The Birth Story of Zoe
Born: October 19, 2008
1:28am
At Home
When Ralph and I discovered that we were pregnant, like all first time parents to be we were a bit frightened. Although, we had some fears, we decided to do all that we could to make this process the best for our baby to-be. I had my first prenatal visit at about 14 weeks. During this visit, the Certified Nurse Midwife gave me some information that included a brochure about the Bradley Method of Childbirth. It was important for me to help Ralph understand this process better, so I decided that we would participate in this particular type of childbirth class. At about 20 weeks gestation, we began these classes. The classes improved Ralph’s confidence and also my confidence in the body’s ability to safely deliver my baby. By the end of these 12 weeks, we decided that a homebirth would be the best choice for our baby.
The pregnancy for me was pretty uneventful; I had very little morning sickness. I was very tired during the last few weeks, but I was sure to get a nap in during my lunchtime. During the Bradley class I learned to pay very close attention to my diet, I exercised, did my kegels and was sure to take my prenatal vitamins pretty regularly. I was able to work both of my jobs until a few days before birth.
On the Wednesday of week forty-one, I begin to have a bit of a bloody show. On Thursday during my night class at the college, the baby begin to move a lot more that she had ever moved before, my students even noticed the obvious movement. I let them go early that night and went home. That night I had some irregular contractions and I set on the toilet a lot. Ralph decided not to go to work on Friday morning, that day, as the bloody show increased, we went to Thai Taste for lunch, and I had an extreme craving for a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, so we went to Barnes and Noble afterwards. Still having some contractions, but nothing very long or strong during the day on Friday.
Late Friday evening things begin to change, the contractions were getting pretty strong. We spent the evening and Saturday morning on the couch and toilet. At one point I was sitting on the toilet with a blanket wrapped around me. The only thing that I kept thinking was that after 30 seconds the contraction would not get any stronger.
Early Saturday morning Ralph called Jennifer, my sister, and she came over with breakfast and he called the midwife. He described what was happening and she asked if I wanted her to come over, I said no. While Ralph cleaned the house, Jennifer and I watched television. We watched “Antoine Fisher”, “Down Home with the Neely’s,” and a Pearl Harbor Documentary. My contractions begin to calm down so I went to bed. I couldn’t really rest, so I watched HGTV and timed more contractions. Toward the afternoon Ralph and I found a contraction counter online and we began writing down the contractions. They were getting longer, stronger, and closer together. At that point I was moving between sitting in a rocker-glider, on my knees with my head in Ralph’s lap, and rolling on the birthing ball. Ralph soon felt that it was time to get someone to check me, so he called the midwife again, one midwife arrived at around 8:00pm. She examined me, and I was 8 centimeters dilated. She called the other midwives and they arrived shortly after her call. Ralph called Keisha, she and Jennifer also arrived shortly afterwards. Ralph’s mother and sister arrived, but left not knowing how long the birth was going to take, my parents arrived a bit later and sat downstairs.
The contractions were very strong, so I sat on the birthing ball in the shower and the water helped me to relax. After, the shower, I was told that I had a little bit of a cervical lip and had to do a “rotisserie.” So I had two contractions on my back, two on my left side, two on my knees, and two on my right side. I repeated this twice. I felt an overwhelming need to go to the bathroom, but the midwives assured me that I could go right where I was, and prepped me for if I did go. I stood-up after the “rotisserie” but felt that I needed to squat down, I got down and held on to Ralph for a while, the midwife checked me and my water broke. I attempted pushing on the squatting stool, but because I am short I felt that I wasn’t anchored the way that I wanted to be. I pushed a few times on the squatting bar, and then I go on the bed. The entire time, the midwives tried to convince me to reach down and feel the baby but I refused. At some point in there I asked for someone to “Pray for me,” and one of the midwives begin to pray. After a few more contractions the baby’s head was out. They showed me her face with a mirror, and I was just so overwhelmed. I wanted to stop at this time, and the midwives assured me that it was almost over. I was lying on my back, and felt that I couldn’t push effectively, so one of the midwives grabbed one end of a towel and gave me the other end. She instructed me to pull at the next contraction, so at the next contraction, I pulled and she pulled, the baby literally popped right out. Zoe Rayne Fowler was born at 1:28am. Shortly afterwards I had my placental contraction, Jennifer cut the umbilical cord, and it was over.
Zoe was perfect, they weighted her, and she was 8 pounds and 4 ounces. She was 21 and a half inches long.
Chetan and I are proud to introduce William Derr Kapadia! He was born on Wednesday, August 20th at 9:12 AM. He was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long. We are so glad he’s finally here.
First of all, we had planned a home birth, and since we just moved into our house in May, I’ve been working to get everything ready and was very proud of myself when all of the sudden, a pipe burst in the only bathroom and we had to replace the entire floor and counter. We were planning on remodeling anyway, we were just going to wait until after the birth! Anyway, we had been staying at my parent’s house until Chetan, my husband, finished, which is hard since he works 6 days a week! Fortunately, my parents are wonderful and it was no problem to have the birth at their house. So, anyway, I went to see Linda (my midwife) on Tuesday afternoon. We were already at 41 weeks and 2 days, so we discussed what would happen if I went past 42 weeks (definitely NOT what we wanted), but everything was looking good so far. I decided to ask her to strip my membranes to try to get things started. I’d been having Braxton-Hicks for weeks and some of them were getting strong, but not regular. I went home and tried to keep myself busy and not think or stress too much about it. We went out to eat at Fuji Japanese with some friends from church then went to their house for a while. They have a two year old who has anxiously been waiting for “baby William” to come so she can play with him. My contractions were getting a little stronger and I was having trouble focusing on our conversation. We went home about 9:30pm and sat with my parents watching TV until about 11:00. I fell asleep about 11:20 thinking that the contractions felt stronger, but not closer together or longer. I woke up very suddenly at 11:40 with a VERY strong contraction. I went to the bathroom and started timing. I didn’t want to wake up Chetan unless I knew it was really labor because he was supposed to work on Wednesday. By 12:30am, I’d had 5 more contractions. They were definitely getting longer and stronger, so I woke Chetan and we went to the living room and turned on the Olympics for a little distraction. He sat with me until 1:30 AM when he called Linda. She headed right over. He texted my 3 younger sisters (all very excited to become aunts) and told them that I was in labor but it would be a while and they should just wait and come over in the morning. They started showing up about a half hour later! Amy (the other midwife) and Carey (the midwife apprentice) got here at some point, but I’m not sure when. I was working very hard through contractions and I was tired since I hadn’t gotten to sleep! At about 6:00 AM, I was laying on the bed and started to feel a little pushy. I felt what I thought was my water breaking and trickling, so Linda came to check (I was 9.5 cm with a cervical lip and bulging bag of waters) and while she was sitting on the foot of the bed, my water did break, but it didn’t trickle… it exploded everywhere! I thought that only happened in the movies! Anyway, she asked me to blow through the contractions (thank you, Mary, for the horsey blow!) and wait for the lip to go away. After a few more contractions, she checked again and it was still there and the baby’s heart rate was starting to decelerate during contractions. She was worried that the cord was being compressed. I tried getting on all fours for a while to help the lip go away and maybe position William so the cord wasn’t so compressed. It helped until I was too exhausted to stay that way so she suggested laying on my left side. She and Amy ended up having to push the lip out of the way so I could push the baby’s head past it. Finally, I was able to push, but I was so tired, I wasn’t sure I could do it. Chetan and my mom were with me supporting me while I pushed. If it wasn’t for them I would have given up. I lost track of time, but at some point, Linda had me get on the floor and squat because we had to get William here fast. He finally got here at 9:12am. He was kind of blue at first, but improved quickly. I had 3 tears, but very little bleeding. Amy said that William had his head cocked sideways instead of straight down which is probably why I had the cervical lip. His head had a little molding on the side, but it didn’t last long. He didn’t want to nurse at first. It took him until about 4 that afternoon before he got a latch. Now he nurses well… like his Daddy, he loves to eat all the time. I can’t believe how much he is already growing! We are having so much fun getting to know each other.
Chetan was the best during the whole thing. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach or husband. He never left my side all night except for one 30 second bathroom break. My sister even offered to sit with me while he took a break, but he wouldn’t leave. I am so proud of him!
Thank you, Mary, for getting us ready and teaching Chetan everything he needed!
Brisa and Chetan
Just wanted to share our Birth of our newborn son. First I will say it was a very, very fast labor and delivery. I must say I was blessed. I woke up at 1:00am on Saturday morning, and I lost my mucus plug, then my water began to leak. I really did not think much of it, but went downstairs and told Jonathan just so he was aware. At about 1:30, I began having contractions, but they were very mild and spaced apart. So, as we learned in class, I just rested as much as possible, and sat on my Birthing Ball. Well, an hour later they were getting closer together and slightly more intense. So probably about 30 minutes later, I thought I better wake Jonathan up, because I continued to have leakage. I then called Linda, my midwife, and let her know what was going on- at this time it was 4:19am- my contractions were about 6 minutes apart and 25 seconds long. In just another hour they were very regular, anywhere between 3-5 minutes and were going on for 35-60 seconds. So, at 5:30 Jonathan called Linda and told her we really needed to head on over to the Birth Center. We arrived at the Birth Center at 6:10 am, I was 4 cm then. Linda prepared the tub and shortly afterwards I got in. Alexander was born on November 29th at 7:29 am. He weighed 6lbs15oz and was 20 1/2 inches. I had a successful water birth. Mary, we thank you so much for all you taught us in class. I know I could not have done a completely Natural birth with out those classes. It was naturally very painful, but I am recovering well, and we have a beautiful son.
Brandy and Jonathan
