Birth Story

I remember making fun of my mom and women in general when I was teenager. It seemed that whenever you got a group of women together they inevitably ended up sharing their birth stories. That of course was something I was NOT interested in at the time. Times have changed, as they often do. Having done it a few times now(given birth that is) I understand what a life altering experience it is. It's probably impossible not to talk about from time to time. So at the risk of being mocked by those teenage girls out there I'm going to share my most recent experience.

This time around I decided to have my baby at home. Kind of crazy in some peoples' view. But it made sense to me. I have been lucky enough to have all my kids naturally and the last two I had water births, which by the way I highly recommend. Plus I really hate the hospital and all the poking and prodding and waking up they do there.

I had the most wonderful midwife in the world, Dawn Wadleigh. I love her. She is extremely knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, and seemed genuinely interested in me as a person. I loved every visit.

Pregnancy seems to get a little harder each time. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it. My back and hips hurt all the time, acid reflux is the death of me, and of course my vain side doesn't really enjoy watching my butt get wider. It's all worth it though.

Ada's due date was January 7th. I was hoping she would come just a week early so we could claim on our taxes. But that was not to be. I had a few sleepless nights thinking perhaps I was in labor and then much to my chagrin fell asleep and woke up babyless. But on Sunday the 10th sometime in the night I started having pretty painful contractions about 8-10 minutes apart. They stayed that way all night and through the morning. Even after five kids I wasn't really sure if it was the real thing. I called Dawn and my lovely friend Sarah who was going to be my doula. I asked Sarah to come and hang out with me for moral support and told Dawn we'd keep her updated. Sarah got to my house and within just a few minutes the contractions moved to only two minutes apart. Someone called Dawn, not sure who. And then in only a few more minutes they were right on top of each other. I got into the birth tub and could tell it would be only minutes until our little girl would be with us. The only hitch of course was that the midwife wasn't there yet. Everything progressed so quickly.

Sarah is going to school to become a midwife and has been a doula for quite a few people. I am very thankful for this because it was her who ended up delivering sweet little Ada Leigh. She was awesome. So calm under pressure. She even knew exactly what to do when the cord was wrapped around her neck. The whole experience was strangely peaceful and calm. I just knew that everything was as it should be and was perfect.

Dawn arrived just a few minutes later as all the kids were meeting their new little sister. She took care of all the post birth stuff while Sarah fully realized what she had just been able to do and freaked out just a little bit.

Although everything didn't go exactly as I had planned I would do it all again. It really was the best birth experience I've had. To top it all off she was born on my mom's birthday. My brother and his wife also had a baby just two hours before me. All in all a pretty exciting birthday for her.