My pregnancy with Noah was fairly easy. I had about 9 weeks of “morning” (more like all-day) sickness. Other than that, I rather enjoyed being pregnant, even at the very end. Both of us thought he was a girl. Doug had predicted he would be born on the 6th weighing 8.5 lbs; I had predicted the 12th weighing 8 lbs. When the due date of November 9 came and went, we started getting a little antsy. We were planning on going to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, a 4 hour drive from our house. We did a lot of walking and other things to get things going when I hadn’t gone into labor by the 9th.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 19, I started having irregularly-spaced contractions. They became more regular as the day went on. We went walking that afternoon, and I continued having light contractions between 5 and 15 minutes apart all evening. We went to bed around 11 pm expecting labor to start in earnest in the early hours of the morning. In hindsight, we should have gone to bed much earlier!

I woke up at 2 am with my first painful contractions (painful enough that I could not sleep through them). I woke Doug up around 3 am and we started timing the contractions to be 4 minutes apart, lasting 50 seconds. Around 3:30 am I called the midwives and my parents so they could start the trip to our house. Doug started to prepare the kiddie pool. Midwife B (Midwife A’s apprentice) arrived around 5 am and checked my blood pressure and the baby’s heartbeat. Everything was fine. My sister-in-law, Laura, arrived at 7 bearing grapes, Golden Grahams, and biscuits from McDonald’s. Midwife A arrived at this time as well. My mom arrived around 8. I was checked and was at 4 cm dilation. Things were progressing pretty well during the day, although everyone was getting pretty tired. I used the birthing ball, the kiddie pool (filled with warm water), and walking up and down the stairs to help things along. Around noon the back labor started. I was doing fine with the regular uterine contractions; I was able to breathe through them without too much difficulty. The back labor was another story. Breathing did no good and I had a hard time not screaming (which I did quite a few times). We knew the baby was facing the right way (anterior) and was head down, so the back labor came as a surprise. By 8 that night everyone was exhausted. I couldn’t sleep at all because of the back labor. I was 9 cm dilated. Over the next 7 hours, I was checked 2 or 3 more times and was still at 9 cm. I was having almost no uterine contractions during this time, just terrible back pain, so I knew I was not progressing. This really discouraged me and Doug. I kept throwing up because of the back labor and so I had no energy even though I was constantly being fed ice cream, pudding, Pedialyte, Jell-O, Powerade, grapes, and Golden Grahams. Midwife A encouraged us with prayers and Scripture, and Doug prayed with me many times. He was so supportive during the whole labor and didn’t sleep at all during the whole thing. He followed me around when I walked to help me through contractions and was just there for me the whole time. At one point when I was throwing up in the bedroom with everyone around me, he left the room. We could all hear him crying in the living room, and I realized that this was almost as hard on him as it was me (emotionally). My mom and Laura were also very supportive, following me around with “the bowl” in case I needed to throw up and getting whatever I needed. Midwives A and B were very patient and nurturing.

To help get my labor going again, I started taking a black and blue cohosh tincture every 15 minutes. The herbs didn’t really seem to help much. So around 4 am on Thursday (26 hours after my labor started in earnest), the midwives decided to call Midwife C to get a fresh perspective on what to do. She lives only a few minutes from us, so she arrived and decided we needed to break my water. Once she did this, my contractions picked up considerably and things really started happening. I got back into the pool around 6 am and started pushing. Two hours later, Noah was born at 8:14 am underwater in the pool. I had sustained a 1st degree tear but didn’t really care at that point! Doug announced to everyone that we had a son. Noah had a little trouble breathing at first; he had some meconium in his lungs and so the midwives gave him some oxygen and suctioned his lungs. I cut the rather short cord as Doug was not interested in doing this. While midwives A and B were working on Noah, I got out of the pool and Midwife C helped me deliver the very large placenta. As soon as I got out of the pool, I realized I was ravenous! I ate the biscuit Laura had brought for me the morning before and tried to drink some orange juice but my throat was too sore from all the moaning and screaming I had done during the pushing. (Looking back on the video of the pushing, I sounded like a sick cow.) So I drank milk instead!

As soon as Noah was breathing better, I tried to nurse him but he was not interested. Doug and I got into our bed with Noah. They weighed him and none of us could believe it when they announced he was 11 pounds even (we got our reactions on videotape)!

From start to finish, the whole thing lasted a little over 30 hours. It was not the pain-free delivery we had been praying for for 9 months, but it was safe and that’s all we really cared about. It was also a very bonding experience for me and Doug, as he displayed so much love and support. I thank God for him, our precious son and the strength He gave me to get through the pain of labor.