Arrival of Vivienne Armelle

It was about 6:00pm on Sunday, September 12 when I began to feel my water leaking. I went to the bathroom just to make sure that's what it was. Although I wasn't completely sure (even though I knew it couldn't have been anything else) I decided to get in the shower so that I would be ready in case I went into labor. I wasn't having any consistent contractions. I had been having braxton hicks contractions throughout the week but nothing was ever intense or consistent.

After my shower, I decided to call our midwife (Cherie was the one on call) to let her know that I thought my water was leaking and to make a plan about what to do. Since this was our second baby and things could go much faster, it works a little differently. However, because I wasn't having any contractions, it wasn't time to go to the birth center yet. She wanted me to take a walk (supposed to be an hour) to see if I progressed. As we were talking, she remembered that the main birthing room downstairs was having the tile redone and wouldn't be completed until morning. So if my water didn't break, another option was to just take it easy and wait it out until the morning. But since I was pretty sure it was my water, we had to try to get things going.

Well, we waited about an hour so that we could finish packing and get some things done before we went on the walk. After about 20 minutes of walking, I was hot and decided to go back in. Some of the contractions were a little more intense but still nothing consistent. By this time it was about 8:30pm and Cherie called back to check up on us. I told her that even though not much had changed, we would feel more comfortable going to the birth center to verify that my water had broken and to see if I had dilated anymore (I was at a 2 and 50 % effaced at my last appointment, 5 days earlier). We left the house at about 9pm.

On the way, I had to make a stop at one of my coworkers' house to give her my sub notes for work in case I did go into labor. We arrived at the birth center at 10pm.

We arrived and shortly after, Cherie checked and I was between a 5 & 6 and my water was definitely leaking but I still had a little balloon left. So she went ahead and broke the rest to see if that would get the contractions going. We went on a walk around the park right outside the birth center for about 20 minutes. The contractions began to pick up and get more intense. I wanted to go inside, cool off, and use the bathroom. We went back outside for another walk and this time, the contractions were much more painful and I could no longer walk/talk through them. About 10 minutes into the walk, I threw up, so I knew that I was definitely getting close. We went back inside and I started to labor using the birthing ball and squatting. By this time, I was so ready to be done so I had the birthing assistant, Beverly, check me to see where I was. I wasn't completely dilated but any pressure I felt, I wanted to go ahead and push. So Beverly helped me move the baby's head down past the rest of the cervix and under the bone. That was really painful but so worth it!

Once I got to this point, I was ready to move onto the bed. I pushed 4 times and she was here! Josh pulled her out and put her on my chest. This time, I was the one to check to make sure she was actually a girl!

Vivienne Armelle Allen arrived at 12:34am on September 13, 2010, weighed 6 lbs, 11 oz, and was 20.5 inches long!

I could not have asked for a better delivery. My labor was a total of 2.5 hrs long! And everything went very smooth! Josh gave Vivi a leboyer bath, bonding time for daddy and child, and then I got in the shower. About 4 hrs after delivery, we packed up and headed home. We were home by 5am.

All the while, CeCe was sound asleep :)

We thank God for a healthy baby girl and no complications. Another miracle. God is GREAT!

To see a slideshow of the birth, click on the picture below. Pictures and slideshow by Carter Rose of f8studio.