Payson's Birth Story

I am still in awe of how fast and AMAZING this birth was!  God is so gracious!!

I awoke at about 145am with contractions.  I had downloaded this neat "contraction timer" app for my itouch and I have been eager to use it :)  So i woke up and started tracking these contractions.  For the first 20minutes I laid in bed with them coming about 5 min apart and last 45sec.  I decided I would get up and walk around and see if they stopped, since these were the first steady contractions I'd had so far.

I changed into my "birthing outfit", well half of it anyway.  I had this great plan to try and look cute, I know vain, but what can I say?!  This is my first home birth and since I wanted a lot of pictures taken I wanted to at least appear put together :)  So I tied my green sarong around my waste and was going to match it with a white sports bra on top.  The top never got changed out of the horribly old and beat up Judson College tshirt of John's.  The outfit just doesn't have the same, "all natural girl" look to it  I had dreamt, lol.

At 0245 I decided to wake John up since the contractions were pretty strong and though I was able to hum and sway through them I wanted his company.  I grabbed the box of Farkel dice, thinking we could roll some dice in between contractions.  Lol, that never happened either :)  I had gotten the pool out of the basement and set it in the living room.  We brought it into the kitchen to air up, so the pump wouldn't wake the 3 sleeping children upstairs.  John went about setting up the pool while I used the counter top as a balance point and swayed through some pretty intense contractions.  I was humming the song "I love you Lord" (you know, "I love you Lord and I lift my voice, to worship you, ooh my soul, rejoice.  Take joy my King in what you hear, may it be a sweet sweet sound, in your ear" )  The humming totally helped!  And my sister, Kristy, had reminded me through text to keep my eyes, hands, and mouth relaxed.  I visualized everything being open and relaxed waiting for the baby.

Cute sarong, HORRIBLE shirt!  Notice orange cup on the right?  Yup, thats Farkel :)

At 0300, after an hour of solid contractions I called my Doula, Kim Wheaton, and told her my progress.  She said she was an hr away and I told her I was ready for her to come.  Then I called Christina and she was also an hr plus away.  I settled in for more labor, eager to get to the point when I could get into the pool! :)  (that never happened either :) )

0320 my water broke with a good strong contraction, me standing in the kitchen.  I thought "hmmm, now thats never happened this fast before."  I texted Kim & Christina.  They both were already hurrying :)

Warning TMI may follow:

I started having the urge to have a BM, I was NOT about to do that in the birthing tub so I forced myself to go to the bathroom and try to allow my body to cleanse the intestinal track in a proper manner before exposing all in labor.

At this point, I really needed John to apply some strong hip pressure during each contraction, which were coming faster than 1 minute apart, really it never seemed like they let up.  He is a ROCK STAR!!  Ladies, you need a strong man in labor? he's your guy! :)  Well, actually he's MY guy so scratch that last sentence!  He stayed in the bathroom with me while I hummed LOUDER and higher pitched than I think I've heard my voice "sing".  I sat to relieve myself and gave 2 strong pushes.  No BM.  Just more contractions and big urges to keep pushing.  In my mind I told myself, "listen to your body, there is no one else here telling you what to do, if you have the baby it will be fine, if you just need the relief to push that's fine too"  I stood up and then the next contraction placed my hands on my thighs and pushed hard, I told John "I think it's the baby!!!!"  He knelt down and the next push there she came, he caught her, and I pushed the shoulders and her body out!!  WHAT?!!  Did we just have a baby in the bathroom, over the toilet?!  Who does that?!  He gave her to me, I wrapped her in that ugly torn up shirt while he grabbed a towel.  Then I told him "Call Christina!, wait first TAKE A PICTURE!" :)  He did both, he's amazing that way!!

The time of the call to Christina was 0348.  John helped me to the living room where I laid down, Payson on my chest, umbilical cord still attached and placenta still inside.  We waited and our nurse arrived, who is    GREAT too.  Then John's Mom, Kim and Christina all arrived.

Here we are, she's still attached to me :)

 It was SURREAL!  John caught our baby!  Kids stayed asleep.  Birthing tub never filled past 4 inches or so of water.  Outfit totally lacking it's stylish appeal.  Box of supplies with old towels still folded while good towels and bath mats dirtied, and the list of "how it was supposed to go goes on.   :)  But it is an amazing story!  The FASTEST of labors yet for me :)  I mean start to finish in less than 2 hrs?! Captured in great intimacy by just John & I!  I think its so cool he caught her!!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  Seriously, God is AWESOME and the gift of labor and birth is so precious that even the sting of the pain from sin cannot eclipse it's beauty!  God is awesome!!