Anyone?
Anyone???
In his honor I will be writing several posts about him, because be honest, that is what you all really like to read about!
Tonight I will share the first part of his birth story...because I wrote it and then ever shared it with the world...and feel (for some strange reason) like I should do that. It is kind of long (isn't everything I write?) so I have broken it up into parts and will share them over the next few days.
So, part one...
P.S. I have changed my hubby's 'name' from A to A.P. because I feel like A is confusing sometimes, especially at the beginning of a sentence.
As I was saying...part one...
I would love to do a study of women who have had babies to find the percentage of women who have actually experienced the birth they wanted/planned on having. I bet it is a small percentage because so often you hear someone say, “it didn’t go at all like I had planned.” I would not be in that small percentage either because the birth story of my firstborn was far from my dreams and plans.
I so wanted a homebirth with a midwife…quiet, relaxed, not stuffy, not medical. Because Iowa greatly discourages midwives from working outside hospitals (as in, it’s illegal), and because we live in the middle of nowhere, I had zero luck finding someone to help me fulfill that dream. I had heard decent things about the hospitals in the area, but couldn’t shake the homebirth dream. My parents live in Wyoming, another state that has its reservations about this practice, so even though I got in touch with a few women, I couldn’t nail anything down. Because my parents are close to Colorado, we decided to see if we could find a midwife there that we liked and make something work.
We found a midwife named Barbie that we really liked. Now, remember, all of our correspondence until I was 29 weeks was via e-mail because we were living in rural Lal, so that was another challenging piece of the puzzle. So, we corresponded with Barbie and looked forward to meeting her upon our arrival back in the States. We did meet with her and hit it off right away. She also informed us of a couple she knew in the area who had a small apartment that they rented out to overseas workers like ourselves. They were open to the homebirth happening there and we were ecstatic to hear that. The place was beautiful. Situated in a gorgeous part of Loveland, (one of my favorite cities), it was a beautiful little house that was peaceful and had plenty of room for us, the baby, and my mom who was going to come stay for the birth. We were on cloud nine.
For the next few weeks we went back and forth between Wyoming/Colorado and Iowa to spend time with family, visit the midwife and A.P. to work a little bit. A.P.’s parents had graciously offered to set up their r.v. trailer in their driveway, so we could live in there and have some space to ourselves. A and his grandpa worked on winterizing it and it was cozy inside. We were all healthy and happy. Thanksgiving was spent with A.P.’s family and was a big party. I felt great and spent a lot of time with A.P.’s family as well as exercising every day. One day, not too long before I went into labor, I walked the section by A.P.’s house. I stopped halfway at his sister’s house to say hello. It was cold and windy, but I kept going, despite her offer to drive me home. I was quite tired by the time I had arrived back home and slightly disappointed with myself that it had taken me an hour and 15 minutes to walk the (what I thought was) 2 miles. I was feeling very fat and slow and frustrated…until I expressed my concern to A.P. about my deteriorating fitness. He enlightened me with the fact that the section was actually 6 miles…not two. I didn’t feel so bad then…but also did not tackle the walk around the section again!
We decided to leave for Wyoming 5 weeks before my due date…we would spend Christmas with my family, and then settle down in our little cabin waiting for the baby. We knew that if we made it to Wyoming, we were still close enough that we could make it down there at short notice if we needed to. But really, who has their first baby early anyway, right?
The weekend before we were scheduled to leave for Wyoming (6 weeks before my due date) we went up to visit friends in Minneapolis. We have a yearly tradition of going to the Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis and we were so excited about it. On the way to the Cities, I noticed that my back was a little crampy and that my stomach was hardening every 15 minutes or so, but I didn’t think anything about it. I just wrote it off as Braxton Hicks contractions and went on with my day. I asked friends in the Cities about it and they didn’t seem too alarmed. It continued off and on the entire time we were there and I read a little about it, but tried not to stress. We went to a birthday party, saw lots of college friends, enjoyed the Holidazzle and shopping. I was tired the whole time, but kept going…cause you only live once, right? My best friend kept telling me that I should really start getting caught up on rest because once the baby comes, you don’t get any. I joked that I had plenty of time to sleep before the baby came. Another friend, due a week before me, was the brunt of my teasing about already having her hospital bags packed.
We made it back to Iowa and I was tired. Our niece and nephew had their Christmas program at school the next night and we went. I wasn’t feeling great, but didn’t want to miss it. We had the family over for brownies and ice cream after that as a goodbye to A.P.’s Grandma and Grandpa who were leaving for a winter in Texas the next day. Someone joked about them not being able to go because a storm was coming.
The next day we woke up to lots of snow and school had been cancelled for the kiddos. A.P.’s sister invited us over for the day to hang out and play games, etc and then spend the night. We went and had a great time. The next morning, we woke up to even more snow and bad conditions (it blows and drifts really bad in Iowa). Grandma and Grandpa were stuck…and so were we. The roads were completely closed and we weren’t going anywhere. This was fine for a while, but I started to get antsy. I had a lot to do before our trip to Wyoming and it was all sitting in our little camper home a mile away while I sat around and played games. The afternoon wore on and I got more tired and more grumpy. Suddenly, the house was too loud and crowded and I needed a break. I went to take a nap, but didn’t really sleep, just daydreamed about the baby that kicked around in my belly.
A.P. woke me up and said that his parents were on the phone. His dad could come over with the loader to get us out if we wanted. If not, another storm was coming and we would be stuck for another night. He asked what I wanted to do. The kids stood at the foot of the bed, begging us to stay and have another sleepover. I just had this overwhelming desire to go home and I told A.P. that. The kids weren’t happy, but at that moment, I didn’t care. By the time I got our stuff gathered, the loader was there and we made our way back home.
We had supper with A.P.’s parents and after watching a little t.v. I went to bed early. I slept well until about 2 am when I woke up with the urge to go to the bathroom. I rolled my pregnant belly over and stood up. One step toward the toilet (it was three steps away) and I felt a gush of water. I quickly turned on the light and shut the door so I wouldn’t wake A.P. up. As I saw down on the toilet, I realized my pants were soaked and I could see a little blood. My mind was quickly spinning as I tried to wake myself up enough to grasp what in the world was going on. The water kept gushing and all of the sudden my stomach didn’t feel great. A few seconds later, a deep cramp started in my stomach and I felt it go rock hard. I sat there gripping the sink and the roll of toilet paper as I tried not to throw up. I looked at my watch a few minutes later, as another contraction came – 6 minutes…crap. I couldn’t believe that this was happening…but couldn’t deny it either and knew that I needed to get in gear.
No comments:
Post a Comment