Hannah's Birth Story

Since many of the ladies who read this blog enjoy hearing "birth stories," I thought I would write the story up here....both for you ladies and for the sake of my own memory which is getting less and less reliable with each child. =)

I began having contractions off and on starting Saturday, Aug. 21st. Sometimes it seemed that they were getting regular, but then they would taper off again. That continued throughout Saturday and Sunday. I felt like labor was probably in the near future, and Sunday morning around 7am I told Nathan that I thought the baby would come in the next 24 hours. As the day progressed, however, I began to have my doubts because I really had very few contractions throughout the day Sunday. Nathan and I went for a walk Sunday afternoon, and I was hoping that would help move things along.

Monday morning I woke up at about 1:30am with contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. Given the events of the previous couple of days, I wasn't completely convinced that I was truly in labor, but after I got up around 2am and the contractions kept going strong, I was pretty sure it was time. I woke Nathan up a little before 2:30am and told him it was probably time to call the midwife. I was starting to feel pretty rough by that time, so while Nathan called Hannah (the midwife), I went ahead and got in the birthing pool that Nathan had set up a few days prior. I was glad to discover that although the warm water didn't take away the pain of contractions completely, it seemed to numb them somewhat....or at least make them a little more bearable.

Hannah and her doula Katrina (who goes with her for all deliveries), arrived around 3am. I was impressed with how organized they were, and how they just quietly went about their business - getting things ready for the delivery, preparing the equipment that might be needed in case the baby had to be resuscitated, timing my contractions, etc. They pretty much just left me alone (which was nice) until about 3:30am when the midwife wanted me to get out of the pool for a bit so I could go to the bathroom and she could check me. That was pretty miserable because after being in the warm water, the air conditioned air made contractions awful, and I just shivered the whole time I was out of the water! BUT, we were all pleased to find that I was already at 8cm at that point, so it was nice to be able to see the light at the end of a short tunnel. =)

I think that knowing I was already in the transition stage really helped my frame of mind. I had been feeling like I was probably in transition, but wasn't sure, and things dragged on for SO long with Daniel (I was stuck at 4cm for around 10 hours with him) that I got really discouraged and stressed. This time around, I knew that I just needed to survive transition and then she'd come. I was trying really hard to relax and just let my body do what it needed to do....not sure how well I succeeded in that because Katrina kept reminding me to relax my shoulders. =) Most of the time I was sort of kneeling at the side of the pool leaning on Nathan who was sitting on a stool right outside the pool. It was a little after 4:30am when I could tell it was about time to push, and by then I knew that I wanted to stay in the pool for that too. Just before I started pushing, my water broke (with all 3 of my kids, my water never breaks until right at the end), and Hannah was born 2 minutes later. Her shoulders got a little stuck for a minute, but it was pretty quick otherwise. The pushing stage never lasts long for me....that's the one part of labor that I have some semblance of control over, and I'm always really ready to just get the kid out by that point!

Hannah arrived at 4:42am after a little over three hours of labor. FAR better than my other labors! I don't know if delivering at home or with a midwife played a part in that or not, but I would definitely do it the same way again if given the choice. Being at home AND being in a warm tub was certainly more relaxing than being in a hospital room with all sorts of different people coming in and out constantly. Both Rebekah and Daniel were born in Indian hospitals, but we did it naturally (no epidural, etc....not even an IV), so I was very comfortable with the idea of having a home birth since we didn't do anything in the hospital that wouldn't have been available at home.

After our Hannah arrived, we transitioned to the couch. Nathan and I cuddled with her for awhile, and she had her first meal. =) By 7am, we were a little more settled, and Rebekah and Daniel had woken up and were excited to hear that their baby sister had been born while they slept. Nathan and my Mom got them dressed and then brought them down to meet "baby Hannah." They were thrilled with her, as you can see in this video.

We are so very thankful for our little Hannah - and for the way that she came into the world!