Virginia's Birth Story

(Details included… if they bother you, you’ll want to skip this)

Virginia’s birth story begins about two weeks before she was born. I went to my appointment with our new midwife in South Carolina. I had been having crazy contractions this pregnancy since around 20 weeks just like Derek’s pregnancy, so I thought I would have my midwife check me. Well, much to her shock and mine, I was already dilated to 4 or 5 cm! Suddenly I thought perhaps I would have a baby EARLY! Yikes! I was not ready for EARLY! I had already had in my mind that I would be late! After all, LATE was normal! My due date was March 12th. I was half heartedly planning on a St. Patrick’s Day baby!! Now here I was in February finding out that I am walking around halfway dilated! Yikes! I had lots of things to do yet. Our friend, Kelly, from Ohio wasn’t even here yet. She was coming to help me get ready for the baby & to be here to help with the kids once the baby arrived! Not to mention I had been planning a one day women’s retreat at our church for the last weekend in February. Now I was wondering if I’d even be able to attend!!

Well, I guess this was just God’s way of getting me ready… because the baby didn’t come right away! As a matter of fact, as each day passed, I finally began to think that maybe I was going to have that St. Patrick’s Day baby after all!!

Thankfully, I was able to go to the women’s retreat. Kelly arrived in plenty of time! Then we just waited. I never went anywhere alone (well once I did), but for the most part, someone (Kelly or Dano) was with me. Remember Derek’s birth… water broke then he was born 1 hour & 16 minutes later!! And I was already dilated to about 5 cm… perhaps more now because it had been 2 more weeks of contractions! Crazy! Dano didn’t want me going anywhere alone.

Well, finally the evening of Virginia’s birth came. I had made dinner. I was slow moving by this point! The kids and Kelly were outside enjoying the beautiful weather and long daylight hours, so I was not in a rush with dinner. Perhaps I should have been!! We finally sat down to eat shortly before 7:30 p.m. (Bedtime is 8 p.m. for the kids… so we were obviously VERY late with dinner). Dano prayed. Then I was serving up dinner. I had all the kids’ plates fixed. I was about to serve Kelly when I felt something. I was not 100% sure, but I was wondering if my water was breaking. I stood up and had a LARGE confirmation that my water had broken. Thankfully, I had very absorbent jeans on, and there was not a drop in the floor, but I looked like I had been hosed down!

It was kind of an odd moment. I wasn’t sure what to do! LOL! Dano stood, too. From what I remember, we told the kids we were going to our room. I don’t remember what else we said. I guess we said something about having the baby because the next morning when Derek came to our room and saw Virginia, he was shocked, but then he said, I thought you were going to come back to the table last night with her! LOL! Thankfully, Kelly was here, so she handled the rest of dinner and getting the kids to bed. Thank you, Kelly!

Dano & I went to our room. We were grabbing things we needed/wanted. I was a little anxious and praying. The last time my water broke before labor began was Derek… and that was a wild, hard ride! I wasn’t looking forward to repeating that! I was in our room calling our midwife. Dano was getting the computer and our dinner. We wanted to eat!

I just love our midwife, here, too. When I called she was asking all the normal Qs. She lives about 35 minutes away. I had been concerned about her making it in time for this birth. So after the Qs, she asked, do you want me to go ahead and come now? YES was my answer! She called her apprentice to come also.

Thankfully, things weren’t getting started too quickly. I was having contractions… but nothing major. I had already set up drafts of the “I’m in labor” e-mail. So I just had to add a few words, and click send about 9 times so that we’d be covered in prayer. I called one of my sisters and asked her to let the family know. Actually, maybe I called 2 of my sisters and “assigned” them with who to call. Before I called my sisters though, I called my friend, Mary Ann, who was coming to take pictures for us & video. It was perfect because it was a Wednesday night & she’d just gotten out of church. She just had to drop her kids off at home & come over. She got here before our midwife. She did an awesome job! Thank you, Mary Ann! Dano called his parents to let them know that my water had broken.

My contractions were starting to get closer and stronger, but they were still manageable. I was leaning over my birthing ball (actually it is an exercise ball… slightly deflated). But between contractions I would walk around or visit with Mary Ann. This was the first time to have anyone at a birth besides the midwives and Dano.

When our midwives arrived, things were more serious, but not too bad, yet. Time was going by pretty quickly. I remember looking at the clock & noticing that if this had been Derek’s birth, he would have already been born. (Yes, I am a clock watcher.) I remember being tired and now I was in bed leaning over the ball. I always have back labor and I want Dano pressing on my back during a contraction. That is how Dano knows it is getting close to the end.

It seems this is the first birth I’ve had that I really felt too tired to continue. I felt whiney. However, I kept going… I mean… what choice did I have!? Ha! Dano & the midwives were great encouraging me. Suddenly I was really uncomfortable through the contractions and the deep breathing and relaxing wasn’t offering as much relief as normal. I realized maybe I was ready to push. I didn’t have the overwhelming urge to push, but I tried a little pushing and it felt better… so I had my midwife check me. She assured me that if I felt the urge to push, she didn’t need to check me… but I wanted that reassurance that I was really ready! So she checked me… there was no cervix… all head! But the head wasn’t visible yet…

First I was pushing in the bed, semi-reclined, but it didn’t seem things were moving along. It seems there might have been a lull… a little break which was nice. When things got started again, I decided to do something I hadn’t done before… I was squatting next to the bed and pushing. I didn’t love this either. LOL! Have I ever mentioned I’m impatient!? After a couple of contractions, I decided to get back in the bed & try pushing there again. It seemed like forever, but it wasn’t. I remember being frustrated that we couldn’t even see the head yet! UGH! Finally, I got my act together & started pushing better. I couldn’t wait to meet this baby! Remember, we didn’t know if we were having a girl or a boy, but we and the rest of the world thought we were having a boy. At some point during the pushing, we asked Kelly if she’d like to come witness the birth, so she joined us, too.

Finally, the head was crowning. I was able to put my hands down around her head as it was born… just amazing. Then they checked her out…and the cord was loosely around the neck one time, so they slipped it off. Then I was able to finish delivering her. I was able to pull her out and onto my chest. Oh, this is just the most wonderful moment of giving birth! I would do it again! Of course, I was elated and praising the Lord for my baby! Then it dawned on me we didn’t know if it was a He or a She… so I took a peek… and I was shocked to find out we had a girl! I did a second look just to be sure! Then I noticed that our baby seemed awfully chubby!! How sweet and precious. I was in tears. What a precious gift. Just perfect. So overwhelming that the Lord would bless us with another healthy baby. Shortly after the birth, Dano prayed over us thanking the Lord for our new baby as he does after each birth. I was going to try the “breast crawl” where the baby finds the breast, latches on by herself, and nurses for the first time. Well, little miss (still nameless at this point) seemed too eager… so I latched her on. She nursed well.

About an hour later, I delivered the placenta. I’m always pretty slow at this part! Then the baby & I had a bath. Then we did the newborn exam. This is when I found out I had a pretty big baby! LOL! Our midwife had told us that this baby would be about the same size as our others (just under 9#). So when they weighed her and she was 10#, I was shocked. Actually, I think she weighed more than that at birth because she was pooping constantly after she was born before we weighed her! She was a mess pot!

So, I asked our midwife how she was so off… she confessed that she knew the baby was going to be large, but she didn’t want to scare me! I guess I’m glad she didn’t tell me. But maybe I would have better understood why it seemed so hard to push her out! =0) In the end, it took only about 30 minutes to push out this 10# baby!! My water broke at 7:30 p.m. (and contractions followed there shortly after), and our precious baby was born at 9:37 p.m. My second shortest labor! It wasn’t a bad one… I just wish I had been a little more rested going into it!

The next day we named her in honor of my grandmother, Virginia, a godly woman. And we gave her the middle name, Grace to always be a reminder of God’s free & gracious gift of GRACE… unmerited favor.

Virginia
One day early
10#