I haven't posted here in a VERY long time, but I thought you all might enjoy my story anyway (I know how much I like reading birth stories:)
Abigail Faith’s Birth
I suppose I should start this story from the very beginning – just to give a little perspective on God’s providence and sovereignty. It started with a dream…God spoke to me in this dream, telling me I would have a baby girl and He gave me the name “Faith”. I held this dream close in my heart and believed it was really from God. About two weeks later I found out we’d be welcoming another child into our family.
My due date for this little one was July 17th. Knowing she would be early, because the previous three were, we tried to make preparations for having her around 37 weeks, which would be June 26th. We also talked about the possibility of our midwife not making it for the delivery since my last two labors were only 2 hours long.
Anyway, at 35 weeks I was getting anxious to have this pregnancy be over with. I was really uncomfortable, tired, sick of peeing every 20 minutes, and ready to have my lap back for my 2 year old to sit on again. I was irritable and not that pleasant to be around. June 18th around lunch time I started having some stronger Braxton hicks contractions (or what I now consider “pre-labor”). They were about 10-20 minutes apart. That night I tried some wine and a nice bath to get them to stop. It worked for the most part. I think I may have had 3 or 4 during the night. Thursday morning our friends took the kids out to play from 9-2:30. What bliss! I stayed on the couch all day trying not to have the baby, as I had just made it to 36 weeks. I REALLY wanted to make it past 37 weeks. The contractions kept coming, but they were so sporadic and piddly I didn’t really think they could be labor. Some were more painful than others, but as soon as I emptied my bladder they calmed down. I lost my mucus plug throughout the day. I’d never noticed losing my plug with the other kids so this was all new to me. I knew that for some women labor could start within hours, but for others it could be another 2 weeks. So I really couldn’t judge from that when this baby would be coming. I was still hoping everything would stop (I had false labor with all three previous births several days before the real deal). That night Dave had worship team practice at church so he was gone from dinner time until about 8:45. I popped in a movie for the kids and sat with my computer timing contractions online. They were anywhere between 5 minutes and 16 minutes apart, lasting 50-70 seconds. (This is exactly why I wasn’t ready to declare that I was in labor!) I was so not thrilled to have to put the kids to bed on my own, but managed to do it anyway. DH came home to find me lying on the couch feeling kind of down and a little stressed out. In the back of my mind I think I knew this was the real deal, but I was denying everything and kept holding out hope that I could just go to bed and sleep it off. Instead of going to bed we decided to make sure we had all of our supplies ready since it looked like something would happen within the next few days at least. We went over the game plan again of what to do if Nancy, my midwife, couldn’t make it (she had canceled my appointment that morning because of a birth and mentioned she had two other moms in labor that day so I knew she was busy!). All this time I’m praying about the health of the baby, hoping she would be strong enough to arrive 4 weeks early. Not once did I consider going to the hospital. God gave me so much peace in our decision to birth at home, regardless of how early she came.
Around 10:40 I had a huge contraction that made me jump up off the couch. After using the bathroom I came back to DH and started to cry, telling him I didn’t want to have the baby – period. I just didn’t want to have her at all. She could stay in forever as long as I didn’t have to go through labor! We prayed together asking God for peace and strength and a healthy baby. At 11:00 I just wanted to sleep, so we went to bed in the downstairs guest room (yes, all this time I’m still in denial about being in labor!), just in case something happened. I was in bed all of 6 minutes before another contraction hit, then one 2 minutes later. They stayed sporadic but each one doubled in intensity from the previous one. About the time we were really preparing to birth this baby our 2 year old woke up crying with pain in his ears. I called Nancy’s house while DH ran up to give him some ibuprofen and put him back to bed. It turns out that Nancy was at the hospital with a first time mom who was having a lot of trouble. While I was looking for her pager number in DH's phone (I knew we had put it in his phone but I couldn’t find it!) I was having contraction after contraction and DH was still upstairs. I was trying so hard to breathe and moan in deep low tones. I tried walking through them but ended up practically running from them frantic and stressed out, mostly because I was alone and it was so intense. DH finally came back and paged Nancy. We got the blanket down on the living room floor and I got on my hands and knees to deal with the intense feelings of my body doing its job (so effectively, I might add!). I saw the shower curtain liner on the floor in front of me and grabbed it between contractions. As soon as I got it under me my water broke and Nancy finally called. I heard DH tell her my water broke and things were going fast. He then asked me if I wanted to call 911 or go to the hospital. NO! I wasn’t moving and I wasn’t about to let strangers in on this private event. In my mind I saw paramedics rushing in our home, taking over everything, and turning our perfectly normal, natural birth into something medical and scary. After this I have no idea what went on over the phone. I remember saying, “This baby wants to come out RIGHT NOW!” and there were no longer pauses between contractions – just one big, long contraction. DH put the phone down and got in front of me. As soon as I leaned into him I felt the baby’s head descend and felt my body pushing her down. I never pushed, I just let the contractions do their work. She came down so fast and I worried about tearing. I put my hand down and felt the unmistakable bulge of her head. I grabbed DH’s hand and put it on mine. I knew I would tear if I didn’t control how fast she came so I breathed as slow as possible and put gentle pressure on her head. At this point I was on one knee with my other knee up, leaning on Dave and holding on to the couch with the other hand. I could feel her head moving down with each breath I let out. Her head came out into her Daddy’s hands and I remember saying something like, “Thank you God”. With the next squeeze of my uterus I felt her bony little shoulders and her kicking feet slide out of my body. It always amazes me how instantly the pain is gone once the baby is out. It is instant relief. She screamed really loud and I looked up to find DH holding her with a look that said, “Now what do I do?” He seemed frozen for a second, almost in shock that he’d just caught his baby girl. I reminded him to put her on her tummy and rub her dry and then he handed her to me as I sat down. I then heard “Hello? Amy?” on the phone. I had no idea Nancy was still on the line! DH had put her on speaker phone and set the phone down. She had stepped into the next room at the hospital and put us on speaker phone also so she could listen to the birth. Nancy talked us through getting the placenta out and made sure the bleeding was under control. DH tied off the cord with dental floss and cut our little girl free. She was born at 11:55PM – an hour and 15 minutes after my first “real” contraction. DH cleaned up everything (he’d make a great midwife!) and after about an hour I finally made my way into the bedroom. I spent the whole night patting our little Abigail on the back and chest to help her clear her lungs. She was grunting a lot but was doing fine. Her color was great and she was strong. I tried nursing her often but it wasn’t until about 7:30am that she finally latched on. This whole time Nancy was calling us every hour to check up on us. Her other mom didn’t end up delivering until sometime after 6am.
We later found out that the laboring first time mom heard the whole thing (I wasn’t exactly quiet!) and it kind of scared her. Believe it or not, after more than 2000 births this was Nancy’s first “phone birth”. She was sad she couldn’t be physically here for us, but it was a great experience for her. The whole time she said she never felt we were being irresponsible for not calling 911 and she trusted that we would do the right thing. She was finally able to come over around 11:30am the next day to check me and the baby out.
Not once did I ever worry that we couldn’t deliver our baby alone. God had given me such peace about the whole thing and I felt He was right there with us. I constantly had thoughts in my head like “God made my body to do this”, “God is protecting me and my baby”. I felt like God wouldn’t let Abigail come unless she was strong enough. He is so good to us! This whole birth experience was the most amazing thing Dave and I have ever done together. I am so proud of my husband for his strength and his intuition. He seemed to know exactly what to do and when to do it (until he was holding his new baby!). I will forever treasure this memory in my heart. Thank you, Jesus for your protection and your gift of this beautiful baby girl. Abigail Faith is such a blessing! She is now 12 days old and is doing great! She is so peaceful and only cries for diaper changes.
Abigail Faith
June 19, 2008
11:55pm
6 lbs 2 oz
19” long
13” head
12 1/2” chest