July 3rd is a good day to be born

This morning I got a call from my client due 6/28. I've gone to her house on two other occasions when she had serious labor that later petered out. She lives nearly an hour from us, so I'm already a little twitchy about not making it in time. Plus, it has been my experience that women who have a lot of start and stop labors generally go fairly quick when it's going good.
They called me at 7:45am. I was in the car by 7:58. Not bad. Very nice having mom upstairs. I'm sure my clients appreciate it as much as I do. At any rate, as I was driving there, I remembered that July 3rd was the date of the first baby I had ever caught. I had been apprenticing just about a year at that point. I was sent ahead of the midwives to labor sit for a woman an hour away. Because it was July 3rd, the freeway was packed to a crawling stop for most of the way with folks making their way up north. After a couple hours at this woman's house, I checked her and she was 7cm. I called the midwife to tell her and just as I got her on the phone, this woman's water broke with a huge gush and right behind it was the baby's head. Told the midwife, "I gotta go! The baby is coming!"
And it did.
These particular clients lived in an amazing house that was all windows on one side. We were on the top floor of their house that looked out onto a river. Just after the baby was born the fireworks started. We had such an awesome view.
What a great way to come into the world, with colorful fireworks crackling in the sky!

Today's baby was born at 4:30pm. A sweet little boy, born with his hand up by his head. That's the 3rd baby in a row I've had with a hand up at birth (well except the last one which was the shoulder dystocia). About 2 hours after the birth, the fireworks in the neighborhood started going off. What a way to say happy birthday!

A very sweet birth. This mama did so well and was so in tune with her body. I thought we might get to witness an "orgasmic birth" (no, I've never seen one either~ but I have seen 3 or so women have such strong faith that labor seemed painless). This woman today was beatific. Smiling, glowing, laughing, chanting. Very peaceful during intense, every 2minutes contractions. Then her water broke and her baby came down in a hurry. Then she started moaning in earnest, and the baby was born in 15 minutes.

This leaves me off-call for a bit. Hurray!
Time to plan a mini-trip for G and I. Can't wait. Hope we can afford it! ;)