She's Two!

Two years ago my life changed forever - I became a mother.

I woke up at 5 am on June 14th with contractions that were nothing like the Braxton-Hicks contractions I had been having for the previous 3 weeks. I laid in bed through a few more (they were about 15 minutes apart), then got up and in the shower, knowing instinctively that the time had come - and I wanted to be clean!

As I was getting dressed after my shower, John woke up and asked me what I was doing. "I'm in labor, go back to sleep". Surprisingly, he did. I went downstairs and turned on the TV, settling in with my watch, pen, and paper to record my contractions. John came downstairs at 8, dressed for work. The contractions were still far apart and not painful, so I told him to go on in to work and that I would call him when I needed him to come home.

Tropical Storm Alberto had made its arrival shortly before John woke up. He called his boss to let her know he would be a little late. He let slip that he may need to come home early because I was in labor. His boss yelled at him and told him to not even think about coming to work and to call when the baby was born.

We hung out for a few hours, then around 10 am made our way to my mother's house, which was halfway between our house and the Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill. Mom also has a really big, really deep bathtub and a seemingly endless supply of hot water. Mom was excited to get our call - throughout my pregnancy she had been telling me I needed to go one day past my due date of June 13th so that the baby would be born on her birthday, the 14th. It looked as if Mom was going to get her wish.

We arrived at Mom's and I got in the tub. John called the midwife to let her know what was going on. Mom had to leave to meet the Bishop's Storehouse order. In the rain. After a few hours I got out of the tub and settled in Mom's office to watch TV and eat some lunch. My sister Sarah came over to drop off Mom's birthday present. She came into the room, all excited about her gift for Mom and asked me what I was doing. "I'm in labor". Boy, was she mad - "No one will ever be able to top that present, that's not fair!" And she left.

Mom came home soon after, absolutely drenched, and we called the midwife again for an update. She told me to take some Tylenol PM and take a nap. So I did. During my nap I would wake up with each contraction. Eventually I realized that I wasn't falling asleep anymore because the contractions were so close together. It took another half hour or so before I could wake up enough and muster the energy to yell loudly enough to get my mom's attention. She called downstairs to John and he came running. I got out of bed and John called the midwife. He asked me to tell him when a contraction started. I did. A few minutes passed and he asked me when it had ended. I said "it hasn't!". The midwife told us to come in right away. I had to stop a few times on the way to the car, with Mom beaming at the top of the stairs and waving. I got soaked when I stopped for contractions outside, leaning against the side of the house. I finally made it to the car. Probably the most uncomfortable place to be. John called my sister-in-law Joyce, who would be acting as my doula, and we took off.

Because of the weather a trip that should have taken us 20 minutes took us an hour. John kept asking me if I wanted him to drive on the shoulder. Each time I would yell "no!", afraid that he would pop a tire and my baby would be delivered on the side of I-40.

We finally made it to the birth center and I immediatly got in the tub. I was 6 cm dilated. 10 minutes later Jeni, my midwife, said that she needed to check me again because I was making "those sounds". I was fully dilated. 4 cm in 10 minutes. I got out of the tub and in the bed. Pushing in bed didn't work, so she got me out of bed and into a chair. I hated the chair, I wanted out of the chair. Jeni wanted me to drink something but I kept refusing. She finally struck a deal - I drink a cup of juice and she'd let me get out of the chair. Game on. She let me wander around the room and do my thing for a while, then coaxed me back into bed. Pushing began for real this time, but so did the fear.

I started to freak out and shut out everyone and everything around me. After what seemed like hours (but was really only about 10 minutes) I heard Jeni say to John "she won't listen to me, she'll only listen to you. You need to bring her back." So John laid down next to me and talked me down, got me breathing again, stopped the screaming, and told me "you can do this". "I can?" "Yes." Since John has never lied to me I figured if he said I could do it, then I could. So I did. I hunkered down and after a few pushes Jeni told me that my bag of waters was being pushed out ahead of the baby and that it would be easier if she broke it. I agreed and things immediately picked up. A few more pushes and Jeni and John and Joyce all started hollering that they could see the head. "She has dark hair!" someone yelled. A few more pushes and her head was out. One more half-push and her body was out. Jeni laid her on my stomach and I looked up into the dark eyes of my little girl. She didn't cry, just looked around and took it all in. I was a mother.



Helen Liberty was born at 5:46 pm on June 14, 2006.

Last week she turned two. What a joy she is in my life. And how she has grown!