Throughout my entire pregnancy, I asked God to give me peace during the labour & delivery process. I was so fearful I would be anxious during this experience, and didn’t want my memories of the birth to be clouded by anxiety. In His most amazing way, the Lord kept me calm throughout the whole process and I had the most incredible birthing experience—I couldn’t have wished for anything better.
Samuel was due August 18th, and though I loved being pregnant, in the heat of August, I was ready to get my baby out as soon as his due date rolled around. In my birth plan, however, I requested to—with my doctor’s approval—stay pregnant as long as possible. I didn’t want to be induced, and as long as baby was healthy, I was happy to let him have that extra time in the womb.
Of course, I knew most first-time babies run late. I was prepared for our son to be later than his due date, since they’re not real accurate anyway. As the most impatient of people, though, it nearly killed me when the 18th—and then 19th—of August rolled around.
In the last week of my pregnancy, I drank nearly my body weight in red raspberry leaf tea. I doused my ankles with clary sage oil, and walked often. It should be noted that walking anywhere while being nine months pregnant is quite the feat. I waddled everywhere. While I don’t know the true effectiveness of the tea and oil, I do know walking can help bring on labour, and I was getting excited to meet my boy—I was ready to try any natural way to speed things up.
On August 19, I stayed at my parent’s house overnight. Isaac was working night shift, and neither he or my parents felt I should be alone. After dinner, my mama and I took our hound dog for a walk, then relaxed for the evening—no signs of labour at all. I went to bed for the night, unsure of when my boy would come.
At 5AM, I woke up with cramps, but didn’t think much about them since I had been so uncomfortable in the last few weeks. I chalked it up to being food-related. I went to use the washroom before going back to sleep, and at this point the cramps were coming more often. Could it be happening? I honestly didn’t know what to expect, so I was very hesitant to think it was labour. I went back to bed to lay down and start timing the cramps.
For a couple of hours, I laid in the bed and timed the pains. They were inconsistent in their timing, so I decided they must be practice contractions or something. By around 7AM, the cramps were 3-5 minutes apart, lasting for about 1 minute. These were definitely contractions!
Since we live 50 minutes away from the hospital, I had been told to leave when my contractions were 5-6 minutes apart. Now I was unsure of what to do: on one hand, I didn’t want to wait any longer in case this was real labour progressing, but on the other, I didn’t want to end up being sent home from the hospital due to false labour.
My parents were going to be taking separate vehicles to work, just in case I did go into labour any time that week. Isaac was going to be home around 8:30 and would take me home. My mama had left for work before I saw her in the morning, but when I finally went downstairs to the kitchen, I told my father what was going on. He didn’t feel comfortable leaving me before Isaac could make it there, so he stayed with me longer. I finally texted Isaac at 7:15, and took a quick shower while waiting for him to arrive, and my contractions continued to get stronger and more consistent.
I called my mama right away and told her what was going on. She was just pulling in the parking lot at work, and quickly left. She would be meeting us at the hospital. Isaac and I packed up and left for the hospital—all the while I was doubting myself and hoping this was the real thing…
Part two is here.
