by Rosa-Maria
(click here for David's version)
On the evening of Friday, May 17th, I started having some contractions. They were coming pretty close together and were fairly strong, so I got my hopes up that it was really labor. As I had predicted my entire pregnancy, my �due� date had come and gone a week ago and I was eager to meet my baby. I was sick of people calling and asking if I�d had �that baby� yet. I wasn�t dealing with the contractions well and wasn�t very well rested. I threw up once and they subsided some, and then I threw up again and they completely stopped. I went to bed and cried when I told David that they had stopped- I really wanted to meet my baby. We missed Star Wars and everything, and we didn�t even get to have a baby.
I spent Saturday just sulking and generally feeling crappy. We went out Saturday night but I was kind of in a bad mood and uncomfortable, so we came home early. Sunday I felt sore all over my insides and generally bruised and beaten up. I took some homeopathic Arnica which seemed to help a little, at least so I could get some rest. Monday morning when I woke up I was in a little bit of a better mood, but not much. I took a nice long shower and let everything just go down the drain, and suddenly I felt better. I brushed my hair, made some food to put in the freezer and spent the day talking to my baby, enjoying the end of my pregnancy and watching my belly full of baby move around while she was still inside. David had talked to his uncle Greg earlier in the day and he mentioned that he and his wife had a birth story in Spiritual Midwifery, so I got out my copy of it to see if it had it in there. It didn�t, so I called my midwife, Susie, and asked her if she had an older copy. She said she would look and see, and asked me how I was feeling. I told her I felt fine, and after a long weekend, I was really comfortable just waiting it out for this baby to come. I went to bed in a good mood and got some good sleep, curled up next to my husband.
I woke up at 4:30AM on Tuesday, the 21st, with some really light contractions. They were waking me up every fifteen minutes or so but were no big deal. When David woke up to go to work, I told him I had been having some contractions and then sent him on his way. We were both excited I think but I kept telling myself that it wasn�t �it� because I didn�t want to get my hopes up and then get disappointed again. I went about my day as usual, in a happy mood. I started having some bloody show but I still didn�t want to think that anything was going to happen. At least I knew it would be soon. I spent the day feeling the contractions and smiling. By the time David came home from work, they were about ten minutes apart and still very light, although they were getting stronger. We ate dinner together, and then I sat on the couch and picked up the copy of Spiritual Midwifery that I had left out the day before. I hadn�t read the stories in a long time, so I began reading them then. Although it is super hippied-out, it was really nice to read about staying loose during labor and loving on your partner and all of that, and it reminded me that I just needed to stay relaxed and let things flow. I felt kind of glowing, like I had a giant secret, and very in love with things at that point. I was enjoying the contractions when they came. I hoped this would turn into labor - but was still had convinced myself it wouldn�t.
At some point around 8 o�clock (we were never paying attention to the time so all of these are guesses) we went for a walk to the park down the street. We took it slow and it was nice to be near David, everything felt amazing. The weather was perfect; it was a spectacular night for a walk. I remember thinking that it was a wonderful night to be having a baby. We swung on the swings for a little bit until that was uncomfortable so we sat on the bench together. A stranger looked at me and said, �wow, you look like you are about ready to pop� and I just smiled. If he only knew, I thought. I could�ve cuddled all night on that bench but David was ready to go so we headed back home. On the way back, we picked up these awesome chairs that somebody was throwing out down the street. I had to stop once for a contraction- we must�ve been a pretty funny sight.
I ate some yogurt and hung out for a while, and noticed the contractions were getting stronger and closer together- maybe about seven minutes apart. I got in the bath to see if they would lighten up a little, but they seemed to be getting stronger, although they didn�t hurt and I could talk through them. After a while I thought they might be coming every four minutes but wasn�t sure. I stopped counting then. If it was labor, it was labor, and if it wasn�t, it wasn�t� but I still thought that it wasn�t. I was afraid that if I admitted to myself that I might be in labor that the contractions would stop like they did the Friday before. At some point after that I got David away from whatever he was doing and asked him to get in the bath with me because the contractions were getting stronger. He was a little apprehensive at first but then obliged me. I wanted to be close to him, and I also needed something to lean on because our bathtub is pretty uncomfortable. I poured water on my belly during the contractions.
From that point on, I was either in the tub, sitting on the toilet or walking around during the contractions. If David tried to talk to me during one I usually shushed him, but I could still talk through them. I had to remind myself to open up and relax, but I still thought this wasn�t the real thing. He asked me some time if this was labor, and I just looked at him and said, �I hope so� and left it at that. David went to bed to get some rest and I told him I�d wake him up when I needed him. At about 1:00 they were coming really strong, and I just sat on the toilet through them and tried to get myself to relax. I decided I couldn�t get through them on my own at about 1:30. They were too intense� and I still thought it was early labor, if even labor at all. I woke David up and said, �I think it�s time to call the midwife, I�m having some trouble getting through these� or something to that extent. He sprang out of bed and got dialing, and Susie was here within a half-hour or so. I wasn�t sure about how I was going to feel about having Susie and her apprentice there at the birth, because I really wanted it to be David and I, and we had considered having an unassisted birth. But at this point, I was really glad she was on her way because I felt like I needed some help to stay in control if I was going to be doing this for much longer. I really like Susie- she is a friend at this point and more than just my midwife. She called her apprentice, Rachel, to come here when she got here. Rachel had only been to one birth before, she was a new apprentice, and I was a little bit nervous about that.
