Freija's Birth Story
June 15th about 2am…
A little back story first…our baby girl was due on June 10th
and we had been anxiously anticipating her arrival since about the middle of
May when I started having pretty regular “Braxton hicks” contractions. Sometimes they would start in the
middle of the night and be consistent enough to compel me to page my midwives;
“page us again if your water breaks, you have bloody show or the contractions
get stronger” they would say each time with the utmost patience and care. Other times, the contractions would
happen in the middle of the day, one time strong enough for me to leave work
immediately and drive home. This
continued and was quite frustrating.
I was doing my best to enjoy pregnancy knowing it was my last, but the
constant “is this it?” was trying for me and for Norm. I knew she would come when she was
ready so once I hit my due date and beyond I just figured well, let’s get on
with life and let the little lady come in her own time!
On June 15th very early in the morning I started
to slowly lose fluid and had some “bloody show”. I paged the midwife to let her know what happened and she
said to page again when contractions started getting stronger. Around 4am I paged again and she headed
right over soon followed by the student that has been working with them and a
“fill in” midwife who was standing in for the other regular midwife who was out
of town. The kids were still
asleep of course but my mom and my cousin (who was staying with us) downstairs
could hear all the footsteps and knew what was going on and were “too excited”
to sleep. Norm kicked into high
gear and did whatever he could think of that would be helpful. He made coffee, cleaned the kitchen,
checked in on me every so often to rub my back and took care of the kids when
they eventually woke up. That day
was supposed to be a field trip for Kieren’s class but we gave him the option
to stay home and see his sister be born, which of course he didn’t want to
miss!
I was walking around the house and stopping each time a
contraction came on to breathe and focus.
Every so often they would listen to her heartbeat and see how I was
doing but overall everything was really quiet and mellow. My midwife and the student were sitting
at the table whispering and taking notes and the other midwife was napping on
the couch or going out to get coffee.
At one point it started getting more intense and I was tired so I laid
down but the contraction slowed down so they suggested I start walking again
and even go up and down the stairs. So I did that…for another couple hours. This was a very different experience
than my other labors, especially Zoe’s which was very fast and intense but I
was thankful for the breaks in between contractions this time. I actually started getting bored and
thinking, ok let’s go baby! I
think it was about 9 or 10am that the contractions started getting really
intense and I started crying. My
team encouraged me to take a comfortable position and push when I felt the
urge. So laying on my side I
started to lift my leg to my chest and push with each contraction, then I
flipped to the other side and did the same. Norm was by my side letting me squeeze the crap out of his
hand each time. The kids were
getting a little worried by the noises I was making and Zoe would look at my
mom each time to make sure I was okay.
The would both come in every so often to see how I was doing. At some point in here they gave me
oxygen but I’m not sure if it was before or after baby’s head came out. After maybe 10-15 minutes, Freija’s head
came out (so I’m told) and it’s at this moment our friend Chelsea (who is a
doula and we invited to be at the birth) came to the door. My mom opened the door saying, “Heads
out! Heads out!” and ushered her
in. The cord was wrapped around
Freija’s neck and her arm was up in a position that had her elbow in front of
her neck so they told me I would have to flip over to my hands and knees. MAN that was not easy…but after they
helped me get into that position they were able to move Freija’s arm down and
she came out in a few more pushes!
Freija Grace Underland was born on June 15th at 11:32am at 9
lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long. They
started in checking her vitals and Kieren came in to cut the umbilical cord, so
special! We like to joke that we
had a “party” at Freija’s birth but it’s true…between Norm, two midwives, a
student, two kids, Grandma, a cousin and a friend it was a party! When they handed her to me and I looked
at her I knew instantly that she was Freija (pronounced Fr-ay-a) and not what
we had planned on naming her. I am
so thankful that I was able to have a home birth again and to have my older
kids here to witness it! Later on
when I asked them what they thought, if they thought it was “weird, scary or
cool” they both said “cool!”.
Kieren thought it was “a little scary because of all the blood”, but
otherwise cool.
The adjustment from two kids to three has been hard for
sure, but we have been blessed with a lot of help from family, friends and our
church community. We are so in
love with our little Freija and enjoying watching her personality grow.
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