^^^^ weather conditions at the time of delivery
Just starting into one day past my due date, early Monday morning (October 30th) I was experiencing contractions but they were very irregular and inconsistent. They were definitely contractions but maybe just the early labor stuff. Nothing that seemed too intense. I did notify my midwife, knowing that labor can go quick once things picked up with how my past labor was. I took a bath, which did seem to slow things, and took a nap. By the time I woke up I did not feel anything. I was really upset/depressed by the whole thing, and for the rest of the day did not feel anything. Not even braxton hicks. I was terrified of the thought of going in labor as the day went on knowing that the storm was going to hit and the weather conditions become worse as time went on. I also really wanted the baby to come at the same time so I felt torn. Overall just very hormonal.
Even after being checked, I was still in denial. Shortly after setting everything up, everyone else showed up: my sister with her daughters, my mom, and birth assistant.
Birth supplies
Picture of my amazing midwife and birth assistant
This is a picture my mother took on the way. Look how gorgeous the fall colors were that morning!
The baby was still high up, so the next 30 minutes or so was spent trying to lower the baby. At that point, I mainly labored on the toilet. It felt the toilet was the easiest place for me to try to bear down in hopes of getting the baby to drop. It was really weird trying to bear down during my contractions, I was still very confused about what was going on. I didn’t feel like my contractions were that bad, they were still very spaced out, and I felt way too good in between them.
At 7:15, my midwife suggested we move to a more comfortable position on the bed and not risk a baby coming in the toilet. So we moved my laboring over to the bedroom. They had me try lying on my side at first. Since I was still nervous about labor being irregular, I only stayed laying on my side for a couple minutes. I thought if I laid down and got too comfortable, labor would stop.
I was still able to joke around with Brian and my sister. Brian was laughing at me because I kept saying in between contraction, “this is boring” and my sister and I were making inside exorcist jokes.
Contractions were still not close together at all and to me still not very intense. I was confused on what was exactly going on, not sure if the baby was coming any time soon, if I still had a while to go, let alone if I was really in labor for real. My sister even mentioned how I didn’t look like I was in labor and she couldn’t even tell what was going on. After a while, my sister went ahead and called my nieces into the room. Shortly after that our daughter, Genevieve, woke up to join the party.
It wasn’t until the second to last contraction (the first real extreme one) that I physically and mentally felt like “hey! the baby was really on its way”. I hardly realized pumpkin was starting to crown at the start of the last contraction. With that last contraction, Daddy went to catch her as the water broke and pumpkin fell onto his hands/the bed.
It’s a GIRL!!! Kateri Autumn, born at 7:42 am, our most petite baby yet, weighing in at 6lb 6oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Just as healthy and perfect as can be, what a blessing. God is so good!!
Then the birth team did all the fun things to the baby: weighing, measuring, and making sure she was perfect. We chose the name Kateri because on October 21, 2017 (nine days prior) Pope Benedict XVI canonized Saint Kateri Tekakwitha!
Happy 5th Birthday Kateri!
