Willow Grace's Birth-Story

My heart could burst from joy! I am now the mother of two darling little girls, each completely unique! In June 2017, I welcomed my first daughter into the world, Isla Rose (read about that HERE). The following year, right after my little family of three moved up to Alaska, Brady and I found out that we were expecting our second child, to which we were both beyond excited!

Willow Grace Nash was born on the 18th of January, in Homer Alaska. And no matter how many times and different ways I could have pictured her birth, nothing came close to how the day actually turned out.

Thursday morning, Kristi (my mom-in-law), Brady, Isla, and I all hopped into the car and drove the hour and a half drive to Homer. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a balmy 35 degrees, and I was five days over due, with baby Willow. We were headed toward the midwifery for my check up. While at the check-up, the midwife's discussed the options of natural inducing. I chose to wait it out a little bit longer. If nothing had happened by the following Tuesday, then I would have to take steps towards getting this baby moving. But as for the time being, I knew baby Willow would come when she was ready.

We decided to enjoy the day in Homer, and went thrifting. We found a cute little rocking chair for Isla Rose, and then went out to the Homer Spit. Little did we know that this was our last day as a family of three. Isla loved the beach and she was sporting a new peach petty coat from the Salvation Army. Brady was skipping rocks and I was actually smiling and not feeling so worried about the growing baby inside of me.

That evening, I put my feet up as Brady rubbed a whole lot of clary sage on them. I mean a lot! The midwives had given me a little bottle of it, and when Brady went to pour it out, he accidentally dumped the entirety of it out, so he just went with it, and rubbed it all over my feet. Our entire house was overwhelmed with the stuff, and I drifted off to sleep that night enveloped in the strange smell. It was a very restless sleep. I woke at 3:30, and realized I was feeling crampy. At 5 AM, I was still awake and went downstairs. I must have woke Isla up, because of all days, she was up at a the crack of dawn. At this point I was starting to get major braxton hicks contractions, and by 6:30 AM, I was positive that I was in the beginning stages of labor. Funny, how both times I have gone into labor in the early morning. I pulled the covers over my head and tried to get another hour of sleep.

At 7:30 AM, I was up and sitting in my rocking chair, as Brady made a big breakfast of dutch babies, then he packed up Isla and took her into town to stay with Donica and Shea Nash. I started texting everyone I could think of, telling them that labor had started, and that there would be a baby by the end of the day. The midwives had advised me at this point to eat a big breakfast, and go outside and enjoy the beautiful day. So I did just that, and went outside to take a walk. It was only 12 degrees out, and I definitely hadn't dressed warm enough for the weather. But I made it up and over the hill and back. It was so frustrating because after my walk the contractions died down significantly.

For lunch, Brady made us mac'n'cheese and we sat down to watch "This Is Us" (which wasn't smart, because the episode was about a lady going into labor with triplets!) At 1:30, I could tell my contractions were back. Kristi, Brady, and I all decided I needed to take another walk, because it was when I was moving that my contractions would intensify. And oh my, that walk was absolutely agonizing. Brady says you can barely call it a walk, because with every contractions I slowed to crawling speed, or halted all together. Brady was encouraging me to walk through every contraction, but I had to stop for many of them. I had only just made it up the top of the same hill, that earlier that day I had been able to easily manage. It was proof that my labor was progressing!

After my walk, every time I would get up and down from sitting, my contractions would get extremely intense. Around 3 PM, something my sister-in-law had texted me began to run through my head, "Trust your instinct!" (She was saying this in reference to the fact that we were an hour and 15 minutes car ride away from the midwifery).

Around 4 PM, Brady began to defrost meat for dinner, and I began panicking inside. He was acting like we had all the time in the world. While he started dinner, I began to bawl my eyes out. What triggered my little melt down was Isla's empty rocking chair. This was the longest time I had been away from my little feisty red head, and all I could think was, "She should be here running around, playing with all her toys." Kristi woke up from a nap, and we all at this point decided we should start heading in the direction of leaving. I guess I wasn't communicating very well how strongly I felt that we needed to leave, but I was feeling a crazy urgency! I think they began to see that feeling written all over my face, and they began to pick up the pace.

I made it down to the car, and was violently shaking (probably from the cold, since it was 5 degrees out). Thus began the long car ride to Homer (something I would prefer to block from my memory). We fell in line behind 3 cars, that seemed to me to be moving at a crawling speed. In the span of the hour car ride, my contractions went from 6-7 minutes apart, to 2 minutes apart. The last part of the drive was so scary, because I was at the point where I was wanting to start pushing my baby out! I kept thinking, I should have listened to my brother, and packed a pair of scissors, towels, and water, because we might be having this baby in the car!

We finally pulled into the driveway of the midwifery and in between a contractions, I struggled inside. One of my midwifes was just arriving as we were, and at this point no one really understood that I was more than ready to give birth! I headed straight for the shower. My whole body was shaking, and I told Sarah, my midwife, "It's cold in here!", to which she replied, "No dear, it is just your hormones." They had began filling the bath tub for me (I had wanted to have a water birth) but by the time my second midwife arrived, I was already pushing. My water broke in the shower, and then I was rushed over to the bed, where I pushed my baby into this world. We met our beautiful brown haired daughter at 9:07 PM, 25 minutes after arriving at the birthing center. They say it only took 4 pushes, but I was pushing when I was in the shower! When Willow made her grand entrance into the world, she was caught by her father, whom she immediately pooped all over. Brady had poop all over his legs and arms! The first thing I noticed about my precious daughter, was her beautiful long fingers. All I could say for the first minutes of her life were, "Thank you Jesus!" and "Oh she is beautiful!"

Willow Grace is a character and a very demanding nurser. By day 5 she was already weighing in at 8 lbs 11 oz. (her birth weight was 8 lbs 7 oz. She smiles with her eyes and has a cute birth mark on her nose. I am so in love with her and can't wait to watch her grow every day into the little girl she will be.

I feel way in over my head as a mother of two daughters, but am ever so thankful that God has seen fit to give me these precious lives to care for. Being a mom is the hardest thing I have done, but it is beyond rewarding!