Ava's Birth

It was one day past my due date. I had a playdate that morning with a friend due at the same time. Neither of us were having any significant contractions. When would this be over? When I got home, I decided to make a cake. It was one of two I had planned to make during labor. While my 2-year-old "helped" me make the cake, I noticed some real contractions, very light, but real contractions. They lasted the rest of the day, but went away when I went to bed that night. The next morning (Friday), the contractions resumed. All day, much like Kameen's labor, I had regular contractions, but they wouldn't get stronger or closer together. My midwife came to check me, and I was 3 cm. She suggested I send Kameen with my mom on Saturday so that I could give myself "permission" to go into full on labor. (Yes, you can definitely hold a baby in mentally). I had contractions all that night, enough to wake me with each one.

By Saturday morning, I was pretty confident we would be in active labor before the day was done. Kameen happily went with his Memaw, and Chris and I got down to business, filling the birth pool, using homeopathy to relax my uterus, and preparing for the birth of our daughter. We watched a movie (Rush Hour 3), we ate, we talked, and we labored in our own home. My midwives went out for lunch so we could have some privacy. When they returned, I was pretty ready to get into the birth pool. We soon headed upstairs. I was at 7cm and had a little crying spell, which assured me I was in transition.

The water was absolutely wonderful! It was a huge relief from the painful "land" contractions I was having. I knew I could finish dilating with no problems. By 10cm I was ready to be done. And then, of course, came the pushing stage. I was apprehensive about this because it had been so incredibly exhausting with Kameen. The contractions were so much more intense then I remember the first time. I was so much more aware and alert, and not in the trance-like state I was in with Kameen due to being exhausted. It made it more painful, and I wasn't sure I could handle it. But, with each contraction I had no choice but to bare down and push. I remembered to breath this time, something that I had trouble with the first time. And then, thirty minutes after the urge to push started, Ava came into the world.

She was so very calm in the water. She didn't cry or shake. She just looked up at us, very alert, and so very pretty. She has been a joy right from the start.