Denver's Birth Story Part I

Monday night (Labor day) I began to feel some contractions. I laid in bed that night, looked at Austin and said, “I think this baby is coming tomorrow. I think this is our last night just the two of us.” I was right.

I was able to sleep through the night because the contractions were not very strong yet. A few of them woke me up throughout the night, but I was always able to get right back to sleep. The following morning, I woke up, made myself some eggs and toast, and sat down at our dining room table to eat breakfast and read my bible. As I was eating, at about 9:00 a.m., I felt a contraction that was so strong it made me jump to my feet because it startled me. I consider this the official “beginning” of my labor.

These stronger contractions continued every 10 minutes, so I called Donnellyn (our midwife). She told me that I was in very early labor, and that it would probably be a while before the baby came, so I should try to stay occupied throughout the day and not focus on contractions. I was told to call her back when the contractions were stronger and six minutes apart.

By 10:30 a.m., I was seriously hurting and I called Austin to tell him to come home from work. It was pretty fun to call my husband and tell him that we were having a baby that day. :) By the time he made it home, the contractions were coming faster and stronger. I timed a few of them, and they were already six minutes apart, so I called Donnellyn to update her. She told us to come by her home because it was on the way to the birth center. She wanted to check me to make sure that I was in active labor before going out to the birth center.

We arrived at her house at around 1:00p.m., and at this point, whenever a contraction hit, my body would sort of collapse. I had been told over and over to relax into the contractions and not let my body fight them, so with each contraction, I dropped onto my knees on her couch and swayed back and forth, trying to relax my entire body (not an easy task).

Sure enough, she said that I was in active labor, so we made our way out to the birth center. For months I had been telling Austin that I liked the idea of giving birth while it was raining outside. Well I certainly got my wish. As we drove to the birth center it was storming so hard you could barely see the road. Tornado sirens were going off; it was crazy. More to come later...