Brianna Skye
I got a cold starting Wednesday afternoon and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday. Each day I called in to work and said “I’m not in labor but I’m sick”. I was in bed most of that time plus Saturday and Sunday. I got a cough starting on Sunday. Thankfully, Dad had arrived the previous Tuesday so he and Christa played with Cole much of the weekend. I kept lying in bed thinking “I need to finish some stuff for work…but what if I go into labor? I need to rest.” Thank goodness I decided to rest. Monday morning at 3:30 I got up to use the bathroom and my mucus plug passed. I went back to bed and told Steve but wasn’t thinking much of it since it came out 3 days before I went into labor with Cole. But then about 4am, I started having contractions. They were mild and I really wasn’t sure they were real so I went back to sleep. I woke up again at6:30 and told Steve I was still having contractions. He and Grandpa got Cole ready for school while I tried to pretend like nothing was happening since we didn’t want Cole to know. (He had declared that he wanted to be there and help those midwives get that baby out of my tummy. I did not think this was a good idea.) I called Mairi at 7:30; I was having contractions every 3 minutes or so. They were really mild though so I thought we still had a while to go. She said she would come right away and would call the others to come too. I had been worried that the midwives might get caught in traffic since they had to come across town so I wasn’t surprised that they came right when I called. Grandpa and Cole left for school about 8:30 and then I could let go and be in labor. I called my boss and left a message then I called Dottie, the woman who is doing a lot of my work while I’m gone, and told her “Well, I’m still sick but I’m also in labor.”
Mairi got here about 9am. The other midwife, Susan (Erin was out of town), and their student, Melindia, showed up soon after. I greeted them saying “Welcome to the party!” I was still walking around and could have conversations with people. The contractions were still coming fast and a bit stronger but still pretty mild. I still thought we had a while to go when they got there so I told them that they would probably have to hang out for a while. I was wrong! Steve and I went for a walk about 9:30am and Mairi said “Don’t go too far!” We walked down the block then came back. It was a gorgeous day to be born, perfect temperature, blue skies. I had maybe 7 contractions in the short time we were gone. On the walk, I started to have to concentrate on the contractions and would bend over a bit and hold on to a fence or Steve.
When we got back, I had a few more contractions in the living room but then moved to the bedroom. Steve had moved the dresser out so we would have more room. I tried lying on the bed but that wasn’t comfortable. I was more comfortable kneeling next to the bed. I remember saying “I need to get naked”. Mairi said I didn’t have to but I said “I like to be naked!” I thought it was funny that it was a conscious decision. With Cole’s birth, I just was naked – I don’t remember taking clothes off. I went to the bathroom a few times. I felt nauseated and asked for a bowl but didn’t end up using it. I ate part of a peach yogurt. I started groaning one time when I was kneeling near the foot of the bed. I started to feel like I couldn’t do it anymore and recognized that I was probably in transition. Mairi told me that I should think about moving to lying on my side because squatting like I was would put a lot of pressure on my perineum. I was really hot and we had the window right above me open until the very end. They closed it so the baby wouldn’t be cold when it came out. I don’t think I pushed for very long but it sure did hurt! I was more vocal this time. I heard the back door slam while I was screaming so I thought Dad had left because he couldn’t bear to hear me scream. Turns out he was just coming back from getting lunch for everyone so he was able to hear the last bit and be in the house when she was born. Last time the “ring of fire” was the worst part but I don’t remember that being worse this time. Mairi or Melinda told me to try to slow down by taking some breaths. I think I took one breath but that baby wanted to get out of there! I felt my water break then the baby came out. I reached down and felt the head briefly. Mairi put the baby right on my chest. The baby was covered in blood and goo since it had passed meconium on the way out. Steve asked what sex it was and I reached down to feel and find out. I said “It feels like a girl!” I wasn’t sure if I was feeling the right place but Mairi said I was right. Our baby girl’s face was pretty bruised, I guess from coming out so fast, but otherwise she was perfect. She came four days before her due date – one of the midwives joked that I just coughed that baby out!
With Cole, Steve had been very interested in the transition to breathing. I paid attention to this part too this time. She got all the guck out of her lungs and started breathing well. That’s an amazing transition! She rested on my chest for a bit then Mairi helped her to my breast where she latched right on. They checked me and her and then left us alone for a bit to be together as a family.
They had left the cord intact for a while – until after the placenta came out and we had spent time as a family. The placenta took a while to come out. It’s a very odd feeling to have the slippery cord connecting your baby to the placenta inside you! Steve got to cut the cord again. They left the stump longer this time so it would dry out faster.
Dad was really excited and called everyone right away. We put a sheet over me so he could come in and see the baby.
It was a perfect way to welcome a new person to the world. My overwhelming feeling is that this birth was quick and intense. With Cole, I remember being very internal, lying on the bed and thinking about my cervix opening or thinking about looking at the beach from our hotel pool at Playa del Carmen. I moved from the shower to the toilet to the bed several times. While I was pushing, I thought about him moving down through the birth canal. This time, it all happened TO me, my body just took over and my brain wasn’t much a part of it. Even though the total time was about the same (4:30pm to 12:30am vs4am to 11:30am), it felt much faster, perhaps because I slept for the first couple of hours then couldn’t really concentrate until Cole left for school. I was surprised at how quickly it got intense, when I thought we had a while to go. The contractions were pretty mild up until just after 9:30 when we went for the walk. And then they weren’t. And then she was born. I guess you forget the pain part because this time it hurt more than I remembered or expected.
Mairi and Melindia did the newborn exam at the foot of the bed. She was pretty calm during it. 8 lbs, 3 oz. 20.5″ long. I really paid attention when they examined the placenta since I was sad I hadn’t concentrated on that the last time. Steve got to weigh her.
Dayana [our babysitter] picked Cole up from school and told him there was a surprise that you can’t eat or play with at home. He came in to our bedroom looking for the surprise. The baby and I were snuggled up on the bed. Cole immediately went and got toys for her to play with. He was very excited. The next morning, he got up and snuggled in bed with us and held her for the first time.
We picked her name the week before she was born. Steve and I were sitting on the couch and he was looking through name lists on the tablet and said “Brianna” out loud. I said I liked that and it was one of the names I had written down much earlier but I hadn’t said anything. We like it because it has a lot of options: she can be Bree, Anna, Bria, or use her full name. Bree – ahna. I thought a bit about whether to use 1 N or 2. I think 2 looks more feminine. When I was about 4 months pregnant, she told me that she was a girl and that her name was Skye. Steve didn’t like that for a first name, so that’s her middle name. ( didn’t know if she was telling me the truth or not since this was right after I had looked at all Cole’s old clothes in the basement and was thinking about getting rid of them if the baby was a girl – you know how I love to get rid of stuff. But it turns out she was telling the truth.
