Adeline’s Birth Story (a.k.a. How to Accidentally Have a Baby at Home)

I know many of you are curious about the events of Adeline’s birth and how it all transpired, so here we go:

My contractions started on Wednesday night around 7pm.  They were in a regular pattern of 10 minutes apart for a few hours, then became 5 minutes apart for a few hours.  Overnight they decreased to every 20-30 minutes.  I got as much sleep as I could.  They felt like intense menstrual cramping in my lower abdomen.  When I woke up on Thursday, the contractions continued but were very sporadic, and in no regular pattern.  I decided to go to work because I thought it would be nice to have the distraction rather than sitting at home dwelling on what might be or might not be happening.  I also felt that I hadn’t made much progress and if we went to the hospital that morning, they would likely send me home.

While at work, my contractions continued and eventually got shorter as the day went on.  They were anywhere from 8-10 minutes apart most of the day.  I decided to leave an hour early from work and at that time, they were 6-7 minutes apart.  I was tracking them on an app for the iPhone throughout the day (yes, there’s an app for that!).  They were intense but not unmanageable.  I was having to breath through them, but could still talk and move around.

When I got home, I wanted to get in the tub for the relief of the warm water.  This helped me relax and did provide some relief.  I did that for about an hour until I got hot, so I decided to get out.  The contractions were 4-5 minutes apart at this time and getting more intense, but still not unmanageable.  I got in bed and tried to get comfortable.  Ben was wrapping up some things for work in the other room so he could give his focus to me for the remainder of the evening.

The contractions decreased to 3-4 minutes apart and we decided to call the midwife on call at 6:30.  We updated her on our status and she said we were laboring well and to stay at home as long as possible.  She knew I wanted a natural labor and it my body would do better at home.  Also, my water had not broken yet.  I figured we would be going to hospital around 9-10pm and have a baby around 2-3am.  However, the contractions were getting really intense and I was having serious doubts about me being able to manage much longer on my own.  I really thought I was going to have to end up in the hospital and get some help with with pain.  However, Ben was very encouraging and said I was doing a great job when I told him I couldn’t do this much longer. Looking back, I now recognize this as transition.

Around 7pm I began having pushing contractions.  This was scary because I didn’t think we were far enough along for me to be pushing.  However, I couldn’t stop them.  The first round lasted 5-7 minutes and then they stopped.  At this point Ben got on the phone to call the midwife again.  While he was doing that, I had more pushing contractions and my water broke.

Ben was on the phone with the receptionist who pages the midwife when I told him I felt something coming out.  Overhearing our slightly frantic conversation, the receptionist said “Um… I can’t tell you what to do… but maybe you should call… someone.”  She said that about 3 times as Ben was thinking, “I am calling someone, I’m calling the midwife!”

Ben checked things out and said he definitely saw something coming out but it didn’t look like a head.  I asked what it was, scared it might be the umbilical cord or placenta, which would have been really bad.  But during the next contraction, her head popped out.  Ben had the presence of mind to reach out and catch her and help guide the rest of her body out with the next contraction.  Thank goodness for TV!  (He now appreciates all the Baby Story programs I used to make him watch during lunch time.)  It was now 7:27pm, 1 hour after calling the midwife for the first time.

Suddenly, there we were with a newborn in our bedroom in complete disbelief that this whole thing had just happened.  Adeline immediately cried and was alert and looking around.  We put a towel over her to keep her warm.  Ben called 911 and the dispatcher walked Ben through her standard post-birth checklist including tying off the umbilical cord with a shoe string (which he grabbed from a tennis shoe).

EMS arrived very quickly and 4 very large firemen descended on our bedroom and got to work.  All of your modesty goes out the window when you have a baby, by the way, particularly in this scenario.  EMS checked us out and everyone was doing fine so they loaded us up in the ambulance and off we went to the hospital.  They let me hold Adeline briefly before we left and had her wrapped up in aluminum foil to keep her warm (her first Halloween costume… a spacesuit!).  It was a surreal experience and felt like we were doing everything backwards.  “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital already rather than taking your baby to the hospital with you?!”

My parents had been checking in with us throughout the day and called on the way to the hospital to tell us they were leaving their house to head to Nashville.  Ben informed them that the baby was already here, so no need to rush.  They arrived later that night and came to see us in the hospital.

Let me just stop and say how thankful I am for my family.  Having a baby is messy and we had not been prepared for this to happen at home in any way.  Bless my mother and her cleaning skills.  She went to our house while we were still in the hospital and was able to salvage everything in our bedroom except for the mattress pad and a pillow.  We lost the sheet set because EMS used the fitted sheet to load me onto the gurney — we decided to cut our losses and not ask for that one back.

Looking back, I should have recognized more signs of progression and we should have gone to the hospital when I got home from work.  I was managing the pain really well on my own and thought active labor would be worse than what I was experiencing.  I also progressed through the transition stage very quickly and we never even got to contractions that were 2 minutes apart.  My body did exactly what it was supposed to do.  I am thankful the midwife did not tell us to go to the hospital at 6:30 when we called because we probably would have been having this baby on the side of the road in our car, which would have been way worse!

We are thankful for how things turned out — God had his hand in this entire process.  We have a healthy baby girl and a great story to tell.  It was a beautiful experience to share with just the 3 of us (although I’m pretty sure we will not repeat this unassisted next time!).  As one of our small group members said, “Perhaps we bathed you too much in prayer for a natural delivery!”