusty that maybe it was all just a hoax after all.  We watched a show and then everything started back up and it was more intense than before.  I turned on some music and focused on that as my contractions started coming every 4 minutes and we decided to have the midwives come over.  Salli got to the house first and she was so calm which was exactly what I needed.  She took my vitals and suggested getting in the shower to see if the spray helped.  Once I got into the shower the contractions were hitting pretty hard and I felt like the walls were closing in on me so I got out and had Rusty rub some oils on my back to help with the pain and at that point Heather, the other midwife, and Randi the student were there.  They were all so excited and made it feel more like a party than a delivery.  They took turns rubbing my back and encouraging me as I had contraction upon contraction.  I was reminded to just breathe and that this was not going to break me.  The only comfortable position was in a squat holding onto the end of my bed and so that is where I quickly gave birth to my pink cheeked little warrior.


The ladies helped me sit down and hold my baby while she made her presence known by bellowing for all to hear.  Once the cord quit pulsing, Rusty cut the cord and I let him hold our baby while the ladies helped me clean up and get into bed.  Then, I tried to get the baby to nurse but she was more intent on saying hello to all of us.  The midwives got us into an herbal bath, definitely the best thing EVER after labor and then we got into bed and Emma latched on....and never let go!

We ate and one by one the midwives hugged me, cleaned up, and left us all tucked in together to start on our journey as a family of seven.  


2 comments:

  1. Wow! What a perfect birth! I am so happy for you and that sweet little girl is seriously, so perfectly pretty!!! Congratulations!

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  2. Thank you! I had prayed and prayed for an easy, not 18 plus hour delivery and I'm still amazed at what our bodies can do when they are allowed to.

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