Moon Baby's birth story

Moon’s Birth

Tuesday March 6^th 12pm: I was laying down with Tao for his nap and started to feel small contractions. They were very sporadic and not too painful. I questioned if they were real. I was able to stay laying down with him for his whole nap. When he woke we went out on the balcony and when a small contraction would come I would walk back and forth. My parents arrived back from the store and started playing with Tao. I decided to take a vitamin B and coconut water and headed to the shower. The shower seemed like a good place to try and figure out if what I was feeling was labor. I wasn’t ready for anyone to know that I probably was in labor, so I tried to act normal.

Once in the bathroom I fumbled around with my ipod, finding it extremely difficult to concentrate, that was my first sign that this was real labor. I put on Nitin Sawney and got under the water. The contractions got stronger but still not time able (to sporadic).  The first few contractions in the shower I spent swearing under my breath. I decided to try something different, and for the next few said, “hello baby” over and over. This improved things a bit. As contractions got a bit stronger I decided to try a new tactic and turned on Ted Lennon’s version of “Don’t think twice it’s alright” because I can sing along to it easily. Singing as loud as possible when the contraction hit was amazing! It helped so much! As they slowly intensified I switched to Cas Haley and sung his version of “walking on the moon” along with other tracts on his album. At that point I was kneeling down leaning on the edge of the tub singing. I felt a bit anxious and scared about what was ahead of me. I thought of Ina May and expressing your fears to move forward. Out loud I said, “I’m scarred!” Silently I told myself, “I can do this, it’s ok”. The fear was somewhat released.

I decided I wanted to get out and sit on the toilet. My contractions at this point were very close together. I sat on the toilet and started fumbling to get to the next song on the album and my arm hit the snooze button. The music stopped. I felt a bit panicky because I couldn’t get the music to play again and singing was helping so much. All of a sudden an extremely intense contraction hit. I felt something shoot out of me (probably my mucus plug). I turned to look and saw blood, lots of blood. I knew it was time to call my Midwife. I reached for my phone to call Freddie, who was a few rooms over (he had no idea what was going on). The call went through but I could only make myself whisper, “Come in the bathroom.” He opened the door and I handed him the phone and said, “Call Mary, close the door I’ll tell you if I need anything.” As soon as he was gone a huge contraction hit, I was screaming. I sat on the toilet and another one hit. Reaching down I felt my body stretching and the baby’s head approaching. The contraction was so strong that it completely took me over. It was beyond pain, something indescribable. After the contraction I gathered a pile of towels in case Freddie didn’t make it in time and I needed to slip the baby onto them. Another contraction hit, and I called out Freddie’s name. He opened the door right away. Moon’s head was already out. The last strong contraction hit and Moon’s body slipped into Freddie’s hands. I don’t remember pushing at all. The last set of contractions were so strong that they must have guided Moon out. I never felt my water break ether, maybe it broke during the contraction were I felt my mucus plug shoot out.

Freddie placed Moon on my chest. Immediately I called for Tao. I remember Freddie calling to my parents saying, “We have a baby.” Tao came over to me and I showed him Moon! One of my parents asked the gender. I pulled Moon away from my body for a second. “A boy!” Freddie told them.

2:42pm: Freddie, Tao, Moon and I were all together, and the world felt perfect.