Birthing Tristan

I looked at the clock for a bit and then tried to figure out what to do with myself. Do I listen to my Hypnobabies™ Easy First Stage? Do I get up and clean? Do I just lay here? I started to anxious and then the restless feeling kicked in so I decided to get up and distract myself. But first I nudged Geremy to let him know I was in labor but it was early yet and I was going to get up and do some things.

I picked up the living room, was very tempted to vacuum my messy stairs but knew I'd probably wake the house; I then went back downstairs to get on the computer to see if anyone was on. I decided to time my birthing waves to see how close they were and for how long they were lasting -- they ranged anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes lasting roughly a minute or so. Once I saw the pattern I just knew I was in early labor, I got back up from the computer and was SO close to vacuuming those silly stairs and had even mentioned it to Geremy when he called back down, "Oh my goodness, Julia! No."

I laughed because I knew I was being ridiculous but was kicking myself for having not done it earlier. They were so dirty and it was making me bonkers! But I also didn't want to wake the kids and I knew I was "labor nesting" so I went upstairs and cleaned the living room instead.

At this point the birthing waves had become much stronger and had moved down low. I went back into the bedroom so that I could sit on my birthing ball and be near Geremy. After a few minutes of this I began to feel restless again so I got up and stated walking around the house.

As I was walking back through the kitchen I had my cell phone in my hand and had dialed my midwife's number. This was around 2:10 am but then hung up thinking, "What if I'm not actually in labor?" and yet my gut was screaming at me, "Yes, Julia, you ARE in labor! You know you are why are you fighting this?"

I'm not sure why but I just couldn't get myself to call her. It was almost as if once I did I was opening that door and I wasn't quite ready to let the world know my secret so I walked on, laboring alone and in the quiet of my house. After pacing the house for awhile I went back into my room and picked up my ipod and turned on Easy First Stage so that I could listen to it.

This is about when I decided to really go into my bubble and labor zone, sitting back down on my birthing ball I leaned against some pillows on my bed. I found it absolutely fascinating how easily I was able to make the birthing waves completely manageable, nearly pain free and I think this was part of why I wondered if I was "in labor enough to call anyone" because they were SO easy to deal with.

When I'd pull myself out of the hypnosis and a birthing wave would sweep over me I would think to myself, "Oh yes, this is the real deal" but had to bounce between these two places for awhile before I turned to Geremy and said, "I don't know why I can't call Cathy." Of which he replied, "Just call her." And so I did. This was at 2:50 am.

"Hi, Cathy. It's Julia. I'm pretty sure I'm in labor. I've been contracting every 3 to 5 minutes for the last hour and a half."

She calmly replied, "Okay, I'll gather my stuff and come on over to check you out."

After hanging up I called my friend Brandi who was going to do the photography for me, not to mention she’s a very dear friend of mine. I then phoned my sister to let her and my mom know I was in labor. After the parade of phone calls was over I stood there in the quiet of my living room, soaking in what was going on.

After a few minutes I pulled myself out of it. "Okay, here we go!" I said to myself. It's begun, my secret has been opened.

I let Geremy know I had called everyone and then started walking around as I worked through the birthing waves while listening to the Hypnobaby™ script. I found when I walked around and kept myself active my birthing waves came on quicker and more consistent; whereas, if I sat on the birthing ball or kept still, I got really restless and didn't have as many birthing waves. I wanted to go fast so I kept moving.