Miles Gunn's Birth Story

We had just arrived home the night before after a week of evacu-cation due to Hurricane Isaac. At 4am I felt the first contraction, had a couple more and got in the tub to relax. Called my midwife and she said try to sleep. Tried that, but then ended up throwing up, which is how I knew I was really in labor the first two times, so I figured this was a good indicator that today was the day! I remember praying that he would be born before the girls’ bedtime so that they would be able to meet him and also sleep in their own beds that night.

I went back to bed and kept having about 1-3 contractions an hour. We had a friend come over and help entertain the girls for the morning so David could tend to me. I was an emotional rollercoaster at this point, happy one minute, anxious the next. I probably threw back half a bottle of Rescue Remedy just trying to calm my brain. It was hard to eat, though I was hungry, and nerve-y.

Aveny’s labor was 36 hours, and Gemma’s 19. I think remembering this psyched me out and made me a little down-hearted. I was tired (only got about 4 hours of sleep because we just returned from being evacuated at 11pm the night before), and worried that I wouldn’t have the endurance for another long labor.

At one point I took a bath and listened to some worship music, which really helped. One chorus stuck out to me then and kept coming back to me through pushing, “You've got all things suspended, All things connected, Nothing was forgotten, 'Cause your love is perfect, You are our healer, And you know what's broken, And we're not a mystery to you” (Watermark, “Mended”). I realized that all of this was good, and that became my mantra. “This is GOOD!”

In the early afternoon contractions began to pick up a bit, maybe a couple every 15-20 minutes, and the girls were still around, but I decided it was time for them to head out. My sister in law came to get them around 5. As soon as they left I asked David to put on some happy, upbeat music. So we blared Cee-Lo and then my body got down to business. David filled the birth tub with water in our bedroom, I got in, and contractions started coming every 2-3 minutes. We called our midwife and told her to get ready–she was about an hour away and we figured we had at least a few hours until he’d be born.

After about half an hour of consistent contractions I called Sally in between and said I needed her. She was on her way! About 15 minutes later I started feeling pushy–back labor and feeling the baby coming down a bit. At one point I felt inside and felt the baby’s head! I remembered doing that with Gemma and this time was no less incredible. He still felt high, but I tried not to be discouraged.

We kept on, I was managing the pain with low moaning, David’s hands on my lower back, and holding small combs on the palms of my hands. A friend had told me that it can help activate pressure points to relieve pain. It worked and saved David’s fingers!

Sally arrived around 6:30, checked me, and I had just a little lip of cervix. She offered to either move it out of the way manually during a contraction or see if I could not push for a few contractions and maybe it would move out of the way on its own. I decided to try to not push. That was tough, but somehow I had the presence of mind to manage during this stage. With the girls’ labors I was a lunatic at the end. Emotional, cussing, begging for pain medication. With this one I just kept moving forward. It was amazing. I was home, I was safe, we had Sally, I could do this. I kept telling Sally that I loved her and thanking David. So so so different from how I was with the girls’ labors. Now more than ever I fully believe that environment alone can significantly change the physiology of a woman’s birth.

Sally ended up holding the cervix back so that I would fully dilate. After that I believe I was pushing with every contraction. His head started to descend, and my water broke several contractions after that.

I pushed his head out, and figured that the hard part was over. I remembered that Gemma’s body pretty much slid out with one last push once her head was out so I lowered my intensity a little bit, hoping not to tear. Then Sally sounded very firm, telling me I needed to push the baby out with the next contraction. I felt like he must have been mostly out, because there was something huge halfway out of me, so what was the holdup!? I pushed and pushed, but then she said I needed to get my right leg up in a runner’s lunge. If you’ve ever been in labor, with half of a baby already out of you, then you know that something as simple as moving your leg isn’t all that easy. I think someone helped me, I did it, pushed with everything I had left, and POP! He was out! I think I must have said “Thank You Jesus” a million times. The relief was incredible and here was this HUGE perfect baby in my arms, in my bedroom, with just my wonderful husband and skilled and sympathetic midwife there. I remember looking around and thinking, “I can’t believe we did it! In our house! This is awesome!”

I was able to stay in the tub with Miles for what felt like a long time, maybe 20-30 minutes. David and Sally helped us to the bed, dealt with that third stage of labor, cut the cord, tried to nurse a bit… in my own bed! In my room! With Ben Harper playing on the iPod! Yes!

When it came time to weigh and measure our little chunk we knew he’d be big, but I didn’t expect to have a 9+ pound baby at only 39 weeks! During his delivery, he had minor shoulder dystocia which Sally easily helped, but then his (fourteen inch!) chest was the stubborn part that got stuck. Just moved my leg a little, no big deal, then pushed out a 9 pound baby. What!? God is so good! He answered my 5am prayer, the girls got to meet their little brother around 9 o’clock that night, have some birthday cake, hold him, kiss his little head, and sleep in their own beds. Sweet and beautiful. We have a son! Welcome to the world, baby Miles. I hope your time here is covered by as much grace as your lovely birth.