Friday, July 19, 1991: “Tuesday afternoon I had an appointment with Liz. The baby kicked when she was trying to get his heartbeat. He’s growing nicely. I couldn’t go to the bathroom so she gave me a test strip to test my own.”
On Wednesday, August 14, 1991, “…baby’s growing nicely. He’s very active—especially when I’m trying to sleep.”
Wednesday, August 21, 1991, I was catching up (which I seemed to do pretty often) and said about the previous Sunday: “[Alisha] was kind of restless during the talks so, since the baby was active, I told Alisha that he was kicking. She put her ear against my stomach and was excited when she felt him moving.”
On Friday, September 27,1991, “There are only twenty-four days left before the baby’s due. I;m to the point right now where I’ll be very glad when it’s out. Laying down isn’t comfortable for more than a couple hours, standing up for too long is tiring, and sitting gets uncomfortable very soon. Plus, I have to go to the bathroom a lot. I went twice this afternoon after my nap within an hour. So, I’m looking forward to its being born.”
Sunday, October 20, 1991, “As you may have gathered, the baby has not yet made an appearance. I’m getting a little anxious for it to happen. Everyone tells me all these ways to start things happening but in spite of my anxiousness, I think it will happen when it’s time and ready.”
Friday, October 25, 1991: “Still no baby. I wonder if we will have a November baby after all.”Friday, November 1, 1991: “Well, baby showed up Monday…
“Monday morning I work up around five and realized that I was having contractions. I debated on whether or not to tell Dan because they were pretty far apart and not very strong. I finally told him sometime around 6:30 or 7:00 that I thought we were going to have a baby. I called my mom at 7:00 and Dan called Paul around 8:00. Liz came at 11:00 to check me out and I was still only 3 cm. She stopped by again on her way to work at 3:00 and I was up to 5 cm. She went to work with instructions to call Jeannie first if things really got going…my mom and I had gone for a walk in the morning [to try and break my water] but it didn’t work.
“Finally around 5:30 I think, Dan called Jeannie and Liz…Jeannie got here and started setting everything up. Then Li got here and checked me out. I think by then I was up to 8 cm. My contractions weren’t any longer or closer together but they were certainly harder by then. They’d past uncomfortable and had almost reached painful. Dan would squat with me and that really brought the contractions on strong. I don’t remember when it was that I finally asked Liz to try and break my water but she had a hard time because the baby’s head was so far down. After the second try it broke on its own. Dan sat behind me for me to lean on or whatever and everything started happening.
“I remember pushing and thinking I wasn’t and pushing more and Dan kept repeating—maybe—what Liz was saying. Finally the head came out and then the body followed and we have a beautiful baby girl.
“I love Laura Renee and I’m so thankful to Heavenly Father for [her].”
There isn’t a lot to add to this. Liz had left some litmus paper for me to check for amniotic fluid. I did have a leak before the water broke but nothing major; I just kind of had a slow dribble that was annoying and turned the paper the right color but that’s it.
Dan wanted everything to be natural. He thought that because Native Americans used to squat to have their babies, that would be the way to do it. Well, I think under the right circumstances, that would be true. The right circumstances would include a lifestyle that includes a lot of squatting in everyday life. That would help the right muscles get in shape. I do not, and did not, have that kind of a lifestyle. I do a lot of standing and walking. I used to do a fair amount of squatting in the garden but that was only a garden-time activity, not year-round. So, I tried squatting. It hurt. I am not afraid of pain but neither am I a fan of it so I stopped. Looking back on it, squatting would have helped Laura get here faster, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sometimes fast can cause more tearing. I do not remember if I had any tears with Laura or not.
Laura’s birth was a good thing. Alisha’s wasn’t bad, in fact, all things considered, I’d have to say it was pretty good; especially for a hospital birth. Laura’s was good in that it taught me that I could indeed do what my body was intended to do. Quite frankly, before she was born, I had some never voiced concerns. I knew that I could give birth, after all, I’d done it before. But I knew that it wasn’t going to feel good, after all, it hadn’t the first time. I did know that the most intense part would be fairly short compared to the whole process and that the end result would be a baby and that is how I got myself through it.
Really, the only thing I would like to change about Laura’s birth is to educate myself more about birth. With Alisha, I was young and dumb and figured that women had been having babies for eons; why, then, should I bother with child birth classes or reading anything or asking questions. I’d read enough to know the general process; that, in my rebellious mind, was quite sufficient. With Laura, I am not sure why Liz did not encourage me to read. Maybe she figured that if I wanted to read, I would ask; she did have quite a few books. Maybe she thought that since I’d had a baby, I had experience and didn’t feel I needed more information. Whatever the reason, more knowledge would have been nice. As it is, it was what it was and Laura was born and I had a new baby and life was good. |
| Laura at 6 weeks. December 10, 1991 |
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| And at three months. January 29, 1992 |
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| At 14 weeks. February 4, 1992 |
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And being Miss Happy Drooler in early August of 1992 because she knew that one day she would LOVE reading just like Mom does (check out the book, man!).
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