I am excited to share with you this BIRTH-day story written by Alea's mother Cara
with post script message from Cara's mother Bonnie.
On Thursday, January 22nd, my due date, Tina came over for a check –up and found that my blood pressure was a little high. If it stayed high she would not be able to attend me at home. So, I e-mailed my principal to let her know I would be starting my maternity leave the next day, then under Tina’s instruction went swimming and submerged myself for ½ hour and ate a lot of protein. The blood pressure came down, another week passed, and early on the morning of January 30th, we got down to business.with post script message from Cara's mother Bonnie.
In the 6th month of my second pregnancy, I watched the movie, “The Business of Being Born.” Having a home birth had always appealed to me, I just didn’t know how to do it. Not that I didn’t know how to give birth, it was all the other stuff I didn’t know, like where do you get the supplies you need and how do you get a birth certificate and who checks the baby after it is born? Luckily, the providers I had been seeing gave me Tina’s name and number and were very supportive. It took us close to a month to actually get around to calling Tina, and as I look back, that was a good thing because had we called her right away she would not have had room for us in her schedule! As it turns out, when we called her in early December 2008, she recently had an opening in January and although she didn’t normally take on clients so late in their pregnancies, she agreed to come over and meet us. Thinking that the cleanliness of the house was a huge factor in determining if a family was a good candidate for a home birth, I tried to remove as much dog hair as possible, pick up toys, and act as if our house was a suitable place to bring a baby into the world. Tina could not have cared less about the condition of our house, and was really interested in getting to know us and understand our family dynamics. On our first meeting, I remember that it was freezing outside and her daughter sat in the car for over an hour “acclimating” to the cold for ski season. At that point I knew we would get along, and apparently , we passed the first test!
About 1:40am, my water broke. That was the one of the strangest feelings I’ve ever had. It was literally as if the “pop” inside woke me up to a gush of fluid. Jeff, Jeff, my water just broke! He got up to retrieve a towel so I could get to the bathroom without making a huge mess. Then we looked at each other. Now what do we do? Our birth experience with our daughter Zoe had not started like this, and of course we were expecting things to be more or less the same. Okay, first things first, we need to wash the sheets since we only have 2 sets and we’re going to need both sets. The dishes in the sink need to be washed . Call Tina. No, don’t call Tina, it’s 2am and I’ve only had 1 contraction. Wake up my parents (who’ve been here from Michigan for the whole week and are hoping to see their new grandchild before they leave the next day but who have NO intention of actually being a part of the birth) so they can get to a hotel before it is too late (they decide not to go to a hotel , they’ll just stay in their bedroom). Time contractions which seem to be about a minute closer with each one. Assure Jeff that he needs to get out of bed because things are progressing MUCH faster than with Zoe. Get the pool set up. Did we call Tina?
In a few minutes, my mom can’t take it anymore and comes out of the room. She sees me and the frequency of the contractions and determines we don’t have much time. Get the lavender water bath going. Is the bed made up with the shower curtain? Have you called Tina yet???? The pool doesn’t have any water in it? She wakes up my dad who begins filling buckets with hot water in the event Jeff can’t figure out how to fill the pool with a hose.
Eventually Tina gets called and given the appropriate information, the pool is set-up, the bed is made, my dad is timing the contractions, and I’m trying to get comfortable in the pool and resist the urge to push until Tina arrives. Jeff calls Tina again, and this time I think she hears me in the background and says she’ll be there in 5 minutes. When she arrives, she checks me and says that the baby’s head is below the cervix and I can feel free to push. Since I had a hard time stretching out into a comfortable pushing position in the pool, I try standing up and leaning on Jeff or squatting, but finally we head into our newly laundered bed. Once I was comfortable, Tina felt like Jeff and I were doing fine so she left us alone in the bedroom and went to sit in the living room with my parents. Those few minutes will be ones that I’ll never forget. The privilege to lie in my own bed with only my husband taking care of me while allowing my body to do what it naturally knew how to do, was what I had always hoped for in my last baby’s birth. Wow.
At 5:28am on January 30, 2009, Alea Kyle was born with Jeff, my mom, and Tina assisting. A perfect baby to finish off a perfect labor. After getting acquainted for a few minutes, Tina took all the measurements and called them out to my dad who was waiting for information in the living room. We then had a lesson on placental anatomy (very interesting for a science teacher), rested, and then we all got up to have coffee and began the rest of Alea’s birthday.
Burying the placenta a few months later.
Burying the placenta a few months later.From Alea's Maternal Grandmother:
Cara called a month or two before Alea's birth to tell us she and Jeff were planning a home delivery. I swallowed a couple times and she assured me that if there were problems that Tina, the midwife, would call the hospital. Cara also assured me that if before the delivery there were any complications Tina would not do a home birth.
So, even though I had given birth to a sick baby, I told myself this would be OK.
Cara's dad and I planned to fly from Michigan to help with Zoe and to be of help after the baby was born. We arrived several days before the baby's birth. I did not want to be an interfering mom or mother-in-law so John and I had planned to take Zoe to a motel when the baby was born.
How silly was I! In the wee hours of the morning of January 30 Cara woke us up saying her water broke and she was was having contractions 2 - 3 minutes apart. Two o'clock a.m. was not the time to wake up Zoe and cart her off to a motel so after deciding that while lying in bed I got up to check out what was going on. One look at Cara told me that this was not going to be a 14 hour labor like Zoe's was.
Cara wanted to labor in water and so I decided that interfere or not we had to get the pool pumped up. After a few little complications the pool was finally sturdy and round. We checked the guide from Tina for water temperature and began filling the pool.....
On and on I could go about every little detail...but I won't. I was honored to be in Cara and Jeff's home for Alea's birth. John and I were there! We each had little jobs...we were a part of the process. After deciding the pool had to be pumped up I never again felt I interfered.
When my children were born I didn't see their birth. As I held Cara's leg to give her pushing support I'll never forget Alea landing in Tina's hands and how she in just about one motion put Alea on Cara's abdomen. It was like Wow!
After the birth I took many pictures. One of my favorites is (and I didn't realize this was in the picture until I had it developed) Jeff lifting Cara's sport bra off over her head so that Alea could get to her mother's breast. It gets me every time....the tenderness.
Thanks for this opportunity....Bonnie 
