{Jeriel Zeke} Nebraska Home Birth in an Urban Area
{This story was submitted by Jeriel's mom, April.}
The night that I went into labor, I had been at a doula film showing at Circleme. I think it was all the birth talk that got my body ready! I left around 8:45 knowing that I needed to get the kids to bed soon and wanted to make sure I didn’t have to carry anyone up the stairs if they fell asleep on the way home.
We got home and I got them both to bed by around 10pm. Ailani wanted to stay up but I told her that I knew I needed to get rest so that we needed to get to bed. I think she was sleeping by about 10:30. After getting her to bed I wanted to go watch my one show that I like, The Voice.
I got it started probably around 10:45ish and was laying on the couch during most of it. All the time I kept having to go to the bathroom, and it seemed way more urgent than other nights. As I was also watching the show I would sometimes get some contractions~ I didn’t really think much about them since I had been having contractions here and there the few days before that too.
I kept trying to watch the show but I kept getting interrupted by those contractions. They were enough that they were making me wonder, and think that I needed to get some rest. There was also some leaking (not a whole lot), but I really thought I should probably get to bed. So, even though I wanted to finish the show, I shut it off and tried to go lay down.
I could not get comfortable enough to sleep at all and within a few minutes (it was probably about 11:30pm at this time), I thought that I better call Juan to have him come over JUST IN CASE this was the real thing. Even if it wasn’t, I figured that if the kids got up he would need to help me with them because I needed to rest.
I tried calling him around 11:40pm and did not get ahold of him. I tried a few times. Around 11:55pm he called me back and I told him that the baby might be coming tonite and that I was having some contractions and that either way he needed to come to be with the kids. He said he could get there in ½ hour. That seemed like it would be no problem since it wasn’t that long. I got to thinking if I should contact my doulas yet or my midwife. I still didn’t FEEL like it was “the real thing”. Nevertheless I did send text messages to both of my doulas/friends to let them know what was going on and that it *might* come soon. As I was texting, contractions still were coming and I would sometimes get on the ball for them, and I kept having to go to the bathroom. Around 12 after texting /talking to my doulas I called the Midwife to let her know what was going on. She told me I should try to rest since I hadn’t rested yet and that I should call her back in 20 minutes if contractions kept up while I was resting.
Somewhere around 12:10am or so I decided to walk downstairs because I wanted to have the door already open for whenever Juan decided to come. I went down and tried to walk around on the porch because I really WANTED to walk ~ but after a few contractions I quickly decided I needed to get back inside so that no neighbors saw me and tried to call an ambulance or something.
So I went up the stairs and just on the stairs had two contractions and it was then I realized that this WAS the real thing so I called the midwife back (it seems like it was only about ten minutes after I had initially talked to her, not exactly for sure), I told her that yes I wanted her to come and that they were not stopping.
I forced myself to get up the stairs as quick as possible because I wanted to get into some water for relief. Yes, I was still alone at this point but I knew I needed water. I could not help myself. I made sure to call my doulas and let them know that yes they were still coming and not stopping and the midwife had been called.
Since I was not about to set up a birth pool by myself I just jumped into the bath tub to get me some relief from the contractions. I kept wondering if we might run out of hot water since it seems like we don’t have a lot in this apartment. For a moment I wondered if I would need to go to a friend's house that has a hot tub and plenty of hot water. But then I quickly realized even if I wanted to do that, it would not work because of the way the contractions were coming!
Around 12:30ish Juan came and at first was just there, he asked me if I had called the midwife but I was already kind of at a point that I could not talk much. Then I needed some back pressure so I forced him to give me some back pressure. In that time we also turned on the water more because I had only filled it a bit. Of course though at first Juan filled it with SUPER hot water and it started burning me! So I quickly turned it on cold to balance the temperature. Somewhere after this was happening.. maybe 12:40pm or so (?) one of my doula’s arrived. It was so weird because I still wasn’t accepting that I was as far along as I really was! Then she calmly told me that I needed to just give in to my body and accept that it was happening (in other words but I can’t remember). Quickly after that I said… um… I need to poop.. which I knew very well that it meant that baby was coming. I think either before or after I said that, I told my doula to call one of my friends from church to let her know that I was in labor. Right as she got done on the phone with her I felt this incredible urge to push. Since I know all about what was going on with my body as I got this urge I put my hands down to feel what what coming. Since there had been a concern that baby *might* be breech, I felt what was there and I said to Juan “Que es??!!!!” (What is it!?) and he said it was the head so I was happy to not have to worry about that! Then I instinctively squatted while still in the water and the next moment baby was born. It was seriously about 30 or 45 seconds of pushing. One *maybe* two pushes. It was all so quick. My doula had just walked back into the bathroom to watch the body fly out.
The night that I went into labor, I had been at a doula film showing at Circleme. I think it was all the birth talk that got my body ready! I left around 8:45 knowing that I needed to get the kids to bed soon and wanted to make sure I didn’t have to carry anyone up the stairs if they fell asleep on the way home.
We got home and I got them both to bed by around 10pm. Ailani wanted to stay up but I told her that I knew I needed to get rest so that we needed to get to bed. I think she was sleeping by about 10:30. After getting her to bed I wanted to go watch my one show that I like, The Voice.
I got it started probably around 10:45ish and was laying on the couch during most of it. All the time I kept having to go to the bathroom, and it seemed way more urgent than other nights. As I was also watching the show I would sometimes get some contractions~ I didn’t really think much about them since I had been having contractions here and there the few days before that too.
I kept trying to watch the show but I kept getting interrupted by those contractions. They were enough that they were making me wonder, and think that I needed to get some rest. There was also some leaking (not a whole lot), but I really thought I should probably get to bed. So, even though I wanted to finish the show, I shut it off and tried to go lay down.
I could not get comfortable enough to sleep at all and within a few minutes (it was probably about 11:30pm at this time), I thought that I better call Juan to have him come over JUST IN CASE this was the real thing. Even if it wasn’t, I figured that if the kids got up he would need to help me with them because I needed to rest.
I tried calling him around 11:40pm and did not get ahold of him. I tried a few times. Around 11:55pm he called me back and I told him that the baby might be coming tonite and that I was having some contractions and that either way he needed to come to be with the kids. He said he could get there in ½ hour. That seemed like it would be no problem since it wasn’t that long. I got to thinking if I should contact my doulas yet or my midwife. I still didn’t FEEL like it was “the real thing”. Nevertheless I did send text messages to both of my doulas/friends to let them know what was going on and that it *might* come soon. As I was texting, contractions still were coming and I would sometimes get on the ball for them, and I kept having to go to the bathroom. Around 12 after texting /talking to my doulas I called the Midwife to let her know what was going on. She told me I should try to rest since I hadn’t rested yet and that I should call her back in 20 minutes if contractions kept up while I was resting.
Somewhere around 12:10am or so I decided to walk downstairs because I wanted to have the door already open for whenever Juan decided to come. I went down and tried to walk around on the porch because I really WANTED to walk ~ but after a few contractions I quickly decided I needed to get back inside so that no neighbors saw me and tried to call an ambulance or something.
So I went up the stairs and just on the stairs had two contractions and it was then I realized that this WAS the real thing so I called the midwife back (it seems like it was only about ten minutes after I had initially talked to her, not exactly for sure), I told her that yes I wanted her to come and that they were not stopping.
I forced myself to get up the stairs as quick as possible because I wanted to get into some water for relief. Yes, I was still alone at this point but I knew I needed water. I could not help myself. I made sure to call my doulas and let them know that yes they were still coming and not stopping and the midwife had been called.
Since I was not about to set up a birth pool by myself I just jumped into the bath tub to get me some relief from the contractions. I kept wondering if we might run out of hot water since it seems like we don’t have a lot in this apartment. For a moment I wondered if I would need to go to a friend's house that has a hot tub and plenty of hot water. But then I quickly realized even if I wanted to do that, it would not work because of the way the contractions were coming!
Around 12:30ish Juan came and at first was just there, he asked me if I had called the midwife but I was already kind of at a point that I could not talk much. Then I needed some back pressure so I forced him to give me some back pressure. In that time we also turned on the water more because I had only filled it a bit. Of course though at first Juan filled it with SUPER hot water and it started burning me! So I quickly turned it on cold to balance the temperature. Somewhere after this was happening.. maybe 12:40pm or so (?) one of my doula’s arrived. It was so weird because I still wasn’t accepting that I was as far along as I really was! Then she calmly told me that I needed to just give in to my body and accept that it was happening (in other words but I can’t remember). Quickly after that I said… um… I need to poop.. which I knew very well that it meant that baby was coming. I think either before or after I said that, I told my doula to call one of my friends from church to let her know that I was in labor. Right as she got done on the phone with her I felt this incredible urge to push. Since I know all about what was going on with my body as I got this urge I put my hands down to feel what what coming. Since there had been a concern that baby *might* be breech, I felt what was there and I said to Juan “Que es??!!!!” (What is it!?) and he said it was the head so I was happy to not have to worry about that! Then I instinctively squatted while still in the water and the next moment baby was born. It was seriously about 30 or 45 seconds of pushing. One *maybe* two pushes. It was all so quick. My doula had just walked back into the bathroom to watch the body fly out.
This was the first birth that I wasn’t even fully naked for! I had no time to take off my shirt! I was wearing my “Where’s my Midwife” shirt so that was very fitting!!
My doula called my other doula to let her know that I had the baby, and she was JUST pulling up onto my street. Later she told me that she FLEW upstairs with this huge suitcase.. probably making a loud noise for my neighbor… oh well!
Once she got there she helped take off my shirt, baby self-latched, and I just sat there in shock that two hours before I was getting ready for bed (well actually still trying to watch The Voice), and now the baby was here!
I did not have the urge to push out the placenta for about 20 or 30 minutes, I believe. But once I did I wanted to get it out so quickly but it didn’t just shoot out since I was laying down in the tub with baby. So finally it came out (the placenta always seems harder than the baby!), and I was sooo relieved to be DONE! It was sooo fast!
After that my doulas helped me get into the bed with baby. We had clamped the cord in the bathtub but it was still attached. During that time, Juan had WOKEN UP Jaylen & Ailani, and Ailani was screaming, she was so tired, she wanted me but obviously I could not do anything to help her. Finally after quite awhile she calmed down. Then even though we had already seen that it was a boy we let the kids check and they both seemed pretty happy that it was a boy! I also knew that I had talked about if Ailani might have wanted to cut the cord, and she DID decide to do it. So that is the ONLY video we got for this birth since there was no time for video during contractions!
A few hours after baby was born the apprentice midwife arrived. It was while I was taking an herb bath. Then she weighed the baby, and did some other stuff. Once I was done with the herb bath they helped me get back into bed with baby and I tried to sleep until the midwife got there to check me. Around 4ish hours after the baby was born she got here and checked me and to my surprise I had not torn. I thought for sure I would have!
It was cool because I knew all along that everything was going to be fine, and though I did call my midwife, it ended up being an unassisted birth.
Now had I had the option of a LOCAL midwife maybe she would have gotten here FOR the birth.
To learn more about story submission, or to read more birth stories please click here.
My doula called my other doula to let her know that I had the baby, and she was JUST pulling up onto my street. Later she told me that she FLEW upstairs with this huge suitcase.. probably making a loud noise for my neighbor… oh well!
Once she got there she helped take off my shirt, baby self-latched, and I just sat there in shock that two hours before I was getting ready for bed (well actually still trying to watch The Voice), and now the baby was here!
I did not have the urge to push out the placenta for about 20 or 30 minutes, I believe. But once I did I wanted to get it out so quickly but it didn’t just shoot out since I was laying down in the tub with baby. So finally it came out (the placenta always seems harder than the baby!), and I was sooo relieved to be DONE! It was sooo fast!
After that my doulas helped me get into the bed with baby. We had clamped the cord in the bathtub but it was still attached. During that time, Juan had WOKEN UP Jaylen & Ailani, and Ailani was screaming, she was so tired, she wanted me but obviously I could not do anything to help her. Finally after quite awhile she calmed down. Then even though we had already seen that it was a boy we let the kids check and they both seemed pretty happy that it was a boy! I also knew that I had talked about if Ailani might have wanted to cut the cord, and she DID decide to do it. So that is the ONLY video we got for this birth since there was no time for video during contractions!
A few hours after baby was born the apprentice midwife arrived. It was while I was taking an herb bath. Then she weighed the baby, and did some other stuff. Once I was done with the herb bath they helped me get back into bed with baby and I tried to sleep until the midwife got there to check me. Around 4ish hours after the baby was born she got here and checked me and to my surprise I had not torn. I thought for sure I would have!
It was cool because I knew all along that everything was going to be fine, and though I did call my midwife, it ended up being an unassisted birth.
Now had I had the option of a LOCAL midwife maybe she would have gotten here FOR the birth.
To learn more about story submission, or to read more birth stories please click here.
