Sunday.

Gah, I don’t even know where to start.  I guess at the beginning.  Haha!  On November 14^th, 2011, I had the opportunity to hear Warren Buffett speak at Girls Inc’s annual luncheon.  During which he made some comment along the lines of “Find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” – I can’t remember exactly how he worded it though.  Then I got to hug him...

The next morning I woke up and started thinking about my passions.  I started thinking about how I am kind of the “go-to” person within my circle for all things fertility/pregnancy/baby related.  So, I started thinking about ways I could build on that.  So, I started researching various avenues that I could take – including becoming a certified doula.

What is a doula, you ask?  Well a doula “is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth” (DONA International).  It just felt right, so I decided to head down that path – which is actually quite terrifying for someone who has only actually been present in her own births, which were c-sections!

So, I officially took a leap of faith and became a doula in training!  I began my required reading and attended the workshop.  But, then I got wrapped up in my pregnancy, licensing the daycare, and other things going on in my personal life.  So, the doula thing kind of went to the back burner for a while.

Then, my wonderfully supportive friend (step-cousin), Jenny, started talking to me about her friend who was pregnant and wanting a doula.  So, we talked about Jenny passing my info on to her friend, but I never heard from her, so I didn’t think too much more about it. 

But about two months ago, I received an email from her.  So, I met with her and her husband.  I’m not going to lie – I was not 100% confident in my abilities and kind of tried to sabotage myself.  And at my second meeting, they kind of called me out on it.  Fortunately, I had Jenny in my corner pulling for me.  So, they decided to take a chance on me.

We met one other time and discussed her birth plan.  They also informed me at this time that her OB said that she was dilated to 3 and that she had felt some contractions.  I got weekly text messages after her OB appointments informing me that there was no change in her progress.

Well, Sunday morning Russell left –with the van!- to go to Kansas City to watch the Chiefs game.  And as luck would have it, I got a call around 7:20 am from the Mama saying her water broke and her contractions were 1.5 minutes apart.  So, I panicked for a minute trying to think about what I was going to do with my kids.  I made a couple of calls and finally BEGGED my super awesome friend Kellie to watch them – even though she has her own feisty two year old and a set of 3 month twins on her hands…what’s 3 more kids, right?  (Have I mentioned lately that Kellie is absolutely one of THE BEST friends a girl could ever have??). 

Anyway, after dropping the kids off at Kellie’s, I raced to the hospital and got there around 8:30 am.  This Mama was already in active labor!  I’ll spare you all of the details, but this absolutely amazing Mama delivered her baby girl completely medication free at 11:46 am.  Her birth really went exactly how she wanted.  I am so thrilled for her.  I also am so grateful that she allowed me the opportunity to be apart of this truly incredible day.  Plus, I was done in time to eat lunch with Kellie and the kids!