And then... the Emergence

Then Sunday afternoon, I starting having nice regular contractions, very comfortable and pleasant, about 7 minutes apart. So we went up to Claudia the midwife's place in Wailua, got all set up and had a really beautiful afternoon and evening calmly walking the grounds, feeding the horses, sniffing the orange blossoms and admiring the mountain apples. The sun went down, Kate and KJ took Rosie Jo home, and Matt and I walked under the stars and palm trees.






Things were so mellow that at about 8:30pm I fell asleep, and had a great sound sleep until about 3 in the morning. I woke up dreaming I was pushing a heavy shopping cart up a dirt embankment-- and then I was in real labor almost immediately. I got in the shower-- my midwife could tell that we were picking up the pace now, and came to check on me. I started shaking-- "That's normal for transition," she said.

Transition? Already?

To mellow things down a bit we got into the hot tub outside, in the moonlight, in a little private garden of yellow plumeria bushes. (Birth in the time of Plumeria! said Grandma Betty later). In between contractions I got to watch the clouds and the mountain and the moon-- it was almost too beautiful to stand. But pretty soon I got that feeling-- "something's gotta change." And then we were cooking.

Kate and KJ came back at 4am with a very sleepy little Rosie Jo. Claudia broke my bag of waters, I got in the shower. Transition was hard-- harder this time than I had remembered. I was trying to run away from it. Finally Claudia got right in my face and told me I had to wrap my brain around pushing and just do it.

So I did-- three pushes in the shower and --amazingly-- baby was born! At 4:52 am. Everybody got to be there with me-- I couldn't have imagined a better birth guide and companion than my love Matt. I couldn't believe that there was actually a baby at the end of all that work... And she is so gorgeous.