Kaia Shay's Birth

On Sat March 1st Kaia Shay decided it was time to make her arrival, and she was in a hurry.

I had been having contractions which were timeable on and off since 2/10, I had gotten to the point of believing she was never going to come at all. So, Fri night I made Tony take me to a movie, and again my contractions stopped. It was so nice to get out and not think about “when is this baby going to come.”

Sat. morning I woke up and nothing, not a single contraction. I decided to go to the chiropractor (he has been my best friend the last couple of weeks) I had been going to him twice a week for hip pain. Just as Dria, Tris and I were leaving my dad called asking if he could have Dria for a couple of days, I was planning to have her adjusted because she has had a cold the last couple of days, but I had a contraction just then and decided to drop her off at my dad's on the way to town.

Tris and I arrived at the Chiropractor's office at about noon and I was having occasional contractions. I remember thinking," oh yes, this is what real contractions feel like, now I remember." As soon as I was adjusted my contractions jumped to less than 1 min. apart. I chatted with the chiro's wife for a few mins, and after putting Tris in the van I wasn't sure if I could drive the 15 mins back home. I couldn't get a hold of my friend who was planning to come to the birth to drive me home so I figured I could do it, but I called home and told Tony and my sister "this is it."

When I got home I just honked the horn and Tony and my sister came out to get us. We called Janiece, my dad's SO, Mary Pat, my friend, and Joanne, our back-up midwife (our midwife went on vacation for a week at 5 am that very day.)

My sister had to go get Janiece and Dria since my dad had just left for town with Janiece's car. Tony was trying to get the birth tub full and hot.

Soon everyone but Joanne was here (now we know why they always boil water on TV) boiling water for the birth tub.

Tony was great at supporting me through contractions. At about 1:30 (that's right only an hour and a half had passed) I decided to feel and see if the baby was coming down at all, just to encourage myself, and I felt my waters bulging at my perineum. I really, really wanted to have the baby in the water so I decided not to squat again until I could get in the water. At some point I tried to get in the water and it was just too cold, Tony tried pointing the hose of hot water on me and I asked him," why would you do that to me?"

We got out of the water and I decided that's enough of that, and I told Tony that when my water breaks this baby will be here (I found out later that he really didn't understand what I meant) and he said OK. I then squatted through a few contractions at this point Joanne's assistant arrived and came into the birth room I snapped," don't watch me" and she left.

Then as I had said my waters broke and with the first gush of water out came her head. I caught her head and felt her chin up. Then I told Tony that I couldn't reach to catch the rest of her. I saw the midwife's assistant reaching for her and said "no! Tony! Don’t touch her."(I meant that the assistant shouldn’t touch her but, Tony thought I meant him.) And with the second gush of water Kaia was born onto the floor. Tony handed her to me and we sat down just as Joanne arrived at our house.

Kaia is perfect and I am doing great I'm just a bit tired, as to be expected.

So here are the details:

Kaia Shay Urwin, 9 lbs 6 ozs, 21.5 inches long was born into her parents' hands at 2:02 pm on Sat. March 1st 2003, before the midwife arrived and so the unassisted birth I really wanted.