Elliana's Birth Story

Our little Aquarius was born in our tub February 6, 2009.
Elliana Nycole Mansour
8lbs, 10oz, 22in, 10:36pm

It worked out to be a quite eventful evening - again the word "unpredicatable" comes to mind. Here is a timeline of the afternoon's events (I got a little carried away, but some of you are curious about the homebirth experience):

2:00 - I lose my mucous plug, and we are anticipating labor within 24 hours. Sherief has a real estate meeting in Apex.
3:00 - My parents come over to hang out for the afternoon, bringing Chinese food for dinner.
4:00 - Sherief and my dad build an HD antennae and experiment on the tv; the boys show my mom the books they picked up from the library that morning; I begin hanging butterflies in Elliana's room.
5:00 - Sherief schedules someone to come look at our car for sale around 8pm (a diesel Passat Sherief had planned on converting to vegetable oil like the Excursion, but changed his mind because he would miss the BMW too much); they'll be driving almost two hours to get here.
6:00 - Sherief's tenant in Durham called to say a water pipe had burst from the cold temperatures the night before. He heads up to fix it in hopes he'll be back to show the car, but my dad volunteers to finish getting it ready.
6:45 - Pajamas, teeth-brushing, books, and story-time. The boys are in bed by 7:00
7:10 - Sherief calls to help get directions to the couple coming to look at the car. I feel a pop. Tayedon comes into our bedroom looking for another tucking in. I tell Sherief he'll have to wait a minute, "I think my water just broke." I put Taye back to bed with a warning to stay there. Sure enough - a gush of water. I tell my parents the news and Lex and Taye are both now out of bed. Another gush of water. I explain to Lex that his sister will probably come tonight and I need him to listen to Nana and be very good. He says, "I want to see her come out," and I tell him it will take some time, but I'll tell him when she's ready. I call the midwife to let her know the status and ask casually, "Your not at another birth or anything?" to which she replies, no - just let her know when I'm ready for her to come over.
7:20 - I call back the midwife, Audrey, to tell her the contractions are strong but short and about five minutes apart. She says she'll be here in an hour unless I call to say she should hurry. I call Sherief to suggest he turn around and come home, but he's already working on the pipe and should be on his way home within 20 minutes (an hour away).
7:45 - My midwife calls to say she stopped by another birth and can't leave, but her backup will be calling for directions and her assistant is on her way.
8:00 - Contractions are 4 minutes apart, I'm easily annoyed, and skip through the bad auditions of a dvr of American Idol on the tv in our bedroom.
8:30 - Sherief is here, the couple is looking at the car with my dad, no sign of anyone else, contractions are 3 minutes apart.
9:00 - My legs are shaking and the contractions are coming on top of each other, Sherief gets the tub ready and it relieves some of the pressure. I say to myself, it's way too early for transition.
9:45 - I am concerned that I feel like I should push, and again say, it's way too early for that. I tell Sherief, "CALL HER." Thankfully, she is in the driveway. Still no sign of the assistant.
10:15 - Midwife, Nancy, has everything ready and checks my cervix because I feel like I should push. She is surprised that I am at 10cm and the baby's head is +1. She says push whenever it feels right.
10:20 - Assistant, Stacy, arrived after cell phone and direction difficulty. She says I look great for 10cm and sweetly offers to take pictures.
10:30 - In two pushes the baby's head is out and everyone is surprised to see her sunny-side-up with eyes wide open. One more push and out she comes at 10:36 with a good cry. She earns a 9 on her initial and 5 minute Apgars.
10:40 - Sherief cuts the cord and holds Elliana as I move to the bed to deliver the placenta.
11:00 - Elliana tests out her lungs while we check her out. She gets the hang of nursing while the midwife records the details and the assistant cleans up. Elliana is beautiful - no sign of a funny head or bruising from labor, very short hair with a bit of red tint, long nails, blond eyebrows, 10 fingers and 10 toes.
11:30 - Taye wakes up (his usual time) and Sherief puts him back to bed. My parents come visit Elliana and head home an hour later while the midwife and assistant make sure I'm eating and drinking well. We learn one midwife backs up another about once a year - tonight all three midwives in the area are delivering a homebirth baby at the same time - very rare.
1:00 - Elliana is nursing well and I am doing great too. I have only a slight tear to the rear and do not need stitching. Nancy goes through the post-delivery care for baby and mom with us and we thank her and are now on our own, tired, but too excited to sleep.
3:00 - Taye wakes up at his usual time and Sherief puts him back to bed.
5:00 - Lex wakes up distressed - Taye has knocked over his bookcase.
6:00 - Lex hears Elliana crying and is ecstatic to see his baby sister. He points out every little part as being cute and little. Thankfully, he returns to bed after a quick hello.
6:45 - Taye wakes up at his usual time and wants to cuddle with mommy - he is very annoyed something is in his way. Sherief tiredly takes the boys to the playroom and then downstairs. I hear Lex say, "wake up Daddy" a few times.
7:30 - The boys bring up breakfast in bed and say hello to their new sister. Tayedon is now much more excited and they both want to hold and take care of her - and eat my breakfast:). Our new happy family!