Ooooh, another birth story!  Last week, local mother Jennifer shared the story of the birth of her son at the Midwifery Center at DePaul.  This week, she shares the story the birth of her daughter at the same birth center.  She is such a powerful storyteller!  Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing with us!

And remember, the entire Local Birth Stories series can be viewed here!

THE BIRTH OF AMY

“No man who has seen his wife give birth positively, without intervention, can imagine denying her that opportunity next time.” –Adam Maclean, father of four, in “Birth Matters: a Midwife’s Manifesta” by Ina May Gaskin.

My daughter’s birth was a lesson in letting go of expectations and paying attention to what IS…instead of what is SUPPOSED to be.

I’d worked a 12 hour day on Monday and a 13 hour on Tuesday.  My husband was supposed to go to work on Wednesday and I had a project at work that I really  wanted to finish before the baby came. I’d thought I’d be done with it several days earlier, but found myself working until 9 pm Tuesday night. I was feeling heavy, my legs, ankles and feet swollen. But the baby had dropped a few days before, within 1 day gestationally of when my son had dropped during my first pregnancy, and all my girlie parts were far less swollen than they had been the whole pregnancy up to that point. The baby was very squirmy (as she had been for quite some time). Between her restless movements (was she trying to claw her way out?) and rock-hard Braxton-Hicks contractions, it had been a less-than-comfortable several days in front of the lab computers. But I left work happy, satisfied that my program was functional, if not yet elegant, and when I got home just before 10 pm, my husband had dinner waiting for me.

We’d talked most of my drive home, and he tossed around the idea of calling in sick for work. I’d made a list of the things I wanted to get done before the baby came, and little progress had been made by either of us, so having both of us home for a few days would really help. Maybe I’d take one day off, we’d do all those chores, and then I could work another day or two and polish up my program a little more. I ate dinner, my husband researched his options, we got our son ready for bed, and turned in ourselves about midnight. I relaxed and was happy, relieved and looking forward to sleeping in one day (I’d gotten about 5 or 6 hours each of the previous several nights) and finally getting some baby’s-coming preparation done. The little girl had other plans.

A Braxton-Hicks woke me up at 3:31 am. Continue reading →