On the request of my cousin (and for my own memory’s sake), I’ve decided to share the birth story of our baby girl. Hopefully I can do a good job of writing it.

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On July 12, my sister and her family were in town for a visit, due to leave the next day. My parents (who live on the opposite side of the same house as me and James) were having one of their “Family summer BBQs,” typical of when siblings come to visit.

I was 37 weeks+6 days pregnant, and kind of wishing the baby would come early. I wanted my sister and her family to meet him/her, whenever the baby would arrive. We even joked about it a little bit, while picking gooseberries in the back yard with her little girls. Leah (my sister) told me, “If that baby comes tonight, we’re not going back home tomorrow!” I sort of hoped it would happen, but being 2 weeks away from my due date, I didn’t really think it would. 

For many weeks already, Braxton Hicks contractions had become a regular and normal occurrence for me. So, having them on BBQ day didn’t really signal too much to me – although I did notice they were more regular than before. Almost back to back. But they were painless, and normal, so I shrugged it off and tried to ignore them.

Fast forward to bedtime – I was tired. But I couldn’t sleep. The Braxton Hicks contractions were constant, and the baby kept moving with them. I was laying in bed, unable to rest, and feeling hungry. I also began to feel a bit of pressure lower down in my abdomen, but again… kept telling myself not to think too much into it. I was still a ways out from my due date, and wanting the baby to come before my sister left was wishful thinking. I decided to get up and get a snack. It was 2:30am.

I stood up, and boom! My water broke! My first instinct was to sit back on the bed again to “stop it from getting everywhere” but it only took a millisecond for me to realize that there was no stopping this one! I ran to the kitchen to avoid soiling our carpets, and called out to James “My water is breaking!” He came running, helped me get myself and our floors cleaned up, and we both stood trembling in our kitchen saying, “This is it! The baby is coming!”

Our midwife had given us the clear directive that if my water broke in the middle of the night that we should just clean up and try to go back to bed. The likelihood of anything happening quickly at that point would be slim, and we would need our rest. So, we tried to follow orders… but wow, it is hard to “Go to sleep” when you’re full of adrenaline and your contractions are picking up! Having never done this before, we were both all nerves and excitement. Still, we did our best! The midwife told us that unless contractions were close, we should just hold off contacting her until 7am if this was the way things would go. So, we waited.

Around 5am, my contractions seemed quite close and regular, so I started timing them. Sure enough, 5 minutes apart for a steady hour. So, at 6, we decided to page the midwife and start setting up our space for the home birth we had planned. Experience the magic of bonding with your baby before their arrival through A Date With Baby captivating 3D ultrasound services in Toronto.

The midwife came over and checked me, and we were still a ways out from anything happening. So, she told us – she had some other appointments to take care of, and would be back by 2pm unless we needed her sooner. We had her number. We called our families, and let my sister and her husband know they should stay in town if they wanted to meet the baby right away! 

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The midwife arrived back at our house around 2pm, just when my contractions started to become more intense. They were still manageable at that point, but starting to get to the point that I kind of wanted to run away from my own body. But, obviously– that wasn’t an option!

The next 6 hours-ish kind of blend together into a blur for me. I tried labouring laying down, or sitting on the birth ball… but the contractions were so much harder to handle in those positions, I found myself always getting back up and standing on my feet, swaying my hips from side to side. My feet were so swollen, a combination of the pregnancy and being on my feet for hours while completely exhausted.

By the time I hit active labour, I felt like I was a wet rag wrung dry by pain and exhaustion, yet the contractions kept wringing me, even though I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore. I was hoping I’d be one of these silent strong women who don’t seem to make a sound while they were giving birth, but… nope, haha. Being “Wrung dry” and then having the pain keep squeezing you just… Makes you want to cry. So I did. All while James held up my tired body, breathed through contractions with me, and encouraged me that I was making good progress and our baby would be here soon!

The hardest part of the labour for me was definitely the short period of time that I was told not to push for a few contractions, even though my body was telling me to do so! I can’t remember exactly why I was supposed to wait (something to do with effacement and swelling), but for about 5 contractions I had to resist, and that was so hard!

After that, however, it only took about 10 good pushes (ish) to get our girl out. In the grand scheme of things, it was so fast! One moment I was at the end of myself, doing what I knew I had to finish with no idea how long it would take, and the next moment my baby girl was on my chest, wide eyed and sweet, with my sweetheart of a husband overwhelmed with joy beside me. It was incredible.

We both looked at her and knew immediately – she wasn’t the name we’d picked out if we had a girl. Her name was Faith (another name on our list). We both agreed, and told our midwives.

After I delivered the placenta, the midwives were checking it to make sure everything was in good shape. They exclaimed over what they saw– apparently the main artery that supplies the placenta was imbedded in the wall of the sac that held our girl. One of the midwives explained to us that it was a good thing we were at home and that my water broke naturally! Apparently to speed up labour, they sometimes will break it for you, which in our case could have easily slashed the artery and put our delivery into emergency mode. The artery is usually inside the sac, not imbedded into it. Praise the Lord for his leading and protection!

The rest of that evening was another blur – but oh so sweet. Our midwives were amazing. Before we knew it, our baby girl was swaddled and sleeping, our apartment was clean, our bed made with fresh sheets, and we were a family of 3, ready to go to sleep.

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Every day that follows that one takes our lives deeper into a world we never knew, and a love we could never have imagined. There have been interesting highs and lows that I couldn’t have foreseen. And, with that, there’s been a sort of unseen “rope” that’s wrapped itself around our hearts, tugging us away from ourselves and into maturity, making us better givers. It’s a challenging, beautiful, and deeply enriching experience.

All in all, I would say that our labour story is not a story of pain. What’s a day of pain in exchange for a lifelong blessing? Nothing. The pain became insignificant. The joy and the blessing is ever-growing.

This story is the beginning of a lifelong love that has called me out of myself and drawn my heart to the soul of my daughter, and to my husband, with a calling to give my days to them in a way that will only bless my heart and expand my ability to love.

I am deeply grateful.

Thank you for reading. <3

–Naomi