Daley Ponderings

On a Wednesday, two days past my due date, the midwives scheduled me for post-dates testing at the hospital the next week. At first these only consist of a non-stress test (monitoring to be sure the baby's heart rate increases when he moves) and an ultrasound to confirm adequate amniotic fluid levels. However, that is a big "only" to me and I did not want to have to go in to the hospital to do that.

So, though I have never had a pregnancy go that long before, I was feeling pressure to have the baby before 41 weeks, and of course there was nothing I could do about it!

Wednesday and Thursday nights, I either had some contractions or dreamed about it, but woke in the morning not in labor and very disappointed.

Then Saturday morning, September 6^th, I woke at 3 a.m., not in labor, and feeling sad. But then Jeremiah 29:11 came to mind and the scripture memory song ran through my head for the rest of the morning. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'" That gave me peace about God's timing for this birth and helped me remember to trust in him. God's plans are not for our harm, and if I made it to Monday still pregnant, then those tests were part of God's plan and I could trust Him.

Later that morning at 7:30 a.m. when Noah and I got up to go to the bathroom I discovered the beginnings of labor signs! After that, I began having mild contractions every 20-30 minutes. I called the midwife center to let them know what was going on. The midwife on call was Kathy and she said to keep her posted.

Contractions were mild and sporadic for several hours. Labor wasn't stopping me from doing anything, but I didn't want to do too much and wear myself out. So I got a few last minute things done, and lay down several times. At one point, Janet, the boys, and I were outside in the back yard and Janet was doing handstands that sometimes went too far and caused her to flop over into a bridge. Janet asked how I was doing and I told her I was bored. She said, "What!? All this entertainment is boring?"

All the men were occupying themselves assembling a wheelbarrow that Dad had bought for us. I commented that that was much more useful than boiling water.

In the afternoon I encouraged Noah to have milk, although he wasn't really too interested. He did try for a little while and it may have helped encourage labor. At about 4 p.m. stronger contractions were coming close enough together that Mom decided to start timing them. After a few contractions that were 5 and 7 minutes apart we decided to call the midwife again. I was already starting to focus inward because I had a hard time concentrating on the conversation. There were some things that Kathy said that didn't make sense, but we ended with "we're heading for the birth center."

From then on labor progressed quickly. Dad-o and the boys finished putting together the wheelbarrow. (I managed to look up the location of the bicycle pump just in time for them to fill the tire. I was only successful on my second attempt; on my first try I gave up because I was having a hard time concentrating on something other than labor. Mom thought it was amusing that they wanted to get the wheelbarrow finished before we left.) Mom and Janet got the car ready, we piled in, and Dad drove us down to the midwife center. We left at 5 p.m. and arrived at 5:30 despite the red lights (record time.) Contractions came even closer and harder the minute I walked in the door.

We met the nurse whose name was Annie. It took a little while at first for them to hear the baby's heartbeat, but once they did it was nice and strong. I noted that the baby's heart rate increased during a contraction; I had thought it was supposed to decrease, but Kathy said it was perfect. At first I was kneeling on the floor and leaning over the bed to handle the contractions. Then Kathy wanted me to be up higher because her back hurt to lean to the floor, so they built up a wall of pillows on the bed so I could kneel on the bed. After waiting for the end of a contraction, Kathy checked me and found that I was nine centimeters dilated. She also assured me that I had no cervical lip so that I could push when I was ready. At some point, Grandma commented to Jonathan about how hard Mommy was working, and he said, "She's not working at all!"

I should have known I was in transition when I was thinking it would be nice to have a C-section. But I wasn't quite sure I was in transition because I was expecting it to get worse as it had with Noah's (I did not get to the point where I was whimpering.) Then all of a sudden I seemed to be pushing and my water broke. Kathy said "good nice and clear fluid." That was only about 30 minutes after we arrived at the center.

Mom and Janet brought in the Amish rocking chair for me to try. I tried it for a while including having Annie wrap a cloth (called a rebozo) around my belly and pull up from behind me. At first that was very uncomfortable but later it felt better when she pulled on it. However, I could not completely relax while sitting in the chair and Kathy suggested that I move back to the bed. This time I leaned my back against the pile of pillows. Jon sat to my right and held my leg and Annie held my left leg. I was much more inward-focused this time though I could hear people's instructions. Kathy told me not to waste my voice and Mom reminded me about what Lucille had said about focusing the pushing down where I should be pushing instead of in my throat. Things moved along much more quickly than they had in the past, although it was still a lot of work: very uncomfortable and painful.

When the head was moving down Kathy encouraged me to lie flatter so that that baby's head could move underneath the pubic bone instead of over it. I could feel the head moving down and the burning began again but this time I did not yell out "it hurts" although it certainly did. I was very much in-focused. I heard Jon's, Kathy's, and Annie's voices but had no awareness of what was going on beyond them. Kathy and Annie were worried when the shoulders did not come out after the head and they had me turn over on my hands and knees. As I was turning over I reached down and felt the head. Time seemed to be suspended. It seemed like they said, "Heather, keep pushing" too many times to fit in the time frame between head out and body out. Annie's voice was urgent and near panicky. Kathy's voice was calm, but Jon said her face revealed her concern. Mom said the baby's head was a deep purple but she wasn't worried because Noah had been pasty gray and then turned pink right away. On hands and knees, I finished pushing and the rest of the baby came out. Newborn cries began immediately and I reached to pick my baby up from the bed.

I asked Jonathan if it was a boy or a girl and he said "It's a girl!" so I made many exclamations about my baby girl. Jon brought my glasses to me and then there was some awkwardness because I wanted to hold my baby to my skin but my shirt was still on. I asked them to take off my shirt, but I still held her close to me. Soon we figured it out and I turned around to sit up with her on my chest.

As I sat, I felt a gush of blood which caused Kathy concern. She apologized as they clamped the cord (my birth plan asked that the cord not be clamped or cut until the placenta was out) but they wanted to give me pitocin and not have it get to the baby. Annie gave me the shot in my thigh and soon after I felt a strong contraction. Kathy massaged the uterus and asked me to push the placenta out. I saw it briefly and said "Make sure the boys can see it. After that I don't care." I heard Annie tell Kathy that the time of birth was 6:35. Only one hour after our arrival at the center! Aunt Janet got to cut the cord and was surprised at its toughness.

Now I'll go back and relate what happened beyond my sphere of awareness. Noah had decided earlier that he did not want to watch me in labor, so he was upstairs in the waiting room with Dad-o. Jonathan was fascinated by the whole thing. He watched intensely until suddenly he dashed from the room. He ran up the stairs to get Dad-o and Noah to come down. Mom saw the head starting to crown and dashed out herself to retrieve Jonathan. They were back in time to see the head come out. Dad hung in the doorway, unsure of his role - he had never been in the room for my births before, but Jonathan was insisting he come see. Noah came to Grandma's arms and watched from there. Dad was very worried about the purple color, but Mom kept giving him a thumbs up sign which he did not believe. Janet reports that when the whole body was born, Jonathan immediately whispered, "It's a girl" and she told him he'd have to say it louder so Mommy could hear.

Annie did a whole lot of vitals checking, almost continually it felt like, although she said it was only every 15 minutes. The baby started nursing soon and was a good nurser right from the beginning: eager and long and with a good latch. Our family bonding time was delayed an hour until they were done with their initial vitals checking, but eventually we got to be just the five of us together. After the family time they weighed her at 9 pounds, 3.5 ounces and measured her length at 20 and 3/4 inches. They took her cute little footprints while Aunt Janet was holding her.

Annie made me an omelet and toast, and I drank lots of water and green juice (Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness - full of iron and other good stuff.) During the required four hour stay, we got our paperwork done, with plans to call Annie on Monday with the baby's name for the birth certificate. Everyone except me packed up all our gear; Daddy dressed the baby in a little shirt and diaper and got her all buckled in her car seat. We left at about 10:30.

Overall, our birth experience with The Midwife Center was a good one. Jon was impressed with Kathy's efforts to keep interventions and interference to a minimum. He noted that it was obvious she had read over our birth plan again just prior to our arrival and that she respected it and did her best to follow it.

Once home, we got a midnight delivery of chicken soup from one of the ladies at church. It was just the snack to hit the spot before going to bed. Jon and I talked a while about names while the baby was nursing, but when he fell asleep with the computer open on his chest, we knew it was time to postpone that discussion until morning.

I asked him if we could find a name that means "trust" or "trust in God" to go with my thoughts on Jeremiah 29:11 just before labor began. The search returned names like Fay and Faye. But when Jon looked closer, the definitions revealed Fay as diminutive of Faith. Faith! That was it.

We considered it as a middle name, but Jon preferred it for a first name and I agreed. So we played around with middle names but had a bit of trouble with syllables. In the end we decided on Elizabeth which means "devoted to God."

Daddy prayed his name-bestowing and dedicating prayer over our tiny daughter, Faith Elizabeth Daley. One more beautiful, living testimony to God's goodness!