Baby Rylan's journey into the world!

The midwife called me around noon and gave me the heads up that our client was in early labor! I had been waiting and waiting for the call, so this was wonderful news!!
I began my journey down to Lake Elsinore (2 hours away), where this baby girl was to be born.
By the time I had gotten there, the midwife had already taken vitals and did an IE (internal exam) on her and she was only 3cm. She was barefoot, dressed in a little sundress was she was all belly!

They were a young couple, newlyweds! They had been married for 2 years and were madly in love. The most amazing thing about this birth was that both mothers, the mother of the laboring woman and the mother of the father, were both present, waiting with such helpful, loving hearts, and wanting nothing more then to help in any way, big or small, usher in the life of their new little grandbaby. At first I thought this might hinder her labor because sometimes without even realizing it, a woman’s labor can slow down or even stop when too many are present and they feel that they have no privacy. But not this time. There was such peace that it was hard for me not to cry watching these two servants of the Lord, run around, selfless, wiping the sweat beads off their daughters forehead during contractions. What family. What love.

Because she was only 3cm, we left to grab some lunch and relax before things really started to pick up.
We got a call around 3:30pm that her husband had been timing the contractions and that they were now 3 mins apart and that she was in the birthpool now. PERFECT!
We jumped in the car and set off back to the house. When we arrived, we checked her again and she had progressed to 8cm!
She labored beautifully and at about 9cm she started to go through that wonderful transition to being fully dilated. This for some women is the hardest part of labor. She began to cry and say, “Please, I can’t do this! It hurts too bad! Please God make it stop! You guys, Im sorry but I can’t do this…”
Before I could even attempt to make an effort to comfort her to tell her that she could do it, (ya…me….the one who screams for a vicodin for my period cramps..) …her mother jumped in, laid her hands on her bare back and began to pray aloud … “Oh Jesus, we lift her up to you Lord. Please Jesus give her the strength to push this baby out and bring your daughter into this world! Jesus give my daughter strength!” By this time, we are all in tears as we stand there, watching this mother, impart peace and ask the Holy Spirit to come help her daughter help push out her daughter. Three generations before the King of Kings. Three generations brought to life out of love and love multiplying itself.
Her husband also jumped in the conversation and wrapped his arms around his vulnerable wife and held her, whispering in her ear words of love and encouragement. His mother said, “lean on him, Julianne, your husband is here for you, lean on him when you don’t have the strength!” And she let out a huge SIGH and leaned back on him. He caught her and loved her.

Of course by this time, I have tears shooting out of my eyes and all I wanted to do was grab a video camera, sit back with some tissues, maybe some popcorn, and get this amazing, timeless moment on camera, but I know that that moment will forever be remembered. Such love.

After she was, what seemed to be, fully dilated, she wanted to hop out of the birth pool and onto the bed. So we let her
lead the way. As soon as she hit the bed, she looked at us and said, “I’m ready to push.” “Ok.” We said back.

She pushed and pushed and seemed to be making little to no progress bringing that baby girl down. The midwife did an exam to see if she could find out what was going on. What we found was a cervical lip from 1-4 (clock point of view). The baby could not come all the way down out of the cervix because some of the cervix was not being pulled back over the baby’s head. So during pushes, the midwife and I would take turns holding back that little part of cervix so that baby Rylan could come down fully.
After doing this with 3-4 more pushes, baby Rylan finally got past the cervical lip and was now crowning!!

My preceptor and I switched places and I was in the line of fire to catch this little girl.
Earlier, we had a feeling that this was going to be a posterior birth, (baby will come out face up), due to the nature of her labor. Her contractions were a little irregular. From 3 min apart to 5 min, to 4 min to 5 min to 6 min to 3 min then 3 min and so on…but yet nice and STRONG! So we prepared for that. Its not a dangerous position to birth your baby in, but can be a little more painful for the mom.

Finally, baby Rylan’s head emerged….I held it back gently so she would not tear. Then her little body came sliding into me arms! What sweet bliss! A new wet, slippery little baby! Her APGAR scores where 9/10 and 10/10. Beautiful. She had a full head of jet-black hair, fair skin and blue eyes. She was simply gorgeous. 7lbs and all baby. Thank you Jesus!