Welcome to the World Markus

At 4 days postdate I was starting to get a bit antsy waiting for baby to arrive.  Wednesday was an emotional day for me.  So that evening I decided to take my own advice and watch a love story to get the oxytocen flowing.  It seemed to work (that in combination with the acupuncture of Tuesday) and I woke up at 2:30 am with surges.  I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I just relaxed into them and waited to see what would happen.  Sure enough they were coming consistently.  So at 3:15 am we phoned the doulas and they got on the road to Regina. I spent the rest of the night relaxing in bed and dozing between surges.  The surges felt like tightenings, and with each surge I told myself that I was experiencing my labour as a wonderful high and that each surge was bringing my baby closer to me.  This mantra worked really well.  I was actually smiling through many of the surges.  The doulas arrived at 6:30 am and we visited and I had some breakfast.  I was still surging about every 5 to 10 minutes, but they were still quite gentle.  At 7:00 am Julia and Ahren woke up and we had a nice cuddle.  Then Harlan took them over to Grandma and Grandpa’s place while the rest of us went down for a rest.  I dozed off and on again, cuddled next to Harlan until 9:15 am.  By this time, the surges were becoming more intense and I was feeling the desire to move and rock my hips with them.  So I got Harlan up and he and the doulas started filling the birthing pool.

At about 10 am the birthing pool was finally ready to go.  The moment I got into the water was pure heaven.  Labouring in water is just so wonderful.  I had been practicing my relaxation techniques all the way through, but as soon as my body entered the water, everything just let go even more.  Harlan started reading me the deepening script and the rainbow relaxation.  I was deeply relaxed between surges, and during the surges I felt a deep need to rock my hips and to breath down and do some moaning.  The presence of the doulas and Harlan was deeply reassuring. The surges continued to build in intensity and soon I could feel my body bearing down with each surge.  Harlan kept me deeply relaxed and focused.  Between surges he keep repeating that all tension was draining away and my body relaxed even more deeply.  During the surges he reminded to breath the love down to our baby.  Hearing his voice helped keep me to keep opening.  At this point my mantra became “be an open channel, let the energy flow through you”.  By about 11:30 am the membranes could be seen bulging beneath the water.  With the next surge they released into the water.

Happily the water stayed at the prefect temperature of 36 degrees so I was able to stay in the water the whole time.  Mostly I was kneeling, then laying back to work with the surges.  Once the head started to crown, it was the hugest feeling and I just focused on working with my body.  I felt a need to squat and so I stood in a half squat with my stomach and hips below the water, and my baby just slide right out into the water with one deep push.  And then the next thing I knew he was in my arms and I felt just blissful.  We had all done it together.  After a minute we looked between his legs and discovered we had a son.  Harlan was so excited that he actually stood up and cheered “it’s a boy!”  startling our baby enough to cause him to cry.  He was born at 11:50 am Thursday Oct 9th. We spent the next few hours bonding and settling in together. We named him Markus Max Berwald and he weighted 7 and half pounds roughly and he is just perfect.  We feel very grateful and blessed.

Written by Marie Berwald

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I woke at 5:00 am on July 8^th with regular surges, nine days past my guess date. I was very excited that things were finally starting, but I still tried to sleep or relax until a little later in the morning. Finally I woke my husband, Kris and we went for a walk to keep things going since the surges were still quite mild. We went and visited some friends and tried to keep moving, but close to lunch time the surges started to fade away so we met another friend for Indian food, then kept on walking. I made a special smoothie with castor oil in it in the afternoon and things really got started then. I laboured at home until 5:00 am on the 9^th.  It was great to be home where I was comfortable and could move. Kris was an amazing support, and I also had two doulas, plus my mom and a very close friend. It was a bit of a party.  Keep Reading