A Baby Is Born.

I have had a very interesting weekend. T and J and I went down to Nannup to have a last visit with L before her baby was born. We drove down on the Saturday morning with the intention of picking L up then continuing on our way to Margaret River. The Farmers Markets were on there and we had heard that the Lions Shed was going to be open. It would be a fun day for us all. And it was too. We planned on staying overnight at L's then coming home the next morning. I awoke early, noticed L's light on and remembered hearing her go outside quite awhile before hand so I get up and go outside to check on her. She has an outside shower and toilet and I hear that she is in the shower so come back inside and get dressed. L comes in not long after and says "I think I'm going to have a baby today" Oh, OK...We aren't suposed to be there when that happens but we're not going to leave her there alone. The person who is going to be with her is 2 and 1/2 hours away and it is early but she gets on the computer and skypes him. He sounds surprised, then worried, then is on his way. In the meantime I relight the fire and me and T clear an area in the loungeroom to set up the portable birthing pool that she had hired only a few days before. With that set up we have to fill it. With a bucket and a bowl, carting water through the house from the bathroom. Which, thankfully, is inside. It took A LOT of buckets to get enough water into that pool. We eventually get enough water in there and by this time L is more than ready to get in. Her contractions are close, too close too soon as far as me and T were concerned...I try and pass the time by doing some dishes, sweeping the floor, walking in and out of the loungeroom to see if there was anything I could do. Of course there wasn't, we really just tried to reasure her that all was well but we had no idea if it was. We topped the pool up to keep it warm enough for her, kept the fire going, hugged the grandaughter who sometimes got a bit concerned that L was hurting too much...Eventually her support person arrived and less than an hour later, with 4 of us there suporting her, L birthed a little girl, all by herself, unassisted. She caught the baby as she came out and lifted her out of the water. Later on we helped her out of the pool and then onto a mattress that was set up in the lounge room so she and her baby could rest after the very tiring experience. This birth was to be a Lotus Birth so there was a bit of organising of things to get them comfortable and of course we wanted to get close and see the newborn. We tried weighing her but I think the scales are out by a couple of pound. They will weigh her again when they can borrow some decent scales from someone. Me and T left around 2ish and came home. It was a different and unexpected experince for us, bittersweet really. This afternoon we had an email to say that they were both well and doing fine. So relieved at that. So, that mother and daughter are well, sadly though, that's not always the case.