Nahli's Story unedited

This is the original unedited version

Nahlia Roe

I woke Wednesday March 16, with contractions. I lay in bed through a few but, didn’t pay any attention to how long or far apart they were. To be honest I was trying to fall back to sleep. At 7:00 I needed to go to the bathroom so I got up and realized that “today is probably the day.”
I tried to call Tony at work at a little after 7:00 and, the lady who answered the phone asked, “Is this an emergency?” I could only answer, “Uhuh,” as I was having another contraction. So she put me on hold and paged Tony who of course didn’t hear the page. She asked if she could give him a message, I told her that he needed to call home ASAP.
Then I waited, and waited. During the time that I waited I felt my labor slow down. I wanted an unassisted birth but, I really, really wanted Tony to be there. I was afraid that he wouldn’t make it because Kaia’s labor was only a little over 2 hours from first contraction to baby.
While I waited I started filling the tub and posted to my groups that I had changed my mind about being pregnant forever. My body also took care of some house cleaning at this point. Finally, at a little before 8:00 I called back and said that I really needed to talk to Tony. She told me that his supervisor had just gone to give him a message. “WHAT?” I couldn’t wait any longer so I decided to get in the tub.
Finally Tony called me back and I told him, “Haul butt!” He didn’t get it so after finishing that contraction I explained that he needed to get home NOW! I also told him to call me back on his cell so I wouldn’t be alone. When he called me back on his cell phone he asked me if he should stop at my dad’s and get the horse tank/ birth tub. I thought about it fleetingly with longing but, then I got real and told him that we didn’t have time to clean it and set it up and I was already in our bathtub. We talked for a while then I hung up so I could concentrate on the contractions.
At some point here Tristan woke up and came into the bathroom to see what was going on and I sent him upstairs to wake up Dria since I had promised her she could be there when the baby was born. Kaia also got up sometime in here. Tristan and Kaia put a movie in and Dria hung out with me.
When Tony got home it was hard for him to split his attention between me and the kids so he got pretty stressed but, he was great about getting things for me and generally setting up things. I lost all track of time once Tony got home. The contractions were intense but bearable and I got out of the tub several times to pee. Going pee was a very precise operation. I absolutely cannot stand to have a contraction on the toilet so I had to wait until I was just getting over a contraction then jump(Lol “jump” I was 9 months pg and in labor “jump” ha, snort) out and run to the toilet and hope that I was done and off before the next one started. Several times Tony had to rescue me from the toilet.
Dria was so great, she would hold my hand during contractions and she felt that it was her personal duty to get me anything I asked for. I was alternating between kneeling and squatting facing sideways in the tub. Between contractions I would lay my head on the side of the tub and doze.
At this point my legs were really cramping up from being bent for so long so I tried side lying in the tub and that was not a great position, so I went back to my squatting/kneeling.
For some reason during this labor I was really thinking about pooping during pushing, it was something I was wasting a lot of energy on. I really did not want to poop in the tub so I kept getting out and trying to go on the toilet but, nothing was happening so I had Tony get me a chux pad to squat on and I tried pushing there so if I pooped it wouldn’t be in the water, to no avail. And contractions on land were much worse than in the water so I finally decided I would just deal with whatever happened.
After I got back in the water, I checked my cervix to see what was going on. I could only feel one side of my cervix and the bag of waters was bulging at the cervix, I could also feel the baby’s head through the bag. I remembered the first time I felt during Kaia’s birth her head was barely one knuckle in and I felt a bit discouraged that it was all the way up by my cervix.
I tried pushing a bit and all of a sudden I no longer had a choice about pushing. I was in a really funny position, my legs would no longer hold me in a squat so I was kind of kneeling but leaning off to one side. I was worried about getting too high because I didn’t want the baby’s head to be out of the water at any point and then I would have to get out of the water to finish delivering him. Tony said something to me about not banging his head on the bottom of the tub. So we each had our own worries.
We called the kids into the bathroom and I vaguely remember them standing around Tony at the side of the tub. Tony kept telling me to slow down so I wouldn’t tear and I just didn’t have any choice. I was rubbing the baby’s head through it all, which really helped me to concentrate and ride through the contractions. My body was doing it all and I had the irresistible urge to push.
Finally my water broke and I could feel his head at my perineum, I also felt the ring of fire, ouch. Then his head was born and I felt his face and could feel these incredibly chubby cheeks and then I felt him turn to face my right thigh and then the rest of him slid out. I pulled him to my chest and leaned back on the end of the tub.
We called Tristan over to check the sex; he said “It’s a boy!” Then I moved the cord out of the way and asked him if he was sure and he just said “oh” in a disappointed tone and walked out of the room. Poor Tristan he so wanted a brother since he all ready had two sisters.
Tony announced that it was 11:13 and shortly after I got into a squat and pushed and out came the placenta and I sort of pulled the bits of membrane out after it. Kaia freaked out when she saw the placenta, she wanted to know what was wrong with the baby so I hid the placenta under my leg and Tony tried to explain that “mommy has the baby.” She was beyond consoling so Tony just held her and we made sure that Kaia didn’t see the placenta again. She still says “the baby came out you tummy two times.” So I am not sure what she thought the placenta was, maybe another baby?
We were just sure through the whole pregnancy that the baby was a boy so we had no name for this little girl baby.
Tony went and boiled the scissors to cut the cord and I was not in a hurry to cut the cord but Tony was. He asked me how short to cut the cord and I told him that it didn’t matter to just cut it so he cut it about six inches from the baby. Then Tony took the baby and wiped her off while I had a quick shower and kind of cleaned out the tub. Then I took our newest baby back and went to relax in the living room.
It wasn’t until the next morning that we came up with a name for this surprise baby girl and, amazingly enough Tony suggested Nahlia. His usual job when thinking of a name for our babies is to just say no to everything I suggest. So Nahlia Roe she is. We didn’t weigh or measure her that first day but on Thursday we took her to the pediatrician and she was 8 pounds 13 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She was one of my smallest babies.
We had a wonderful birth experience and it was great not having to worry about anyone, except Tony, making it on time to the birth. It was so peaceful and cozy to just have our immediate family present. The whole experience was perfectly normal and completely miraculous at the same time. It was the (unassisted) birth of my dreams.