First of all, let me just say that my sister is the queen of looooooong labors. With all 3 of the other kids, we spent days timing contractions, walking, watching movies, just waiting for labor to increase and go to the hospital. It was because of this history, that when Jenn told me Monday morning that she had been contracting through the night, that I thought, "Ok good, the baby will be born sometime this week". And again when she called me at 4:15 and said the contractions were 5 minutes apart and getting a little stronger, I still did not give it much thought. When she called me at 8:30 and said the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and getting more intense, I figured we may have a baby the next day, and advised her to sit in the bathtub for awhile and try to get some sleep.
Now, admittedly, I was having a hard time with the fact that my sister was about to deliver her 4th baby, while I have been trying to get pregnant for a year a half and still have no babies, so if I analyzed myself I might think that maybe I wasn't ready to deal with it yet, and therefore was in denial that my sister actually was moving along rather quickly with this labor. Any how, when Jeremy called me at 9:30 and said "we gotta go, her water just broke", I finally got my tail in gear and threw on some clothes and headed out the door. Thank goodness that Patrick was home and was able to drive me to the Allen house. On the way there, I get a call from my Dad, who I can tell is trying to stay calm, but it went something like this, "She is in transition, she just threw up, she won't let me call 911, WHERE ARE YOU?!" A couple of minutes later, Patrick's pager went off and we hear them dispatch a "Pregnancy/childbirth" to my sister's address and "Dr. Veatch is on the scene". Now, my Dad is a great doctor, I can't tell you how many people have told me over the years how much they love him, but when it comes to one of his kids, he might as well have no medical experience because he just about cannot handle it, probably because he knows all of the "could happens", but it was probably more helpful that Esmond was on scene, then Dr. Veatch. :) A few minutes later Dad calls me yelling "we have a head!" (they didn't have a head) and that was when Patrick sped up to 105 mph. Whew!
After what felt like the longest ride of my life, we finally pull in the drive way and I go running in, to find my Dad, and brother in law pacing the floor, along with Esmond who looks totally confused. Eowyn and Gideon were asleep thank goodness. Jenn was on the floor in her bedroom, propped up against the bed, my mom was sitting next to her, and one look told me were going to have this baby very soon. I told Dad to find me something to suction the baby with in case she arrived before the paramedics. Just as she was crowning, the paramedics arrived and chaos ensued. We had a slight clash of the wills as they came bursting into the room, turning on the over head lights and yelling back and forth to each other. Rightfully so, they came in treating this like an emergency situation, but Mom, Jenn and I did not think of it as an emergency, we were simply birthing a baby. It took a few minutes but they realized that we were not panicking and they calmed down a little. As the baby is making her way into the world, the paramedics start talking about taking the baby as soon as she is out in order to check her out and my mom said "I'm just letting you know, if you want to make it out of this room alive, you will not try to walk away with that baby. You are dealing with a Mama bear here". I don't think they quite knew what to do with us. :) Baby Noemi finally made it all the way out and into her Mama's arms. She was a little blue and not crying right away, but we rubbed her, and Jenn talked to her and she finally gasped and made a little noise. One of the paramedics asked if he could take the baby so they could get Jenn onto the stretcher, but she just looked at him and handed the baby to me.
I had been dreading the moment when Jenn asked me if I wanted to hold her because I knew that it would be painful and to look into the face of this tiny baby and it would just be a reminder of what I had never experienced before. But when she was all of a sudden thrust into my arms and I wasn't holding her to admire her or coo at her, but to protect her and keep her warm, it was a healing moment for me. The last 9 months have been difficult, watching Jenn's belly grow while mine stayed empty, and with the other babies, my hands were constantly on her belly, wanting to feel them kick and wanting them to hear my voice, but with this baby, I kind of separated myself from her because it was too painful. So to have this intimate moment with this little creature still covered in after birth and meconium, I imagine was ordained by the Lord. It was very special. Anyway, we got Jenn on the stretcher and out into the den where Esmond got to meet his sister, and somebody woke Eowyn and Gideon up so they came out still half asleep and looking totally confused. After all, when they went to bed, their mom was still walking around with a baby in her belly, and then they wake up to a house full of people, mom on a stretcher, and Tia (that's what they call me) holding the baby. I carried Noemi out to the waiting ambulance and kept her close until Jenn was situated and could take her. I didn't realize that I was shaking until I stepped out of the ambulance and into Patrick's arms.
What a night! The women in our family have this running joke that we are like a herd of elephants, because, when a baby is born to a mama elephant, the other females in the herd are just as protective of that baby as the mama is, and we are like that with our babies. Mom and I were definitely in true elephant form that night as we surrounded Jenn to protect her so that she could focus on what she was doing, and then were fierce in our determination that Noemi stay close to her Mama at all times. I have since been over twice to visit at the Allen house and now I can't believe that I ever had thoughts of not wanting to get to close to that baby, because I love her so much already, she is so tiny and feisty. She has this head full of beautiful bronze colored hair and it sticks out in all different directions :) When I hold her, I don't think about the baby that I don't have, I focus on the baby that is in front of me, one that I can love, snuggle, and spoil just like I do with the other kids. It was the most amazing experience and now I'm ready to do another home birth, who's up for it?! :)
