Josiah's Birth Story

This is a little long, but worth reading. I wrote his story a couple of days after his birth. This is the only child that I have written a birth story for. It just seemed extra important that I remember this truly amazing experience.

On Saturday April 17th 2004, my mom, Miriam, my friend Donna, and I went to lunch together at Northshore Grill near Coolidge Park. I had a crab cake sandwich. In the middle of eating, I started having contractions (this was about 2:30pm). After a while of 10 minute apart contractions, I told everyone that I thought I was in labor. After lunch, we went to Clumpies for ice cream and then we rode the carousel twice with Miriam. At that point I decided that I needed to go home. The card ride was not very fun and I got home about 4:30. My contractions were already 6-8 minutes apart by then. Jeremy was taking an Engineering exam that day and didn't get home until 5:30 when he found out I was in labor. I called our doula, Kelly, and she said she thought I was in labor. I did some house cleaning, laundry, and sat outside cross stitching while Miriam played. My contractions start coming 5 minutes apart and I called Kelly again about 7:30. She got to my house about 8:15pm and my contractions were 4 minutes apart. Kelly helped me make it through my contractions with breathing, encouragement, and rubbing my back. I spent most of my time leaning over the couch on a pillow. I also spent a lot of time on the phone calling a bunch of people. I called the Dr. at 8:45, but told her I was going to stay home for a while longer. About 9:30pm, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and getting hard so I decided to get in the shower to see if that would help. Jeremy got in with me and almost immediately, my contractions got very intense. I did not know it at the time, but I was going through transition. They were so close and so painful that it took me quite a while to get out of the shower and get dressed. When we came out, I told everyone we needed to get to the hospital and Kelly said she would have suggested that if I hadn't. But at the next contraction, I could feel his head coming down. All I could do was get on the floor and push. Kelly asked if I was sure that I couldn't get to the hospital and I said yes. She told Jeremy to call 911 and while he did that she was trying to get me to breath and not push. Of course I couldn't help but push and he was coming fast. In just a couple of minutes, 2 ambulances and a fire truck arrived at my door. It was pretty weird for a few minutes, they really wanted to get me to the hospital, but then saw that he was crowning. Also Jeremy was trying to tell them that the baby would be stillborn and they just couldn't understand. They let me push a minute longer and then lifted me onto a stretcher. I then quickly pushed Josiah out. In all it took about 15 minutes of pushing. I asked them to hand him to me so they wrapped him up a little and then I held him. He was born at 9:57pm. They then put me in the ambulance and transported me to the hospital. We had a very wonderful 15 minute ride. it was completely silent and I just held Josiah. I had a completely natural and unmedicated birth as well as the VBAC I had wanted. It was an unplanned homebirth, but was a wonderful experience. Jeremy did so well and Miriam and my mom were there. We spent that night and most of the next day with him making memories. Most of our family came by to see him and hold him. I remember I didn't sleep at all. I was on such a high from the birth and also just didn't feel right sleeping when this was all the time I would have with him.

His life and birth experience changed me in so many ways. I later decided to become a doula, decided homebirth was the route for me, and started a candlelighting with Hospice that now happens every year. Below is a piture of our family at the hospital. Miriam was only 2 years old.