Introducing Keziah Rain

It's a Girl!

Keziah Rain was born December 28, 2009 at 11:26 PM.

7 lbs 10 oz 20 inches

Here is her birth story:

At 2:30 Monday morning, the 28th my water started leaking. But seeing as how it was the middle of the night and this was my first child, I wasn't exactly sure that that was what was going on. I was expecting water breaking to be some huge gushing event that you couldn't miss. It was just a little so I got a towel and went back to bed. I wasn't having any contractions yet so I thought it would be best to get some sleep. Michael Paul woke up and I told him what was going on. He had no problem going back to sleep. I was wide awake with excitement. At 4 AM, my excitement turned to concern because I wasn't having contractions and I knew with water broken I was somewhat on a time schedule to get the baby out. I went to the couch and listened to one of my hypnobabies cd's and meditated on the thought of oxytocin flowing through my body. Within 30 minutes I was having contractions. Now I was at peace enough to go back to sleep. Looking back it seems weird that I needed the contractions for the peace of mind to get some sleep. They weren't very intense and easy to ignore. Michael Paul came out and snuggled with me on the couch for a while. At 7 AM I got up and took a shower and called my midwife. She suggested I go back to bed and call her back at 10 with an update. So I got another little nap. Micahel Paul was still asleep. At 10, I got Michael Paul up and sent him to the post office and bank. I wanted all our weekly errands done so we could relax for the week. Now my contractions were 3 minutes apart but only 30 seconds long and pretty puny. I gave my midwife Claudia another call. She said I wasn't really in active labor yet but she was going to go ahead and come since my waters were broken. She assured me we could relax a bit on the time thing because I was GBS - negative meaning there was not a high risk for infection. In the meantime I made a chicken salad so everyone would have something to eat and called my sister to tell her to get on the road. We put our plastic mattress cover on the bed and got out our birth kit. It was all so exciting. I was mostly able to do things around the house stopping every now and then to breathe through a contraction. At 1 PM Claudia and Natalie (midwife's apprentice) showed up. I was so excited as they started moving all their medical stuff in that my labor pretty much stopped all together. As we chatted and got things organized I realized nothing was really happening anymore. Claudia noticed as well and sent me and Michael Paul out for a long walk. Finally my labor picked back up. Michael Paul was extra chatty as we walked. He is rarely chatty and I usually love it when he is but I remember being annoyed because I wanted to concentrate on my labor picking up. At 4 my sister showed up and again the excitement stalled my labor. At this point I was so thankful we were not at the hospital because I know I would have been on a pitocin drip by now. Claudia and Natalie continued to check the baby's heart tones and my waters. Everything looked great and I continued to be thankful for every moment I had at home in case we had to transfer to the hospital later. As darkness came, we went for yet another long walk. My contractions started to be more and more in my back and Claudia suspected the baby was trying to turn posterior. This annoyed me to no end because she had been in a perfect LOA position for 6 weeks and after our huge breech scare, the last thing I wanted to deal with was a badly positioned baby. Things didn't really change for a few hours and at 9 PM Claudia decided it was time to intervene. She now classified my labor as dysfunctional and told me (very compassionately) that baby needed to be out soon. She asked me a bunch of questions to determine where I was mentally/ emotionally/ spiritually. I wasn't having any mental/ emotional blocks so we decided to do an internal exam. At this point we learned I was only 2 cm, baby was completely posterior, and she found some scar tissue on my cervix. The next thing I knew I started shaking uncontrollably and things got really intense. I screamed for Michael Paul who had decided to eat dinner at this exact moment. I remember Claudia saying "Michael Paul get in here - this is going to get real intense for a moment." After a few minutes Claudia explained everything to me. She was able to break up the scar tissue and after massaging my cervix for a few minutes, I had dilated to 4 cm. She also said she could already stretch me to 8 cm which was really good news. Baby was completely posterior though. Then she started explaining our next course of action (nipple stimulation, pelvic work) but she had to stop talking because I started having long long intense contractions pretty much back to back. The cervix massage was all I needed to be in active labor. The next two hours were kind of a blur. I was in a trance and focusing on my contractions bringing my baby down. I continued to move throughout the house doing lots of pelvic work and mostly laboring on my hands and knees or bent over whatever I could find. Usually when changing rooms/positions I would have a contraction mid-transit and would have to lean on Michael Paul. He spent a lot of time supporting my full body weight as I labored. I am very thankful for his incredibly strong arms! At 11 PM Claudia checked me again and I was 9 cm. I don't remember her checking me but I have this vague memory of her calling out to Natalie to fill the pool. I was so looking forward to a water birth! The next thing I knew I started spontaneously pushing and Claudia told me to do what my body was telling me to do. Eventually they got me on the birthing stool. I looked at my pool which was about 2 inches full of water and said longingly, "my pool." And Claudia said, "forget the pool - you're having a baby!" I continued to push and 25 minutes later she was out. She had 2 nuchal arms so she came out like superman with her arms in front. She seemed to want out and decided to tear (literally - hahaha) her way into the world! We got some incredible pictures of the birth but they are shall we say rated R so I'm not posting them, but here are more tasteful pics from afterwards:

15 minutes old. She really took to nursing and started

right after this pic was taken.

MP cutting the cord. He got a special knife for this honor which will one day be given to Keziah.

If you are wondering what the little red lobster in the background of those pics is- that's the side of my kiddie pool - my unused kiddie pool that has all of 3 inches of water in it now! But I shouldn't complain -I am glad she came pretty fast even if it meant no water birth!

45 minutes old - MP gets Daddy time while I get a shower.

After they got me all cleaned up (and stitched up), they

tucked me into bed and brought me some food. Then

they did a full newborn exam. That's Natalie in the

picture. Keziah hated this and she was ready to nurse

again when it was over. We were happy to learn she's

absolutely perfect!

Aunt Julie

My totally awesome midwife, Claudia

This is Michael Paul's favorite pic so far. He thinks she looks like a muppet and has taken to calling her that.

After we were all tucked in bed (2:30 AM) we called our parents and shared all the news. Claudia and Natalie and my sister cleaned the whole house for me and put all the towels and sheets in the washer before they left. Then Michael Paul got his guitar and played the special lullaby that he composed for her. We prayed together and blessed our new baby and then the three of us drifted off to peaceful sleep. It was a perfect end to a perfect day. I know I have just stuck to the facts because no words could ever begin to describe the emotions of this day - and really that's ok with me.