It was the night of Thanksgiving and Colby and I had just crawled into bed around 2am. Full of turkey and yams and STUFFED with stuffing. I couldn't have been more happy to be snuggled in my own bed about to pass out from gluttony. But, in the back of my mind I knew that a client of mine and Annes was due any minute now, in fact, I was surprised she held off on Thanksgiving day.
Then there it was....she called at around 3am and said that her water had broken. Mind you, this mama is a G-6, P-4. meaning this baby was going to be her 5th baby. So hearing that a water has broken means, "Birth.PRONTO."
Only problem was, I had a 2 hour drive ahead of me. She lived in the desert and I had not a second to spare. I woke up Colby, and because he knew I had not gotten much rest, he jumped out of bed, made me coffee and offered to drive me there. (YES,I know, I married the most amazing man!)
So we drove and drove and drove until we reached our home. A quiet, small home covered in orange trees and fallen leaves. I walked up the pathway and into the home. I found her in a rocking chair drinking mint tea. “She looks too happy to be in labor”, I thought. I did an internal exam on her to find her at 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. She was well on her way!! This family I have adored from my first prenatal with them. A spirit filled family of 6 with so much love, personality and gentlness. Each one of their children, all under the age of 13 had such a uniqueness about them and I wanted to hang around them all day. All home schooled, all brilliant, and all personality! The youngest girl, Samantha was my favorite. She looked about 5 years old but was a feisty 7 year old. She was tiny, tiny with big blue eyes and huge curly red hair with the vocabulary of about a 30 year old. She was hilarious. When I arrived all the children were asleep still except for Elizabeth, the oldest, who was going to help her mom deliver the baby. She was thrilled, to say the least. But time just kept ticking and NO baby.......6am.....8am.....10..am....noon..2pm.....6pm.Dinner. She was still only 7 cm. At about this time, we were concerned that our mama was getting exhausted. Never had a labor of hers taken this long, and plus her water had been broken this whole time which could soon be a cause of concern for infection. So we set a time. 10cm by 10pm. We all agreed.
..8pm...Nap..9pm....at about 9:30 she called us into the room. “Im ready to push”. We smiled with joy and relief and put on our gloves. Everything else was in place (the O2, the meds, the emergency equipment...)
She called all the children into the room, and they came RUNNING! “Its time! Its time! Come out baby Maddy!” They all jumped on the bed with pure excitement. “Ok, John (10 year old), you hold the video camera “got it!” , Samantha, your job is to hold this towel and put it on the baby when we put the baby on your mama’s tummy. “OK!” she smiled.
One push- head out. Samantha screams in shock and runs out of the room crying. “Samantha its ok! Its just the baby’s head” We yelled out the door. “Im going to throw up!” she yelled back!! hahaha! One more push at 9:58 pm and 6lb 13 oz baby Maddy came sliding out into my arms. GLORIOUS!! She was beautiful! Round and short and oh so TINY!
By this time, all the children were back in the room and there was not a dry eye in the whole house. Including little Samantha who was crying out of shear joy and fear. The father lay next to his wife and new baby and wept over this tiny precious new life “You did it babe, she is beautiful.” He cried. I cried. We cried. Even little John, Elizabeth, Samantha and Joshua cried. And of course baby Maddy was crying too. “Hi Maddy, welcome to the world.” Her siblings greeted her wet, tiny, new body.
