John Paul's Birth Story, Part I

Over the weekend (Jan. 10-11) I began to notice more contractions than usual; the only way I could tell a contraction was happening at that point was to touch my abdomen to feel the tightening of my uterus. By Monday, we thought maybe labor would be kicking in soon; Josh was off for the last two blocks of the school day and came home at lunchtime. Nothing happened that day, although it seemed that the contractions were getting slightly more intense during the night. On Tuesday, Josh went into work expecting to leave at lunch and prepared assignments for substitutes for the final two blocks of the day. I went for a twenty-minute walk to try to speed labor; I could feel the contractions but did not need to stop walking during them. When Josh called me at lunchtime, I told him I didn’t think much was going to happen. He picked me up for lunch anyway and returned to school for the rest of the day. I went for a fifteen-minute walk when he dropped me off, and he and I walked again for about fifteen minutes that evening. I called my midwife around 8:30 pm to let her know what was going on and to see what her assessment was. After talking to me, she said labor could pick up by that night or the current pattern could continue for a couple more days; we would just stick to the plan of calling her when contractions were four minutes apart, lasting one minute, for a full hour.

On Wednesday, Josh only had to teach first and last blocks, so he arranged for a substitute for last block. He came home after his first class, took a nap with me, and took me to lunch. At this point, I would pause during contractions but could still talk and move around during them; Josh timed the contractions and it seemed that I was in the pre-labor stage. Nevertheless, hard labor did not seem imminent, so Josh went back to work. After school, we went for a walk; when I felt a contraction, we would stop walking and I would put my arms around Josh’s shoulders and let him help me support my weight. A little later in the evening, we decided to find dinner. At this point, I did not want to be left alone and didn’t think I could sit through dinner at a restaurant, so we rode together to pick up food and returned home. During contractions, I had to stop what I was doing and focus on breathing and relaxing my body. Josh coached me through each one, which seemed to be five to seven minutes apart while we were eating. After we ate, I lay down and Josh coached me through a few more contractions – which were now as close as three minutes – before calling our midwife. She and Josh determined that it was about time to get ready to leave; she would call the family who lives in the house where we were going to give them time to leave and then get herself ready and await our call that we were leaving our house. It was now about 8pm. Josh helped me get into the shower to warm up and relieve some of the pain of the contractions before making the drive. We got dressed and finished checking off our packing list; Josh packed the car and called our midwife to say we were leaving around 9:30pm. We got in the car and started making our way through the city and to the east. Louisiana’s notoriously bad roads gave Josh a challenge, as he was trying to prevent further pain to me. At about 10:40pm, we pulled into the driveway just as the family was about to pull away. I had two contractions before we made it into the house, where our midwife was waiting for us.

Sage Advice from Father to Son #1

"My son, eating is much easier when you're not screaming. Screaming makes it difficult to keep food in your mouth and to swallow."

We are so thankful for this gift...

John Paul Joseph
born on January 15, 2009 at 4:40 am
7 pounds, 20 inches

completely natural (drug-free, intervention-free) water birth
more details to come...

"Due Date"

That would be today. I think the baby will be here soon, although maybe not today. The normal range for birth is +/- 3 weeks. In fact, studies have shown that normal gestation is more like 41-42 weeks, although I think that may be for people who set the due date based on the last menstrual period. Mine is based on my NFP chart: when ovulation occurred minus 2 weeks plus nine months.

I hope it won't be another 3 weeks. I'm trying to be patient, to surrender and give it over to Christ as my midwife says. Now we just wait...

Baby, You Can Come Now

I'm ready. Let's get this show on the road.

I think today, the Feast of the Epiphany (although it was celebrated last Sunday), would be a good day. Don't you?