I was due with my second child on May 8th and had gone into labor a week early with my first. By the time I was 4 days past my due date, I began to worry that my plans might not be executed at home, as I hoped, if I waited much past 41 weeks…so I made an appointment at The Nest to have acupuncture to induce labor. My appointment was at 11am on May 12 (my birthday). I had some light contractions while on the table, but I had been feeling these for the past week so it really didn’t mean much to me. They slowed that afternoon after the appointment and during my trip through Whole Foods to pick up some picnic food for my birthday dinner that night. My in-laws were in town so that they could take Ryan when I went into labor. All of us were planning to go to Oz Park on that beautiful, sunny day for a relaxing picnic. Plans went accordingly and we watched Ryan play barefoot in the grass while eating watermelon, cherries, guac and chips, chicken, gruyere, and crackers. I began again to have light contractions, but just relaxed and enjoyed myself, not alerting anyone to my progress. We put Ryan to bed at 7pm and sat around our living room visiting. My father-in-law asked me how I was feeling at about 8:30pm and I told him I was having “medium” contractions. By the time Dan left to drive them to their hotel at 9pm, I told them all that I thought I would be having the baby that night. I called Hillary to give her an update on my status. Contractions progressed quickly to a point where I could no longer talk through them or concentrate on a television show that Dan and I had decided to try to watch. We called Rita and Hillary again and updated them. Both said they would be on their way.

I began listening to my Hypnobirthing audio and labored in bed (which had been prepared for potential delivery if necessary). My water broke at 11:30pm, and right after that, Hillary and Rita arrived. I stayed in bed because the tub was not yet ready and I was worried that with my water breaking I would feel additional pressure if I stood up and that would cause labor to progress even further and perhaps I would birth my baby right then instead of in the tub (I had had a tub birth with Ryan and really wanted that again with this baby). There were some issues with water leaking and our hot water tank being emptied that caused what seemed like an eternity to pass before the tub was ready (in reality it was about an hour).

I got in the tub at 1am and was doing well managing the pain through contractions with the help of my Hypnobirthing technique. After about another hour, Hillary and Rita started to help talking me through “nudging” my baby down. Apparently, (I later learned) they felt I was fully dilated before even entering the tub. Unfortunately, I never got the urge to push as I had with Ryan. I didn’t really know how to do what they were asking me to do so I just started making that deep moan sound that I often heard other women making in birthing videos and it seemed to help move the baby a little. Each time I would stop though, the baby would move back up. I started thinking maybe the baby was stuck. But I did not want to give in to that thought/fear.

I continued to work and finally I felt the baby get to a point where she was coming out and I could push. It was much more intense at this point than with Ryan. I felt the “ring of fire” and it was much more difficult to get her out than it was him (he was 6’12” where she weighed 8’8”). Dan was able to catch the baby and he swept her quickly into my arms. Amazing. Indescribable. It was all worth it. To see this little person that I had just worked so hard to birth. I was in love. We forgot to determine the sex for the first minute and then Dan announced that she was a girl. She was born at 3:05am on May 13 (my grandmother’s birthday) and has my mom’s maiden name, Colvin. Ryan slept through it all. That morning, when he awoke, he had a baby sister