Gwyneth's birth on the Monterey Peninsula 2002

Taken from my journal: 

Photo by: Melissa Perella

You are not going to believe our week! We gave birth to our baby girl, Gwyneth Isabelle, on Monday the 25th of November...10 days earlier than my due date. 

We couldn't be happier! 

She is SO beautiful! God has blessed us more than we deserve! I can't even describe the way I feel when I look at her face. I am so happy! I'm so grateful to my heavenly father for allowing me to have the birth that I wanted!

I went into labor on Saturday night the 23rd of November while Bobby and I were watching the Jody Foster movie, Panic Room.  

*side note: I thought the scary movie put me into labor, but it didn't work any other time...so I don't know for sure;)

I didn't know, it was, in fact, labor. I thought it might be practice labor (Braxton hicks).It felt like menstrual cramps. I pretty much ignored it. We went to bed, got some sleep.So must have not been that bad. 

The next day I got the urge to cook. I made a ton of lasagna! I mean like three casserole dishes.While Bobby was at the store I started noticing the "cramps" coming in about every 10 min. I still didn't associate the cramps to labor. Since my due date was over a week away, I wasn't even looking for labor...rookie.;) I even joked to a friend I spoke with one the phone that night, offering her family a dish of lasagna, saying "I made it while I was in labor"...still not really thinking I was. 

The contractions started getting closer together about 7:30 pm. This was November 24th. I called my mom to let her know this might be it (she lived in TX and had an open ended ticket to fly into San Jose). She being an experienced midwife/mother of eight, wanted me to call her back in the morning. Well, we stayed up all night with contractions about every seven to eight min apart. So I called her in the morning-She decided to go ahead and fly in.

We continued to labor at home with no break. The contractions just kept getting closer. At about 10:30 am they were about between 3-5 min apart. I needed Bobby's undivided attention to make it through a contraction.  He was well equipped since we had taken The Bradley Method childbirth classes. He was amazing! 

So while at home still I kept taking warm baths and breathing through contractions. About 1pm we decided to go ahead and head to the hospital. I had to stop in the hallway every time I  had a contraction. It was like a movie. 

The nurses checked me and to my dismay I was dilated to only 3cm and I was only 60% effaced. They wanted to watch me for an hour and if I progressed I could stay. yada yada yada...

Within an hour I was a 5 and 80%. I continued to go at that speed and didn't take any pain meds. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted to. In fact this is how badly I needed my coach...Bobby had to run to the car for something and I begin to ask the nurse about my "drug options". Just to see what was available. lol  As soon as Bobby got back in the room I was back on track. No more drug thoughts.;)

It was my desire to birth naturally, drug free. It's the example my mom gave me and I knew from personal research it was the BEST for me and for my baby. The surest way I would be able to have her the way I desired, vaginally and with no unnecessary medical interventions. 

I had horrible back labor! I stood up the entire time I was in labor. Holding onto Bobby. We would sway back and forth. Every time I had to sit down to lay down and get checked I felt so much more pain. I'm pretty sure this was due to her position being posterior. Standing seem to take the pressure off some.

Bobby was awesome! I couldn't have done it without him. He learned from the Bradley classes to "walk me through" the contraction. Letting me know when the contraction reached it's peek and to then say it's halfway over. That was just the encouragement I needed for each contraction. Honestly, that's pretty much all he said the whole time. With each contraction he just walked me through them. Timing them and giving me the encouragement it was almost over.

My Mom at this point had still not gotten to California. Her plane was to arrive at 7:30 pm. But she still had to be picked up by some of our friends...and San Jose was about an hour away.  At that time I was about an 8 and 100%. I kept asking the nurses "where is my mom?"...they would say, "she's on her way"...they didn't really know. I was checked again about 8pm at this time I was about 9 1/2 cm. The nurses called my Dr in to break my water (which was bulging) and to moved the lip of my cervix. That was excruciatingly painful! I screamed. Loudly. 

Help me, Jesus!

My Doctor gave me the "go ahead" to "push as hard as I can".

I remember saying in response to that..."Help me, Jesus"...My Doctor's response was, "He will". 

Great advice doc.That ruined my natural instinct to listen to my body and push when I felt the need. So being the rookie and just wanting the baby out, I being to push as hard as I could. I even pushed when I didn't have a contraction. I really didn't feel when to push, since I had such bad back labor. So the nurse kind of told me when I would have a contraction. They seemed to be coming one on top of another at this point. Since I was at a hospital I had to have all the fetal monitors on my belly..I wore them under this big stretchy belt (like one of those unit belts from the 80s...

I really hated all the equipment on me.

I started to push a little with the squatting bar on the bed. *note: this is one thing I loved about birthing at a hospital. I wish the birthing centers had the birthing beds. As strange as that may sound. I liked the versatility of that bed vs. a normal bed. 

I got really tired squatting. My arms and legs were so sore. 

So the Dr wanted me to push even harder and on my back. 

I yelled "I don't want to get hemorrhoids"...

being the Dr with the best bed-side-manner on the planet said 

"you should have thought about that before you got pregnant".

 I began to really get down to business. Pushed on my back with my legs pulled back by my ears. Bobby held one leg and a nurse held the leg my Mom was supposed to be holding. She still wasn't there. I began to think she was going to miss me give birth. 

Her head started to crown. Bobby said "I can see the head". Everyone said "she has so much hair". I knew she would. 

Mom finally walked in. Gave me a kiss and took over my leg holding;) She told me to take some deep breaths. Gwyneth's head was out. At this point pushing did feel more natural and less forced. I had about five more pushes left. Ater her shoulders were out,  Dr Walker said " okay, look at your baby, pull your baby out". I said, "no, I can't." I couldn't see anything past all the monitors on my big belly. So the nurses removed all the monitor equipment and then I was able to reach her. I finally could see my baby girl. Reached for under her arms and pulled her out of my body! I could feel her sweet soft body come out of me. Placed her on my chest and looked down at her face for the first time! That was by far the most amazing thing I've ever done! I will never forget it! I can still see her sweet baby face. Her eyes were open but she was squinting and she just looked at me. I couldn't believe she was here and what I had just done! Wow!

We had some amazing friends in Monterey. My mentor/Bible study coach/friend, video taped the labor. I say "labor" since I forgot to have a back up battery. We didn't get the birth:( 

But we do have some pictures a dear army wife friend took. They were both so sweet and quiet and stayed so far away from everything I hardly remember them being there. It was such a sweet experience between Bobby and me.

I'm glad my Mom made it in when she did... she got to see her first grand baby girl being born, but God knew that Bobby and I would labor best on our own. Husband coached really works for us. I highly recommend Dr Bradley's book husband coached childbirth. Read about the Bradley method.

That was almost eight years ago. The baby girl born that day has turned into a lovely little girl. I look forward to getting to know the young woman she will soon be. It will be sooner than this mommy wants to think about. But I can honestly say that I enjoyed her baby years, her toddler years, her little preschool years, and now her elementary years. She is a joy to this family, a fun little girl, with lots to learn, but I can already tell she has a heart after God and wants to do what is right. I love you G-bers, gigi-bear, Big G, gwinnie-poo. You are the blessing that made me "mommy". Thank you for coming into our life and bringing us so much happiness.Don't grow up too fast, but I can't wait to meet the woman that God will help you to be.