Another Birthday and a Birth Story

My baby is having another birthday today and she comes to us with a great story. Well I think so anyway but my husband still gets chills when he thinks of that birth-day!! Obviously she was born in winter and winter in Wisconsin isn't always pretty. Here is how it all began. We were planning to homebirth again as have done in the past. The baby before Mary was extremely quick and nearly painless leaving my midwife a bit nervous with this one. She told me to call at the FIRST sign of any labor so she can be here on time. (barely arrived 20 minutes before our last one) And being winter and all we did just that. She arrived around 2pm as I thought I "felt" something. After all I was 15 days over due so any sign of labor is most likely just that. Around 3pm my water broke and there was meconium in it. Not tons, but enough to give things a thought. But no problem, my babies have always come quickly just after my water breaks so we knew we had time. However, this baby had other ideas. Over 2 hours later, pushing, walking, leaning, standing, anything and everything we could think of left us with no baby yet. At this point hubby and midwife are getting concerned. 2 hours of pushing isn't in and of itself a big deal but since we had meconium earlier we thought we should rethink our plans. Our midwife left the decision to transport 100% up to my hubby as he is the head of the home and my head as well. (This is how she works and that is one of the things we loved most about her, is she would not interfere at all. Of course though she gives us her 'medical' opinion but leaves it all up to the father) He laid his hands on my head for a blessing and prayer and then after we all said a prayer he decided to make a transport. This is where the fun begins. Hang on to your seats. Our 17 year old was told to gather the children into the school room and get them to coloring or reading or anything. Then she called the hospital to alert them of our plans. Hospital is 42 miles away. I am fully dilated and water broke. We had 2 feet of snow on the ground and daddy flies our 15 passenger van so fast up to the front door that the kids thought he was going to come right on in the house. I grab a robe, and put on some flipflops and off I go. My midwife grabs her things and into the van we go. My midwife was praying out loud the whole way which brought me much comfort as I was trying to focus on her words rather than my circumstances. If that's possible. I am dying by now, the baby just was not in position but that doesn't stop the major pressure or the contractions. Finally, about half way to town she moved into position. Okay, now I dying. I've never huffed and puffed in all my life. Hindsight, WHY didn't we just pull over, give birth and go home. We haven't figured that out yet. So I get to the hospital, they race me upstairs and I don't quite make it onto the bed and she was born. Now look at the time of departure and the time of birth as recorded in my midwife's notebook. We left home at 3:40pm, delivered at 4:02. You do the math. It was a 40 mile trip. Okay, baby's in my arms, everything is fine and the nurse looks at us and says, "so do you want to go home now? You might as well, you were going to be there anyway!" You bet I do. Then it hit me now that I had my bearings back. I came here in a tshirt, a bathrobe, and flipflops!! Baby had nothing, no car seat, clothes, nothing. I looked at my hubby and said what am I going to do, I have no clothes fully expecting him to go back out into the storm and snow to drive back home and get me some clothes. I should have known better. He just said, "well, you managed to make it here in what you had, I'm sure you can make it home!" So we did. The nurse gathered some clothes and a carseat for Mary and we were home before anyone even knew we left!! What a blessing and a joy she has been since.

Mary is our 12th child and 9th daughter. She is a joy to all of us. She gets the best of so many people. So much more than the other baby's got since there hasn't been a baby since she's been born leaving her to get ALL the attention and not having to share it with anyone.

My little drama queen pretending to be sad. Truth is she had a great time.

Emma gave her a kit kat bar and she said it was her favorite present and that she wanted a picture of it!! So here it is. All mixed in with her pink frosting.

Happy Birthday Miss Mary. Love you tons and tons.