Here is Josie's birth story as I remember it. My friend Joy is 24 weeks and also planning to have a water birth. She drove up for the birth and posted on her blog about it, it was so interesting to read her version I decided to include her account as well… Sunday September 14th, my due date, I was starting to think I would never go into labor. With Ava I felt like I was going into labor every day for 2 weeks. I expected the same thing to happen this time but I would pretty much have one or two good contractions a day. That evening I started having some pretty intense contractions, much more painful than any up to that point. So I called my mom and told her if I woke up with them, we would be heading towards the cabin which is conveniently within 5 walking minutes from my parents home.
We went to bed and about 2:00am I was awoken by a contraction. I got up, went to the bathroom, then tried to go back to sleep. About 3:00 I woke up with another really strong contraction and then another not long after. I got up and began timing them. At that point they were 5-8 minutes apart. I wanted to let Tim sleep as long as possible, so I went about getting things ready to go. I realized my inhaler was almost empty so I did a quick run across town to the 24 hour Walgreens. Moaning and screaming every 5 minutes. I'm sure I was quite a site moaning like a Banchee at the red light. Not to mention the pharmacist wanted to call an ambulance for me and then thought I was absolutely certifiable when I told her I wasn't going to the hospital anyways.
I got back to the house and about 4:00 I had a contraction that I couln’t keep quiet through. That's when Tim got up. We finished packing and when Ava woke up we left for the cabin, stopping for some MacDonalds on the way. We arrived at my parents about 9:00am, at that point contractions were coming 4-6 minutes apart. My mom came with us down to the cabin. She was supposed to be helping to watch Ava but really she watched Tim watch Ava. Tim brought everything in and started organizing and setting things up while I made brownies and miso soup in-between contractions.
About 1:30pm my contractions were getting very strong, we couldn’t set the pool up with Ava there, so my mom took her over to their house to wait for her little sister to arrive. After they left I decided I wanted to get into the pool, not only for pain relief but I felt I needed a bit of a break and some rest before the last stretch. My Dr. showed up a little later around 2:30, when he checked me I was 4cm and 50% effaced. He encouraged me to get out of the pool and move around, which I did.
That’s when things started to progress or so I thought. Two hours later after walking to my parents and back and rolling on my ball I was just feeling more tired and when David checked again I had not progressed at all. My Dr. went to check on another patient who had given birth at 8:00 that morning and said he would be back in a couple of hours. So it was just Tim and I left there. I was so tired and I needed some rest so I got back into the pool to ride out the contractions then I would try to sleep in between them.
My friend showed up after about an hour, and then my Dr. arrived back at the cabin. The rest and relaxation had helped, I had progressed to 6cm & 80% effacement. Here is my friends account of what happened from there…
“So I was able to make it to my friends, home-water birth monday night. She started having steady contractions late Sunday night/early Monday morning so they packed everything up and headed to the cabin where they would be having the baby. Before the contractions really started she was only 2 cm dilated and she knew she wasn’t really progressing quickly enough for me to rush up there. After work I headed up to the cabin and when I got there around 7: 40ish, the last time the doctor had checked her, 5:40ish she was 4 cm with 50% effacement. The doctor arrived back at the cabin shortly after me and checked her again – 6.5 cm with 80% effacement! Wonderful progress. She was doing great riding out the contracts in her birthing pool, with candles and soft music playing. I kind of felt like a bump on a log as we quietly waited for each contraction to come and go. She sat in her pool, looked at her tummy and said, “Ok this is how this is going to happen; I am going to dilate 1cm every 30 minutes until I get to 10! Then you’re coming out Josie!!” We all chuckled and hoped for quick dilation since she was beginning to have terrible back pain from transition. She said she could feel Josie’s head on her butt and that was putting tons of pressure on her tail bone. Things seemed to really kick in around 8:30 when the doctor checked her and confirmed she had progressed to a ’stretchy’ 8 cm with full effacement. She was dilating at the rate she wanted, but she was beginning to have the urge to push. Her doctor checked her again and it was a little too early to push. By 9:15 she was 10 cm, but her membranes hadn’t ruptured yet, after the doctor ruptured her membranes Josie was out at 9:45 p.m. It was the most intense, yet amazing experience I’ve ever witnessed. I am so thankful that she let me be a part of it all. Josie even breastfed like a champ and tipped the scales at 7 lbs. 8 oz. She appeared smaller than her big sister, but actually weighed more than Ava did at birth. I’m looking forward to my own water birth and hoping that my friend will be operating the camera at mine like I was at hers.”
She left out just a few things though…After Ava went to sleep my mom came down to be there for the birth. She wouldn’t stop talking during the contractions even though I asked her nicely three different times not to. Finally during one rather painful contraction I yelled at her to “SHUTUP”. I feel horrible for that, but I have decided at our next birth it will be known there is no talking allowed during contractions! Tim caught little Josie but then almost let go of her because the vernix really freaked him out. Ava came out perfectly clean and therefor he was not prepared what so ever to deal with anything icky. My favorite part is that I cut the chord this time.
Little Josiphine Paige Curry was born at 9:45pm 9/15/08 weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 21 inches long. She was checked and weighed and loved on then everyone was gone from the cabin by 10:45/11. Tim was able to get Ava to sleep rather quickly and it was just the three of us left to get to know eachother. We stayed up until about 1:00am just looking at her then we all had an amazing sleep. It was exactly the birth experience we had wanted and hoped for.
