Fulltime Mama My name is Elizabeth, and I am the happy wife of ten years to Fabio and fulltime mama to four beautiful children: Joshua-9, Dominique 7, Israel- almost 5, Johann-3 and expecting a new baby in April 2012! We are currently living in Brazil as missionaries and life never ceases to be an adventure!!! I love motherhood with a passion and am passionate about providing a place here at MamaKnowsBest where mothers can learn, grow, and share ... pooling the wisdom of many into one big jackpot for mothers. View all articles | Contact author

Dominique's Birth Story

It all started on a Monday afternoon, two days after my due date. I had had several practice labor runs in the two weeks previous to that, but this time it started and didn't stop... for four days! This prodromal labor was really rather annoying because contractions were not excruciating, but they were on the painful side. This made it so that I could not ignore them, but I also could not very well act as though I was in active labor either. So, I lived those days "just on the verge" of the real thing, trying to pass time taking walks, baths, playing board games, etc., always thinking "maybe today!".

Then Thursday night I felt something different. I couldn't eat supper, and I felt totally exhausted. I picked at my food and then headed for the bathtub. Afterward I went to bed, about 7pm. That is when I noticed that the contractions were more intense than what I'd been having all week, and a regular four or five minutes apart. I breathed through them deeply and prayed this was *it*. Then about 9 pm, things just stopped abruptly! I was disappointed, but glad for the chance to rest. I slept fairly well after that, but every time I awoke, I was still having those same kind of contractions. About 4 am, I was so hungry I couldn't sleep anymore, so I got up and ate and after that I never got back to sleep. Contractions were still every five minutes, and a bit painful, but not terrible. When Fabio woke up at 5:30 for work, I told him that I was pretty sure this was the day, but he went to work anyway, since we had no idea how long it might take.

About 8:30 I got in the tub and my mom got busy setting up the house for the birth. That was when I decided to go ahead and call Fabio home. I was having to moan through contractions now, but they still weren't too terrible.

Fabio got home and set up the pool. I got in for a while, then out again, laid on the couch a lot, then I would get up, afraid that being horizontal too much might hinder my progress. Still things stayed the same: five minutes apart and not too terrible. Two year old Joshua was there too, and he would touch my arm when I moaned, sometimes imitating the sounds I was making! It was very sweet. I hadn't been sure what to do with him for the birth, but that morning we arranged for a friend to pick him up around 2 pm, when he got up from his nap.

About noon, I was getting discouraged. It seemed like things weren't picking up and I was afraid I would be there for another 24 hours! Maybe I shouldn't have called Fabio home from work yet...? About that time I finally got a bit of pink tinged mucus, but I figure I still had a LONG way to go.

So around 1 pm, I decided to get online and post on my boards that I was in labor. I started to type, had another contraction, and my water broke! This surprised me, because in my first labor my water didn't break until I started to push. I let out a little yelp, and Fabio and my mom came to see what was happening. (They had been napping.) I told them my water broke, and then I went back to typing.

Just then I had a MUCH bigger contraction than I had had yet. I moaned rather loudly and when it was over I said that I thought I better get in the pool. But I wanted to finish posting! Then another one hit me and I knew I should get in the pool while I could still move. (I had managed to finish my posting, though!)

I got in the pool and Fabio started to scurry to put more hot water in and to put on the music I had requested. But the first contraction I had in the pool, I felt like pushing! It rather startled me, because I didn't think there was any way I could be completely dilated yet. I told Fabio to "get over here" and he knelt by me outside the pool while I squeezed the heck out of his hands. Contractions were one on top of the other, or rather just seemed like one big one that never stopped!

My screaming at that point scared Joshua, who was up from his nap and still home. My mom took him into the kitchen and gave him something to eat. When she heard me scream that the baby was crowning, she came running in so as not to miss it... and left Joshua on the kitchen counter!

I felt the baby's head moving down, but something felt wrong! I felt like her head was coming out my backside! I felt like I was going to split asunder all the way up my bottom and it scared me. I instinctively started to put counter pressure on the baby's head with my hand as hard as I could to slow down the descent. It managed to slow things down enough that I was able to breathe through a couple of contractions. I felt her move forward a bit, and I couldn't help but push then, so I did. She had been posterior and didn't turn until she was IN the birth canal! Ouch! A couple pushes, and out came her head, then I got a little rest before I pushed out the rest of her body. I reached down and lifted her out of the water and pulled her to my chest. I checked for sex and was OVERJOYED that she was a girl! I had thought all along that she was a boy! I was still in shock that it all happened so fast... just 30 minutes from the time my water broke! After 30 hours of active labor with my first, I was simply amazed.

Mom ran in and got Joshua off the counter and brought him in to show him the new baby. It was 1:40 pm... our friend hadn't made it to pick him up yet! It all turned out fine, though, and he was enthralled by his new baby sister. The placenta came out about ten minutes later, but stayed hanging by the membranes until I stood up to get out of the pool. We named her Dominique Joy, meaning "she who belongs to the Lord". She started to nurse like a pro right away and barely stopped for the next several days! Fabio cut her cord when it stopped pulsing and turned white, about forty minutes after the birth. We weighed her: 9 lbs, 12 oz, and 22 inches long with a head circumference of 14 inches. I was so excited that my perineum hadn't torn at all! I did have one small tear on the inside, the same place that I had it with Joshua. The midwife came about three hours later to check us out and we are both fine. Our new sweet daughter is beautiful and such a joy to us!