Norah Capri Barbieri
10/13/14
Told by: April
Millar, doula
It was
clear Sarah and Jake were going to do everything they could to be fully
prepared for the birth of their first child. I met them about half way through
Sarah’s pregnancy; they had done lots of research, made lots of decisions and
were looking for a doula and a HypnoBirthing class. Sarah asked so many
questions and had pretty much thought of everything, I was very impressed. I
could just tell they were going to have an amazing birth experience.
I have to
admit I was very surprised when I received a text from Sarah at 12:30AM Monday
October 13th, (two weeks before her estimated due date) telling me
she had just awoken and had about a half cup of clear fluid come out. She said
she wasn’t experiencing heavy cramping just what she had been experiencing for
the last few weeks. I responded telling her that I assumed that was her
membranes releasing. Perhaps the reason there wasn’t more fluid was that there
was only a small hole in the sac, or the baby’s head was so low that it was
plugging up the rest of the fluid. I told her she should try and go to bed and
get as much sleep as possible before labor started.
I figured
she must have gotten some rest as I periodically checked my phone through the
night and didn’t have any new messages. Until I got a message from Sarah at
7:30AM saying:
“About 3 minutes apart lasting a minute. What do you think
that means? Some are stronger than others.”
“Do you have to
focus pretty good through them? Can you walk or talk? How did your night go?
Did you get any rest?”
“Focus very hard! They are intense, thrown up from a couple.
Barely walk hard to talk unless in between contraction… and still hard. No
sleep was up all night with contractions. So tired.”
At this point I am realizing just how far along she is; and
that Sarah is the one trying to communicate with me, not Jake or anyone else. I
found out later that soon after her water broke labor started hard. Sarah
labored on the birth ball, in the bathtub for a few hours and all around her
house. She was in some sort of denial about her labor (probably because she was
12 days early), because she told Jake to go to work! Sarah finally got to a
point that she realized she was far advanced in labor and got pretty nervous
that she was going to be alone in her house when her baby came. Luckily her
mother-in-law was able to help her and Jake got home from work to get her in
the car and get to the hospital.
I got a
text at 8:30AM telling me they were headed to the hospital. They got there at
about 8:45AM. It was 9:00AM when Jake called me and said “She was just checked
and she is really close! Dilated to a 9 ½.” “Oh my goodness! Ok I am just
passing Provo I will be there!!!!” I walked in the delivery room at 9:20AM and
sure enough there were 7 or 8 nurses, Eve the midwife, Jake, and Sarah pushing
with all her might. I was so relieved that she and Jake had a lot of support;
some really great nurses and a wonderful midwife; all giving her great prompts
and direction. It did make me feel so horrible that Sarah labored so long by
herself at home, but I was glad she had so much help now. Because it seemed
that everyone had a good rhythm going during every contraction, I just started
snapping pictures.
Sarah had
the most amazing concentration and control during every contraction. I was
amazed! She would rest between and then with calm quiet focus she worked so
hard to gently push and bring her baby to crowning.
And just
like that their sweet baby was born at 9:46AM!
It was probably a good two minutes of utter elation that the
baby was born before someone said, “Wait, what’s the gender?” Jake looked
between the legs and announced with astonishment “It’s a GIRL!” “A GIRL???”
Sarah questioned. They both were pretty convinced that they were having a boy,
so the appearance of a girl definitely stimulated some shock and awe in them.
She was weighed: 6
lbs 9oz
Measured: 19.5”
And found to be
perfect.
It either showed sweet
Norah’s personality or poetic justice but Sarah kept saying, “I wasn’t prepared
at all, I don’t have anything I wanted to have. There was so much I still
needed to do.” It’s so fun how these darling little babies just do what they
want to do and wait for no mama.
Congratulations Sarah
& Jake, she is absolutely stunning!
No comments:
Post a Comment