Ella's Birth Story (Part 1)

First I will start off with this interesting little tidbit that you can take for what you want. During one of my hypnosis sessions with my Doula, Evelyn, she asked me to ask my baby when she would come. (I remember thinking at that moment, “This is a load of hooey” but deciding to try it anyway.) Immediately I continued to see the numbers 8 and 12 over and over. Well, she was born on Dec 8th and my labor really began at 12pm! Coincidence? You decide.

Monday the 8th I went in and saw my midwife, Debbie at 9am. I was a good 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. I had felt some slight cramping that morning and she and I agreed she would strip my membranes. I felt very uncomfortable as I had the past two weeks after Debbie had checked me. I left her office and went to Evelyn’s where she did a fear release/hypnosis session to induce labor. At the end of the session she asked if I was feeling any surges (contractions) and I said, “No, I just feel really crampy, but it kind of comes and goes.” She looked at me in her funny, matter of fact way and said, “Sarah, those are surges.” “Oh!” I said with a chuckle. They weren’t regular and didn’t feel like much though. I headed out and it was about 11:30 at that point.

On the way home the surges began to become stronger. I got home, did the dishes, did some laundry, and swept the floor. I began to have to breath through them but could still walk through them. I walked back and forth through the house, sometimes stopping to rock back and forth through a surge. At 12pm I began to time them and they were between 7-10 minutes apart. I called Debbie and described what was happening and said, “So am I in labor?” because I still didn’t think this could be it. She confirmed I was and said she would check in with me in a few hours if I hadn’t called her.

I called Jason at 12:15. Of all the times, he didn’t answer his phone! I called again 5 minutes later and he still didn’t answer. I called the office and had them page him. He called me back and I could hear a flutter of chatter behind him. He excitedly said, “I’m standing here in front of my whole class and they want to know if it’s time.” I told him it was, that I was in labor but it could still be a while. He said he’d be on his way out the door.

Jason arrived home at 1pm. I laid on the couch and breathed through each surge while Jason timed them. They had already progressed to a consistent 5 minutes apart, 40 sec long. I called Evelyn and updated her. She then said, “You sound sleepy, what are you doing?” I told her I was lying on the couch. “Sarah,” she said in her matter of fact, you silly girl tone, “You need to get up. Go take a shower, go walk around.” I told her things were really good right now and doing that might make them worse. We both chuckled at my reasoning and she said, “That’s the idea.”

I got up and took a hot shower, practicing some of my pregnancy yoga moves. I wanted to stay in that shower forever! Debbie called to see how I was doing. I told her what I had been up to and said I thought they’d gotten closer together but hadn’t really been timing them. She asked if I wanted to continue to stay home. I said yes. She said she would call back in one hour and to plan on heading up to see her after that.

Then I jumped on the treadmill, eating a little toast and drinking a lot of water while I walked and breathed through each surge. Jason timed them and also hopped on the computer and read me all of my friend’s latest blog postings to keep me entertained. Then he informed me that the surges were already 2 minutes apart, 50 seconds long...like clockwork. I walked for a bit more and called Debbie back to tell her. “You’d better head up” she said. Jason and I put our things in the car and headed to her office. On the way we talked about how surreal it felt. Even though I was in labor we still could not believe we’d soon have a little one....