A Powerful Arrival!
Determined not to be a “Christmas Baby”, our daughter started her birth journey with quiet, and somewhat confusing, contractions on a friday afternoon. Mom and Dad spent Saturday eating sticky buns, watching movies, and wondering “is this labor?”
Saturday night approached and the contractions became impossible to ignore. We tried to time the contractions for one full hour, starting at midnight. Dad said “do you think we’ll meet our baby tonight?” We made it to 12:45 and it was clear that we would head into full on labor when that gush of water breaking was felt. A call to our midwife confirmed, this was active labor and she was on her way to us. Lynn made it to us at 1 AM and we had already made progress- 4 centimeters and the contractions kept crashing down like heavy waves!
Beth and Mandy joined the midwife team and we all worked to catch our breath as our little one kept our labor moving fast. We were all crammed in the dark and cozy bathroom trying to relieve the intensity of the contractions in the tub. We knew we must be getting close when someone said “we should set up the blanket station!”
Mom kept telling the baby to “Move Down!” during contractions, and it worked. Now fully dilated around 3 AM and ready to push. Our midwives thoughtfully brought a birthing stool for the delivery. A Rainy City BabeMom sat with Dad behind her, working as one, Mom and Dad curled around the baby to push with each contraction. The power of all three brought our baby in short time. All three midwives sat in front of us cheering us on and sharing updates on our progress.
At 3:45 our determined baby arrived quietly to two stunned and in love parents. Could we really have just delivered our daughter? We laughed and smiled while we noted the time. What a whirlwind for a first time birth! The amazement of this powerful birth would take many days to get over! We still revisit the finer details of our birth adventure together.
Our midwives left us with warm tea, tucked into bed, with a hug and kiss from everyone! Our birth now complete, and our family just begun, we lay in amazement at our Daughter Ainslie Josephine lying between us. We smiled ourselves to sleep! She was now here, arriving with such intensity and speed, will this be a sign of things to come?
Welcome to Ainslie Josephine!