To read Eagle's Birth Story - Part 1, click here.
So, at 42 weeks plus 4 days, I woke up at 4 am to one giant contraction. Maybe it was my excitement, but I couldn't sleep anymore. I was having to find other positions during contractions, and I didn't want to wake Brian up, so I went into the other room. Fairly strong contractions were coming about every 8 minutes. I sat on my yoga ball and killed time on my computer between contractions. During them, I kneeled on a cushion and draped my arms over the ball. After about an hour, I sent emails to some friends to say I was in labor, and announced on facebook that I was having a baby. Then common sense kicked in, and I went back to bed, to try to get some rest.
My contractions continued while I slept in between, until about 7:30 am when Andrea, our doula/birth attendant called. I remembered that Nichole had gone into labor in the night as well, and asked how she was doing. Andrea said she had her baby already. I felt a twinge of jealousy over how fast some women give birth. I still felt I had many hours of labor to go, actually I thought my baby wouldn't be born till evening or early morning on Sunday. Andrea said she would eat breakfast and feed her kids and be out at my place by 9:30. I reminded her that I have a history of very long labors, and not to rush.
This phone conversation was when Brian learned that I was in labor, even though I told him the night before that I would probably be in labor the next day. He asked why I didn't wake him, and I told him I thought he needed the sleep, and it hadn't really been that strong yet anyway. We both got up and cleaned the house a bit and had breakfast. When Andrea and her husband PJ arrived, I was upstairs folding laundry. PJ set up the birthing pool for us and dropped Andrea off. She had been up all night at Nichole's birth, so we both laid down to take a nap. My contractions were about every ten minutes at that point, and during them I would roll over onto my hands and knees, or elbows and knees.
By 11:00 am I couldn't sleep anymore. I got up and went to the shower. I labored in the shower, mostly on my hands and knees, letting the water hit my back. I kept my mind busy by singing to myself, Marvin Gaye's "What's Going on?" and "Heard it Through the Grapevine." I grew up on a lot of old motown, listening to my parent's records, and it always has a way of lifting my spirits. I took quite a long shower, and by the end I was feeling pretty good, contractions were coming about every five minutes.
For lunch we had burritos with pinto beans, avocado and tomatoes. Shortly after lunch the contractions started to get stronger, and I asked Brian if he could help me through them. While I leaned on the kitchen counter through them, he stood behind me rubbing my hips and thighs. This helped, but I was still holding tension in my body. When Andrea woke up, she reminded me not to tense up against the contractions, but to try to relax every part of my body. We were sitting in the living room, me on the yoga ball, chatting between contractions, and I commented that I thought it should be more intense by now. I made a peace sign with my fingers and asked Andrea how far along she thought that was. "About four centimeters" she said. I said I had thought so, and that's how far along I was when I was in the shower.
Well, since things seemed to be in a bit of a lull, she suggested we go for a walk outside. I didn't really want to, because I didn't want to run into anyone that might be kicking around the farm, but since I knew it might help to get things moving, I agreed. The whole family went outside, including Venus and Ocean. We first stopped to say hi to the goats, I wanted to make sure they were happy, that their water and hay were stocked up. We really only walked out of our place, around the workshop and back, which is a very short walk, but I stopped for several contractions along the way. By the time we got back in, contractions were longer, stronger and closer together. That walk really did the trick!
...To be continued...
To read Eagle's Birth Story - Part 3, click here
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