Bugaboo Has Arrived!

For those of you who've been wondering, I thought I would tell this precious girl's story. Her birth definitely did not go according to plan but was definitely beautiful and directed by the Lord in its own way. The moral of this story is: when it comes to our babies, my husband is always right.

I woke up Tuesday feeling the same way I did the day Zita came. We proceeded with our day normally. I got the girls' room cleaned and one other project tackled. Ralph worked on the mountains of laundary threatening to take over the house. Connie wrangled the girls. I baked some cakes for LifeGroup. At about 5 or so the contractions got more frequent, though still irregular, and more painful. I thought that we still had several hours ahead of us and that LifeGroup would be a nice distraction. Ralph was not so sure but I convinced him. Right as we were buckling the girls into the van, I had a rather significant contraction and Ralph wanted us to stay home. I knew the girls were excited to see their friends and I hated to tell them no to that. Off we went to LifeGroup, with my contractions flucuating between 4-7 minutes and getting stronger.

When we got to LifeGroup, things seemed to go fine. I borrowed their exercise ball and sat on that during the meal time. About half an hour in, I had one that made me cry. It was a bit too soon for that in my thinking so I told Ralph we needed to go. Our friend Taryn agreed to take Ralph's mom and the girls home after group so we could just go. Ralph called our midwives and I was relieved to hear the one I was hoping for on the other end. I've always liked all my providers but it seems there's always one I connect to a bit more. We planned to meet at the birth center about an hour from the time we called. That gave us time to drive home through rush hour traffic and pick up the camera and a few extra things. When we got home, Ralph took a minute to help me through a contraction then ran in to grab our things. I think he was gone 3 minutes max. In the meantime, I ended up in the back of the van trying some different positions other than sitting. When Ralph was ready to go, I decided I needed to go to the bathroom before driving our last 20 minutes to the birthing center. While in there the urge to push came. I always say that urge is a bit like needing to throw up--the body just takes over. I wasn't sure I was ready for that. We had only been in labor 2 hours, I was worried about being completely effaced and what to do after. I thought about it for half a second, realized her head was bulging and my only other option was to drive screaming to the birth center. So I stood up and out she came. Seriously, it was that easy. Ralph grabbed towels and called 911 at the same time. It was so exciting to look down and see another little girl! She was only slightly dusky, had a great grimace and cried immediately. This made my Mama-nurse heart very happy.

Calling 911 was a matter of discussion as well as I didn't want to go to a hospital and didn't want to feel pressure to be transported if everything was fine. At the same time, I had no idea how long it would take our midwife to get to us. Delivering the baby was one thing, delivering the placenta and cutting the cord was something else entirely! We had some great paramedics from the Snohomish Fire Department. They came and checked out the baby and me and declared us fine, then waited for our midwife to come before leaving.

In hindsight, there were a few warning bells. Such as as when we were turning onto Seattle Hill Rd, I was already wondering why I don't get epidurals. This thought always comes moments before my babies do. After Nugget's delivery, I made a conscious effort to pay attention to what was physically happening during Zita's birth. While in the van waiting for Ralph, I was noting some of those same physcial changes occuring. However, as the timing was off, in my mind anyway, I just decided I had somehow become more sensitive to pain or wasn't coping well due to being in a moving vehicle. Um, no, this baby just came FAST!

I had a terrific birth plan: water, low lights, great (musical) play list ready on my iPad, and an oil warmer with some new lavendar essential oil. What I got instead was a healthy baby girl with a great story. Her name was meant to be. My husband is awesome and such a blessing. He has been right about us being pregnant 3 for 3 now, he usually knows before I do and right about labor and imminent childbirth 2 for 2 now. Basically, the moral of the story is, if it is in regards to our babies; Ralph is right. You should check out his version of her birth here.