Isaiah’s Birth Story

With a late December “due date” I was holding out hope that this baby would wait until after Christmas to make his arrival. Well, Christmas and New Years came and went and he still seemed content to stay right where he was. I went in for what I was hoping would be my final prenatal visit on Friday, January 5th, where Tiffanie and I had discussed a possible membrane sweep the following Monday if he hadn’t made his arrival over the weekend. As I was getting ready to leave Tiffanie said, “See you Monday, but I have a feeling I’ll see you before then.” I sat in my car, cried a little, and prayed that this sweet boy would come that weekend. After 10 days of experiencing prodromal labor, I was tired, a little frustrated, and ready to meet the baby that we had been waiting for and praying over the last 41 weeks. I had to keep telling myself, “God doesn’t make mistakes. This baby and my body will do what they need to do when the time is right.” After talking to my husband, I could feel my mind and my body start relax more.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling the same thing I had felt for the last few mornings: light cramping, fatigue, and an urge to do nothing and everything at the same time. But in the back of my mind I felt more certain that this could be our final day as a family of 3, so I wanted to soak in as much time with my husband and daughter as I could. The light cramping continued throughout the day and would ramp up for little bits at a time. I knew that it was likely early labor, but did my best to just ignore the sensations as much as possible. As the three of us were eating lunch together, I suddenly needed to finalize our baby’s name. We had his first name set, but there was no middle name and it felt like that was the last thing I needed to be “ready.” Once his full name was set, a sense of pure excitement set in. I put my daughter to bed that night and as I left the room she said, “Will my brother finally come out now?” I told her, “I sure hope so! He’ll come when he’s ready, we just have to be patient.” They say kids can sense things that adults can’t, and I have a feeling she knew what was about to happen.

My husband and I sat down to relax and keep my mind off of the fact that it still felt like I wasn’t making any progress. Around 9:00pm, things were starting to feel consistently more intense. By 9:30 I decided it was time to really start keeping note of my contractions. At 11:00 I texted Tiffanie and updated her about what was going on, she said to get the tub filled up and get in if I was ready. By 11:30 she and Ali were each on their way. I knew it was finally time, but it didn’t really sink in until they were both standing in my house. Excitement set in and it suddenly felt like time was moving in slow motion in the best way possible. After having a fairly traumatic and very disconnected birth experience with my daughter, I was ready to have the joy and peace-filled birth I had been praying and preparing for, and having a supportive birth team made all the difference. Things started to intensify, and I did my best to go inward and relax any points of tension I could feel as they came. I knew my body was making progress, I just had to fully surrender to it.

Suddenly I kept feeling an uncontrollable need to bear down, Tiffanie reassured me and told me to breathe through it as much as possible. After trying a few different positions in the tub, I transferred to the toilet. At this point, I was starting to really feel the fatigue set in and needed to actually focus on resting in between contractions. I don’t know if it was 20 minutes or 2 hours, but eventually I moved back to the tub. Tiffanie did a quick check to see what was going on with baby and said there was a bit of a cervical lip. We decided that moving to the bed would be best so that’s what I did. After a few more contractions, some pushing, and a little midwife magic, baby boy made his way past the lip and into the world. Our sweet Isaiah Cash finally made his arrival at 5:24am on Sunday morning.

Tiffanie was truly the greatest gift to my birth experience. From start to finish she was so steady, patient, understanding, and light bearing. One thing that I consistently prayed for was that my baby would be born into a peaceful space that was steeped in joy and love; thanks to Tiffanie and her trust in God’s design that is exactly what happened. I couldn’t have asked for a better midwife or a more redemptive experience.