I started out the day with a little more energy than I had had in about a week.  Nothing dramatic, I just didn’t feel like I needed a nap all day long.  I had lots of appointments throughout the day.  I didn’t have any problems, felt no contractions or anything else all day long. 

At about 5pm I decided to take a bath before we went to our final Bradley class.  My body was achy as usual, and it sounded great.  At about 5:45 we headed out to be on time for our class.  When we got there, there were a couple of former Bradley students who came to share their experiences of their labors.  I remember how one girl who had had a homebirth stressed over and over how important the water had been in helping her to relax.  I figured that that would be a key in my labor also.  The families left at around 7:30 and we took a break.  About 7:40 we resumed class and started talking about breastfeeding.  All of a sudden I felt like I was peeing on myself. I got up and went to the bathroom.  As I sat on the toilet, I realized that there was a bit of bloody mucous in the water and that the flow was not letting up.  It occurred to me that my water was leaking.  I went out to the car and called my midwife, at 7:45pm, and told her what had happened.  I asked her to please tell me that we had at least a week left, and she said no, you have maybe 12 hours.  She asked if I was having any contractions yet, and I said no.  She asked for me to just give her a call when class was over and she would head on over to the house.  I went back in the house and realized that I was still leaking, so I told my husband that we were leaving.  Everyone wanted to know what was going on and I told them that my water had broken

On the ride home I started to have some pretty strong contractions.  They were fairly painful, but not overwhelming.  My husband and I talked a bit and I said that I still wanted to have her at our new house (still in remodel state!), which I had said from the beginning was where I wanted our daughter born, so he started making calls and getting some people together to meet us at the house to move enough furniture over to the house for it to work.  I called Mom and told her that she probably would not be going to work tomorrow, and could she come over now to help move some things.  By the time we got home it was 8:30.  I went to the bathroom and started a bath.  My husband started directing traffic and had the guys load up the couches, the extra bed, the towels and whatnot to get over to the new house.  As I was waiting for the water to fill up, I started to realize that these contractions were all but on top of each other, fairly long and very close together.  I stopped my husband in the hall way and asked for his watch so that I could see where I was at before I called the midwife again.  He kept walking past me, not taking me serious.  I finally all but snapped at him and told him to just give it to me, so he did.  I got in the tub and tried to just relax.  I timed a couple of them and they seemed to be inconsistent, ranging anywhere from 50 to 70 seconds long, and from 3 to 5 minutes from start to start.  I called the nidwife and told her what was going on. While on the phone with her I had two.  She started timing them and declared that she was on her way over.  She asked for our address and I gave her brief directions.  (I was 2 weeks before my due date and had not yet had my home visit) I also called the doula and told her that my midwife was on her way, she said that she would be over in about 15 minutes.  Mom arrived as I was hanging up the phone.  I sat in the tub just a little bit longer then climbed into bed with my bathrobe on.  Both the midwife and doula arrived at about 9PM.  By this time my contractions were intense.  I was having a difficult time breathing through them and really wanted my husband there.  I called him to tell him to just come home and forget about moving, but he didn’t answer.  The midwife brought some of her things in and came over to measure me- she announced that I was at 9 cm.  Sometime in here my husband came back and started coaching me and rubbing me.  I remember wanting him to just be quiet and be there.  Then he left.  The midwife was coming and going for a little bit talking to me about stuff, I don’t know what just talking, then she left the room and I felt that I had to push.  I was told later that my husband ran to the front door and yelled out to the midwife and doula (who were bringing things in from the car) “She ready to push!”   The doula came running in and she tried to get me to focus on her and breath rather than push.  I tried with all that I could muster, but I still was pushing somewhere inside of me.  When the midwife came in she coached me through pushing, I started on my left side, then she had me shift to my right, then finally propped up on my back with my arms under my knees.  As she started coming out My husband went to her head so that he could catch her.  When her head came out she had a little hand sticking up under her chin.  It took another two good pushes and the rest of her came right out at 10:03 PM.  She’s beautiful.  The midwife (or was it my husband?) put her on my chest.  She just laid there, cried just a little bit, but seemed to be content laying there.  The cord was a very different looking swirl of white and blue.  We left it attached for quite a while.  When they were ready to cut it, my husband did it.  He seemed to be nervous about it, but he did.  After that he disappeared and started calling everyone to tell them the wonderful news.  He was so excited.  

That night neither of us slept very much, but we took turns holding her on our chests and just feeling her breath on us. We are very happy to welcome this beautiful little blessing into our lives.  God has indeed blessed us.