We have a walker!

Today Madeline starting walking. She is a bit wobbly but she's getting around on her own two feet!!!

One Year

My Madeline is one year old today! Happy Birthday baby girl! We love you so much!

10 days old

One year old

I would like to post my birth story here to celebrate this special day. Warning: There will be talk about contractions and childbirth so if you don't want to know about it, just skip it :)

Madeline’s Birth Story

My beautiful daughter, Madeline Kate Kolberg, was born at home in our living room on her due date, October 5^th, 2008. The day before that was my 40 week appointment with my midwife, La Shel. I was feeling really great physically and in good spirits emotionally. I wasn’t having any contractions but that didn’t bother me because I had been preparing myself all along for going “overdue”. I told La Shel that nothing was happening but I would see my other midwife Jamin next week or call them when something was happening.

After my appointment that morning Erik and I headed out to Torrey Pines so that he could get a little flying in. It was a good flying day at Torrey and all the usual suspects were there. Everyone kept giving me shocked looks when they asked when I was due and I said tomorrow. I think some of those boys wanted to drive me to the hospital right that moment! Erik got a few short flights (little did he know it would be the last flying for awhile) and then we hiked down the cliffs and took a walk on the beach. I was hoping that the hiking and walking would help Madeline move down and get some contractions going but that didn’t happen. The beach was beautiful that day. It was warm and sunny and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I hated to leave but we had other things on our agenda to get done that day. So Erik and I hiked back up the cliff and headed our to run some other errands.

That night we went to dinner at one of our local favorites for a guaranteed good meal, Harry’s Bar. We had steaks, a little red wine and dessert. It had been a long but wonderful day and as I crawled into bed I thought how perfect my life was right at that moment. And then I felt it…. my first contraction. I knew what it was immediately. And I also knew that this wasn’t a practice, BS, braxton hicks contraction. This was the real thing. It started in my lower belly and moved like a wave all the way up to the top of my belly as a heat radiated around to my lower back. After all the wondering and imaging what labor would be like, suddenly I knew what it was going to be like. I looked at the clock and it said 11:00 pm. Eight minutes later came my second contraction. That was when I started getting excited even though I tried to stay calm and reminded myself that I should try and get some sleep.

About 2:00 am I noticed that Erik was awake so I told him that I was having contractions and we started timing them. I got out of bed and they didn’t slow down and Erik started getting a little frantic. He wanted me to call my midwife but the contractions were only lasting about 30 seconds and they weren’t painful at all, just a little annoying. But I reluctantly called Jamin and after talking to me for a few minutes she told me to go back to bed and try and get some sleep. So we did, and my contractions spaced out to 1 every 15 or 20 minutes and I slept in between them. I think my body knew that I needed a little rest before all the work that was to come.

Sunday morning I woke refreshed to continued but irregular contractions. I spoke with Jamin about 9:30 am and said, ‘Welcome to labor!” For some reason that really made me laugh J So it was official, today was going to be the day! We decided to take it easy that day since who knows how long labor is going to last and I wanted to conserve my energy. Erik wanted to watch the Charger game so I put on a movie and hung out in bed.

About noon, I noticed that my contractions were becoming a little more intense and so I decided to get up and take a walk to try to get things going. I sent Erik off to grab some lunch while I took a walk around the block. It was a gorgeous day and it was no nice to be outside. It felt so surreal and normal and special to be walking around my neighborhood while I was in labor; like I had this little secret that the rest of the world didn’t know. After I stopped to lean on a car during a contraction I decided it would probably be best to head on back home.

The walking really did the trick and by 1:00 pm I was having regular, strong contractions every 5 minutes that were lasting a minute long. Yay for active labor! I called Jamin and my doula, Kani, and let them know what was happening and that I was doing fine on my own and I would call them when I needed them. Erik was starting to get a little freaked out running around here and there getting the house in order, getting the kiddie pool, err birth tub, out and the bed made up. I was hanging around trying to stay relaxed and trying to keep Erik relaxed.

Things were really starting to pick up so I called Kani at 2:00 pm and told her that she would be needed soon. Erik called her back not 5 minutes later and said we really wanted her now. Erik had all this pent up nervousness and so I was so happy when Kani arrived. She is such a calming presence and really helped Erik relax and set the tone for the rest of my labor and birth. Having her there also meant that I no longer needed to think about anything, I could just labor.

At this point I was drifting far into labor land. As the contractions intensified I needed to concentrate and breathe through each one. I spent most of my time walking around the house and leaning over the kitchen counter or the bathroom counter or hanging onto my husband. I was feeling a lot of heat in my lower back with each contractions and Erik or Kani applied counter pressure which gave me so much relief.

My midwives, Jamin and La Shel, arrived about 5pm and began setting up as I got into the birth tub. The water felt so wonderful and really took the edge off. It did slow things down just a little but it gave me a little break before the hard work to come. After awhile I got out of the tub and back on my feet letting gravity help move the baby down. Jamin check me and I was 6 cm with a bulging bag of waters and a very stretchy cervix. Jamin continued to monitor Madeline with the Doppler and noted that her heart rate was rising with contractions as her head was pressing on the bag of water. Jamin recommended we break it to ease her stress and help her descend. So onto the bed I went. Jamin broke my water which put me at a 7.

The very next contraction I felt Madeline’s really move down. Ouch! This contraction was so powerful and so intense that I started to panic. . La Shel heard the panic in my voice and stood in front of me and looked into my eyes and told me that everything was okay, to go with it, that what I was feeling was good. That was exactly what I needed at that moment and in the haze of my labor I remember it so clearly. The next 45 minutes were the hardest part of labor for me. It was the only part of labor that I would call painful. But more than that it was powerful. Your body is taken over so completely and you feel like you are on a rollar coaster ride and all you can do it hold on and ride though it. If you fight it, if you panic or get scared, it becomes too much to handle. You had to give into it. It was during this time that I was so thankful that I had chosen a home birth. I could not imagine laboring through transition at a hospital. At home I felt comfortable in my surrounding. I felt safe and I could labor how I needed to without any intrusion.

Then all of a sudden my body started pushing. I heard two voices ask with excitement if I was pushing. I said I didn’t know. Erik and Kani helped me get to the birth pool because I wanted to deliver in the water and Jamin checked me for only the second time. I only had a small lip of my cervix left. Jamin asked me to breathe through the next couple of contractions, which was so hard! And then I got to push. Pushing is hard! The feeling of needing to push is so overwhelming that it almost catches you off guard.

I pushed for about one hour. I slowly brought her down and I reached down to feel her head as it was coming out. Her headed turtled in and out several times. At one point I actually felt her do a full body wiggle and pull herself back in. Her head finally came our and stayed out, but the rest of her did not. Her shoulders were stuck. I got out of the tub as quickly as I could. Jamin had me go into a squat while I continued pushing. I was pushing with all my might but she wouldn’t budge. I went onto my hands and knees where Jamin made the decision to reach inside me. She grabbed Madeline’s hand and pulled it up which unlocked her shoulders and she slithered out. She was perfect and crying immediately. Unfortunatly Madeline’s cord was so short that I was not able to hold her immediately. Instead, Erik held her while until her cord stopped pulsing. Then he cut her cord and held her while I was helped off the ground. As I stood up my placenta literally falls out of me so back on the floor I went. We put a mat and some pillows underneath me and then I got to hold my baby Madeline for the first time. Madeline was perfect, awake and aware and chomping on her fist. She would prove to be a good nurser J

Erik and I immediately fell in love with our perfect baby girl. After some food, visitors and her first breast feeding, Erik, Madeline, and I all went to sleep together in our own bed in our own home.