Darcey's Birth Story #1

The moment I know you've all been waiting for.....when I finally get around to writing about what happened when Darcey was born. But first let me say that I can't believe it's already been over seven weeks ago...this year has flown by so quickly it doesn't even seem real that it's almost Christmas again! And then again some of the days with her being so sick and crying all the time have seemed to last forever. But that's a post for another day I think. Okay, now that's been said, on to the story.......

As most of you probably already know I had been having contractions for several weeks, some of them strong enough that we actually thought she might come early.(HA!) There were more than a couple of times that I honestly thought it was the beginnings of the real thing, but it always slacked off and eventually stopped after awhile. Needless to say though I was getting worn out by how my body was doing and the lack of sleep I was able to get. Then comes my due date and we were just sure it would be any time now....but were we ever wrong! The days creeped slowly by and with each one I woke up and went to bed wondering if this would be it? Not to mention that I begin trying just about everything I'd heard of to naturally induce labor to no avail.

Let me back up for a second to mention that although I had seen a doctor in Huntsville for most of this pregnancy, my heart was still wanting another homebirth like we were able to have with Delancey. Our only concerns with that were that I had some health issues that I didn't then which we weren't sure if the birthing process would cause to worsen and also that I went so quickly the last time that if it this one was any quicker we might not be able to drive to Tennessee. (which is where most midwives are certified to give birth) As it turned out one of the midwives who is not technically certified by the state agreed to come here to our house whenever I went into labor and see how things were progressing instead of us making the decision to drive alone to TN and Blake have to deliver the baby by himself in the car! And then of course we were all kinda expecting to just end up giving birth here if it went as quickly as we thought and things were going normally....which was fine with me since I thought it would be great to just stay home. We also knew that Dr. Cimino would be willing to deliver in the hospital as a back-up plan if something went wrong or we changed our minds so we were pretty comfortable with the whole idea.

Back to the whole waiting game....the due date has come and gone several days past and I'm starting to think Darcey is never going to show up! Then I wake up at 12 am the morning of the 23rd having a contraction that hurt. Alot. It just felt different than the ones I had been having before. I ended up getting out of bed and walking around thinking of things I needed to do if this was the real thing. Then I leaked some fluid and started having a bloody show so I was pretty convinced she would be coming soon! I woke Blake up just to let him know and called the midwife just to give her a heads up and ask a couple of questions. We ended up trying to lay back down but although my contractions were still pretty far apart and sporadic when they did come the pain was bad enough that I just couldn't sleep. (needless to say it was a really long night!) Dathan was supposed to play his last game of flag football that morning and I was torn between wanting to go and worried that things would start progressing too quickly once we got there. At this point some of the contractions were 10 minutes apart and still pretty hard but just didn't stay regular enough for me to think it was close to being serious yet. So we figured I could go ahead and try going as long as I was able to get ready.

Fast forward through the game and the awards ceremony after it was over and I've now been in what I was pretty sure was labor for several hours. And totally confused as to why the contractions were so hard at times but never staying consistent for long. I talked to the midwife a couple more times and was more than a little dissapointed in her reaction to what I was going through. (and the fact that she actually had the nerve to suggest I come to her for a checkup...an hour and a half away from my house!) She just kinda kept acting like she wasn't so sure it was the real thing and telling me I didn't sound like I was labor yet.....although at 11 days overdue I'm not totally sure what else she thought it could be?! We told her we weren't comfortable with getting on the road for that long in case it did turn into something quickly and although she said offered to come to us she also acted as though it would be a wasted trip and mentioned that she'd have to charge us extra to do so. At this point I was getting a little irritated and even more so just confused by some of the things she was telling me. I felt like I was really in labor and wanted them here to keep a check on things(which was what they got paid for!)and she kept acting like we should put off them coming for as long as possible and wait until I showed more obvious labor signs. But my question was, what if there aren't any until too late for you to get here??!!

She had suggested I try laying down and resting that afternoon and then we'd talk about them coming over and seeing if we could do some more things to encourage the labor along, but was also adamant that I not try anything by myself in case it did cause something to happen quickly. My contractions still weren't any more regular at that point, but I was still feeling them enough that I couldn't fall asleep.(they actually got alot harder if I tried to lay down at all) I waited until about 6 and called my parents to come over to watch the kids and then the midwife to let her know I was feeling like they were getting harder even if they weren't close or regular yet and I was more than ready to try some stuff. But unfortunately for me she had decided that maybe it was best if we kept waiting to see what would happen on it's on and since I hadn't slept and she was really tired too then we should probably just try to go on to bed if nothing happened by 9 or so. On top of that she even told me a couple of things I should do to try to relax me and actually STOP the contractions! Needless to say I was not only shocked, but even more confused than before since I was getting such mixed signals from her than what I felt like myself. I ended up getting so upset that I just agreed and didn't insist on her coming anyway... which looking back is what I definitely should have done.....

*don't miss reading the rest of the story on the next post! click here to finish*