Birth day :: part 1

I woke up around 7:30 on a warm Sunday morning and almost immediately felt what I thought might be a contraction. The day before, I had gone to a community acupuncture clinic and received treatment for natural induction of labor because I had been leaking small amounts of amniotic fluid for a handful of days. It was June 26th, what was scheduled to be Eric's final worship service at Cornelius UMC before 2 months of paternity leave and Eric's final final day at Yamhill UMC as he had requested to not be reappointed there starting July 1st.

I stayed in bed for a bit and felt another pain. Yup, pretty sure that was a contraction. Eric came back from his preparations at the church and he helped me pay attention to the timing. Another contraction came along about 10 minutes later, but it wasn't unbearable. I got up, took a shower, made coffee and some oatmeal with raisins and took this picture, the last one with Augustine no the inside:

By the time we sat down to have breakfast, the contractions had gotten a little closer together and a little stronger, and I once had to set my spoon down, close my eyes, and focus on my breathing. Our midwives had encouraged me to try to ignore any contractions until I couldn't ignore them anymore, and I was surprised at how quickly they seemed impossible to ignore. Were things proceeding at a rapid rate, or was I just a wimp? Or both?

Because we didn't know how quickly things would progress, we decided that Eric would go to the Cornelius church service and check in with me afterward. My mom, who had arrived from Michigan on Friday evening, would stay with me. I called Stephanie, our senior midwife, soon after Eric left to let her know that the contractions were now about 6-7 minutes apart and about a minute long and she told me to call back in about an hour, or sooner if things changed dramatically. My mom wondered if there was anything I would like her to do to get ready to go and I told her, "I know it sounds strange, but I've been wanting to vacuum the living room and I'd really like to do it before we leave." Before I could tell her where the vacuum was, another contraction began and it was strong enough that I knelt in front of a living room chair and leaned forward onto the seat. My mom got out the vacuum and plugged it in and I walked around the house, gathering the camera and other items for my purse. The next couple of contractions came quickly and were quite strong, and my mom pressed on my back and timed things as best as she could. After a short bit, they were only 3-4 minutes apart. I called Stephanie back and let her know about this development, and she said that it sounded like it was time to come into the birth center! My mom went to the church (right next door to our house), and walked in the door at the back of the sanctuary. Eric was in the middle of his Annual Conference report, but he stopped when he saw her and she waved for him to come. Eric asked, "It's time?" She replied, "It's time." Then she turned to the congregation and said, "Hi, I'm Kris. I'm Mira's mom. Mira's going into labor and the midwives said we should come now." A woman from the congregation offered to pray for us and for the baby, and then someone requested to know the end of the story that Eric had been in the middle of. So he filled them in, and then he headed back to the house to change clothes and load up the car. And my mom declared that she was giving up on vacuuming and put the thing away. There would be no trip to Yamhill that morning.

I sat in the front passenger side, slightly reclined, eyes closed, quietly giving thanks that it was Sunday morning and we wouldn't be heading into Portland during a high-traffic time. Apparently I was burning up and requested that the air conditioning be kept on high for the whole trip, completely oblivious to the shivering of the other two passengers. They wisely kept this to themselves until later. To our surprise, we ran into traffic that was almost completely stopped on highway in Hillsboro, which is only a third of the way into Portland, but it cleared up after we passed what looked to be a medical situation on the side of the road.

We arrived at the birth center at Alma Midwifery around 11:20 a.m. and things started to get a bit fuzzy for me after that. Caroline, one of our midwives, met us and led us to our room, the Lili Room (you can see a picture at the bottom of this page). It's a beautiful space. The contractions were coming hard and fast and I breathed through them in different places around the room and in different positions, sometimes kneeling in front of a chair or on my hands and knees on the bed, sometimes standing with my arms around Eric's neck and swaying a bit.

To be continued... Birth Day, Part 2