So I just typed up this timeline of how things went on Jubilee's birthday for my sister, who is out of the country. It is, of course, woefully incomplete. But you know, it will give you a rough sketch of the birth story, if you're interested.
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| Levi and Jubilee, on their blankets made by Grandma Cora |
11:00 a.m. go to appointment with midwife, accompanied by Mom, Joy and Levi. Benjamin was playing with a friend and Jacob was in the lab, pretending to work but really just waiting for me to call.
11:20 ish the midwife stripped my membrane. It does sound harsh, and the midwives were all like "this is not a comfortable procedure... etc etc." but I guess they talked it up too much because afterward I was like, "wait, so did you do it? that was it?" ha.
11:40 mom drops me off at Jacob's lab. Jacob and I walk over to Basil Thai, which is close by his lab.
12:00 noon I am eating delicious Mussamun Curry and having contractions every 4 min or so. Well, actually the contractions were mainly while I was waiting for my food. Either they went away or I didn't notice them much while I was eating. Because, you know, yum!
12:40 ish We start walking to the car, which Jacob parked a few blocks away at the institute building that morning. (Mom got a rental car, so that's how we got to the appt earlier.) I keep having to tell Jacob to slow down because 1. he naturally walks faster than me 2. he is carrying my heavy hospital bag, so he is hurrying so that he can set it down 3. I can't walk very fast during contractions. So we're taking it at a turtle's pace, except every couple minutes when I make us slow down to a snail's pace.
12:45 we walk past the alumni center and Jacob tells me about how they have really swanky bathrooms in there, because one of the donors wanted their donation to go toward swanky bathrooms. We stop so that Jacob can use the swanky bathroom, and I snap a photo of myself which you can see here:
http://instagram.com/p/Y6Hf_VyVEU/
12:55 begin checking into the hospital. The midwife-on-call had popped in to my appointment earlier and told me to just come on in after lunch. Good thing, too, because I had forgotten how long it takes to do all the check-in shenanigans. Personal medical history questions, at least a half hour of monitoring the baby before I can get into the tub as planned, etc.
1:56 The midwife, Kathy, breaks my water. They have to make sure that my water looks good if I want to deliver in the tub, which I do. Kathy asks me if it was "zero to ninety" when they broke my water with Levi. "Yeah, it kind of was." So we get the tub all ready and such and then she breaks my water.
2:34 Jubilee is born! Seriously. Just about a half an hour after the breaking of the water. So I got into the tub and such and had some intense contractions, but I was totally having this mental block about pushing while reclining in a tub. So I was like "I think I just need to stand up." So I did, and a contraction was starting, and I was standing in the tub, holding on to one of the handles and leaning on Jacob, who was standing outside of the tub, and I pushed her out! The midwife actually didn't have time to get her gloves on, but the nurse, Tina, had hers on already so she started to catch Jubilee and then (the nurse sounded impressed when she told me) Kathy caught her with no gloves. I opened my eyes (they were closed during that contraction and the major pushing). They unwrapped her from her cord, and handed her to me. "You're so little!" I said. I walked from the tub to the bed, carrying her, and laid down. Ta da! Mom seemed surprised to hear that I delivered her standing up in the tub, haha, but it was how I had envisioned the birth happening, actually.
A lot of my prep was envisioning the birth and bonding with the baby before she came, and mental/emotional things like that. Also spiritual. I mean, I feel so blessed. Jacob gave me a wonderful blessing the week before she was born, saying I'd having joy in childbirth, and I think that definitely came true. In pregnancy I felt anxious about the nurses and staff who would attend me and I kept imagining myself having arguments with nurses and having to stand up for myself during labor and such. Finally I was like, "what would it take for me to trust my nurses completely, and to know that I would not need to argue with them?" then I was like "if they were angels, I would trust them." Like, actual angels, not metaphorical angels. And after that little conversation with myself I felt prompted and like it would be right to pray for angels to attend us at the birth. So, I did. And I didn't see anybody extra or have any dramatic manifestations, but I believe that prayer was answered.
Another way I prepared was by asking Heavenly Father to help me bond with Jubilee before she was born. I asked Him to help me know her, and the Spirit advised me to read about Rebekah, in the Bible. I did, and it was a very meaningful experience. Hence, her middle name is Rebecca. We had originally thought of giving her Mary as a middle name.
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| look at that mug! |
Ok, what parts am I missing? What about the birth story do you want to know?
