Birth story of Catherine Sue Judd

On Wednesday, August 10th we had our normal visit to the midwives. They made a comment about how with all the storms we were having that week, they were surprised that they hadn't had more births. I had no idea that storms tend to induce labor but I've since heard it has to do with barometric pressure. We were just happy that we had made it beyond 37 weeks so that we could do a home birth as planned. That night, it stormed again and I had pretty regular contractions the whole night. Sometime in the night the storm stopped, and almost immediately the contractions did as well.

We had 4 students living with us over the summer. One was scheduled to fly out on Friday. I woke up on Friday morning and somehow just knew it was going to be the day. I was having contractions but they were quite irregular and manageable. James went to work, but I called him to come home to take Nata to the airport. I wasn't in heavy labor, but I also didn't feel like driving to the airport. James came home to make the airport run and to wait for our daughter's arrival. He took this picture as he was pulling up. I had gone out to water the garden. He thought it was crazy that I was out, but again, I wasn't feeling that bad yet and I needed some kind of distraction.

We just hung out most of the day and tried to rest and prepare for what was ahead, although we had no idea what that would be. Our friend Elena who would be attending the birth arrived from Stillwater sometime late afternoon or evening.
My contractions were coming more regularly and becoming more difficult as the evening wore on. We called our doula, Crystal about 9 pm. Crystal came and suggested we call the midwives to see if they were ready to come yet. Yvonne, the midwife arrived about 10 and checked on me and baby. Things were progressing well, but she didn't think it was quite time for them yet. She suggested we try to get some rest. Midwife and doula went home. I really, really tried to follow that advice. I think James was able to nap some, but I was anxious and in pain so I couldn't sleep at all. It had also begun storming again so maybe she was waiting for the storm to assist her arrival. About 1:00 in the morning I had James call and everyone came back. It was really time now!
Here are Taryn and Yvonne, who attended the birth along with Crystal, our doula, Elena Barton, our friend, and my mom.


Because I had never had a baby before I didn't really know what to expect, although we tried to be as prepared as we could be. We had watched DVDs from the library, we read, and we had asked questions. We had talked through labor techniques with our doula and the midwives. We had a TENS machine, a birth ball, and other "tools" we had planned use. I didn't have some exact plan in my mind for how it would be, but I definitely didn't think I would just scream like a banshee to get through the contractions, which is what ended up happening. Seriously. I just screamed, moaned, hollered, and howled. I didn't utilize very many of the other things we had prepared. I just thought, "Well, the screaming seems to be working for me, so I'll just keep dong it." The funny thing is, all our students were upstairs and only the one directly above our room had any idea anything was going on.
Catherine Sue Judd, named after both grandmothers, (Mary Catherine and Nyla Sue) was born in our home at 7:07 am right at sunrise. :) She weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces and was 18.5 inches long. Most of that length seemed to be her fingers and feet.
She was born "en caul" which means my water never broke so part of the sac was still draped around he at birth. En caul births are rare and carry a number of superstitions such as not being able to drown, having special insight or sixth sense, and others. Our midwives also said there is a superstition that girls born en caul will grow up to be midwives.
My mom was present for the end of labor and the birth and she cut the umbilical cord.

Here is our first moment with our daughter. Please excuse my hair :)

More than I remember the pain of the actual birth, I remember my throat hurting so bad from all the screaming. And my voice was hoarse. If it's true that babies recognize voices first, she probably had no clue who I was because I sounded like a man who had been a smoker for 20 years! I also remember my neck being sore from pulling a muscle in my neck.

Her debut after being cleaned and swaddled:

Our first family photo: