Birth Story

Well, as many of you know, Abigail Faith, our second daughter, was born 12 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. And, I've often heard that each pregnancy goes quicker, so...I did NOT expect to labor for 22 hours with the third one!

BUT - Isabela Grace, apparently, was perfectly content to stay where she was, in-utero! I had painless contractions for about 5 hours before Chuck and I decided we should go to the hospital to be checked out (just in case.) [with our other 2 dauthers we had waited until my water broke to go to the hospital - but we figured since Abigail had come so fast, that being in a new country and still learning the language - that we might ought to better our chances of having the baby IN the hospital.]

SO - We took Hope and Abigail to our missionary family's house and headed for the hospital - only to find out that Allison was only 1 cm dialted, even after having contractions for almost 7 hours. The ER doctor told us to go home and come back to check my progress in 3 hours. So, we did. Again, only 1 cm. SO - we were sent home for the night and told to go to the doctor in the morning, unless Allison's "bolsa rembrou" (water broke).

WELL - I guess I jumped the gun, but, I, Allison, thought my water had broken at 3am, so back to the hospital we went, only to find out that I was 2 cm and my water had NOT broken, but they admitted us into the hospital anyway.

FINALLY - at 9:30 am - after 21 1/2 hours of contractions and being dialted only to 5cm, we decided to allow the doctor to break my water and see if that would speed things along.

IT DID - Allison's contractions - still not painful - "fica mais forte" [became very strong] - so 15 minutes later, we headed down to the delivery room. Previously, we had to get a "prescription" from our Dr. that said that Chuck was allowed to be in the delivery room with me during the birth. We had made absolutely sure that this would happen to the best of our ability.

SO - when the hospital staff escorted Allison back to the delivery room alone, we both started praying majorly hard and got a bit nervous. As I, Allison, lay on the delivery room table, WITHOUT MY HUSBAND IN THE ROOM, I thought of what I'd told Chuck earlier. "If they don't let you back there, I'll just get up and walk out!" Well, remembering those words, I almost began to cry, because I realized that there was no way my body was going to let me get up and walk out in it's own power - I NEEDED MY MAN! Oh, how I prayed when I heard the nurses come in and tell the Dr. that Chuck wasn't going to be allowed back there with me. [Dr. Rosa was Awesome - she marched right out there - pulled rank - and brought Chuck back to me! - it turned out that although she'd been the one to write the "prescription" for Chuck to be with me, that she'd forgotten to use the correct "stamp" on the paper - ridiculous huh? So thanks to all of you who prayed with us for a smooth birth!]

ANYWAY - Once Chuck came back to be with me, everything was awesome! Although we were in a very sterile enviornment (surgery room - ABOUT 80 TO 90 % OF THE BIRTHS IN BRAZIL ARE DONE BY C-SECTION) they let us have our I-POD and Bose speakers to play George Winston's piano music to help sooth me during contractions! Pretty cool!

Chuck and I worked very closely together as a team in the delivery room. As soon as he came in there, he had me get off the table and walk around; which was great - working WITH gravity - and much less painful! My contractions were less than a minute apart and we'd walk around the delivery room and then I'd have a contraction and totally lean into Chuck and put ALL my body weight on him - he was totally supporting me! It was really cool - he talked me all the way through each contraction and I learned a new portugese phrase - "onda do mar" [wave of the ocean] which is how I referred to each contraction.

During this time, I heard one of the nurses ask Dr. Rosa "why" we were doing this? (I didn't know if she meant - why no anesthesia, no c- section, natural labor, or why we were working together so hard like we were, but I did understand very clearly Dr. Rosa's response} Dr. Rosa simply stated that this is the way "Americanos" like to do it - it's typical for Americans she said, It's popular there.

FINALLY - I got back up on the delivery room table - they tried to put my legs in stirups and tie them down - and I screamed and kicked and yelled NO! They looked worried and surprised and probably thought I was crazy at the moment, but they let me do it my way. And 3 or 4 pushes later, Isabela Grace was born!

It was so awesome! Dr. Rosa said that the way Chuck and I worked together to bring Isabela Grace here was beautiful! I can only hope it was a testimony of Godly love between a husband and wife - since my Portugese went out the window during that hour in the delivery room!

My husband is so wonderful! He is AWESOME! I respect and admire this man so much! I am so blessed to be his wife and to have had his children! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!