by Karen

When I woke up the morning of August 5th, I was having some pain in my lower back that came and went, but I paid no attention to it. I just went about my normal morning routine of showering, having some breakfast, etc. My husband is really into composting, so we went to the local Starbuck's stores and picked up their used espresso grinds for the garden and the compost. When we got back, I made pizza for lunch, and then we went to the beach, which was over an hour away, to pick up seaweed for the compost. The beach was about ½ mile away from the parking lot and I was having these contractions which made me walk very slowly, but I hung in there. When I made it to the beach, I was in total awe! I love the ocean and while I was there, I barely remember my back hurting.

On the way back home, I sat in the front seat and grabbed my husband's leg during a contraction because my back was really hurting. Finally we made it home and I told my husband that I was having the contractions (he didn't know). We thought perhaps that they were false, even though they were every 5 minutes or so and lasting about 45 seconds each, so Joey got me a glass of wine. I drank it, but the contractions were still there. When we finally acknowledged the fact that "this was it," we called the local hotels so that we could have our baby in peace without family members (in-laws) running around. I had all of my "supplies" ready to go and my sister-in-law packed some clothes for me, because I had forgotten to do so. Well, guess what? All the hotels were booked and the ones that were not, cost $300/night. We were starting to panic, but I had him call another one and they had a vacancy and were $98/night. Phew, much closer to our price range!

We got there and I waited in the car while Joey got the room key. When we went in there, the first thing I went to check was the bathtub. No bathtub whatsoever! Ahh!! I called the front desk and asked if they had a bathtub, but they didn't; not a one in the whole hotel! Oh well, I thought as I said, "OK thanks," to the receptionist and hung up. My contractions were pretty strong and as I had wanted this to be an unassisted birth, Joey stayed on the bed watching the movie, Airplane, while I spent most of my time in the bathroom. I'll admit it, I got scared because I wasn't only feeling labor pains, but I was also feeling nauseated. Joey asked me what to do and I thought maybe we should call a midwife in town. About 3 minutes after we thought about calling a midwife, I turned to the toilet and vomited all of the wine that I had drunk before we left. I felt almost 100% better. Now, all I had to do was get this baby out!

I was in and out of the shower the whole time we were there. The sound of the shower was very comforting to me, so I stayed in there. The contractions were extremely strong and even though I pictured myself quiet during the labor, I was screaming and grunting the whole time. The pain brought me to my knees and I was on all fours for about 2 or 3 contractions when the water broke like a water balloon; POP! The fluid was green, so I knew there was a risk of the baby swallowing meconium. However, I believed everything would be OK, so I didn't really worry about that. Joey had come in there before my water broke because we were both afraid, but he really wanted to help me out. Well, after my water broke, I knew that my baby was going to come out, so I got up on my knees and waited while trying to relax. I told my body to just let my baby out easily without tearing and the next time I felt down, I could feel my baby's head full of hair! I asked Joey if he wanted to feel the head and he did. His face lit up and he thought it was neat but kind of weird because it was finally happening. I was trying to apply pressure to my perineum while the head was crowning, but it was difficult because I was on my knees, so I kept telling myself not to tear. Then the rest of the head came out and I felt a big relief. I took two deep breaths and after the second one, our baby was delivered into mom and dad's arms. He was a bit pink with no vernix on his body. After about 10 seconds, he turned to a normal color and let out a little whimper, but no crying at all. I held our baby close and had Joey get some more towels.

When Joey came back, I checked the sex of the baby and said, "Joey, it's a boy!" I had wanted a boy, but tried not to tell anyone that, because I didn't want to seem selfish. I held our little baby in my arms while Joey called his family to tell them that we had had a boy. About 20 minutes after the birth, the placenta came out all in one piece. We didn't name our boy until about 2 weeks after he was born, but we did try names out on him. We were deciding between Michael and Samuel, and Samuel won. We weighed him the next day on a small postage scale by putting him into a basket, and he was 7 pounds and 5 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. Today, two months later, he is 12 pounds, 10 ounces and 23 inches long. In the words of my mother as she was at the airport ready to board, "You done good, Karen." I believe her!