An Unexpected Birthday Party

This is going to sound like one of those crazy TLC shows.  Get ready:

At 4:30pm on Thursday, October 11th, Justin and I zipped over to our midwife's house for a quick checkup.
At 7:37pm we met our daughter, Selah Rae Hymas.

15 minutes old

  I promised to write a little bit about why we decided to have a different sort of birthday for our baby than we were initially planning, but we had no idea how different Selah's birthday would actually be!

  Back in March, when Justin and I discovered that we were parents, we were extremely intimidated by the huge melange of decisions before us. We knew we wanted as natural and intervention-free of a birth as our situation would allow, but I held this idea with a measure of hesitation--would I be able to handle the mental and physical demands of childbirth?  What if it was too much for me? These decisions brought me eye-to-eye with my lack of confidence and impulse to dump the sense of responsibility onto somebody else.  

 The first time I actually considered a home birth was at a birth options class offered by Bloom Spokane, (a local network of naturally-geared mothers and care providers.)  I loved the idea of welcoming baby in an environment where gentle, natural birth choices would be the order of the day, but I was still too insecure to imagine having a baby without people in white coats telling me what to do. We started seeing an OB: a well respected, very personable doctor who sees lots of our friends.  In the meantime I started researching more and talking to women with alternative birth experiences.  The way these resources described birth totally changed my perspective.  The focus wasn't on trying to manage a horribly painful and dangerous condition, but rather on working with your body's natural, finely-tuned rhythm.  "Birth isn't pathological." a friend told me, "Its a natural event your body was designed to perform safely."  The more I learned, the more I saw that I could trust God's perfect design and overcome the physical challenges with a sense of purpose.  Because we continued to receive confirmation that my pregnancy was healthy and low-risk, I was an ideal candidate for a home birth.  For me, choosing a home birth was about putting aside my fear of the pain and taking responsibility for my baby. Justin and I interviewed several local midwives and chose a certified nurse midwife, Margaret Lipton.

  We were still two and a half weeks out from Selah's due date when I started feeling... funny, I guess.  Well, ok, this is really embarrassing, but I thought I had a UTI.  I had read so much about women getting faked out by false labor, and it just wasn't very painful so I figured it couldn't have been the real thing. I woke up twice on Wednesday night, but went right back to sleep, mildly annoyed with those stupid 'fake' contractions!  On the morning of Selah's birthday I got up early and met Justin at the YMCA for a swim.  Then we came home and cleaned the whole house for people coming over that evening.  That's when the contractions were getting noticeable, and I called Margaret to see what she thought about treating a UTI.  We set up an appointment for that afternoon and I continued bustling happily around the house, making bread and stopping every few minutes to deal with those dumb old braxton hicks.  I should have realized that this was different, but there was still something in my head telling me that real labor was supposed to be white-hot rockets of blistering pain that would send me howling in misery.  

  At 4:30 Justin drove me to Margaret's for a quick, in-and-out checkup.  But the test showed no infection.  Margaret eyed me suspiciously, "What makes you think this isn't labor?" She asked.  

  "Psssh," I replied, "It's still so early and I haven't had any of the other signs!"

  Margaret got out the Doppler device to listen to Selah's heartbeat, "These are real labor contractions you're having," she said, "You don't have a UTI, you're having a baby!"  

  She was about to send us home, when all of a sudden my water broke.  Right there.  In her office.  Justin almost flipped out.  Margaret checked my progress, and here's the big shocker: 

without much discomfort at all, without even knowing I was in labor, I had reached nine and a half centimeters.  

   "Uhhh, honey?" Margaret laughed, "You're not going to make it home!" 

Leaving Margaret's house

  From there it was pretty intense.  Not painful like somebody slamming your fingers in a door, but more like power lifting a barbell or sprinting up a hill.  At times I made it more difficult by straining other parts of my body (mostly my voice) but I was amazed by how doable it was, and throughout it all, I felt powerful.  Within three hours Selah was born, and the feelings of love and elation as she was placed on my chest were so unreal. This breathtakingly beautiful little girl looked up at us with eyes hopeful and courageous: we had been through a baptism of fire together and we were now a family.  I couldn't stop telling Selah what a strong, brave girl she was.

 Its funny, looking back, how worried I was at the beginning about everything going smoothly.  I ended up ignoring the pain I was so concerned about, and the intensity of the last part was like a rite of passage.  I wouldn't trade it for anything (and that's coming from the girl who pops four advil for a headache.)  I gained a lot of personal confidence through this experience and that's exactly what my daughter needs to see modeled in a woman.  I pray that God would give me the courage to always give my best to Selah, not fearing the cost.  Looking at this little face, I already know that its worth it!