I was awakened at 1:00 am with a contraction.  This wasn’t unusual, but I continued to wake up once or twice every hour with contractions, which made me hopeful that I would have the baby in the next day or two.

I got up at 7:00 and my contractions were 10 minutes apart.  At 8:45 I was sitting at the computer and felt something “shift”.  I headed toward the bathroom wondering if my water had broken and by the time I got to the bathroom I was soaked.  The carpet was wet, my shoes were full of fluid, and there was a puddle in the bathroom.  I called Phil to come home from work (1 hour away) because I thought my contractions might start getting hard soon.

I called the midwife to let her know and we agreed that once Phil got home she would come over and help set up the birthing pool.

My contractions stayed at 10 minutes apart throughout the day.  Suzanne came over and set up the pool, and I tried to sleep since I hadn’t slept well the night before.  My contractions were strong enough that each one woke me and I had to concentrate through them, but I continued to doze between contractions.

Tara (my sister) came over in the afternoon and took my kids home with her.  I wanted her to be at the birth in case the kids needed support, so I told her I would call her when things changed. 

At 5:00 things still hadn’t progressed and Phil suggested we walk to Pier One to buy some candles and see if that would get things going.  I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of walking, but was bored sitting around the house and decided if it would help it was worth a try.  We ended up walking to several different stores and arrived home about 6:30 pm.  The last 20 minutes of our walk my contractions really started picking up.  They were coming every 3 to 5 minutes and Phil was ready to run home and get the car to come pick me up because I was so uncomfortable.

When we got home I went to use the bathroom and the midwife called to check on us.  I am so glad she called, because things still were not intense enough that I would have called her.  She offered to come by and check me to see how far dilated I was.  Just at that moment I had a contraction that was much more painful than the others, so I agreed to have her come by.  I was afraid that I would only be a 3 or a 4 and that would be so disappointing.

While waiting for Suzanne I got into the birthing pool.  I immediately felt so much better, but the water was too hot so Phil began bailing water and dumped a bag of ice into the pool.  The contractions were still uncomfortable in the water but much more bearable. 

Suzanne arrived about 7:15 and when she checked me I was dilated to a 7.  I was thrilled but the contractions were really hurting out of the water, so I was anxious to get back in.  I labored in the pool while she began setting up and called for her assistants.

By this point I was starting to cry a little bit during contractions and I was getting scared that it was going to hurt more than I had thought.  This was my first un-medicated birth, and I’d been under the (false) impression that if I did everything “right” (ie. water birth, relaxation, etc.) that it wouldn’t really hurt much. 

At 8:00 I suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to push.  Suzanne checked me again and the baby was starting to crown.  The assistants had not yet arrived  so Phil called for Tara to come upstairs and keep cool washcloths on my face while he got into the pool.  Our 4 children came into the room to watch the birth.  At 8:31 pm our baby entered the world and Phil announced that she was a girl.  J  She weighed 9 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long with lots of dark hair.  We named her Naiya (Greek for “water nymph”) because she is our little water baby.