Today Sarah is six years old.
Sarah was born on a very hot day. The day
before I went into labor, the heat index reached 112 degrees. The flies were
biting and we were out in the shade shucking corn.
The next day I went
into labor with her very early in the morning. I fixed breakfast and after
breakfast called the assistant midwife. She called my midwife (who lived 8 hours
away and was planning on coming up the next day) and told her she should go
ahead and come up. My contractions were getting further and further apart, so we
thought it wouldn't really be that day. The midwife drove as fast as she could,
afraid she wouldn't get here in time, but I wasn't worried. We snapped beans all
day.
As the midwife got closer, she called on her cell phone and we
agreed to meet at a friend's house in a city about an hour away. That way she
could see me as soon as possible. So we drove there and met in the afternoon and
she checked me and agreed I probably wouldn't have the baby that day. My
contractions had just about stopped by then. She took us out to eat at the
nearby Ryan's, and while I was there my contractions starting up again. They got
stronger and closer together.
After dinner, she thought it would be a
good idea to go for a walk in the mall because the head was turned a bit, and
walking would help it get in the right position for labor. She had already given
me an herb to relax my uterus, because my parents were on vacation and weren't
coming back for a few days and they really wanted to be there. At that point I
was pretty sure they weren't going to make it for the birth.
As we left,
it broke into rain and everything cooled down. They asked me if I wanted to go
back to our friend's house and rest, or go home. I wanted to go back to the
friend's house, because my contractions were getting harder and I didn't want to
go on another hour drive on bumpy country roads. Plus, our trailer was very hot
and my friend had air conditioning.
My friend told me I was perfectly
welcome to have my baby at her house, and she would be so honored if I would. I
was just happy to be cool.
I slept in between contractions, in between
my husband and the midwife. A few hours later I woke them both up because they
were really getting hard. She checked me and said I was just about ready, so
they set up the birthing stool. Sarah was born in about five minutes. I cried
because it was so much easier than my first two births. I remember saying that
if this was what birthing was supposed to be like, I don't know what everyone
else was complaining about. She was born at 2:30 in the morning on Sunday,
August 1st.
We slept there that night. Our friends watched our older two
children in the living room while I was having Sarah in the bedroom, and then
they came in and saw their new sister and we all spent the night. The next day
we slept in and then stopped by Meijer and bought donuts for breakfast and then
drove back. We got to Erick's parent's house just before they left for church
and they got to see their newest granddaughter. Then we drove up to my parent's
house so we could finish canning the green beans we had snapped. They were at
church. Some of the beans had spoiled already and had to be thrown out.
My husband was doing some work on their back room, so he did some of
that. At one point he asked me if I could hold up a ceiling panel and I told
him, "Erick, I just gave birth a few hours ago. I can't." He felt a little
foolish for forgetting that. He just thought I was walking around fine and
looked fine and didn't even think about it when he asked me.
My parents
got to see the baby when they got back from church. Then we took her home.
Sarah is such a sweet girl. She's the quietest of all my children.
Mostly she just smiles at you and doesn't say anything.
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