Amy’s Birth – Her Second Baby’s Journey (April 2025)

My pregnancy and birth experience with Elliott James is the greatest testament to things working out *exactly as they’re supposed to* of any experience I’ve ever had. Being my second pregnancy, I knew more of what to expect and had a deeper understanding of the fleeting nature of most concerns and symptoms. My husband Joe and I approached the pregnancy with excitement – to grow our family of 3 into 4, to make our son a big brother, to once again experience the miracle of bringing life into the world.

In my third trimester, things started to take some unanticipated turns. My routine 34-week ultrasound showed our son measuring 2 weeks ahead of expected growth at just below 7lb, and my amniotic fluid was above range for normal (a condition clinically termed polyhydramnios). Westover Hills Birth center midwives Robin and Julie advised that I limit my fluid intake and return for an ultrasound at 36 weeks. Normally I drink a lot of water, so it was challenging to cut back, but I managed to do so. Unfortunately, the 36-week scan revealed amniotic fluid even farther out of range and a baby now estimated to be 9lb3oz.

Robin suspected that I may have developed an uncommon case of late onset gestational diabetes, and a repeat 1 hour glucose test confirmed her suspicions. This came as a surprise since I had passed my glucose test at 27 weeks with no issues, and I felt a rush of angst that my pregnancy experience was changing so dramatically in the final weeks. Robin gave me some dietary guidelines to hopefully manage blood sugar (although with so few weeks left in the pregnancy there wasn’t much that could be done). I was additionally instructed to further cut my fluid intake, limit sodium and take a potassium supplement with the hopes of reducing my level of amniotic fluid.

I struggled with the feeling that somehow my body was failing me – in the final weeks of my pregnancy, I wanted to be approaching my baby’s arrival with calm and trust in myself and the experience to come. Instead, I found myself facing some unwelcome doubt. What if my water broke while baby was floating around in an unfavorable position? What if I faced complications due to a big birth weight? During weekly ultrasounds to monitor things, my baby was estimated to weigh anywhere from 8lbs to 10lb6oz. My firstborn was over 9lbs, but I was still finding the uncertainty of the current situation daunting. Of course, this was all amidst the immense physical discomfort that late pregnancy and excess amniotic fluid (pressure) cause.

Week by week, those ultrasounds revealed that my waters were returning to normal range, and baby was staying head-down. I was extremely grateful to have knowledgeable and caring support in the form of Rachel, my doula (a professional prenatal, labor and delivery support person – I’ve hired a doula for both of my sons’ births and cannot recommend them highly enough). During a prenatal visit, Rachel was able to help re-instill some confidence in me that I am capable, and I can birth big babies! I started to readjust my perspective, a_irming to myself that my body knows what to do, my baby knows what to do and I know what to do. Thus, all that was left to do was to wait for our boy to make his arrival.

What a wait it was! Around 36-37 weeks, I felt as though I was about to burst and was thus certain that labor was imminent. As my waters reduced, the weeks ticked by and Elliott was comfy as ever in utero. In the two weeks leading up to his birth, I had so much cramping (some of it painful and in consistent intervals), that I became convinced on two or three separate occasions that I was going into labor. Each time, the contractions would fizzle out and disappear entirely. During this time, we wound up calling my mother-in-law up from Corpus Christi to help with our older son, only for my false labor to die out by the following morning. I joked that I had the uterus who cried wolf within me, but in some ways, this wound up to our advantage since I was truly exhausted and really did need her childcare help in the final days of my pregnancy.

Monday evening three days past my due date, I experienced another round of painful but manageable cramps at regular intervals. I tried to pay them as little mind as possible since I’d had so many false alarms and went about my evening as normal (or as normal as life can feel when you know you’ll give birth any day). I was able to fall asleep at bedtime but woke a couple of hours later to more painful contractions. Still unconvinced, I took a Benadryl and fell fitfully back to sleep. I’d sleep for a few minutes between contractions, wake to one and go back to sleep. Once 3am rolled around I could no longer sleep between them, so I grabbed the peanut ball my doula had lent me and labored in bed, realizing that this was, in fact, the real deal. By 5am I couldn’t tolerate lying down anymore so I got up, turned on the shower and woke up my husband. He took one look at me groaning in the shower and said, “I’m going to call Robin”, to which I replied, “call Rachel!!”. Priorities – I was not about to give birth without my doula.

Everyone (midwives, doula, Joe and I) agreed to meet at the birth center by 7am. In the interim, I continued to have contractions increasing in severity and Joe helped me apply a TENS unit I had received from Rachel. The TENS unit was helpful physically but also psychologically throughout my whole birth experience – Feel a contraction, press a button for relief. All it does is apply some vibrating pressure to your back, but the feeling that you have a semblance of control over some element of the labor process was very empowering to me. We got ready and after a detour for Joe to make co_ee and briefly misplace his car keys, we were on our way.

My contractions slowed down in the car and really slowed down upon arrival at the birth center. I worried – could it be possible that after all that, I was experiencing false labor yet again? The thought was discouraging. Robin checked my cervix and found me to be 6cm dilated – I don’t love a cervical check but that was welcome news! The labor was real, and I was not going back home. Rachel assured me that it’s not uncommon for a change of location to slow things down, but that we would be able to get things going again. Elliott was at -2 station and not yet engaged on my cervix, so with Rachel’s guidance we set out to help him adjust his position and descend.

The next hours are a blur in the best of ways – with Rachel’s guidance on positioning through contractions, labor intensified again quickly, and progress was made. I needed IV antibiotics due to being GBS (group beta strep) positive but was still able to pace back and forth while hooked up to the machine and move freely again once the IV fluids were administered. Rachel provided guidance through every step of the process and Joe was ready to support me physically and emotionally at every turn. I was well cared for with sips of water and snacks. Having Joe to hang onto during particularly painful contractions made a huge di_erence in my comfort level, and he maintained a beautifully calm presence for me even while noting that my grip strength was stronger than he remembered it being…

The physical support and words of encouragement I received from Joe and Rachel really helped me fully adopt the mindset that I was ready and able to birth this baby. To my surprise, at no point did the contractions feel unbearable. They were terribly powerful by the end, but I would get a brief reprise between each one. I felt remarkably calm, and when a second cervical check revealed that I was 9cm dilated with Elliott engaged at +1 station, I knew it wouldn’t be too much longer.

When I felt the urge to push, I decided to labor on my hands and knees on the bed. Joe was head-to-head with me, and I gripped his hands with everything I had. While relieved to be pushing and so close to the end, the act of pushing was not a relief – something I’d come to expect given my propensity for birthing big babies with big heads. Once I pushed his head out, I heard a collective response from the professionals in the room – he was en caul (fully enclosed within his unbroken amniotic sac). This rare phenomenon occurs in something like one in 80,000 births. Retrospectively, I think the intact waters surrounding my boy may have helped protect me from some of the worst of the pain from contractions. The sac broke as I pushed out his shoulders and Robin quickly unwrapped his umbilical cord from around his neck (this I learned is called a nuchal cord and is common and generally not considered an issue during delivery unless wrapped tightly). His body followed his head and shoulders quickly and without me needing to adjust my position.

Elliott James was born at 1:44pm on Tuesday, April 8th after 14 minutes of pushing. He was four days past his due date and came exactly when he needed to, with minimal intervention and exactly when he and I were ready. He was a grayish color but quickly took his first breath, cried his first vocalization and began to pinken in the light of day. I pulled him up between my legs and to my chest while kneeling on the bed and held my big, beautiful baby in my arms. Nothing can prepare you for the true miracle that is seeing your child outside of your body for the first time. He was 10lbs 11.5oz and 22.25in long, the biggest baby ever born at the birth center and astoundingly perfect in every way (how can something simultaneously be so big and so small?). As I held him, awash in joy and relief and amazement, all I could say to him was, “I knew we could do it. I knew we could.”