I woke up at 7am and I was like, “THESE are rushes.” But they weren’t really bad, they felt like menstrual cramps. They were 10-15 min apart. I also lost my mucus plug. We took the dogs out to the Marina and walked around the perimeter, around 3 in the afternoon. We saw a Western Burrowing Owl that comes to roost here during the rainy season. Then, my rushes were 5-10 minutes apart and I had to stop and moan. They were getting pretty painful. I couldn’t walk through them. We went home and I felt uncomfortable sitting – I was so glad we didn’t decide to go any further away because I couldn’t imagine having rushes in the car. I realized I couldn’t even sit through my rushes anymore. At that point, I laid down in the bed in the guest room to get through the rushes. I put in earplugs and I would get up on hands and knees to get through the rushes.

A friend came by and brought me peppermint ice cream. I didn’t feel like I could really engage because I was in labor, but my rushes stopped for about 20 minutes. I called Julia to see what she thought. I started crying because I was SO ready for this to happen, and everything had just stopped. Julia said she could come over if I wanted her to – around 7pm, and I said I would love for her to come. We sat on the floor in the den and just talked. She said my body was working toward labor. She checked my cervix to check the baseline for my labor and said, “you’re 4cm and 100%!” My rushes were strong and effective! Julia encouraged me to get in the zone and call her back whenever the rushes started up again and I needed her. She brought all of her midwife gear and left it here. I went back into the guest room, put in my earplugs, and went through rushes. G timed them for me by listening to my moans coming through the vent. Periodically, I would come out into the den and ask if they were closer together. He said they were 3-5 minutes apart. I said, “Oh, good, let’s call Julia!” That happened a few times before we actually called Julia.

At 1am, G texted Julia. She said, “I’m leaving now. See you soon.” When she got here, she started setting up all of her stuff. She told me to keep doing what I was doing. Around 2am, she checked me and I was 7cm.  Everything was going great. At that point, Julia got the birth kit out and I kept doing what I was doing. She started the antibiotics in between rushes. At 6am, I was 10cm but with a little cervical lip on the right side. To get rid of that I could have either had Julia hold it to the side while I pushed the baby’s head down, or I could lay on my side for several rushes. I could not imagine pushing into that pain, so I chose the other option. I laid on my side and it was REALLY painful – my hand was shaking as I squeezed G’s hand with each rush. I labored for about 30 more minutes. Julia checked me again and I was complete, so she called Kara to come over.

The baby’s head was still high so I had to push the baby’s head down. She suggested I sit on the toilet, since that’s the place where I’m used to pushing. That hurt too much – it felt like I had a bowling ball in my butt. It didn’t felt like I had to push, it felt like I had to poop. Julia reminded me that that’s what pushing feels like, and I have to push into that sensation. I was really having a hard time with this because I didn’t have a strong urge to push.

During the next two hours, Julia gave me a lot of suggestions: push in the shower, get on the birth ball, squat. I took a shower for 10 minutes but the hot water ran out, so that was the end of that. We started nipple stimulation while I was sitting on the toilet. G was on my left nipple and Kara was on my right – colostrum was everywhere, but we needed the rushes to be closer together. Julia asked me if I was scared to push and I said yes. She said, “It is scary but that’s what’s going to get your baby out. You have to push down into it.” Both Kara and Julia told me it was time to push!

I would breathe and moan through most of the rushes and push a little. Then, it was time for the 2nd dose of antibiotics so I stood at the foot of the bed to let them go in. Every time I went to pee, I would have a rush. I tried to sit down on the toilet through the rush, but it was too much so I had to stand up. I felt like I was going to split my whole body apart if I sat on the toilet….it felt like I was going to have the biggest poop of my life. Gradually, I pushed more and more and ended up feeling most comfortable on the bed, semi-reclined, with my knees up…a reclined squat. I needed people to help hold my legs back. Kara started giving me an herb cocktail of cottonwood and black cohosh chased with coconut water. Kara and Julia said I was a champ taking shots of those nasty tasting herbs. I didn’t even blink an eye. (I thought about saying, “This is nothing! I’m used to taking shots of bourbon,” and actually I thought I did say that. After the birth, G told me I never said that. It was such an internal thing. I did very little talking.) The herbs helped make the rushes happen closer together. The weird part about my labor is that the rushes were always strong, but never close together.

Around 8am, I was pushing and a little trickle came out. I felt like I peed. Kara said, “I think that was your water breaking.” We kept talking about my water breaking and I felt another rush coming on. I was pushing so hard and my bag of water burst all over Julia. She said, “I got the birth bath!” There was light meconium in the birth fluid, but we weren’t worried. Before and after each rush, Kara checked the baby’s heartbeat, which stayed around 138 the whole time. Baby Olive, you were so strong and constant…a true picture of you now that we know you.

After my water broke, the rushes got WAY more intense. For the first time, I felt the undeniable urge to push and bear down. Julia, Kara, Sasha (my doula) and G would tell me, “That’s it! We see it! We see the dark hair!” I pushed and pushed and pushed. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than the rush comes, I push, then I get to meet my baby. I had no clue what time it was and I didn’t really care. Although I saw that it was bright outside at one point and thought, “wow, I must have been in this room for a long time.” I never got exhausted and I never thought “I can’t do this.”

I kept pushing for the next hour, I ate a banana and some of the peppermint ice cream from the day before. Kara kept giving me herbs and documenting while Julia coached me through each rush. They used a mirror to show me that the head was moving. I remember thinking, “that is not the head. That is the tip of the iceberg,” because I have seen plenty of births to know what caput looks like. But I was okay with that. I wasn’t discouraged.

They kept saying I would meet my baby soon, but I knew it would still be a while. The baby’s head would come out a little bit, then sink back in. This helped to stretch my tissues. Once the head started to come out further, Julia would drizzle a hefty amount of olive oil on the baby’s head and rubbed it on my perineum. I kept pushing until finally, the baby’s head stayed out. Julia said, “On the next push, you’ll meet your baby!” I pushed like hell until I had nothing left to push, but the baby didn’t come out yet. This happened a few times, but I was okay with that. I knew the baby was coming, and since her heat rate was fine, I wasn’t worried at all. In between pushes G and Kara were still doing nipple stimulation and I was still taking shots of herbs. When a rush would come, I would basically hit their hands off of me and say “it’s time it’s time”. Then push. Then say “it’s done”.

On my 2nd to last rush, Julia said to back off a little. I stopped pushing altogether and turns out I backed off too much. Julia said, “Next time, instead of backing off, keep the pressure down there but don’t actively push.” On my final rush, she said, “Okay, ease up. Now grunt your baby out!” When the baby crowned, I felt like all of my skin down there was burning. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call “The Ring of Fire.”

The baby’s head came out and she tried to cry a little. Then I had to keep pushing and keep pushing a keep pushing. This was one big ole baby. Julia got the shoulders out and then Kara reached down to help Julia guide the rest of the baby’s body out. She came out anterior (the right way) but then she didn’t turn to fit her shoulders through. She came straight through my pelvis, but it worked for us. Her hands were down by her side so that’s why I had to keep actively pushing her out. Usually the hands are up by the chest. The baby’s face was bluish-gray and we heard a squawking noise. They said, “Reach down and grab your baby.” So I reached down and grabbed the baby. I was so surprised! I put my hand over my eyes and cried. I couldn’t believe how big and purple the baby was. After about 30 seconds, Kara reached under the baby blanket to see the baby’s sex but she didn’t say anything. Finally, I reached under the blanket to peek and said, “It’s a girl!” I reached up and kissed G, and we just looked at her for a while. We did it. I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and awe for the whole process.

Then, I ate my placenta. She was 21.5 inches long and weighed 9lbs. 7oz. She latched right away. Our lives are changed for the better.