Born in the Car: the birth story

Born in the car. Where do I begin? I guess the beginning would be our choice of a midwife. I found Nancy when we lived in NC. We thought we would be living in the Sumner/Auburn area. To make a long story short, Ryan ended up finding a job in Everett which is about an hour and 15 or so minutes away from Nancy. When I told this to Nancy she offered to help me find a midwife in Everett, but I liked her and didn't feel like it would be a problem getting to her in time. After all, most women are in labor for 8 hours or more with their first babies.

Soooo, we got in the car accident (see previous post) and found a new car. Our new car was at my uncle's shop (an hour and a half away) getting an inspection. I was really eager to get the car back in time for baby to come. Tuesday morning, the 28th, I drove to pick up our car from my uncle's shop and then went to my dad's house to hang out with the kids for a few minutes before getting back on the road. I started to feel some contractions so I figured I'd better get going before I got stuck in Port Orchard. On the drive home, my contractions were about 6-10 minutes apart, but not too bad so I didn't think much of them. Before going home, I stopped at the library near our house and did some stuff on the internet. I don't really recall having contractions at the library, but there must have been a few. At 4:30 I picked Ryan up from work. We took the car to get an emissions test and then headed home. Once home, Ryan and I made dinner together. By this time, my contractions were getting more intense, but I still wasn't sure that they were the real thing. At dinner, I commented to Ryan that the baby would be here within the next 48 hours. After dinner, I called my mom and asked her to stop by our home after work to help me determine what to do next. At some point I called Nancy and told her that my contractions were between 5 and 8 minutes apart. Nancy told me to take a bath, thinking that would slow the contractions, and to call her when they were three minutes apart and lasted for a minute and a half. They never got there.

My mom called for my sister to come meet us at the apartment. They were almost here when they realized they forgot the video camera. They went all the way back home to get it and then came back to our apartment. By the time they got back I started getting the tremors. My mom knew what was going on and insisted that we get in the car and leave right away. So at about 12:00am we all got in the car and headed down the freeway.

Ryan seemed somewhat nervous so I calmly told him not to speed. I still felt like we had plenty of time. Somewhere around Bellevue my contractions went from six minutes apart to one on top of the other. Once we hit Hwy 167 my mom strongly suggested that we just go ahead and stop at a hospital, but I insisted that we would be fine and that we would make it (besides, I hate hospitals and I didn't want everyone in a rush to whisk my baby away from me, etc, etc.). On we sailed. Along the way more detailed things I'll refrain from discussing happened. I dropped subtle hints to my mom letting her know that it was happening.

Somewhere between the Algona Pacific exit and 8th Street E at 12:47am, little Leslie came into the world with Daddy driving about 100 miles per hour and Auntie Aliya passing back supplies to my mom who delivered her. We were just six miles from Nancy at this point, so there was no point in stopping now. Ryan turned up the heat in the car and we wrapped Leslie in the cheau pads that were provided in my birth kit. By the way, if you wonder about the car, it's fine. We had planned for my water to break so we had the seats well protected. There's not a spec to speak of anywhere in the car.

We made it to Nancy's in record time. Nancy came out with warm towels, helped my mom cut Leslie's cord, and then delivered the placenta. She then helped me inside where we were given plenty of time to get to know our "Little One" and rest. By 4:00am we were all back in the car again and heading home to our own cozy beds.

For all the drama our sweet girl has been through in the last several weeks, she is quite a content little thing and not half as dramatic as her little life has already been.