With my first pregnancy all was new, exciting and interesting, Your Pregnancy Week by Week dog-eared and a weekly automatic email to reiterate what was happening in my body, l o n g midwife visits and daydreaming, reading and researching filled my days.

This pregnancy was overshadowed by work, chasing a toddler and overall fear of enduring labor again and lazily exposed itself at 9 weeks, not at the fresh 4 weeks of my first pregnancy. Although this pregnancy was not new, not very exciting, it was interesting, and …unpredictable.

This baby moved all of the time, left to right, up and down and everywhere in between. Prenatal visits were typical except when it came time to get fetal heart tones. As the fetascope or Doppler ever so lightly touched my belly – whosh – baby was gone! The midwife would chase the baby down, sticking the instrument here and there, and oh! over there again only to get a partial or no reading at all. There were only a few visits that the midwife was able to sneak up on the baby and get a good reading.

As if the constant gymnastic events that took place in my abdomen were not enough to deal with, at 34 weeks our midwife informed us that the baby was breech! We discussed the many methods that we could implement to get the baby to turn. I did not get really motivated until the 37th week when I started to see a Chiropractor for the Webster Technique. 3 visits with the Chiropractor plus pelvic tilts three times a day for 20 minutes each time did the trick and the baby turned head down! However, the baby was posterior. I did not have any energy left to put towards turning the baby to an anterior position. A few puny pelvic rock exercises were all I could muster. At 39 weeks we were thrilled to learn that the baby was anterior!

Our first baby was 2 weeks early. I was sure that this baby would follow suit and would arrive 2 weeks early as well. At work we discussed when everyone thought I would give birth and based on my due date of December 31st and my previous track record we all guessed. My husband Donny guessed December 7th, I guessed the 10th my father-in-law and a friend both guessed the 15th, my mother-in law guessed the 17th and my sister-in-law guessed the 21st. One of our midwives guessed the 25th; the other did not make a verbal prediction. The prize for the person who guessed closest to the day of birth was “a bunch of candy.”

At our 39th week visit we learned that I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. We were all sure that birth was immanent; one midwife predicted a birth that week! However, 39 weeks passed and 40 with a false alarm each of those weeks. The first on December 21st had my mother, sister and sister-in-law as houseguests for several days, plus 75gallons of warm AquaDoula wetness; the second on January 2 brought both midwives and half of the birth team as well as another 75 gallons of AquaDoula wetness. It also entailed stripping the membranes, a 2-mile walk to Burger King and 2oz of Mother’s Choice Start Up and B & B Labor Support, plus a soak or two in the birth pool before contractions finally gave up the ghost. That day my midwife informed me that she guessed the baby would be born on January 7th. She said that she marked that date on her calendar the day I called to tell her I was pregnant. She had not verbally predicted this day when everyone was guessing because it was several weeks from what everyone else guessed and she did not want to discourage me.

As the 41st week approached, a BB King song came to mind…

The thrill is gone The thrill is gone away The thrill is gone baby The thrill is gone away You know you done me wrong baby…

On thing that made all the waiting easier was “planning” my birth. I wanted this birth to be different in many ways than my first...

· I wanted the baby to be born during the daytime. I did not want to go through labor at night. Each night that I did not go into labor I thanked God for the rest and prayed that the baby not come until it was healthy.

· I did not want my water to break until late in the birth. My water broke to start my 28-hour labor with my first baby.

· I did not want to be in physical pain before the birth. I had carpel tunnel syndrome and terrible leg pain before my first birth, which limited me in the labor positions I could assume.

· I wanted the baby to be born in good weather. It was terribly cold and dreary during and after my first birth, which added to my postpartum depression.

· I did not want to have a long labor. I decided that 14 hours would be a decent amount of time, which was ½ the time of my first labor.

· I did not want to push for 6 hours!

· I wanted to have more birth companions to comfort me and cheer me on.

· I did not want to suffer postpartum depression after this birth.

On Friday, January 7th the first day of the 41st week I made up my mind that this was it! The baby was coming if not on its own with some outside coaxing. I called my midwife and told her that I wanted to try to induce labor with blue and black cohosh and to see what she thought. We also discussed castor oil and the pros and cons. We decided to start with the cohosh and “just see what happens.” I took the two alternately for 8 hours with only mild cramps. The castor oil looked more and more inviting. So, I called our midwife on Saturday and told her that I was really thinking about taking castor oil. Although she planned to see us on Sunday for a prenatal, I told her that we would drive the hour and fifteen minutes to her office that day to be checked out and that I would start the castor oil when I returned home. At the visit she asked if I would like her to try to strip the membranes, just to make sure that she got everything the first go around. Both midwives had a go at it and said that there was nothing to strip, however, the irritation to the cervix may make contractions start. Unfortunately, she also said that the baby was still high, as high as it had been several weeks before. She said that it was “going to take some very strong contractions to engage the baby.” Before I left we decided that I would see what the weekend brought and wait until Monday to try the castor oil.

As they thought might happen, I did have contractions throughout the day and evening. When I got home I started pushing a bit just to see if I could bring the baby down. The contractions got a bit stronger and they came on through the night. But, they were so light that I thought I was dreaming them.

At 3am on Sunday, January 9, 2005 I rolled onto my left side and had a very intense contraction. I did not want to get my hopes up that “this was it,” but I decided to get out of bed to see if a position change would stop the contractions. It did not and they got stronger. I called our midwife at 4:10am to tell her. She said to time them for 15 minutes. They were 55 seconds long coming every 3 minutes. She said that she was on her way. In the meantime, Donny filled the birth pool and I worked through the contractions. I got into the pool before it was filled because they were pretty intense at that time. At 6:15am both midwives arrived. Our primary midwife came in and took vital signs and stayed with us while I moaned through contractions, the other midwife caught up on some rest. A while later I started to feel anxious, so I called my mother to come to our house. Once she got there, birth seemed imminent and our midwife said, “Anyone who’s coming to the birth needs to get here soon,” so I asked my mom to call everyone.

When a contraction came, I relaxed and let my body float while submerging my ears under the water. This was a great way to concentrate because everything was muted and I just focused on the sounds I was making. I pictured the baby headfirst emerging through the birth canal like the drawing in the book, Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman. The birth companions arrived and I started feeling like I wanted to push. The contractions felt better when I pushed. So, Donny on one side of the pool and my mother on the other side took my hands while I pushed. This gave me leverage in the buoyant water. At 8:45 I was 8cm dilated and a –1 station with a bulging bag of waters. My midwife said the baby was not engaged, so I got out of the pool to try any position that would get the baby down. We sent everyone into the living room to wait while I labored on. My sister-in-law’s mother prayed a special Romanian prayer for laboring women.

At one point I suddenly felt like I just HAD to go to bed. So, although it was painful I laid down on my side on a crib mattress we had on the floor. My midwife lifted my leg when there was a contraction and that reduced some of the pain.

For the next two hours I tried a variety of positions outside the pool to bring the baby down and engaged. At 11:00am I wanted my midwife to break the bag of waters. The other midwife said that she wanted me to try to break it myself; during the next three contractions she wanted me to concentrate on the bag and imagine it breaking. I did but with no success, so at 11:30 she popped the bag and water flowed. I pushed squatting, standing, and hanging while my husband held me under my arms with my feet on the birth stool for added support.

At 12:20pm I got back in the pool after being out for 3 hours and 20 minutes and pushed. Logan got in the pool with me. He bobbed around repeating after me, “Oh my God. Oh, my God.” He started splashing water and trying to sit on my belly so we took him out. Our midwife’s daughter put him in the bathtub to play and he was happy. My mother helped to remind me to keep my mouth open when I pushed. I was not making progress with my pushing so I got out of the tub for my midwife to check me and see if there was a cervical lip. She did find a very slight lip, but more importantly another bag of waters! At 12:55pm she popped the bag and I was at +2 station. This time the water gushed out and soaked my friend who was sitting on the floor beside me.

I decided not to return to the pool and remained on the crib mattress. My friend and my husband held my hands while I pushed in a semi reclined position. It was hard to let myself fully go and push past the contraction. I was scared of the pain of crowning and of having hemorrhoids. It was hard for me to focus my pushing. My midwife asked if I would like her to place her fingers inside me so that I could feel where to push. I said, "Yes." This helped so much. Soon, it was clear the baby was coming, so they made sure everyone was in the room and someone got Logan from the bathtub. I looked up at some point to see everyone gathered watching me. I heard my sister crying as she took the video. The baby’s head emerged, but not completely. I reached down and felt it, wet and warm. It stayed on my perineum until another contraction when I pushed it out a little more. Then another contraction brought more of the baby out and with my midwife’s help, the whole body emerged at 1:13pm with a big cry. My midwife brought the baby up and on to my chest. On the way up Donny said, “It’s a boy.” The baby’s face was very, very blue because of the blood collected in it while waiting on my perineum for each contraction . He was quiet on my chest as I looked at him, he was alert and breathing so I was not worried.

After I delivered the placenta, I got up and went to our bedroom to rest. They weighed him, 8 pounds and 10 ounces! He looked so little it was hard to believe. I took a shower as the midwives, my friend and mother inspected the placenta in the bathroom sink. It looked great and they all got to see what an awesomely thick bag of waters that I had made.

I cannot believe how great my birth went! I got so many of the things that I wished for. My labor was just 10 hours, I did not have to labor at night, and my baby was born in the afternoon on a 50°F sunny, winter day. My ultra thick bag of water did not break spontaneously, I only pushed for a couple of hours, I did not have any physical pain to limit me in labor and I was surrounded by 9 positive birth companions; my husband and two midwives, my mother, sister, two sister-in-laws, a friend and my sister-in-law’s mother.

2 days after the birth I headed off to Wal-Mart and bought “a bunch of candy.” I was so happy the birth was over and that someone actually did guess a date close to my due date. I gave the candy to my midwife at a postpartum home visit. She thoughtfully shared it with the other midwife and their children were very happy when they came home that day.

It has been two weeks and I am thrilled not to have suffered any baby blues or postpartum depression. My birth companions have supported me beyond the birth day. They have called to check on me, cooked meals enough that I’ve not had to cook at all and been available if I needed to talk. It was such a positive experience; my husband and I agree that we are up for having more children!