Solomon’s Birth
Parents: Rebekah and Anthony
Date of Birth: December 23, 2007
Baby Info: 10 lbs. 14 oz. | 24 inches
Birthplace: Home
When thinking about how the birth of my third child would go, I imagined it would be fast. I imagined it would be a stormy night and my midwife, who was at least 40 minutes away, would arrive after the baby. This was my third pregnancy and I have been blessed with two previously beautiful births, so the thought of birthing without a midwife did not terrify me, though it did not leave me at ease either. My first labor lasted roughly 24 hours, my second lasted 5 hours. For both of them I pushed for less than 50 minutes.
For this pregnancy I just imagined my water would break and my baby would be there fast as lightning. In fact when considering names for this little person one of the names we considered and will give him means lightning. Though his birth was not exactly as I expected it to be, it was in its own way.
I was expecting this baby to arrive some time after the first of the year. My estimated due date was December 28th (and I am confident of my dates) and both of my previous babies came right around 41 weeks. So when I awoke Sunday morning the 23rd of December to contractions that were not easy to ignore I was a bit surprised and unsure as to whether this was the real thing. My husband, Big A, had just worked a very long day (the Saturday before Christmas is a big retail and fringe finance day). I didn’t want to bother him in his exhausted sleep until I was sure this was the real thing. So I went into the living room and dozed on the couch, only to wake up every five to twenty five minutes to manage my way through a contraction.
When Big A woke up and noticed I wasn’t in bed he came to find me. I had had a bit of bloody show by this time and continued to need to cope through my contractions. Though I still wasn’t sure if I was going into imminent labor I asked Big A to set up the birth tub. I thought having everything ready just in case would perhaps let my body progress into a rhythm of regular contractions. With the birth tub ready to be filled and my husband back in bed I continued to nap between contractions and wake to cope. As daybreak approached I was feeling a bit baffled and imagined that as the children woke my contractions might dwindle. I gave myself an acupuncture treatment to keep things moving along, and help manage the discomfort so I could manage my waking children.
Miss H. woke up to me with needles in my ears, hands and legs and an electro acupuncture machine buzzing away at key labor supporting acupoints. Then Mr. Z woke up, while I was still “plugged in” he was very interested in all of it and surprisingly safe around the needles. The contractions did lessen in frequency and intensity, but I still needed to muster coping skills fairly regularly. Big A. took the day off of work to help with the children since I was in no position to. I had asked a family friend to be available to help with the older children, but I knew her life was busy and did not want to ask too soon, lest we had days of this funny labor ahead of us. I had notified my midwife of my situation and she said to let her know when things changed or when I wanted her there.
The day moved on. Miss H. and I knit, we read stories and she drew birth pictures. She was clearly a bit distressed every time a strong contraction came on. Big A did his best to keep Mr. Z occupied and away from me during contractions. Morning became noon, we ate lunch, we snacked, we played.
Contractions rolled on, incessantly irregular. I coped with them by rocking, moaning and singing through irregularly spaced contractions. When Mr. Z, my 22 month old, was around during a contraction, he became distressed. Big A said, “Mommy is singing, sing along with her.” A funny unsure smile appeared on Mr. Z’s face and he began to sing with me, and my husband chimed it too. We all labored together.
I poured through my birth and pregnancy books trying to identify what stage of labor I may be in. I made a labor aid lemonade, I snacked every hour or so just in case this was the big event.
The day wore on, the contractions had let up a bit mid day in intensity and frequency. Then as evening rolled in they seemed to get a bit stronger, and they were still irregular. Miss H. wanted to go to a friend’s house, as long as we promised to let her know if anything changed. She had been planning to help with the birth of this baby, she wanted to touch the head as it was crowning and cut the umbilical cord. She kept calling every half an hour to see if anything had progressed, in one conversation she asked me: “any more bloody show mommy, you should go to the bathroom and see if you lost your mucus plug yet.” She returned around 9 pm and was ready to go to bed, with a promise that we would wake her before the baby was born.
Mr. Z was still awake and clingy without significant distraction. I called our family friend, to see if she could come. With every contraction I was stopped in my tracks, leaning over or on the closest counter, piece of furniture or husband and opening my throat to sing. They were still irregular. I hoped that once Mr. Z was asleep, I could get into the tub, relax into the contractions and have this baby. Our friend arrived, she played with and read to Mr. Z and tried to get him to sleep unsuccessfully. Big A was getting the hoses ready to fill up the tub. Then he cuddled Mr. Z to sleep finally.
I called my midwife and let her know my kids were asleep and we were filling the tub. The contractions were strong but still 10 to 15 minutes apart. While waiting for the tub to fill, I was sitting on a birthing ball and moaned and swayed through a strong contraction, my friend said it looked like the baby had really moved with that one. I needed to be in the tub.
The tub was full, I settled myself in its warm buoyancy and awaited more contractions. I had lost track of time at this point, but I know I rested in the tub and chatted with big A and our friend as if I were just hanging out in a hot tub. I worried that this labor was stalling. When my midwife arrived just before 11:00pm, I had a moderate contraction. I thanked my body for providing evidence of labor and then chatted with my midwife. As she set up her equipment I vigorously massaged labor promoting acupuncture points, asked the full moon’s pull to help my baby out and waited. The midwife took the baby’s heart tones and my blood pressure. As she was putting away the blood pressure cuff, a contraction swept over me, I felt my bag of waters break, the contraction wore on and then I grunted out a powerful push. I felt the baby’s head enter the birth canal and knew birth was imminent.
Big A woke Miss H. Within two pushes the baby’s head was visible. As he crowned I belted out my birthing rendition of Johny Cash’s “Burning Ring of Fire” and then his head was delivered. I did not have an urge to push after that and my midwife turned me to my side and performed a magical maneuver that gave me the urge to push and delivered my son into the water. In spite of his cord being wrapped around his leg, chest and part of his neck he was perfect: 10 lbs 4 ounces and 24 inches, with a head full of black fuzzy hair.
