Tabitha's Birth Story
Copyright Jocelyn Smith
Copyright Jocelyn Smith
Joel and I prayed together on the night of the 13th and asked the Lord to let the baby come on Saturday. I actually asked to be in labor by 8 a.m. and done by 2 p.m.! I was up and down all night after 2 a.m. with what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions--they'd wake me up, I'd think, "Stupid Braxton-Hicks, I hate them, what's the point?" then go back to sleep, or run and pee then go back to sleep. I had to pee a lot more than usual!
By seven, though, I was starting to wonder if they were "real" contractions, so I got up alone and started timing them while I ate toast and drank raspberry leaf tea. Knowing that second labors are generally half of the first one, I was expecting to have plenty of time to get to my mother-in-law's house. I was honestly surprised to find out that the contractions were coming along every 3-5 minutes, lasting a little over a minute each, because they didn't hurt, they were just uncomfortable. After timing them for over an hour, I called Angie, my midwife, and told her, "I think I'm really in labor!" She told me to keep her updated and we hung up, then I went and woke up my mom and Joel and Abishai. Joel made us breakfast, which I never did get to eat. I made "laborade" (the recipe in Dr. Sears' birth book) and then kept on pacing the living room, still in my nightgown. I wanted to put on clothes and my makeup but couldn't concentrate long enough to do so. I ended up lying down on my left side on the bed while Joel, Mom, and Abishai ate breakfast.
After Mom was done eating she came in to check on me and tugged my nightgown down. I snapped at her, "I liked it where it was!" and then when she apologized I apologized too and said, "I just feel really crabby!" I realize now I must have been in transition but it was only 9:00 at that point and I had no idea that was even possible. The contractions were coming on like gangbusters at that point and I wanted to scream because there just didn't seem to be any breaks, which scared the daylights out of me. I kept on thinking, if it's this bad already, what's it going to be like during transition? I can't take much more of this!
I called Angie again and dropped the phone during another contraction so she told Joel to hurry up and get over to my mother-in-law's house. He took what seemed like *forever* getting all the stuff together while I was lying on the bed. By this point all I could do during each contraction was vocalize, "Ohhh OHHHH OOOOOOOOHHH!!!" My mom had to help me into my jeans and put my shoes and socks on for me. While I was waiting for her to get Abishai down to her car I suddenly felt like, what the heck, I want to push, I'll just fill our tub and have the baby right here, which scared me even more because I did *not* want to catch the baby myself even though I know what to do. So I screamed at Joel that we were leaving NOW, and he yelled back that he knew that already!, and I went down to our car, which was running. I had two more contractions on the way to the car, and now I'm sure our neighbors either think that Joel beats me or that we were having sex in public because I was really loud and the noises were pretty ambiguous.
I had a premonition of sorts and just as we were about to leave made Joel run back up for towels to lay down on my side of the seat. Then we drove at 70 mph to his mom's house (it's a 20 minute drive and we made it in 7). I told him that if I wasn't complete when we got there that we were going to the hospital for drugs because I couldn't take five more hours like this. Just as we turned onto my MIL's street my waters broke *everywhere*. We pulled up in the driveway at 10 a.m. and Angie pulled up right behind us. Joel ran around to open my door (the seat steamed like crazy when he did because it was so cold outside and the amniotic fluid was hot of course ) and I rode out another contraction. Angie dropped her bag next to the car so she could help me up the sixteen stairs to the front door. She told Joel and his mom not to bother about filling the birth tub but just to fill the regular bathtub because it sounded like I was pretty close.
Angie went back out to get her bag and I ran to the toilet because I thought I had to go to the bathroom. I sat down and all of a sudden felt the "ring of fire." Reaching down, I felt baby hair, so I jumped straight back up again, pressing against my perineum with one hand and bracing against the wall with the other, and yelled, "Angie! She's crowning NOW!" and she *flew* back inside without her bag and knelt in front of me. I still had my shoes on and my pants and undies were just around my knees, not even all the way down! I still hadn't pushed at all.
My mom and Joel's mom ran into the bathroom and Joel put his arm around me to help me squat a little lower. Angie said, "Her head's out now!" and I asked, "Have you got her? Have you got her?" because I was still scared she was going to come out without someone to catch her. Angie reassured me and asked me to push the shoulders out. I leaned back against Joel's arm and pushed three times, and at 10:05 a.m. she was out! Her cord was presented weird, it was wrapped around behind her shoulders and the back of her neck like a sash or something, so Joel held her while Angie untangled it, and then she handed her to me.
I couldn't believe it all happened so fast. I looked at my mom and said, "Look at my baby! Look at my baby!" Her eyes and Joel's mom's were *huge* because they couldn't believe it either. Angie grinned at me and said, "Jocelyn, you are amazing!" which was funny because I felt like I didn't do a thing. I told her, "If all labor's like that, I'll have six!" Abishai wandered in at this point and I showed him the baby, who by this time was squalling, and told him, "You're a big brother now!" His whole face lit up and he waved at the baby and said, "Hi, buddy!" I checked her to make sure she was a girl.
Angie's assistant got there about ten minutes later and they did all the neonatal stuff while we sat on the bathroom floor (on pads, of course ). It turned out I only needed two stitches, which surprised me since she came out so fast (btw, they didn't do *that* part on the bathroom floor). *Nobody* could believe she came so fast. Everyone we called thought we were joking when we said, "She's here!" especially those who knew about my first labor.
We rested for an hour on the bed, then had to give her a teaspoon of sugar water because her respirations were too rapid and Angie thought she might be going through glucose withdrawal. Her breathing evened out about half an hour later and Joel and the baby and I fell asleep for a little bit. Then Joel took Abishai for his nap and Angie did all the newborn wellness stuff with me there, stitched me up, etc. We went home around 7 p.m. I am soooo happy with the birth experience and I can't believe it all went so rapidly and so well. Last time I felt like I had been hit by a truck at the end of my labor (and having to leap right into High-Need Land wasn't a great way to recover). This time I feel sooo much better and I'm so grateful to God. She's obviously a very different personality from her brother. She's slept hours and hours today and even let my mom hold her for two hours (asleep) while I took a nap this morning. It's so amazing to me.
