One of my favorite things the write about has to be birth stories. I love telling someones story from my perspective and adding in the details that may have otherwise been missed. My all time favorite birth story is my own. The birth of my daughter is what set me off on this path. Ever since the day she was born I knew I wanted to be apart of birth in a way other than just experiencing it for myself, so here is my story.

I remember the weekend like it was yesterday. It was unseasonably warm for September and I was bored. For weeks leading up to this weekend I had so many things going on in my head. I was running around like a crazy person trying to make sure everything was how it should be for when the baby arriver. This Saturday was different, I felt as though there was nothing left to do. everything was done and ready for her arrival.

She must have known we were ready because at 4AM on Sunday morning I woke up out of a deep sleep. For some reason I felt like I had just peed a little. Not a gush but just a little trickle. I hopped out of bed to go to the bathroom and finish emptying my bladder. When I was finished peeing I went to stand up and a gush of fluid came rushing out. My first thought was panic, then joy, then more panic. I went back to the bedroom to wake troy up and tell him that I think my water broke. Troy is not a morning person and never has been. I poked him a couple of times and he grunted. I explained to him what had just happened and he mumbled for me to call the hospital and ask them. So thats what I did.

The nurse on the other line instructed me to put on a pad and see if I soak through it in an hour, and if I did to call back because they would want me to come in. So I put on a pad and tried to lay back down. There was no way I was going back to sleep so I walked down the stairs to get a water and on my walk back up more fluid can rushing out. I knew then that it was time to get things going.

I woke Troy back up and told him it was time to get going and I was met with “cant I just sleep for another couple of hours?” I laughed and said “sadly no. its time to go!” troy got up and we started getting read to leave. we didn’t rush at all. I took a shower, Troy showed, we packed the car up and we left the house by 7. On the way to the hospital we stopped at Dunkin and grabbed breakfast. At this point I started getting cramps. It felt like a slightly uncomfortable period cramp. I had been sitting on a towel and its a good thing too.

When we arrived at the hospital a nurse wheeled me up to labor and delivery, once I was checked in one of the labor nurses came in and checked to make sure It was amniotic fluid that was leaking out and she also checked my dilation. I was 4cm dilated! My cramps were getting a little stronger but it was not painful. I walked, more like paced, the tiny hall at Southern Maine Medical. When I got tired of walking I happily changed to sitting on the ball. I bounced while watching How Its Made and Troy Took a nap on my bed. At about 6cm my cramps started feeling more like contractions, but it wasn’t unbearable.

At about noon I was 8cm. The contractions started to get more intense. I moved to the bed and began working on breathing through the waves of contractions. Just then the lovely nurse came in and told me it was time for a position change, the monitor was showing a dip in babies heart rate so I moved to hands and knees on the bed. Dr. Bittler came into the room and calmly told me that if I wanted to I could bear down on my contractions, that made a world of difference! Putting pressure on each contraction made them feel so much better.

Soon after getting on hands and knees I knew something had changed and I really wanted to lay back down. When I did Dr. Bittler checked me and The baby was right there and I was ready to start pushing. Troy was standing right next to me helping in any way he could. They all hurried to get everything ready and I remember telling them that I wanted to see. The nurse wheeled in a mirror and made sure I could see everything. That was a mistake. While I loved seeing I didn’t love he fact that When I pushed it looked like I wasn’t making any progress. I pushed twice with the mirror before I told them I didn’t want to see anymore. The nurse flipped the mirror over for me. After the Mirror was gone I pushed once more with no progress. I kept thinking about how it would all be over as soon as she was here, I wanted noting more but to hold my baby. The next push I put everything I had into it. I pushed so hard her head popped out! I didn’t know her head was out and kept pushing, the nurse had to tell me to stop pushing so that they could help her shoulders out. They instructed me to give one last push, Not as hard as the last one. I gave one more small push and she was here.

Valen Lucille Shaw was born without and epidural at 12:49 weighing 5lbs and 10oz, she was 18.5 inches long. When she was placed on my chest I had a whole rush of emotions and feelings. I was confused, it felt strange, I looked her over and I thought to myself “they just gave me this baby.” It took me about a minuet of holding her and studying her features to have that moment. Love rushed over me and in that moment I couldn’t have felt happier. Troy was crying with joy and we just held each other and let the love rush between us. Troy cut the cord and I delivered the placenta and we were left alone to enjoy our new little family member. She was perfect.

I never had the thought to hire a birth photographer so here is the photos from mine and Troys phone.