Miriam Joyce McQuay!
Born on Monday, January 13, 2014 at 3:35 pm after a 3.5 hour labor
8 lbs 8 oz 21.5 inches long
For those of you that are interested, here is the birth story. It is a birth story - you have been warned.
This story starts on Saturday when dearest Evette became sick. She had a nasty cough and a fever. When it didn't go away Sunday I began to get nervous. I didn't want to go into labor and have to drop Evette off at any one of our friend's houses and have her infect them and I was sure I was going to go into labor soon [because I was already 4 days past my due date for goodness sake! And I had an appointment on Monday to "get things moving along"]. So, I called my mother in somewhat of a panic asking her to please and kindly just come up now instead of when we went into labor.
She, of course, came right up.
On Monday morning we went down to the birth center, or "Baby House", as Evette calls it, for my appointment. I had been dilated to about a 4 for a couple days by this point and everyone was surprised that I hadn't gone into labor yet. One of my midwifes, Rachel, said that my body was "primed" and ready for labor and just needed a little jumpstart - so she stripped my membranes and told me to go walking to see if that could get things moving along. While we were there we met Ella, who is labor assistant and happens to be in our stake [church]. She said she would clear her schedule so that she could come help with the labor.
Here's my mom, Evette, and Rachel checking the baby's heartbeat.
Sean took Evette to the minute clinic [poor baby had a double ear infection so they gave her some antibiotics] while Mom and I went on a little walk and then went grocery shopping. I was having regular-ish, small-ish contractions at the grocery store and was excited that things might actually be moving along. We made it home and had some lunch and by the time lunch was through my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and a minute long and quite quite strong. Active labor had really begun [around 12:15pm]
My last baby bump picture taking in between contractions that day. I was at 40 weeks and 5 days.
We called the midwife and she said to come on down and they'd check me out. It took like what seemed forever to get ready and get into the car. We had to get all our stuff ready and together and in the car and I had to say goodbye to Evette - it was breaking my heart, because I knew things were going to change, but that will have to be a whole other blog post.
We drove down to the birth center and I had contractions 2 minutes apart the whole way. It was less than awesome. We barely made it up the stairs to the waiting room where the receptionist greeted us before I started another contraction. Her casual "hello" turned quickly into a "Oh! Wow, ok, Rachel is ready for you why don't you go on in!"
As we walked into exam room and were greeted with another casual "How's it going?" I started another contraction and Rachel's eyes got quite large and she quickly ordered the delivery room to be made ready, for the birth assistants and other midwife to be called and she started right on some paperwork. She tried to check my blood pressure but was unsuccessful because a contraction would always come up and disrupt the reading. She was able to quickly check me and said I was nearly at a 6 and then they rushed me down stairs to the birthing room.
They asked if I wanted to labor in the tub and I said sure [1:30pm-ish]. Shortly after getting in the tub all my people arrived! Ella, the wonderful lady from that morning who turned out to be an angel, Debbie, another wonderful birth assistant, and Traci, my midwife [at the birthing center you rotate though and see all 3 midwifes so that you're comfortable with any of them that might be on call. Traci was not on call that day, but Rachel had another couple that she was going to "help get things going" with in just a bit and would not be able to do both, so she called Traci for me! I had been seeing Traci the most recently and I was thrilled that she was called]. When Traci walked in I started crying - I was so glad that she was there!
And of course, my trusty husband who is always by my side.
Traci and the husband, and me in the tub.
I decided early on to not fight any of my contractions, but to embrace them and work with them to have my baby. I was successful - I was in control the entire time and felt everything that my body was doing, worked with it and the pain instead of against it, and it was awesome. Awesome does not mean not painful, fyi.
I sat in the hot hot water and breathed through each contraction while I had Sean squeeze my hands as tight as he possibly could. I needed to counter the pressure of the contractions but I did not want to waste any of my energy on tighten up so I made Sean be that counter force. At one point during a contraction Traci's face got super concerned and I got nervous. I asked her what was wrong and she said my fingers were turning purple from the pressure that Sean was giving - it made me laugh because to me it felt like he was hardly doing anything.
Apparently I'm hilarious while in labor. I guess the tone in which I said things was funny. I guess because my body was so controlled and calm yet I was saying things like, "Can we be done now?" and "This contraction feels like it's ripping my legs apart." and "This isn't going to last forever, is it?"
All the ladies were so great and helpful. They were so kind and supportive. It really was a great time - I felt so safe and taken care of the entire time. I love them.
After a while of laboring I could feel the contractions change and I knew we were getting close.
A few contractions later little Miriam was born. Miriam's birth was of a rare variety as it was a caul birth, meaning that she was born while still in the amniotic sac which was completely intact. My water never broke on it's own during labor. Sean "caught" the baby as she was born and Traci, my midwife, swiftly "broke" the sac and pulled it off of her and then placed her on my chest.
Caul births are very rare [1 in 80,000ish] and are said to be a sign of good fortune or that the child will posses special gifts. I'm all good with that!
She was so beautiful! The most beautiful baby I've ever seen.
After she was born all the ladies asked me what her name was - I turned to Sean. While we were pregnant we had the hardest time trying to decide on a name. Seriously. We have a list of 50ish names that we considered and then crossed out. I was having some serious stress about what to name her so I decided to hand the reigns over to Sean. He would be the one to pick her name [obviously I had veto power and we'd still discuss together, but it would be his call and he'd have to fill out all the paperwork to make it official.]. So we came into the birth with 3 names that we both liked and would decide once she was born. After they asked and I looked at Sean his eyes just lit up as he said, "Miriam!" It was so sweet!
We love the name Miriam. It was suggested to us by my brother, Dan, so he gets some points there. We love Evette's name in that it's different without being too weird, it's beautiful, and her namesake is the Biblical Eve - a woman of great faith and strength. We feel Miriam is the same way - it's different without being too weird, it's beautiful, and her namesake is the Biblical Mary - the courageous mother of Jesus.
Her middle name, Joyce, was picked out long before she was born. I knew if we had a second daughter I'd want her middle name to be Joyce, after Sean's maternal grandmother.
After a few minutes they took Miriam to clean her up a bit and they helped me to the bed and cleaned me up, too.
The birthing room. The tub I labored in is in the bathroom, in the back right corner of the room.
When I called my mom she couldn't believe at how quick it was!! We asked her to grab us some subway sandwiches and to come down to meet Miriam!
Grandma seeing Miriam for the first time
Evette washed her hands with Daddy and then came to look at the new baby. It was really a powerful moment. She was so quiet, and serene and reverent. She knew something incredible was going on. She just looked around with big round eyes, and looked back and forth between Sean and I with a look in her eyes that said, "Is this ok?" as she touched and looked at her new baby sister. She was so reverent. It was a beautiful moment.
Here she was concerned because "Baby crying, mommy!"
She was so sweet and gentle. One of my top moments in life right here, friends, my two babies.
Our little family of 4!
Then they checked her all out and weighed and measured her.
She was 8 lbs 8 oz and 21.5 inches long!!
[just for comparison, Evette was 8 lbs 9 oz and 22 inches long - nearly identical!]
It was a beautiful birth. Incredible. Awesome. Spiritual.
What a blessing! I'm so grateful everything went perfectly.
What a thing birth is - It's amazing.
We love Miss Miriam Joyce McQuay
