Who rushes off to the chiropractor while in labor, to avoid canceling without a 24-hour notice?!
Well...
I got a great adjustment on my neck, and as I lay on my back, I asked Dr. Ariel (a specialist in prenatal chiro) if everything in my body was best aligned for the baby to come out. And she said “Yes, you’re ready to go!” Another client in the room passed me as she was leaving and said, “This is so exciting!”
After the chiropractor I had a plan to meet Michael at home to have time together before I picked up the kids from Canyon. I soaked in an epsom salts bath as we worked on a plan for the rest of the day (including setting up care for the kids), but it was extremely challenging for me because I still wasn’t sure if I was in labor or not. Once I was in the bath, all the pressure waves stopped. I’m not sure if it was the stress of our conversation or the warm water of the bath.
I left home to get my two children from camp at around 4pm. I wanted to pick them up (rather than Michael getting them) so I could explore the redwood grove with Skyden and Ocean and look at the forts they had built all week. As I walked out of the car, I had to stop for a strong pressure wave, and the waves continued sporadically while I walked in the redwood grove. They were still mild, and I could talk through them if needed.
The idea of bringing the kids home and cooking dinner felt like too much work, plus the kids wanted their Friday ice cream treat, so I decided to go to Whole Foods with them.
Again, I still wouldn’t have admitted this was actually my birthing time (even till late that night). As we walked through the store, one friendly young male employee talked to Ocean jokingly about the chocolate on his mouth from the popsicle he was eating while shopping. I couldn’t really participate in the conversation with how I was feeling, but when the conversation was over, I asked him jokingly “Has anyone ever gone into labor in your store before?”
He seemed alarmed and said “No, do you need to call somebody?”
I replied as I showed him my phone, “No, I’m timing contractions on this app. Don’t worry!”
We were in the store for quite a while, and at 5:43 pm I texted Michael, “This is hard with waves!"
I brought the children back home around 6:30pm and waited for their pending pick-ups so that Michael and I would have the night sans children, assuming the birth may happen that night! There were a few strong pressure waves as I leaned over the kitchen counter and Ocean said “Mommy, are you sad?” And I knew it was the right decision for them to go to Grandma’s so I could focus on breathing and using my Hypnobabies techniques, despite a tiny part of me felt sad about them leaving.
With my two children and Michael’s one child gone I wondered what would happen if I didn’t have the baby that night. I found these moments stressful because I didn’t know how to tell how quickly the baby would come, and there were all these other children we had to make arrangements for. I had even recently said to the doula Janice, “I think the baby will come next week.” For all I know I would have a good night’s sleep, get finally rested, and begin real labor in the morning. That sounded like a good idea. However our midwife was advising over text that we get settled and start filling the birth tub.
I texted Jinny, “I’m pretty scared all of this will happen and then I won’t have the baby tonight.”
She replied, “It’s true we don’t know. And on my end it does sound like things are progressing, even if they are not very intense yet. Let me know if you want to chat. Are you feeling worried about the kids for the night, or getting the tub going, or something else?”
With all that was going on I didn’t really have time to reply…
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