The Perfect Birth Plan
How I envisioned my birth story: midwife, labor at home if possible with a natural water-birth. We all have the expectations of our ideal birth plan and sometimes women are lucky enough to have their plan pan out and others not so much.
I am one of those “not so much” women.
Our Dream Midwife
We had found a midwife we loved. She had rave reviews from people we trusted and had delivered over 1,000 babies in her career, so we were thrilled to have her expertise and guidance during this process. We saw her for every appointment and began anticipating the day that she would deliver our baby.
When Birth Plans Start To Unravel
At my 40-week appointment, there was zero progress (Bummer #1) and my midwife told me that she was heading out of town for a few weeks (Bummer #2) but that the other midwife would be available.
This was devastating to me because she knew what our hopes were for delivery and had been with us through our whole pregnancy. I knew that I would have to accept that she would not deliver my baby but at least the other midwife would be there!
41 Weeks & Counting
I was 41 weeks along when things finally started progressing toward labor! It was Sunday, August 28, when I woke up with very mild cramps and contractions. About midday I lost my mucus plug and knew this was exciting progress (I was so excited I texted a picture to Alex, gross I know, but at 41 weeks you celebrate any progress! haha).
By the time Alex was home from work around 3 pm, my contractions were becoming more consistent. However, in true Abby form, contractions weren’t getting in the way of having friends over for dinner and games.
During our game, I would pause…breathe… and tell them to just hold on a second, to let the contraction pass (at this point contractions were about every 7-8 minutes).
Labor Well Underway
Once our friends went home, my contractions were about 7 minutes apart but still manageable…In the back of my mind, I was trying to remember the 5-1-1 rule: Contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour. I knew that once I met this number we could head to the hospital if we wanted to.
We went ahead and called the midwife's after hours number and was forwarded to a Doctor. She told us that unfortunately, no midwives were in town to deliver our baby.
I couldn’t believe it,
I had my heart set on a midwife and now that was not an option anymore. I had to pray for peace and celebrate that this baby was coming with or without a midwife.
Rounding Up The Family
It was 10 pm and contractions were steady at 6 minutes apart, I was feeling good and strong. We went ahead and told my dad to drive up from Delta and my mom to make her way from Flagstaff. Alex and I decided to try and get some sleep and went to bed… (what a joke, there was no WAY I was going to sleep!)
Every time I would lay down a contraction would come on. To cope with contractions, I would get on all fours, sway with Alex or sit on the exercise ball. To help me try and relax Alex recommended I get in the shower, and once I did contractions immediately started coming on every 3 minutes! I jumped out of the shower and yelled, "Honey I think we need to go!"
We frantically grabbed our hospital bag and made our way to the hospital, all with me groaning and nervous that this girlie was going to come in the car!
Read Part 2 of our birth story to find out what happened once we got to the hospital!
Abby is a Mom and an amazing team member of Baja Baby. She lives in Colorado with her husband Alex, their beautiful daughter Amelia Grace, baby boy Amos Lee and Maple the dog.
You can find Abby on Instagram by clicking here.
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