Birth Announcement! Andrew George 12.23.17

I had the pleasure of meeting Alyssa through a mutual friend over a year ago, after discovering we lived in the same neighborhood. So you can imagine my delight when Alyssa contacted me to say she was pregnant, and planning a homebirth at that! I love all births, it's true, yet you may know by now that homebirth holds a special place in my heart. And one I can walk to? Well this is a first!

Alyssa and Matt prepared well for their 2nd birth, after a fast and furious first birth of their oldest son, Blake. We grew to know each other well during our 4-week Birthing From Within class back in September; you remember, the Hurricane Irma series? This group was prepared to handle anything after evacuating for the storm back in September, right in the middle of our group class and fairly far into their pregnancies. If that's not a lesson in coping with the unexpected, nothing is.

Alyssa and Matt had some other uncertainties pop up during their journey through this pregnancy. Alyssa's uterus was quite active her entire pregnancy, including trips to the hospital to make sure baby wasn't making his grand entrance too soon. We joked, oh how we joked, that after all of the uncertainty of "will we make it to 37 weeks and be able to have our homebirth??" well wouldn't it just be something if baby was 2 weeks late? Oh how we laughed.

Guess what happened? It wasn't a full 2 weeks but that due date came and went, that uterus contracted diligently, and as often as contractions started they would just as reliably stop. Prodromol labor, big time. Alyssa was extremely patient with this process, never complaining, just patiently waiting and also taking action to try to encourage contractions to be more productive.

One detail that will forever stand out in my mind is that Alyssa was 6-7cm dilated for days. Yep, days. Luckily contractions were mostly mild and she was able to get some rest at night, which enabled her to go on day after day after day, coping through contractions and working to bring her baby forth. We had at least one bout of "false labor" where her entire birth team gathered during the wee hours of the morning only to disperse with the sun when contractions spaced apart. Alyssa knew what she was doing when she chose her birth team, because patience was abundant and only the most compassionate strategies were used to help Alyssa achieve her goals.

When the time was right, and after many days of employing Spinning Babies techniques (Inversions, Side-Lying Releases, Rebozo lifts, Lift and Tucks) this baby boy was in a big hurry as we all suspected he might be! The moment I walked through the door on 12/22 is the moment Alyssa began pushing. With her midwife on speaker for support, Matt and I worked together to keep Alyssa calm and comfortable. In the end, everyone arrived with plenty of time to spare and baby waited until after the new day had turned on the calendar. At 12:51a weighing 8#14oz, Andrew George was born into his daddy's arms and onto his mama's chest.

Join me in welcoming baby "George" into the world!

With love,