The Birth of Emma McKenzie Walters
06.27.10 3:30pm
^Don't you judge me!^
On Sunday June 27th, 2010 I woke up a little before 6 am feeling some contractions. I had been having contractions everyday for the past several weeks, but these felt different, they were more intense, and I wasn’t able to sleep through them. That day we were celebrating Mom and Dad’s anniversary and I was making lunch for the whole family. I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and put our birth kit in the car, just in case the contractions turned into something. I laid in bed until Scott and Weston woke up around 8. At this point we were late for church so we rushed around and ran out the door. I was still having contractions but they were really irregular and spaced out. Once at church we discovered that we had forgotten all of the food for lunch at home, so I left Scott and ran back to the house. Once back at church we had to be door greeters until the service began. Just before leaving I had a contraction that took a little more concentration and focus than any of the previous ones. We decided not to tell anyone that I was experiencing contractions, just in case they died out.
We arrived at my parent’s house around 11am and I immediately got started preparing lunch. My mom and sister jumped in and helped. At some point shortly after that, the contractions picked up a little bit, causing me to have to stop and lean against something during them. But they were still really irregular, so we continued to try to keep it quiet. My mom noticed and asked if I was having contractions, I said yes, but that we weren’t saying anything just in case they fizzled out. By 12:45pm we decided that we better go ahead and put our midwife on standby, because they had increased in intensity a bit and they were only 5-7 minutes apart. We sat down and ate lunch at which point I wasn’t able to actually sit, I knelt on the ground and rocked back and forth. But I was still able to talk during contractions and was in a pretty good mood. We cleaned up lunch, and I called our midwife back to let her know that this was definitely labor, but that we didn’t need her yet, contractions were only 30-45 seconds long and around 2-3 minutes apart. I wasn’t able to talk during them, but I felt that we were still fairly early in the game.
About 15 minutes after calling her, Scott started timing my contractions, they had increased already to 1 minute long and 1-1 ½ minutes apart and were getting pretty serious. He suggested calling the midwife back to get her started on her way. I didn’t want him to as I thought it was still way too early for that. We went back into my parents room and got things ready, stripped the bed, turned the lights down, music on, etc. My mom left to keep Weston occupied while Scott and I stayed and worked through the contractions. At some point I decided that I needed to go the bathroom, so I went in while Scott waited at the door. While I was sitting I had 2 or 3 contractions that were right on top of the other, and I wasn’t able to get up because of their strength. Scott asked how I was and I told him I was going to get into the tub. I very quickly disrobed and hopped in. I asked Scott to get me a sports bra from my mom. He left and she returned giving me one. Scott had stayed with Weston to try to get him to take a nap, and my mom stayed with me. She kept pouring the water over my body, which helped me relax a little bit more. The contractions were really hard and intense, and I asked her if we needed to call the midwife. With a look of amazement and horror she said, “Oh sweetie I thought she was already on her way.” She started to get up and I begged her not to leave me, so she yelled to my dad to call and get the midwife here. Scott came back in and got in the tub with me, cradling me in his arms. Just his presence helped ease the contractions it seemed, and being cradled in his arms helped me get through them. During one contraction I started pushing, involuntarily, and said, “Oh shoot, I think I’m pushing.” I started to panic because our midwife wasn’t there, and I was worried that it would be too soon. The contractions were coming so hard and so fast I moaned loudly to get through them. I kept saying, “Oh I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this. It hurts. I’m scared.” I was shaking and crying, really terrified that I somehow wouldn’t be able to handle this. Scott and mom kept gently, but forcefully reassuring me that I could do this, and that I had to do this. Mom grabbed be by the cheeks and looked into my eyes and told me “honey you have to calm down, you can do this.” Which helped me to regroup and focus on getting through just the next contraction. I didn’t have to handle any more than 1 at a time. I had a couple of contractions right in a row where my body pushed, not a hard push, but a grunting push. I began to feel pressure in my rectum, which I knew was the baby moving down. Mom noticed that there were white flecks in the water and suggested that perhaps my water had broke. We got our midwife on the phone and told her that the baby was coming, so she stayed on the line while things progressed. After a couple of grunting contractions I could feel the baby in the birth canal, so I reached down with my hand and felt for the head, it was still 2-3 inches inside. Mom kept telling me to breathe through the contractions until I just HAD to push. On the next contraction, I tried to just breathe through it and relax, but my body took over and with one big push by my uterus, and a very loud yelp the head was out. It went from being completely inside like 2 inches to completely out in one push. Talk about ring of fire. Mom was on the phone with our midwife who was still guiding us, she told us to check for the cord around the neck, which it was. Then she told us to loop it back over the baby’s head. Mom and Scott both tried but thought it was too tight. She kept telling them they “Had to get it off, right now, it won’t rip or tear, but it HAS to come off.” I was reaching down feeling her head with my hand, and I found her ears, I started crying “It has ears, our baby has ears!” In addition to ears, she had her little right hand up by her face. With the next contraction, the baby turned just a little allowing some more slack in the cord and it slid right over her head. The next contraction yielded her body to her legs, I thought she was completely out so I reached down and started pulling her up. Mom stopped me because her legs were still inside. So while we both held her up, with the next contraction out came the rest of her and I lifted her straight to my chest.
She never cried, she opened her eyes and looked around, but never cried. She was very blue from the amount of blood in her body, and she bruised slightly from coming so quickly. She let out a little yell and started breathing. Her cord was still pulsating strongly, and she was breathing. Still not crying, just alert and looking around. We put a warm towel over her and me and waited for our midwife to arrive, which happened about 10 minutes later. Scott was able to announce her gender, as we didn’t know what it was, and we all started crying. “It’s a girl! She has ears, and hair, and eyes, and it’s a girl!” I kept saying over and over again.
Weston woke up and came into the bathroom and got in the tub with Scott and I. He marveled over Emma, just looking at her in awe. Scott stayed in the tub with me and Emma until the placenta came, which took 1 hour and 5 minutes. After that, my mom clamped and cut the cord and Scott took the baby while I took a shower and got cleaned up.
Emma weighed 7 pounds and was 19 3/4inches long, the exact size of Weston.
This was such a wonderful and beautiful experience, hard and intense, but so worth it. There is nothing more empowering than the act of giving birth, and I am glad that we were able to give our daughter the best possible start in life.
0 comments: