The Birth of Sylvia June

Five days past my due date.  Will this pregnancy ever end?  Will I ever get to hold my baby?  9:30 PM my water breaks.  No contractions.  This could be a long night.  I try to sleep.  My nerves won’t let me.  A few hours later the contractions come but far apart and irregular.  An hour later they are intense and two to three minutes apart.  I’m walking, swaying, breathing.  Bob Marley plays in the background.  It’s happening.  My baby is coming tonight!  My husband and mother are there.  They take turns holding heat to my abdomen, to the pain. 

I’m in labor land now.  It feels like one long contraction that intensifies every so often.  There is no break.  I’m doing my circular breathing.  Thank you Birthing From Within.  I hear myself moaning.  It’s animalistic, quite beautiful actually.  “Every little thing is gonna be alright.”  After two hours, he calls the midwife.  She hears me in the background and says, “I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.”  He packs the car.  I continue to labor in my home. 

2:45 am we get in the car.  The contractions are excruciating now.  Emergency flashers are on.  We are flying down the road.  It feels like a movie.  I am in so much pain. I don’t remember being in this much pain until the very end last time.  There is no way this is the end.  I don’t know if I can do this for hours.  Another contraction.  I can’t do this for hours!  Forget natural birth.  Take me to the hospital for some relief.  No, just get me to the birthing pool.  It will feel so amazing.  If I can just make it to the water. 

We finally pull in.  The midwife meets us at the car.  She helps me to the birthing room.  “Are you feeling any pressure?” she asks.  “Not really,” I say.  I see the pool filling up.  Thank, God.  I drop my pants and she checks me.  “It won’t be long,” she says.  I stand back up for another killer contraction.  I hold the bed post.  She puts the monitor on me.   Silence.  She’s searching, searching.  This is too familiar.  This can’t be happening.  I can’t believe I’m praying for a heartbeat again.  She goes to find a Doppler.  I begin to panic.  He tries his best to calm me.  “You just need to focus on you and the baby.  Breathe for our baby.”  “Our baby without a heartbeat,” I think. 

She comes back with the Doppler.  Silence.  It’s broken.  After everything.  After all we’ve been through.  This is how it’s going to end.  How can there not be a heartbeat.  My body takes over.  I have to push.  I’m pushing.  Wait, it’s not time to push yet.  I haven’t made it into the water.  We haven’t found a heartbeat.  How can I be pushing? 

Although I fight them, they make me lay on the bed.  I push again.  I don’t know if the baby I’m pushing out is alive or dead.  The next moment, my baby is out and on my chest.  I hear my husband crying out with joy.   Our baby is here!  I’m holding our baby.  That little flicker of a heartbeat we saw so long ago.  That baby we thought we lost.  That baby we longed for.  All I can say is, “Oh my God.”  I’m in shock.  I can’t believe our baby is here.  Our baby is looking right at me.  Our baby is breathing, squirming, moving.  I am so in love.  But wait, is our baby a boy or a girl?  I go to look.  I stop myself.  I want him to tell me.  He looks.  “It’s a little girl!” he says with tears in his eyes.  We have another little girl.  It’s all over.  The waiting is over.  She’s here.  She’s healthy.  She’s beautiful.  Our little Sylvia June.  You have our hearts forever.

 

Sylvia June Wolfe

Born August 30, 2012 

3:10 am just ten minutes after arriving at the birth center.

7 lbs. 13 oz.

19 inches long

Beautiful, sweet and loved.  What a wonderful blessing.

 

Thank you to our delivering midwife Lesley, our nurse midwife Ashton, and all of the other staff at Charleston Birth Place for all of your care and support.  You ladies are amazing! 

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Our Next Big Adventure

We love Charleston!  It is our perfect city.   There’s so much to do.  There’s so much to see.  So much beauty it takes a lifetime to soak it all in. 

When we were pregnant the first time around, we thought we’d do the responsible thing.  The thing that everyone expected us to do and the thing that adults would do.  We bought a house in the suburbs with plenty of square footage, a nice neighborhood in a good school district with a big backyard.  We have regretted this decision ever since.  There is nothing wrong with the suburbs.  They’re just not for us.  We have made some amazing friends in good ole Summerville and that I am thankful for.

We recently, by chance (don’t the best things always come about by chance?), had an amazing opportunity put in front of us.  We were resistant to it at first and joked about it but eventually it became a “why not” situation.  It is not one we came to lightly.  We discussed it over and over again before we decided to go for it.  We will be moving our family of four from a 1600 square foot, three bedroom home to a 600-700 square foot, one bedroom apartment in downtown Charleston.  We are very excited about this!  Yes, there will be sacrifices made and some things will be more difficult but we gain so much more than we lose.

There is a park across the street with a playground, soccer and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, and picnic tables.  There are multiple other parks within a ¼ mile.  There is a free trolley system that runs through all of downtown and there is a stop about two blocks away.  This means we can catch the trolley for free to museums, restaurants, the aquarium and tons of shopping.  This is a dream for us that we didn’t think we would be able to achieve for a very long time.  Most of our neighbors average millions of dollars a year so that will be interesting!

One thing that almost stood in our way was our stuff.  We thought we needed all of this square footage to hold our stuff.  I am going to have a new series where I talk about simplifying instead of organizing.  Because we have limited space, I had to decide what things were actually necessities. Do we really need five potato peelers?  The less stuff you have, the less time you have to waste on it. 

I will definitely be walking all of the time so I will be taking lots of pictures.  If you have Instagram, you can follow me @seekingradiance.  If you don’t have Instagram, you can check the left side of the blog for pictures.  I will also be posting some of the pictures on Facebook.

I hope you are excited for our new adventure and you enjoy following along!

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