Matthew's birth

OK, seriously? Why in the world would ANYONE tell a woman she could

labor in the water but she'll have to get out of the tub in order to

deliver the baby? After having three kids now with no drugs,

I have to say Matthew's was definitely the easiest, least painful, the

fastest and most gentle birth I've had. I've always had a thing about

water with these blessingway beads and whatnot, instinctively I was

onto something. So, Craig and I spent Sunday morning making three gigantic batches of

pasta sauce (his idea, not mine, although we had a lot of fun). Then,

a babysitter came over and kept the kids while we saw the new James

Bond movie and then went to World Market and stocked our wine fridge

for the holidays--so much fun! We got home just in time to pick up

the kids and go to 5:00 mass (I had a REALLY painful "braxton-hicks" contraction in the car on the way, but didn't think anything of it since I've been having them for about a

month now.) By the way, the readings were about the ideal wife

(Proverbs 31, one of my favorites) and another one was about Him

coming suddenly and without warning, as do labor pains upon a pregnant

woman--I really should learn to be still and listen....LOLOLOL It's

just so hard when Michael is literally holding his own hot wheels

demolition derby in the middle of the floor at the back of the

church.....LOLOLOLOL

So, after mass we came home, had pasta for dinner and I decided I HAD

to go to Harris Teeter for a few things. An hour later, I was leaving

HT having purchased $225 worth of groceries for $125, the savings for

which the manager had to come and approve my purchase (score--never

won that big before at the grocery game). I came home, went in and

said goodnight to Meghan, then came downstairs to put away groceries

with Craig. My water broke then in the kitchen--so he helped me to

the bathroom and we called Christine, my doula. After talking with

her about what happened, she assured us this was it, and she'd be over in a

little bit. Then we called Stephanie, my midwife, and she was on

her way too. I sat on a yoga ball and stayed there for a little while once

Christine got there. Contractions started getting a little more intense, so Christine suggested I walk into my bedroom and let her do some counter pressure on my back. I was leaning on my

dresser, staring at my labor necklace from the blessingway, a picture

of Meghan and Michael and Matthew's ultrasound picture. Man, that's

one of my favorite moments of the whole night--the visual reminder of

my friends' prayers and well wishes, and the three beautiful human

beings in my life because of the whole labor process. Talk about

mental fortification! :) Once the contractions seemed to be coming pretty hard, Christine

suggested I get in the tub (worth every dollar). Craig ran the bath

for me, and once I was in the water, the contractions didn't slow

down, but it was like turning the volume button down on the pain.

Christine and Craig were making me laugh, the cats kept coming in to

check on me, and the whole time, Meghan and Michael were sleeping

blissfully upstairs. The whole thing was so peaceful!

Stephanie arrived at some point, but I can't recall at which point in

this story, since I was pretty well internally focused by then. I do

know I got out of the tub at one point and had a contraction or two

out of the water that would have sent me running back to the water if

I hadn't been doubled over in pain. Once I WAS back in the water, I

didn't have any pain that intense until Matthew was coming. Craig and

Christine both told me that he didn't think I was as far along as I

was compared to our other children's births--he said the first time I

had any difficulty breathing through a contraction was the one that

brought Stephanie in to catch the baby! I remember asking him to

start reading the labor letters from the blessingway to me, and

delivering Matthew pretty soon after that. It was beautiful--and everything I'd hoped for. Honestly, it was so stress-free that it was almost a "non-event--" nothing stressful,

nothing annoying, it just was. My bathroom, my bed, my food, my

things, my THING. And then, our son. And then, at 7 AM, our family.

The way it's supposed to be. Until school started and thankfully it

was just Craig and Matthew and me again until 1 pm. :)