It was around 9pm on June 15th when Natasha texted me and said she thought this might be, definitely, maybe labor.  You see, Natasha and I had been texting a lot that week.  Since I lived four hours away from her and, with my youngest son only being 2 months old, I had a finite period of time that I could spend with her.  If I came too early or came for a period of prodormal labor that fizzled out, basically we blew our shot.  I wouldn’t be able to make the 8 hour round trip twice.  From what she was telling me and with her intuition driving her, we made the call that this would be our best bet.  I was in the car by 9:30pm, suggesting that she try to sleep the best she could as I made my way to her.  After a pretty easy drive through mostly no cellular service farm land, lost for about 45 minutes and with my phone battery near death, I arrived at Natasha’s home around 1:45am.  She was awake to get water as I came to her door.  (There goes my planetary alignment theory, again!)  But, let down, she informed me that thought her definite labor had fizzled into not labor.  Total Bummer!  Well, I’d better sleep a bit before I drive back.  We decided that I’d hang out until sun up morning for a while and made another plan that by 11am, I’d be heading back home unless she was in labor.  She went back upstairs, I set up my breast pump and, after pumping, fell asleep on the couch bed she had made up for me.  (Thanks girl!)

Around 5am, I heard some shuffling upstairs as I woke up to pump again.  Owen, Natasha’s first boy, had awoken.  Natasha, the ever so successful breastfeeding mama (I’m serious -  Breastfeeding Goddess , folks!) nursed her first baby when he woke and “Ding Ding Ding!” we were back in labor land!  

It started slowly.  I watched her as she came downstairs and turned on the TV to distract her first born as we talked.  Matt, her husband followed, getting Owen and Natasha some breakfast and we all talked about a plan for the day.  Matt would go to work but stay at the ready as we puttered around, flowing through what I believe we all saw as “the real deal” starting.

Matt went upstairs to get ready for work as Natasha and I stayed downstairs, speaking about our kids, how we saw the day going, her new home on the East Coast (remember she had just moved across the nation only a few weeks before), her new life here, our families, and in what ways she hoped that Parker’s birth would be different than Owen’s birth.  Natasha kept up with the conversation, moving around in the chair, concentrating slightly on contractions as we conversed. Then, Owen asked to go upstairs to play.  Upstairs, in Owens phenomenal play room - obviously organized by a former teacher with books taking up a entire wall, floor to ceiling, left to right - Owen, Natasha, and I played as I saw Natasha quickly progressing along.  It wasn’t long before she had the idea for the babysitter to come get Owen.  

Once sweet Owen left with his sitter for the day, Natasha’s labor started change.  She sat on her birth ball and and bounced a while as I stood with her gently massaged her.  She began to sway and get hot so I offered to put up her hair and stayed with her swaying and gliding her own internal rhythm.  She stopped talking and started to really focus inward as she swayed.  Only coming out of her trance to accept water a few times.  She got up to go to the bathroom around  7am and we decided that Matt should make his way home.  Matt arrived at 7:30am and sat with us for a few minutes before he went upstairs to change and ready everything for the trip to the hospital.  

It was 8:48am when we left for hospital.  Around 9am, a very, very, very quiet Natasha was admitted and in bed for her first check.  My role as direct support changed once Natasha got settled as I became more of a birth database and Matt took over as direct support.  Natasha was checked and the room suddenly went into a whirlwind.  At 7cm, the hospital staff rushed around trying to provide Natasha with everything they had to help her with her natural birth plan.  Everything from Olive Oil to diffusers came into her room as she laid in bed, quiet, eyes closed, concentrating.  Being in her room, I felt like we were in a hurricane with Natasha and Matt being the eye of the storm.  

I wish I could accurately describe to you the way that room felt as watching her labor.  Natasha laid in bed and held Matt’s hand.  For 2 hours, as nurses flowed in and out and the doctor checked in, she laid there.  Eyes closed, breathing in rhythm, listening to her own internal conversation.  She was so calm, so incredibly peaceful, every single person who came into her room asked me quietly if she was asleep.  Honestly, I had to ask myself that a few times but what I did know was that whatever she was doing, was beautiful.       

Natasha started to comment that she had to push around 11am.  After using the bathroom, she was checked again.  She was complete.  Time to meet her son!  Listening to the support and coaching that Matt, her doctor, her nurses, and I provided, at 11:21am, Parker Levi was born to a suddenly awake and overjoyed Mama who, wide eyed, took her son to her breast as he heartily began to nurse.  (Told you before, Nursing Goddess!)  




Happy Birthday, Parker Levi! You are a lucky dude!!!!!!

Birth Freely’s Birthday Baby Bonanza Series brings us to another amazing birth story, once again!  For this Super Squishy Star’s Birth Story,  Natasha, Parker’s Mama, honored me by asking me to relay Parker’s birth through my eyes as her doula.  However, before I just dive in, allow me to walk down memory lane and paint a picture for you.  After all, the story of me becoming the doula for Parker’s birth starts even before I even knew I would discover this passion for doulaing!



I met Mom, Natasha like I meet most of my clients: Online.  However, Natasha and I didn’t just meet by her one day typing “doula 08002” in the Google search bar.  Nope!  Natasha and I met online through a group for women who had had May babies the year that our respective May babies were born.  Being it Connor’s birth (he’s my first boy) that made me realize my life long passion for doulaing, Natasha then had a front row seat to not only the my own highs and lows of first year parenting, but to my journey becoming a doula.  At the time we "met," Natasha lived on the West Coast and me in Virginia.  (For my geographically challenged friends, Virginia's beaches make up part of the East Coast. *insert sarcastic smiley, winky face*).  Well, there were a few us in the May Mom group, including Natasha, that talked about me possibly one day being the doula for them.  You know, when the stars and planets aligned perfectly and the sun danced through the clouds and the Moon was in retrograde…do moons retrograde?!  Anyway!  Natasha and I were on the opposite ends of the country.  That would take some crazy alignment! Never did we think that I would have the privilege to be a part of her birth team.  

Well, little to my knowledge, planetary alignment was beginning. 

Natasha’a husband was set for a transfer to another location through his job.  Out of the 5 or so places he could end up, one of those places was only around 2 hours from where I grew up.  At about 30 weeks pregnant, Natasha’s husband, Matt, was transferred to the East Coast, and of all places, to that very location!  (Now, for those out there that know me on a personal level, this would be the beginning to my full circle!) Still,  when we found this out, I still lived 3-4 hours away in Virginia so we joked again about it but knew it would still take a little more than a coast to coast move since I had just given birth to my second boy, Killian, only a month before.  It didn’t stop us from dreaming the dream.  We talked about it back and forth for about a month and came up with a plan but still knew that the entire universe had to corporate with us for the plan to actually pan out.  It wasn’t until Natasha went into labor that we both actually thought “Hey!  this could work!”  

Seemed only fitting that a woman who knew me as I started my journey would round out the births I, myself, needed to complete that component of my DONA certification!  I’ll be happily posting Parker’s birth story tomorrow on his one year birthday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow to read what an incredible job this fantastic woman, new to all her surroundings, did as she birthed her littlest baby into the world!

See you back here tomorrow, friends!