Ashleigh’s 1st Hand Account: Eliza’s Arrival
Well, yesterday morning, i.e. Thursday May 5, we had a real treat. Ashleigh came in with her 12 day old baby – Eliza. They both looked great – healthy and vibrant. They were calm, cool & collected – a perfect tandem. It was only a day later that Ashleigh told me that that was her & Eliza’s first outing out by themselves – i.e. no papa (Matt) nor Gram. Well you could have fooled us – they were the essence of chill.
For any and all who think that babies come into this world via stork or pelican, all I can say is please read Ashleigh’s below first-hand account of bringing Eliza into this world.
Many of you have been keeping up with Ashleigh’s very regular yoga practice throughout her pregnancy, Eliza’s grand birth & updates in the days following.
Now please read this gripping, humorous, and very loving portrayal. The following begins Ashleigh’s first-hand account:
As far as the story…I’ll spare you the minute details 🙂
I started having contractions that I was unable to sleep through around 2:00am Saturday morning. They continued, but were irregular, so I called the midwife about 4:30am. She told me to take a warm bath, have a glass of wine [read as “chamomille tea”], and try to relax. She said to call back if the contractions got stronger and closer together. The contractions eventually did progress and were quite painful, although still very irregular.
I called the midwife again around 1:00pm and they wanted me to come to the birth center for a “labor check”. I don’t think anyone actually thought things would happen as quickly as they did.
Anyway…Matt and I got things ready to go…he proceeded to rake the gravel driveway, spray some weeds…then decided to come in to get ready to go. Meanwhile, I was writhing in pain! And just as I was starting to get really frustrated, I had a really painful contraction and my water broke.
I yelled upstairs to Matt and I’ve never seen him move as fast as he did to get going. As soon as we were in the car, the contractions were coming hard and really close together…it was about 45 minutes to the birthing center (not including all of the red lights we hit). Matt joked that it was like a scene out of a movie… I was screaming my way through contractions and apologizing to Matt–for being a crazy person–between contractions.
We eventually made it to the birthing center. I was 9.5cm dilated and ready to push. I opted for a water birth and had to wait for them to fill the tub. They monitored the baby with a doppler and kept telling me she was “a happy baby”. I was finally able to get in the tub and, after 21 minutes of pushing, at 3:09pm, Eliza was in my arms.
She stayed in my arms for hours until I needed to get up. At that time they weighed her, put a diaper on her, and promptly handed her back to me. We rested for a bit, while Matt went to get some food for us. We ate dinner, my mom arrived from North Carolina, I showered, then we headed home with our new addition.
It was such a positive experience and felt great to take charge and make my own decisions about how my daughter was brought into this world.
I was worried, at first, because it wasn’t like the movies and tv shows where she came out and started wailing. She was very calm and started breathing, making only a few small, quiet cries. The midwife assured me that she was breathing, just that she was very calm and content. And that’s how she’s continued to be.
Here are lines from another recent email from Ashleigh:
I’m convinced my yoga practice had a lot to do with my healthy pregnancy and birth…I’m just happy to have had the opportunity to practice as much as I did and to have a wonderful instructor who takes such interest in his students’ lives 🙂
Final Note: Ashleigh practiced yoga 3 times per week throughout her pregnancy including the day before her delivery. From the 6 month mark we began videoing parts of her practice and have sent the footage off to the videographers for final edits. We look forward to sharing that project with all of you in the not too distant future.