I posted Victoria's birth story shortly before having Ada, so I figure I should do the same for Ada before baby boy comes, so here it is.
A friend of mine had told me about a relaxation/hypnosis track called “Baby Come Out,” that is meant to induce labor naturally. We had a family reunion in Austin coming up, and I wanted to make sure Ada (we already had the name) was old enough for us to go. The worst that would happen, I figured, was that nothing would happen, and Ada would come at her own time. Based on how she was measuring (and how much weight I had gained) she was a good size, so I wasn’t worried about that.
So Friday night, about a week before her due date, I listened to the track just before going to bed. Sure enough, I started having contractions off and on during the night. By 8am, the contractions were a few minutes apart, but they weren’t very strong. If they weren’t so regular, I wouldn’t have thought I was in labor, because they didn’t hurt yet.
Russell and Tori were waking up for the day, so I got breakfast ready for Tori. As I was doing so, I began to cry. It just hit me that this would be our last breakfast with just Victoria, and part of me was feeling sad about that, irrationally so, even though I was excited to have Ada in our lives. Since that time, I have come to realize that I can still have one-on-one time with my kids.
Once I felt like the contractions were close enough together, I called the midwife who was on call and let her know. Christine, the midwife, told me that I should probably go ahead and come in. We loaded up everything in the car, then took Victoria to our friends the Martinez’s, who offered to watch her while we were at the birthing center.
Once there, the midwife took me upstairs to the exam room to see how far dilated my cervix was. As she was examining me, my water broke. Good thing I thought to have Depends on! I slowly made my way downstairs to the birthing room. Once there, I got in the shower and went down into a squat for each contraction.
The midwife and her assistant coaxed me into the tub to labor more there. I think it was about 11am at that point. I was a bit reluctant to go into the tub, since I remembered how much I didn’t like it with Victoria, but this time I felt more confident in myself and knew when I would feel it was time to leave it. I spent some time there laboring fairly comfortably.
At some point, I felt it was time to get out, so I started making my way to the bed. As I did, I dropped down into a squat while holding onto a bedpost. Christine put pressure on my cervix in order to get it to dilate more fully while I did so, and Russell put pressure on either side of my hip to relieve some of the pain. I remember feeling annoyed at the midwife for putting pressure on my cervix, even though I knew she was doing it to help me. At that point, the assistant snapped a photo with our camera. Russ and I both turned and simultaneously said “No pictures!” I guess we forgot to tell them ahead of time. Suffice to say that picture was deleted. I’m not one of those moms that wants that part of the birth process shared with the world.
After that, they got me on the bed, and after just a few pushes, Ada was out. I remember feeling that “ring of fire” as she crowned, and then feeling surprised at how quickly she was out of me, considering how long I had been pushing for Victoria.
Ada came out kicking and screaming. She was a fighter from the beginning. I held her on my chest as we cut the cord. When the midwife weighed her and said she was over 8 lbs, Russ and I were stunned. After she and I got cleaned up, Russ left to pick up Victoria while I stayed and nursed Ada. Tori came in and immediately joined us on the bed. She loved her little sister on sight, and even got to hold her with our help.
We are so happy that Ada is in our family. We love her so much. She brings us joy and laughter every day!
