Hope's Birth Story

For My Princess Hope,

My beautiful daughter was born on January 23^rd, 2005. Her arrival into this world was the most miraculous adventure I have ever endured. My husband and I agree that seeing her come into this world is the closest we can get to experiencing God here on earth.

My pregnancy with Hope was a breeze. I was a little sleepy in the first trimester, and a bit uncomfortable in the last couple of weeks, but honestly she was a great pregnancy. Hope decided to meet us a couple days early. On Sunday morning the 23^rd of January, I woke up around 3am with a few contractions. There was no consistency to them, so I grabbed a snack and headed back to bed. A few hours later we woke up for church and I decided that Sunday January 23rd, was going to be a Sunday that I skipped church. I had a slight backache and a few contractions here and there. My husband, Michael, and I decided to play some card games. I bounced around on our exercise ball and beat him at peanuts. We went for a couple of walks in the neighborhood and continued to play cards. Around 4pm, I decided that I needed to get adjusted. My husband and I are both chiropractors, so we drove over to our office. On the drive I decided to give Kathi, our beloved midwife, a phone call just to let her know that I was having a few “non-painful” contractions throughout the day. The phone call was just to give her a heads up just incase today was going to end up being the day!!! Michael adjusted me at 4:30pm, at 4:31pm I was bracing myself on the table trying to get through my first REAL contraction. Silly me, I insisted we stop at the local grocery store to buy some goodies for Kathi and Karen. While my husband ran into the store, I was trying to deal with my contractions in the car-what a sight!! On the drive home, Michael insisted that he call Kathi to tell her we were ready, but I didn’t want to ask her to come up early and sit here in Petoskey for hours. Finally, when we got home and I was unable to fold laundry, Michael decided to call Kathi. Kathi insisted on talking to me through an entire contraction. When finished with a cycle, she told me she was on her way and hung up. Kathi and Karen arrived around 7pm, at that time she checked to see how dilated I was, and I was at 7cm already. Throughout the labor I was most comfortable walking around and standing in front of my bathroom sink. The toilet was also a great place to sit and relax. It’s funny really, we all have this dream of how we “know” we are going to labor. I was not going to be sitting on the toilet of all places. I saw myself sitting on that handy little birthing stool. I decided to try out the birthing stool, for me, that was the most uncomfortable position possible, although-the stool assisted in breaking my water. Shortly after trying the stool, I found comfort on my knees. I started on the floor then transitioned to the bed. Once again finding myself in a position I found unimaginable, on my hands and knees. After some really intense pushing, my baby girl was born at 10:10pm. Kathi caught her and held onto her until I could turn around. The most rememberable moment was seeing Kathi give Hope a kiss on her forehead, you don’t feel that family love just anywhere. Kathi and Karen gave Michael and I time to ourselves to share with our new daughter before they took measurements and did an exam. The measurements were pretty exciting. Kathi was measuring Hope, while taking the circumference of her head she said, “oh my”. Instantly I thought, “oh no”. No worries, my 6.5 lb baby girl had a head circumference of= 14 cm (large head for a small baby).

Within a few moments, I was holding my baby girl and relaxing. My wonderful husband was holding the two of us and cherishing the moment. Kathi and Karen made me a wonderful snack and monitored me for about an hour. We were all in great shape and ready to get some sleep. Kathi and Karen did all of their final checks and said good night and good bye until tomorrow. The next afternoon Kathi drove up to see us and check on us, we were all doing great.

A Cherished Memory For A Lifetime