Birth is a beautiful thing - no matter if it happens so fast you barely have time to put your thoughts in an order that makes any sense at all, or so slowly you want to pull your hair out because you don't know what's keeping this little one from joining his family!
I was about to leave my house on Wednesday morning to start gentle labor induction (read breast pump and herbs and environmental helps etc)to encourage labor to really kick into gear when I get a call from my other client that she is in labor - oh and by the way - she lives 35 minutes from me and the contractions are only a few minutes apart and she has a history of going fast!
So plans change quickly to us (my assistant and I) going to my other client's house and not too surprisingly everything is all done and mom and baby are happily tucked into bed a little after noon so after we get some lunch and debrief the birth, we call my first client and ask if she still wants us to come over today or wait until tomorrow.
She wants us to come today still. So we go around 3pm and as long as the breast pump is going she is having strong contractions but otherwise they almost completely stop. The labor pattern is so mystifying that I end up calling my dear midwife friend from the Philippines to talk through the situation since she had attended a woman in a similar situation not too long ago.
In the end, we all decide it's for the best to go to bed at 1:30am. Baby had been in a good position, but then at one point shifted and as long as mom was in a running start position he was fine, otherwise not. We all slept and then woke up around 7am the next morning.
Around 10:30 we found a wonderful chiropractor who was willing to come out and help baby get into a better position and so with some adjustments and a little acupuncture and breast pump action labor finally got going and strong!
Soon after we were joined by a handsome little man and joy permeated the room as all the hard work finally paid off.
Thank you Lord for beautiful births.
