This is a really long post as it is the whole story of how I had our daughter J. Please hang in there and read the whole thing. God really had his hand on us through this whole thing.
This story doesn’t start on the morning of July 25th, it starts about two months before. I was sitting at my midwife’s office as she was telling me that baby J is small, and if she is in the right position, she will come fast so don’t dilly dally or she would likely be born in the car.” We had an hour to drive to the birth inn so this concerned me. Over the next few weeks as I thought through this conversation I thought I had better talk to her about the specifics if this situation did arise. So at my next appointment I asked her what to expect if she did come fast. She told me she would likely be born in the car and to be prepared with some blue pads and towels and I said “okay: scenario 1: We are driving to the birth inn, in labor, going through the near by town, do I swing by the hospital?” She said “no, that’s more traumatic than its worth, just climb in the backseat, drape a shower curtain on the floor and seats and have the baby in the car.” I then thought very hard about whether I should tell A. I decided I had better tell him because he would be my birth coach and likely be catching the baby. When I told A, there was shock and horror on his face and he said, “we will not have that baby in the car” So we discussed whether we should have a home birth. After much prayer, we decided we would still try to go to the birth inn.
Fast forward, I”m 37 weeks. As my midwife is checking the position of the baby, she said “oh no! she’s breech! It must be the day for It.” (she had 2 other breech babies that day) she continued “Okay this is what you do: you kneel on the couch, put your tush in the air, your hands on the floor and wiggle your bum around and we’re going to try to turn this baby.” That’s a lot easier said than done when your 8 ½ months pregnant! I asked her if chiropractic would help? She said Yes! If your chiropractor knows the Wesley method he can turn the baby. I made an appointment right away and my chiropractor did indeed know the Wesley method. The next day, I went to my appointment and he tried his best to turn the baby. J was more active than normal that afternoon and evening and kept me awake until 1 am with her movement. I felt like she was trying to come out and it was very painful, but the next day it was confirmed she had turned and was head down! This started braxton hicks like I’ve never had before. The contractions would start and seem to be getting worse, they were hard and they hurt but they didn’t do anything.
July 11, after a day of working on a birthday cake and having contractions I questioned whether my waters had sprung a leak. I called my midwife and she said to come in the next day and she would see if we needed to get things started. So we got a sitter and we headed into the clinic, hopeful that we would come home with our baby. It was confirmed that my waters did not break and that it may have been a leak that got plugged over, so the waiting continued.
July 14 we were a little bit concerned about her size and we didn’t want to pursue a natural induction without knowing she was healthy weight and size and that her head was down. So the midwife said she wanted us to have a sonogram physical done on her. So again we made a 1 hour trip to the clinic to see the massage therapist to work on my pressure points to try and get labor started and to see our baby girl on a sonogram. The technician took all the measurements and she measured 37 weeks gestation, a week behind. She weighed 6lbs 5oz and it was confirmed the cord was not around her neck but her face was turned to the right. After the sonogram I saw the chiropractor who tried to turn her head.
I continued to have contractions from the 12 to the 15th and I thought on the 15th it was definitely different. They were coming closer together and consistently So we got a babysitter (My husbands parents were out of town that week) and took the 1 hour trip to the clinic. As we were driving contraction continued to come and didn’t stop. When we got to my midwifes clinic they just kind of stopped. I had one as she was checking the heartbeat and she felt my abdomen and said, “see this, this is not a full contraction because its not covering the entire abdomen and around your back. A real contraction will.” (You’d think I’d know what a real contraction was after 4 kids.) So again we confirmed we would not be bringing home a baby. A little discouraged, we left and decided to take the time to have a night out together. The following week and a half were spent having contractions and not knowing whether we should go in or not.
July 21st I had an appointment with my midwife and the chiropractor and they felt something in her position was different and that her head had probably turned. It didn’t click that she could come fast now because she was now turned the right way.
July 23rd I saw the massage therapist again to work on my pressure points to try to get labor started.
July 24, what I thought were braxton hicks, continued and I thought, its possible that this baby would be overdue. My midwife was out of town and her daughter was on call. We had hoped the midwife could be there for the birth.
July 25 at 3:30 am I woke to 2 hard contractions. I got up and decided to clean the kitchen up. Every false alarm prior, my nesting had taken full effect and I had a spotless kitchen when I left, but now I was just plain worn out. As I cleaned, the contractions were not getting more consistent, harder or closer together. I thought, “Oh great, another false alarm and I cant even sleep, its the middle of the night.” I worked for about 30 minutes. At 4 am I called the midwife and told her that I had 2 contractions and nothing really big after, I was going back to bed and would see what happened, but I just wanted to give her a heads up. I went back into the bedroom and A woke up, so he started getting ready to go and I tried to go back to sleep. As I laid there, I had several more contractions but they really weren’t that bad. I couldn’t really tell the difference in these from the braxton hicks. So we worked around for another 30 minutes. We called the midwife and said we thought we should come in. she thought we should wait it out for another 30 minutes. She didn’t want us to make an unneeded trip to the clinic either. We called our neighbor to say we thought this was it and that we were waiting a little bit longer to go in. At 5am we called everyone to tell them “it was time!” and we gathered our things to go in to have our baby. Contractions were in fact getting very hard and I couldn’t walk through them anymore. I had to stoop over and breath through each one as we waited. Our neighbor came and we gave her instructions. At 5:30 we pulled out of the driveway and I called my mom to tell her we were going to have the baby. I was freezing cold and nauseous, looking back I could see I was in transition but I didn’t realize it at the time.
As we drove on our paved road 110th street, my water broke. Thankfully I had asked A to put a blue pad down on the seat just in case and we had already gathered the things that the midwife recommended just in case. I called the midwife and told her my water broke. The first thing she said to me was “its okay, you still have time” I said, “I am not sure I do, I’ve never had my water break early with D it broke when I was pushing” She asked how far we were from home. I said about 10 minutes. She asked if we wanted to go back and I said no, I couldn’t imagine having a baby in my kitchen.
We were driving down the two lane highway, and things were getting harder to handle. I was very, very uncomfortable. We passed a deer in the ditch and we both whispered Thank you Jesus and then said to each other if that deer had been in the middle of the road and we hit it we would have totaled the car. We kept driving and entered onto the interstate. I felt the urge to push. I told A and he said “YOU DO???” and he drove a little faster (he was whispering prayers to keep the cops and the deer off the road the whole time). I asked A to call the midwife and tell her. She asked if there was a place to pull off. I said we were going to pass the second exit to a near by town and we could pull off there but A said he would keep driving. I think he was hoping he could still make it there. She gave the instruction to lay down the seat and that we could do this. I prepared myself to give birth in my car and A kept driving faster. I put my feet on the dashboard and began to push and could feel the head. The next push the baby was crowning and as she was born I pulled her up onto my stomach and noted the time was 5:46 am. The first thing A said was she’s crying (with relief). Thankfully I had on a sweater because I was cold, and I pulled it on top of her. She fell peacefully asleep. A stopped and got the towels we had brought (just in case) and I placed one over her as we continued driving to the midwifes house. A’s speed slowed down a bit and we called the midwife and she said “congratulations!’ we then made phone calls to our parents. The sun was coming up just as we pulled into the driveway at the midwifes house. She met us there She opened the door, assessed the situation and said “girl, you don’t even look like you just had a baby!’ She later told me it was a very clean birth. She noticed my seat belt was even still on! A got the birth kit supplies from the back of the car. She delivered the placenta and we clamped the cord, and A cut it from the drivers seat. He took the baby and I walked into the house to continue the postpartum recovery.
We were all in awe and shock that I had actually delivered a baby in the car. Looking back I see how Gods hand and peace had been upon us in what could have been a hectic and chaotic situation God gives grace for the moment. We are thankful to have J as part of our family. Her name means God is Gracious and He sure is!
As I think back on this and remember these events I am still in awe. This little girl has changed our life and we are so thankful she is part of our family.
Happy 3rd birthday little miss J!!!!
Signing off from one woman to another.
Jenny Ren.