Birth Story of King Squishy-Part 1

Birth story of King Squishy

• Warning: This is a birth story and thus, not for the light of heart. But seriously, this is the story of my son's birth-it's not all roses and lilies, and it's rather detailed, so be aware before you begin.

I’ve heard it said that one of the first signs of labor can be a sudden loss of weight. When I stepped on the scale Sunday night the 30th of October and found I had lost two pounds I decided not to even consider that the change in weight could be a sign of impending labor as I still had weeks to go before meeting my baby. My estimated due date was sometime between November 5th and November 9th, so when I woke up Monday morning, October 31st to a long but restless night’s sleep, I didn’t think the menstrual like cramps I was having could be anything more than the Braxton Hicks contractions my midwife had been inquiring if I had been experiencing for the past few weeks. It seemed to me that most women I had talked to had had many “false alarms” and I did not want to be one of them (perhaps my perfectionist nature coming out).

So, with many signs that I might be in labor, I denied them all and went to work with my husband David at 11 am that morning. We both work in the same office but for different departments at the Seminary where we are students. Luckily, we had decided to let ourselves sleep in that morning so despite having a restless night’s sleep I was still feeling pretty good. When we got to work, there were a lot of projects to be done. Luckily the one that I started on required me to have a large work space which meant I needed to work in the basement where David’s work space just so happened to be. This meant that when I started to doubt my prediction that these were just practice contractions, David was near me to help time the contractions, and offer support as I needed it.

As we began timing the contractions, I must admit, I was still in denial. After all, this was my first labor, which meant my baby probably wouldn’t come until at least a week after his due date. Interestingly enough, that morning I spoke with my friend and mother of two, Dawn on the phone for awhile and during that conversation she specifically asked if I had noticed any signs of labor. Of course I said no, but I wonder if her own mother’s intuition could hear it in my voice, when even I couldn’t admit what was happening. At around 1:30 pm, I gave up on work as the contractions were becoming more uncomfortable, although I still did not really believe I was in labor.

What signs and symptoms of labor did you have that made you know you would get to meet your baby soon?