Birthing Naturally's Birth Stories

Okay, now that she's 5 days old - I finally feel like I have time to write this birth story!

Well on Friday I started feeling kinda wet - and I was worried my water was getting a slow leak - but I finally came to the conclusion that it was just increased CM.... and it continued through till labor started. By Saturday I had began to spot pink, and so I knew something was happening, but figured it would still be quite a while since I still felt totally normal and no contractions, etc.... This continued on till Sunday. Then Sunday DH and I decided to run some errands because my sister was coming to stay with us for a week or two and we wanted to go get some groceries so she could help me cook some casseroles while we waited for baby to arrive. I truely believed I'd go overdue (but she was born at exactly 39 weeks).

Sunday mornign I was still spotting, DH and I started making the shopping list and he made a pot of coffee. But the coffee pot decided to not work anymore - and so we also wrote on our list to go to the kitchen/bath shop to get another because we were having a homebirth and figured the MW's might want some coffee...... I called the MW's just to let them know I'd been spotting for a couple days (because just Tuesday when i had seen them, I had no signs of labor at all) but neither of them answered and I decided it wasn't a big deal and I didn't leave a message.
So we went to the store - they didn't have the kind of cofee pot we wanted, and then we went to the grocery store. We got all our groceries and while we were in the check-out line, I felt a little gush of fluid - not much really - so I assumed it was just more CM.... then I got another gush - bigger this time and I began to worry that it was my water that had broken and I knew by how it felt that my pantiliner was now full. But it still wasn't so much fluid that it was dripping or anything and I wasn't totally convinced that it was my water. (this was 3:30pm on Sunday).... So we checked out our groceries - and walked to the parking lot. Dh loaded the groceries in the trunk and I went to sit down in the car, this time another small gush - so I was pretty sure it was my water.... I was wearing a dress and a pair of shorts underneath and by now i could tell some of my shorts were damp. So before we left the parking lot - i called my MW's - but niether of them answered their phones - and I didn't leave messages yet, wanted to see if things would pick up....

So we drove the 30 minutes home - without a coffee pot and DH started noticing I was rubbing my tummy - I told him it was feeling crampy off and on and that I think my water broke a little bit.... so he timed me everytime I held my tummy. I was having contractions every 9-12 minutes and they were lasting about 40 seconds.

So we got home and i just timed my contractions every once and a while. I called my MW back and she answered - I told her that I think my water had broken and the contractions were still spoardic. She told me to call back when they got into a good pattern and were 5 minutes apart. Plus - I never got the GBS test run because I decided I'd want antibiotics regardless at 18-24 hours if my water broke early - positive or not..... which meant I had a time-limit. So the contractions got to about 8 minutes apart and lasting 45-60 seconds. They were annoying - but not painful.

At 8pm, my MW called me back to check on me. She was kinda disappointed to learn that my contractions weren't getting stronger, and sent me out to get some castor oil (because at this point I had to get baby out by 10am Monday - or else my homebirth would have to transfer to hospital...... So DH and I went back out and I sent him in to get the oil, and some rootbeer to make a float with to drink the oil - but the pharmacy didn't have any rootbeer, either did the gas station - so we ended up going back to the grocery store. By now my contractions were 7-8 minutes, but still not strong.

I got home, made myself a rootbeer/castor oil float and just as I finished it, my MW's called back - still not much going on, so they told me to call them in the middle of the night or whenever I needed them to come over for the birth. They also wanted me to try some nipple stimulation to get things going stronger - I tried it, but it didn't help - so I used my electric pump for about 45 minutes - that did nothing either, so around 10pm I went to bed. I slept through my contractions till around 11:45 when I was woken up by cramping and a stronger contraction that lasted almost a minute. I decided it was just gas pain from the castor oil and drifted off back to sleep - but was woken back up with another about 7 minutes later. So I laid there for a third one and finally decided to get out of bed to help things along.

I let DH sleep. At around 2am my contractions started coming every 4 minutes - lasting about 45 seconds - not quite strong enough to need the MW's, but I thought I should call them since they live about an hour from my house... The MW told me to call back when they were painful enough to breathe through them. So I went back to laboring on my ball in the living room and pacing around the house trying to keep the contractions going. DH woke up around 3:30 and checked on me. The MW's called back around 4 and said they were coming over even though they thought it would still be a while. By now I started having several loose stools, which meant the castor oil was working. Just about 4:30 I got sick and threw up - and It made my contractions start coming a bit stronger, but not much. The MW's arrived at 5am. and checked me. I was 3cm and 0 station, and she easily stretched me to 4cm.

The MW's drank tea - and coffee DH made by tea-bag method by tying a coffee filter shut. DH and I walked for a while, I tried more nipple stim in the shower, sat on the birth ball, etc. but nothing seemed to make the contractions much stronger. I did finally get to the point where I had to breathe through them - but still not too bad. All the pain was in my tummy and it felt good to lean forward on DH.

By 9am,. the MW's wanted to go on a walk with us down our 1/4 mile long dirt road. I only had an hour left to get the baby born before being transfered to the hospital. At the end of our walk we talked about what to do - they agreed to let me stay home till 11 if I wanted, just to see, but that it may not be enough time - depending on how my cervix was doing - and the fact that my contractions were still only 4-5 minutes apart. So I decided that they could check me now and if I was not close - I'd go to the hospital to get antibiotics. We thought that if a good doc was on call - that they may just give the antibioitics and I could come back home - but the OB on-call was not willing to do that. So they checked me at 10, and I was 5cm and kinda stretchy, so they figured I would probably be a 6 soon - but that an 11:00 baby didn't look very likely. So we packed up some stuff and the MW drove us to the hospital.

I didn't have a single contraction during the entire 30 minute drive. One of my MW's is actually also a labor and delivery nurse at my hospital - and was due to work her shift that night from 3-11...... so I was lucky that she got to be my "nurse" as well.

Once I got to the hospital, I still had no contractions - and so the MW's went to the cafeteria to get some lunch while I got my antibiotics and was hooked to the monitor for 20 minutes. I took a little cat-nap and finally around 2 my contractions started back up - much stronger now.

The MW'S came back and noticed right away something was different. So they sat with me and DH while I labored. It was so nice having them all there. At 3 one of my MW's (Debbi) left to get her nurse clothes on and sign-in to work. She came back as my nurse and my other MW was still there (Marla) - sorta being my doula (since niether have delievery privleges at the hospital due to policy problems in VA)....

Ever since my contractions started back up at the hospital - It hurt in my tailbone and back a LOT.... and so DH was with me- letting me lean on him, and my MW Marla was putting pressure on my tailbone. It helped - but not much.

At 4pm (24 hour after my water broke) the OB came in. She was not my doctor - but I'd met her before and she was really good (she delivered 2 of my doula clients babies). She checked me and said I was at 7cm.

When she left - I labored by leaning on the birthball that was on the bed and Debbi filled the tub. I got in the tub and tried all sorts of positions to ge comfortable - but the tail-bone labor was too intense, nothing was making it feel better - not even the pressure Marla was doing was helping at all anymore. I was on my hands and knees in the tub for about an hour and then decided to sit - that kinda helped - but by then my contractions were coming with only about 30 seconds between them. They were very intense - and I thought for sure my tailbone was going to break off.....

Debbi came back in and checked me at 5. I was 9cm - almost 10. and I started feeling pushy....So she told me not to push if I could help it.... but by the 3rd contraction I couldn't help it....so the MW checked again and said I was fully dilated - but had a lip of cervix and so she held it back on my next contraction and it went away.

I had about 6 more contractions while in the tub and Marla and DH were rubbing my back and helping me stay focused. The pushing got so strong that I couldn't do anything but push - and it made me push REALLY long (like 30 second long pushes). It was so intense I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep it up. Plus my tailbone was SOOO painful by now! Debbi said that she paged the OB (who had to catch the baby even though I would rather have had Marla or Debbie do it).... and I planned to get out of the tub and be on my hands and knees for pushing, or maybe squatting.... because I knew from research/doula-ing that being on your back/tailbone makes you more likely to tear......

But when I got out of the tub- the only way I could be with those strong pushing contractions was sitting on my tailbone. any other position was terrible. I think it was the counterpressure that made sitting tolerable. The OB came in and watched me push through one contraction - she said I was a great pusher and couldn't believe that I was pushing that hard for 40 seconds or more without taking a break. She kept trying to tell me to do 3-4 pushes per contraction - but I could only ever get 1 or 2 pushes in because they were just SOOOOOOO long and SOOOOO strong that I couldn't have stopped them if I tried.

My sister had been driving all day to VA from GA to be there for us - and she arrived at 5:50pm - and Rosalie was born at 6:04.

I ended up having a 2nd degree tear partially because of my position, and partially because I couldn't ease up on my pushing at all when she was crowning and coming too fast and hard because of how I was pushing - but I couldn't stop when they told me to slow down my pushing.....

Rosalie's apgars were 9 and 9 and she took several tries to start nursing, but now she is really good at it. I think everything went really well! I was so happy to have my 2 MW's, DH and my sister there. And though I was SOOO hoping for a HB etc., I know that I did the best thing because I would have been a worry-wart these first few days if I would not have gotten the antibiotics since my water was broken for so long. I'm really happy about how everything turned out :D

If you read all this - you deserve a medal! That was long!!!!!

-Jodi :giveflower:

Well, as most of you know. I had my 36 week appointment and it did not go as I had planned. My doc said Averi was only 4lbs 11oz and that I did not have much fluid in there. So then I saw a specialist and yadda yadda yadda... long story short for those of you who don't know. They said my placenta was not feeding her enough and that she needed to come out. They scheduled an induction for Aug 7, 2007.

So Aug 6th I went out on a date with DH and saw a movie, had dinner, he bought me a slushy at the movies :-) and we had a great night. Then Aug 7th I went to work early got off at 3 and I was not allowed to eat anything after lunch :-( ... DH had scheduled a hair appointment for me. He is so sweet! So I chopped off my hair to my shoulders and got it highlighted!! I love it...anyway...then we head to the hospital where my mother had already been waiting for us...

They got me registered and situated in a room and told me I could not eat just in case I needed a c-section.... this was aggrivating since Averi's heart rate had always been great... but oh well.

They hooked me up to monitor her heart rate and contrax... i was having mild contrax that I could not even feel and when the nurse checked me I was at 2cm ...yeye...

Then a nurse came in to start an IV, she stuck me once and it was no good...ouch...she stuck me twice and it was no good...ouch again so she gave up and a second nurse came in to start an IV, she stuck me once and got it but she blew it... needless to say that was a big ouch and I have huge bruise to show for it...then the third nurse came in...she stuck me once and got...Thank God!!!

Then they left me for a while...I have no idea why the cervidil had not be inserted yet...I was feeling cramps in my back (I always feel cramps in my back when I am laying on it ever since the 2nd tri)... so I rolled over to my side...then I sneezed and a bunch of fluid came out of me...the nurse came in and told me to get off my side (she did not tell me why) but I got back onto my back and told her that when I sneezed I felt a lot of fluid come out and I don't know if it is pee or my water. So she checked me and she said the test came up negative for fluids... okay...

Then she does an ultrasound and measures my fluids...they were at 2cm...yikes, she told me the safe amt is 10cm.... and since the test came back negative that my water had broken, it meant my placenta wasn't working enough to replenish the amt of fluids...

Okay...so then they have the on call doc come in... (my doc was scheduled to be there in the morning when I was supposed to start the pitocin) The on call doc starts talking about how much stress the baby is in because her heart rate drops every time I move and he showed me the chart... it was dropping dramatically :-( , he told me that with her showing signs of stress and my fluids being so low he did not want me to have any large contrax. He said that the fluid is what helps cushion the baby during labor till it breaks and that in the current situation it would be easy for her cord to wrap round her neck or for her to pinch her cord by laying on or what not... I am probably not explaining it very well but the point is her heart rate was dropping with my movement and my fluid was low so the on call doc said the only option was c-section and I agreed...

At this point it was "get my baby out and make sure she is healthy" its all I cared about...

So then they start talking to me about drugs :-(
Do I want the epi where only one person can be in the room with me or do I want to be knocked out where no one can be in the room with me...they also described to me the dangers of being knocked out and having a complacent baby...risks I already knew about because that's why I never wanted a drugged birth .... :-(

Then they start talking to me about what they were going to do to me...and I freaked...I literally freaked out...I started crying and I was so scared, I even said and I quote "I can't do this, I can't do this, just knock me out I can't do this"
The nurse grabbed my hand and reminded me that we don't want to be knocked out for the safety of the baby...and I was still crying...then DH stepped in and I will forever love him (if not for anything else) for this one thing he did for me!

He put his forehead to mine and looked me dead in the eyes and said, Stephanie calm down, God has it all under control, you are going to be fine and Averi is going to be fine, and then we prayed... I calmed down a lot. I was still nervous and still crying but I knew I could do it and I knew it had to be done.

So then they roll me out to get my epi leaving my DH behind...WHAT??? ... I didn't want to be without him but they said he couldn't be back there while they put the epi in. My super nurse (the same one that got my IV in the first try) held me against her chest and talked to me and rubbed my back, then the epi guy said a sting... and it was over... my legs started going numb and they had to place me on the bed, they had my arms out like a T ... and they raised a blue curtain. Then DH came in and sat by my side I told him to just keep talking to me...he kept me very distracted from what was going on... I felt a lot of tugs and pulls but no pain.

DH was right there the whole time...God I love this man so much more just from this experience... then I felt them push on my stomach really hard and I heard her first cry!! She was born 08/07/07 at 9:57pm weighing 5lbs 7.7oz and 17.75 inches long! DH got to see her and he took some pix, I got to hold her for the first time, then they handed her to DH and he was told to leave as they stitched me back up. They had previously warned me that if she was as small as they thought she would have to be in the NICU...but with her birth weight...Thank God, she could go to the nursery!!!

The recovery room was a nightmare, they could not put me on morphine because I am allergic to it so I had some other drug on a push as needed thing... they brought Averi to me and she had some issues latching on but seemed to get it after a few tries. Then they said they had to take her away due to checking her sugar and all that because of her size and I didn't see her again for a few hours... it made me sad. The nurse came back and said Averi's sugar level was 37 (very low) and that they wanted to supplement with formula to get it up... and I agreed...

The rest is a bit of a blur, the drug they had me on made me loopy. I would talk to people and in mid sentence pass out then pop back awake and try to finish my convo...lol...it made everyone laugh!

I got to breast feed finally cause Averi started passing all her sugar tests! And I have to use a breast shield on my right nipple cause in mid-suckle it likes to flatten out. But other than that the breast feeding is going super smoothly. We are home now. Have been since Friday but I just have not had time to post yet.

Averi is doing great!!! She is so healthy and steadily getting bigger and stronger. She likes to push her head off my chest, and sometimes while she is laying down she tries to roll over so I know she is getting stronger and stronger each day. She is perfect! I am sooo in love and its so great to see how much DH loves her too! Her cord fell off last night... and I cleaned it up this morning and that's where we are as of today!!

Both happy, both healthy, I do feel a little sad I didn't get to birth her naturally or vaginally... but I am confident the right decision was made...

Sorry this is soooo long...

Here is a pic of her today!
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...wk2daysold.jpg

and here are just a few more pix
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/DSC00513.jpg http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/DSC00499.jpg http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t.../tongueout.jpg http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...herfingers.jpg

Okay I will stop, If you want to view all the pix I have of her thus far.. (a lot) you can go to
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t...uffie/?start=0

Evan’s Birth Story
10/3/07 11:28am
9lb 12oz
21 inches long


On Tuesday, October 2, 2007, Mike and I went to bed at about 10pm. We had eaten dinner, and watched a recorded episode of Heroes. After turning out the lights, my stomach started hurting, kind of like it does when you have a stomach virus of some sort. I did start to notice though that the “achiness” would come and go, and I could time it. I really thought I was sick from dinner, so I went downstairs where I noticed that I had left a candle burning in the bathroom. I bent forward to blow it out, and felt a little trickle of fluid. I thought I just peed on myself, so I changed my undies, and sat down to update my pregnancy journal. I felt another trickle, and after two more underwear changes, I decided that I was not peeing on myself, my water had broken (this was about 11:30pm). I went upstairs and woke Mike up, who was pretty much out of it, and seemed confused. It didn’t take him long to realize what was going on though. I guess the stomach ache I had was the beginning of the contractions. We went to the grocery store to pick up snacks and juice for the birth center, and not long after we came home, my contractions started. This was about 1:00am. They started at 4 minutes apart, and only got closer together, never were they further apart than that. They were pretty uncomfortable from the beginning, there was no talking through them, no walking through them, I had to concentrate on every one of them from the first one, with Mike at my side helping me relax and breathe through them. Eventually I got in the tub, which felt wonderful, and my contractions only got closer together. I think it was at about 2:30 when Mike called the Birth Center to let them know what was going on and find out when we should go in since I was GBS positive. They wanted us to wait until they got to be 3 minutes apart (I didn’t think one minute difference was that big of a deal). We didn’t end up leaving for the birth center until about 6:30 or so and my contractions were about every 2-3 minutes in the car, and the pain was much much worse. I had to pray through every one of them, and I began to question if my body really could get me through this.
Upon arrival at the Birth Center, I was checked by Sarah one of the midwives, and much to my surprise, I was 5cm dilated, 100% effaced and +1 station. I was really concerned that I would get there and still be 0 because I was worried about the possibility of having scar tissue on my cervix from cryosurgery that was done last year. She said if I did have scar tissue there, I had busted right through it. What a relief to know that I was half way there, I was truly amazed, and that did give me some confidence (for about 5 minutes) that I could get through it. I had an episode of vomiting after that which I found to be absolutely miserable. Having been an L&D nurse though, I knew that this often happened and was usually a good sign that labor was progressing. I got my IV started, got some fluids and a dose of penicillin for the GBS. After that, Ellen (the nurse) capped off my IV and I got in the tub. That was heaven for about an hour or so, I kind of lost track of time. My contractions spaced out and seemed to get a bit shorter, so I was able rest between contractions, almost falling asleep. At some point, Sarah came back in and said that since the contractions had slowed down, she wanted to check me to make sure I was still progressing. If I was, I could stay there, but if not, I needed to get out and try something else. I was 8cm then, so she said I could stay, but I opted to get out and try the shower. The tub had become hot since they re-ran the water, and it seemed as if I just couldn’t get back in the zone that I had been in.
Mike accompanied me to the shower in his swim trunks. I started out sitting on a labor ball, and for about one contraction it felt good. After that, I asked Mike to get in with me, and he sat on a stool facing me. It seemed as if the contractions suddenly intensified, and I lost all focus. I couldn’t breathe properly, I couldn’t relax anything. I don’t know what made me do it, but I found myself staring intently into Mike’s eyes, and I would not move my gaze until the contraction subsided. This helped tremendously! Mike and I have a very close relationship, but NEVER have I shared that sort of gaze with my husband. I believe our relationship changed, and grew so much closer at that moment. I don’t know how long we sat in the shower working through contractions, but it finally got to the point where I told Mike, “I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this, I want to go home!” That must have been transition right there. We got out of the shower (Maureen, the midwife who delivered me when I was born) was there by then. Once I was able to lie down on the bed (which I hated Hated HATED by the way), she checked me and said there was only a tiny rim of cervix left, and I needed to lie on my left side to get it to go away. I thought that doing that was the hardest most difficult thing in the world, and that asking me to lie on my left side was some sort of torture! By this time, absolutely NOTHING was comfortable because Evan’s head was so low in my birth canal that the pressure was intense beyond words. They helped me to get into a “good” position though. Within a few minutes, she told me that she was able to push the rim over his head, and that I could push on the next contraction.
“PUSH”…that is a word I have said hundreds of times to women…but the thought of me pushing was the most insane thing in the world. I had prepared myself for months for a natural childbirth, but when the labor started, the whole thing terrified me. I was supposed to push this baby out of my vagina and be ok with it. “Ok” I thought, “I’ll do whatever she tells me.” Maureen said that when the next contraction started, to take two deep breaths, and push on the third. That would give the contraction time to build and I could work with its force. (I wonder how I remember all of this considering the state of mind I was in?) Anyway, I did that. At that moment, it didn’t matter to me if I had a bowel movement the size of a horse there in the bed, I wanted that baby out, and I knew how to push. They were impressed at my pushing from the very first one. I could feel everything, I could feel him move, and I knew how to do it. It took a while, and I got frustrated because of that. I think my exact pushing time was about 45 minutes or so, I’m not really sure.
Sometime during all of this, Maureen had to go upstairs and see a patient, and Sarah came back in to work with me. I kept pushing all the time on my left side, or toward my left side. My left leg was on the bed and bent, and I was pulling back on my right leg, which Mike was helping support. When we started, they had me push twice with each contraction, but I finally figured out that if I didn’t push all the way through the contraction until it ended, that I was miserable afterward, and the pain/pressure was horrible. I pushed with more determination that anything I’ve ever done in my life. Maureen had me reach inside to feel his head, and the first time I was a little disappointed because even though I could feel it, it wasn’t close enough to being out for my liking. The next time, I was impressed how much closer he was. While she was gone, I decided that I was going to get this baby out…and it was going to be sooner than later. I was tired, and I was tired of the pressure I was feeling. It was time this little boy come into the world, and I was the only one who could make it happen. That’s about when I got mad. I remember when that contraction started up that I thought, “GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and I pushed like there was no tomorrow. I can’t explain the feeling I had, because I could literally feel his head moving down there, and the tone of Mike’s voice got so excited. I pushed and pushed like this, and the next thing I knew, I could hear Sarah, or I think it was Sarah, calling upstairs telling Maureen to come on down, it was time to have a baby. I vaguely remember hearing Maureen say that she almost tripped and fell down the steps on her way down. Someone asked me if I wanted to see, and I said yes. They brought the mirror, and it did a wonderful thing for my heart, and my confidence, to see my baby’s head sitting there, and not moving back in when the contraction was over. I thought it would hurt, but it did not. It was pressure, but almost a relief from what I had been feeling for the past few hours.
Also, at this time, I told them that my sister’s friend Shannon could come in and take pictures of the delivery. She had arrived as a stand-in for my sister Ellen a while earlier, but I had asked that she wait in the waiting room because I was so uncomfortable. When he was starting to crown though, I realized that I may want to see pictures of all of this, so I let her come in.
We had to wait, what seemed like forever, for that last contraction so that I could push again. I asked them to leave the mirror there because I wanted to see what was going on. This really surprised me because I won’t even watch someone drawing my blood with a butterfly needle. I watched as I started to push, and when it got to the point that the biggest part of his head was coming out, I felt the most intense pain that I felt the whole time. It only lasted a few short seconds, but I let out a scream from the pit of my stomach. I wanted someone’s hand to squeeze, but Mike was down with Maureen prepared to help catch Evan. Shannon was taking pictures, so I was grabbing the air. Thankfully, it was over quickly. The next thing that happened was a few nurses pushing both of my knees back, and I knew they were worried about his shoulders getting stuck. I thought to myself, “This is NOT going to happen, he is NOT getting stuck!” I pushed with everything that was left inside of me, and the next thing I knew, I had a warm, wet, screaming baby laying on my chest. I’m not exactly sure how he got there, meaning I don’t know for sure who put him there, I think Mike helped though. At that very instant, all of the pain and discomfort were gone, and relief washed over me as I looked into my little baby’s eyes! I couldn’t believe that my son, who I had just birthed, was lying on my chest. What an absolute miracle! His eyes were open right away, and he screamed for what seemed to me like a good 20 minutes. There was no wondering whether or not he got his lungs cleared out! He was a beautiful shade of pink, and absolutely perfect in every way imaginable.
Maureen assessed to find out if any damage had been done, and found I had only tore a small amount. I received three stitches for that. I also had a little more bleeding than they felt comfortable with, so I got a shot of pitocin in my leg, and then a dose of cytotec in my rectum (not pleasant). The cord was clamped somewhere in all this, and Mike cut it, and Maureen asked me to push to deliver the placenta. I couldn’t really figure out how to do that after giving birth to Evan, but whatever I did must have worked because out the placenta came. It wasn’t too long after that, I told them it really felt like I had to pee, so they helped me up to the bathroom, but I couldn’t find the right muscle group to use to actually make myself pee. I tried all sorts of tricks, but after about 10 minutes or so, they said I could try again later. It took me three tries to be able to pee.
The remainder of that day was just amazing. We had very few people coming in and out, so we got a lot of privacy, and it was nice not having someone trying to take my blood pressure every 15 minutes! Mike fell asleep in the bed (we had a full size bed in the room) because he had been up over 24 hours. I was tired, but on a high of sorts and couldn’t go to sleep until later in the afternoon when we all napped together. Evan breastfed pretty much right away without any difficulty, which amazed me. I didn’t have any reason to think we would have a problem, but it seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing…despite how clumsy I felt!
My sister Ellen finally arrived with lunch for Mike and I (Arby’s sandwiches, Yum!). Shannon and Ellen held the baby for a little while so we could eat, and after they left was when the three of us napped together. They came back with dinner for us later in the evening. That night, Maureen came down and did the full assessment on Evan, and washed his hair for us. We ended up going home at about 10:00pm that night.

Here is Olivia's birth story...sorry it's so long! :smile:

On the evening of December 22, I started to have contractions about 10 minutes apart. Kyle and I were wrapping Christmas presents, and I had to stop to breathe and relax. I had been having contractions for weeks, so I decided to ignore them and go to bed. I had a few more in the night that woke me up. I had one at 5:15, and one at 5:40 that got my attention. I walked around the house for a little while. Aden woke up at 6 am (which is unusual), so I rocked with him for a little while and got him some breakfast. By 6:15, they were coming more frequently, and I realized I couldn't take care of Aden by myself. So I woke up DH and asked him to help me.

It was really hard to relax with Aden running around, so I called my mom at 7:15. She picked him up around 7:45. Then I ate a sandwich and we headed off to the hospital. My contractions slowed down, and I started worrying that this was just another false alarm. By 9 am, we checked in and I was 4-5 cm dialated.

For the next couple hours, I just tried different ways of laboring. My contractions were still irregular. When I was up and moving, they would be every 3-5 minutes apart, but when I sat or laid down, they would space out. I felt better when I was moving, so I walked laps around the L&D floor for a long time. I was really looking forward to laboring in the tub, but wanted to wait until my contractions were more regular. The hospital does intermittant monitoring, so I had to lay in bed a couple times. That was NOT fun.

At about 12:45, the midwife mentioned the possibility of breaking my water to get things going. I was hesitant because of my experience with Aden. She suggested that she check my cervix and then I could decide after that. I was 6 cm dialated, so I decided to do it. She broke my water, and I was surprised to find that the contractions weren't much different.

The worst part of the experience was after my water was broken and I got back on the monitor. The contractions were really uncomfortable when I was laying down. Dh was rubbing pressure points in my hand. After about 15 minutes, the nurse came in worrying about decelerations in Olivia's heartrate. She wanted to place an IV and give me some O2. I suggested that I change positions, and her heartrate improved. She still wanted to place an IV, so I asked for a hep lock instead.

At this point, I started really questioning myself. I told DH I didn't want to do this, I thought natural childbirth was dumb, I started breaking a sweat with every contraction, and I didn't want him touching me anymore. He was great! He kept reminding me why we were doing this, that this is what I wanted, etc. I was so mad that I was still on the monitor! It was supposed to be 20 minutes, and it turned into 45. I started singing descending pitches through contractions, and buzzing my lips. The lip buzzing really helped because I had to relax my mouth and breathe--I think I could feel her head slip down everytime I buzzed.

Finally, I could get off the monitor!!! I went straight into the tub. It felt great!!! I buzzed my lips through a couple more contractions and felt like I had to push. I started panicking because it was so intense. Then I started worrying that I didn't really have to push, but I just thought I did. (Afterwards, DH said I was whining.) DH was so awesome--he talked to me firmly and got me out of the tub. I thought I was going to have Olivia walking across the room to the bed...lol!

The midwife didn't even check me becuase she could tell I was complete. I had dialated from 6-10 in less than an hour, so I guess breaking my water was a good idea! I told her DH wanted to catch, so she showed him how to apply counterpressure and how to guide her head out. Olivia's head was born in one push, and her body was born in a second. DH caught her, and put her on my belly until the cord stopped pulsing. It was so awesome!!! I only had a small tear, and I was walking around and feeling "normal" almost immediately.

DH and I have just been giddy about it--I am so proud of him. He was wonderful. That was the best part of the whole thing. We just look at each other and say, "We can make people!" Olivia is beautiful. She's nursing well, and is a laid-back newborn (so far).

So that's our story. :smile:

Olivia
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...andAden087.jpg

Maryn’s Birth Story

Warning to Hypnobabies/Hynobirthing Mamas: pain mentioned, but I still consider this a positive natural childbirth story.
<O:p
Saturday, January 5, I had irregular and non-painful pressure waves all day long. By about 4 pm they were 4-12 minutes apart. When they stayed that way through to bedtime, I figured probably something would happen that night. So I went ahead a baked a *****in’ batch of brownies for the L&D nurses. If you want the recipe, let me know, because, Lord, they were GOOD! Anyway, about 10 pm, Steve and I went to bed. As I’d had these types of surges the last 2 nights and they pretty much resolved during the day, I knew they were irritating and crampy in nature when lying down. So I propped myself up on pillows into a semi-reclined position and tried to snooze that way.
<O:p
At 11:30 pm, during one of those non-painful surges, my eyes flew open when I felt and heard, a “pop-pop!” What a strange sensation. I wasn’t quite sure the sound actually came from me! But then a few moments later, I felt a warm trickle. I said, “Oh! Steve! I think my water just broke!” And I got up and went to the bathroom to make sure it was clear. It was, so I went to lie down again. I told Steve to go back to sleep and we’ll just see if something doesn’t kick in soon. Within 10 minutes, I knew things were truly starting to kick in. I got up and called my doula, Ginny, and let her know the situation, then situated myself over my birthing ball in the living room and put on one of my Hypnobabies scripts. After a few surges this way, Steve came into the living room and said he was going to get up and get things ready – he couldn’t sleep. I started to get a little uncomfortable, and wondered if sitting on the ball and leaning against my bed would be better. So I moved back into my bedroom with the ball and tried that. Not much better, but I started using my light switch and going to off with each pressure wave. That helped. I still wasn’t terribly uncomfortable at all at any rate. Ginny arrived at about 12:30 am. I reviewed the peace, release and deepening cues with her and she jumped right in without hesitation. Soon, I started draping myself over the ball again and that was nicer. We moved back out to the living room for more space. Steve said my surges were 1-2 minutes in length, but they seemed much shorter. By this time, I’d listened to the Birthing Day Affirmations and the Easy 1<SUP>st</SUP> Stage scripts and didn’t feel like hearing them again. So I put on the music I’d complied – mostly some quiet Christmas music.
<O:p
We worked through surges this way until about 1:30 am. Then they started changing in nature. They were coming in groups of 3s, were short and started to get strong. I started needing to vocalize and chose, “AHHHHHHH!!!!” I also noticed that I liked leaning on the couch arm or the dining table and having Ginny put pressure on my back. Then I started to notice my legs were shaking as I worked through each surge. So at that point, I thought, “Hmmmmm….could this really be transformation already? Damn! I wish I knew how far along I was! Maybe we’d better get to the hospital and see.” I was started to get worried about a very uncomfortable car ride, really! So I let Ginny and Steve know that maybe we should go. I put on the Birthing Affirmations script again and away we went. I had about 3 surges in the car and said the peace and release cues to myself. It went much better than I thought it would.
<O:p
We arrived at the ER entrance. They tried to get me into a wheelchair to transport me up to L&D, but I refused to sit down. I couldn’t imagine working through a surge in the sitting position! The RN who took us up to L&D was named Steven. He was very nervous I was going to give birth on the long walk to L&D! We had to stop about 5 times on the way up and work through some surges. They were good, strong pressure waves, but I was doing great with them and cracking jokes in between.
<O:p
Checking in at triage took entirely too long in my opinion. We were finally taken back but I was only allowed one support person with me. I left Ginny in the waiting room – a mistake, in retrospect, but I couldn’t imagine Steve not being with me. The surges were getting very strong now, but I had my script on and was working through them. I trotted down to the bathroom and gave them their blessed urine specimen, working through a surge in the restroom on my own. When I got back to the bed, I had a whopper of a surge and got my hands and knees for it. As I was turning around to let them check me and put on monitors, I said, “If I’m only 2 centimeters……..!” They laughed and said, “You won’t be!” The RN, Shannon, checked me and said, “You’re 2!” I said, “What??” She said, “No, you’re 7!” I couldn’t believe it! As the surges were VERY strong now, I was very thankful to be 7. Sometime in all this the baby’s heartbeat dropped down to the 80’s, but soon recovered. The RN, Bethany, was concerned. I knew she was OK though.
<O:p
But now I was starting to loose control. They let Ginny in, but it was too late. I walked as fast as I could between surges to the labor room. As I walked into it, I had a surge and immediately went onto hand and knees on the floor beside the bed. When that resolved, I tried to get up into the bed as fast as I could. I had another surge right away and I was on hands and knees on the bed. This was VERY intense and I cried to , “I’m scared! I’m scared!” She reassured me all was OK, I was fine and baby was fine. There was an intense pressure/pain in my back, butt, sacrum. The monitors went on and I went for a semi-reclined position on my right side. Since Dr. B was still on his way in, the resident doctor standing by checked me when I lay down. I was 9 or 10, I don’t remember. But I started needing to bear down, I guess, so I did. <ST1:p<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://www.pregnancy.org/bulletinboa...st1:City w:st=Bethany</ST1http://www.pregnancy.org/bulletinboa...st1:City w:st=Bethany </st1:City></ST1:psaid it was up to me now. They were there for me but they were not going to coach me. I should do what I felt I needed to do. I was later on so impressed with how well she perceived what I wanted in my birthing and ensured I got it. We hadn’t had time to present our birth preferences.
<O:p
The pain was no longer in the uterus, but deep and low in my pelvis/sacrum. Bearing down felt like the right thing to do but it didn’t really feel better, if that makes sense. Another resident doctor came into the room. The first was the intern, the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> was the supervising 3<SUP>rd</SUP> year. I knew her from my hospital. She’s a very good resident and I was glad to see her. I didn’t say anything to her but at one point, she told the intern to just leave me be – she’d been applying perineal pressure. I liked that idea! I’d been too preoccupied to say that that was annoying. The baby’s heartbeat dove with each contraction, but I was not too concerned – baby would be here soon, somehow! And I knew the R3 was keeping a close watch.
<O:p
Dr. B arrived and I kept bearing down. I’d bear down to a certain point where I felt the baby’s head press against some pelvic structure toward the back. I knew if I dared to bear down longer and harder that there would be even more pain. Finally, I got up the nerve and bore down harder and longer. And I was right, the pain was even more. Then there was the ring of fire! That pain was unbelievable! Even in that pain, I organized my thoughts and committed to bearing down hard and long in order to get this over with. Then Maryn’s head came out. The fire was still there! Then her body spilled out (the oddest sensation ever) and the pain was immediately gone! Dr. B had her cord cut in no time flat and she was on my belly. I cried, “Oh, oh, oh! Oh, I love you!” and I kissed her and dried her and loved her. Steve was to my right and we loved her together and laughed. It was absolutely a beautiful moment. The moments of my children’s births were the best moments in my life. I doubt they will be topped.
<O:p
Dr. B took plenty of time collecting blood for the cord blood storage kit. That was fine since I felt absolutely wonderful. When he was done with that, he gave a little tug on the cord and ouch, the placenta delivered. He was worried about the bleeding I was having, so besides the 20 units of pitocin I had injected in my thigh, <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pBethany</ST1:p</st1:City>, also a trauma nurse, had an IV in my right wrist lightening fast and I had 10 more units by IV. Dr. B then stitched up a small 2<SUP>nd</SUP> degree perineal laceration. That took maybe 2 minutes. Then he massaged my uterus and cleared out some clots. That sucked a little. Then I was all done! From 7 cm to completely dilated in about 10 minutes. I pushed for about 9 minutes. I’d had my natural child birth and I was so very, very satisfied and I felt so very wonderful.
<O:p
Sometime during the cord blood collection/placenta delivery, etc, Maryn went to the warmer and got cleaned up a little. Then <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pBethany</ST1:p</st1:City> put her on the scale and she was pronounced to be 9 pounds 11 ounces. I said, “No way! Weigh her again!” But it was true. Maryn was a very large baby. I’d had no idea she’d be bigger than Kai was. Both my belly and I were smaller this pregnancy, so I thought.
<O:p</O:p
Maryn Ann was born 1/6/08 at 3:14am, weighing 9# 11oz, Apgars 9 and 9, 19 inches long. She had a 14 inch head.
<O:p</O:p
Maryn is named for Steve’s Oma, Mary. But we also just like the name too. In Latin, it means “of the sea.” Coincidentally, Kai means “ocean” in the Polynesian languages. Ann is for Steve’s sister, Ann.
<O:p</O:p
My postpartum recovery has been a breeze. I feel so very much better than I did after Kai’s birth. I don’t have perineal swelling or hemorroids. My bottom doesn’t bother me at all. My tummy in involuting rapidly and I feel just great! And all that pelvic discomfort I had antepartum has disappeared. There is some public bone soreness still, but no where near as bad as before the birth.
<O:p</O:p
Maryn is a big eater. That’s the only postpartum complaint I have really. Not that she eats to much and so often, but that my nipples are so sore. When she first latches, I just want to faint. My toes curl, my eyes widen and I suck in my breath. Well, I’m also quite sleep deprived because of all this nursing. I’m hoping she will work it all out to a more manageable “schedule” soon.
<O:p</O:p
Kai thinks having a baby at home is pretty neat, most of the time. I can tell that sometimes he’s feeling put aside at times. This morning he was crying and wanted me to put the baby to bed and be with him. I felt so very sad for him. It broke my heart. So I unlatched Maryn and put her down for a little while. She did alright. And Kai felt better.
<O:p</O:p
The evening after Maryn’s birth, I was walking the hospital hallways, stretching my legs and missed a visit from our L&D nurse, Bethany. She told Steve, who was in the room and watching over Maryn, that she and the other L&D nurses wished they had a video of my birthing so show other moms. They thought it was a perfect, natural birthing. “The way it should be,” she said. I’m so, so proud of that.

I finally got it finished 3 weeks after giving birth! It's rather long but hopefully you can make it through it.

Present at birth: Myself (Amy), Matt (husband), Emily (sister) and midwifes Janet & Kelly

In the early hours of Monday December 16th 2007 I had five hours of contractions. I had been having 3-10 hours worth of contractions at a time since about 36 weeks but this was the first time I really felt like I needed a little support. I got up out of bed and went into the living room where Matt was. He was great. He rubbed my back while I hang over my birth ball and he let me hang off of him when I wanted to. The contractions tapered off enough that I was able to go back to sleep but I was happy in knowing what a great support I had in him for when the real labour began. In the morning I was feeling very tired and a bit frustrated with the stop/start contractions. I called my Mum and let her know I wasn’t up for shopping and needed to rest because of the night before. She said ‘You’re not well’ to which I insisted ‘I am not sick, I’m pregnant.’ One of the attitudes I took with the pregnancy was that pregnancy is not an illness and should not be treated as one.

Thursday December 20th was my next midwife appointment, at 39 weeks 5 days. I decided that I would get an internal (my first for the pregnancy) even though I did have a preference of as little intervention as possible. I wanted to find out that if anything was happening with all the contractions I had been having, but I was prepared to go to 42 weeks if that was what the baby wanted. So I requested an internal and was happy to hear the results! Janet said ‘holy mackerel!’ and I laughed to which she said that the baby’s head came right down so I should keep laughing and watch lots of funny movies to get the baby down further. That worked as you’ll read later! She then said that I was doing great. Sitting at 1cm dilated and could stretch 2-3cm and my cervix was 50% effaced, anterior (facing forward, the right way for the baby to come out) and soft. We went on to discuss a couple of different things and I found out that not only was one of the midwifes in the practice completely off work due to pregnancy complications, but the one other midwife was about to go on vacation. So that meant there was only my midwife available, and for her to attend my birth at home she would have to find a back up midwife from another practice in the city as there must be two attendings at a birth. Add to that the stress of finding out that because my BMI had just hit over 40 I would have to go in to the hospital to get an anaesthesiologist consult (just in case). I got so stressed out, not a happy pregnant woman! My BP was taken after that and surprise surprise it was high at 128/70. So I put that down to all the stress of hearing all the previous that indicated I may not be able to have my homebirth, as well as some stress I was feeling from family stuff. Before Janet left she suggested that I get my birth pool inflated, saying that sometimes just getting those last few things complete can help a woman relax enough to go into labour.

That night I passed a very large glob of mucous discharge which I thought was quite possibly my mucous plug. The next morning there was more. First thing in the morning (Friday December 21st) I got a call from my midwife telling me to call the hospital about the anaesthesiologist consult. I called and they said they had to get me in straight away as I was due the next day and they would be closed over Christmas for appointments until the 27th. So Matt and I headed off to the hospital. We parked a fair ways away and my hair froze on the walk to the hospital because I had had a shower just beforehand. I thought that was pretty funny! The weather warning for the day predicted 10-15cm of snow which was more stress as I knew I probably couldn’t give birth at home if I went into labour during a snowstorm.

At the hospital I registered then we had to go pay the bill since I don’t have Permanent Residence yet ($295, boo!) before we went up to the anaesthesiologist. Got in to see her and the appointment was very brief and mostly fine. All she did was ask me a bunch of questions about my medical history, have a look at my spine to see how difficult it might be to get a needle in (said it was fine), took my BP twice because the reading was high (I was extremely stressed out by all this!) and then weighed me. My BP was up to 136/87 at the first reading… basically they like to admit you once it reaches 140/90 because of the risk of seizures. The second reading was 137/76 which she said was much better. I was really upset on the car ride home from the hospital and started bawling. I kept thinking that everything was spiralling towards my not being able to have the homebirth that I’d been working towards throughout the entire pregnancy. Matt told me everything would be ok. He said that I would have the baby after Christmas and that Janet would be able to find a second attending so we could have the homebirth.

That afternoon we went out to see a movie (Eastern Promises) with my sister and also checked out the new big pet store that had opened by the cinema. Afterwards we headed over to Matt’s Mum’s place so Matt could hang out with his brothers for a few hours, one of which had just flown in from Ontario for Christmas. Emily and I watched tv upstairs and I napped a bit on the couch until it got close to six, then we headed out to go to a family friends place for the traditional get together and Christmas dinner. Every year on the Friday right before Christmas, Matt’s family gets together with theirs for Christmas dinner. It this point it was snowing quite a lot but the flakes were really small, it was more like rain. We drove down their street to show Em one of their neighbours houses with an extreme collection of Christmas lights, then we went to our friends house. Dinner was absolutely delicious, turkey and the works, and I drank a copious amount of cranberry pop (that I somewhat regretted later!). I skipped dessert and went to sit by myself in the living while everyone ate. I was just feeling a bit achey from sitting on the chair for so long, but not really having contractions, I just sort of felt like I needed to be resting. Ended up hanging out and talking with various people for awhile (it’s all a blur now!) then we decided to watch slides from when Matt and his brothers, and the kids from this family were all young. They got that all set up and we all squeezed in to the living room. It was very funny to see everyone when they were so little. I think we probably spent about half an hour laughing at all the pictures and laughing harder and harder at each slide. And that’s when it happened! I felt a gush. I sat there for probably about twenty seconds, wondering whether I should loudly announce to the room that ‘My water broke!’, if I was imaging things or what… then I felt another gush. At that point I leaned over to Matt and said to him quietly ‘I think my water just broke’. He said ‘What do you want to do?’ to which I replied ‘I better go check!’ I was pretty worried about soaking through my clothes and wrecking their furniture, so I got up (trying to be as discreet as possible) while everyone kept watching the slides and I went in to the bathroom.

It was around 9pm at this point. In the bathroom I discovered that my underwear was completely soaked with clear liquid and there was a large amount of mucous discharge on my panty liner. So the underwear had to come off. I wasn’t really gushing or trickling any more water so I am pretty sure the baby’s head was low enough to block it from being a significant continuous flow. I left the bathroom and went to stand in the doorway of the living room while everyone kept watching slides. After a few minutes Matt got up and came to check on me and we started discussing what we should do. I think everyone finished watching the slides because my sister came up to us not too long after and I told her that my water had broken. She was very excited! I got a bit choked up at that point (the ‘this is actually happening’ moment), also feeling very worried about the unfavourable to homebirth weather conditions. I decided I had better call my midwife and let her know my water had broken, and also see what she thought we should do. Janet said that I could stay there as long as I was comfortable, but to keep in mind the road conditions as far as travel time to get back home. She also said that because it was snowing so much there was a big chance that we would have to head to the hospital for the delivery and that I should prepare for that. I decided I wanted to stay for awhile because I’d been looking forward to playing card games with everyone. At that point I headed back into the living room and made the big announcement to everyone that my water had broken. (Interestingly enough, the month before at my baby shower I had said that I thought my water would break on that night while we were at their place, and it did!) It was quite funny the different reactions. Everyone was freaking out where as I was basically pretty calm. I said that the labour was going to happen whether I was ready or not and that I wasn’t stressed about it. And I really wasn’t.

So we ended up playing about two rounds of a card game (Scum or Asshole as it’s known in some less polite circles). I actually managed to win the second best position in the first round, which was neat! The contractions were getting stronger, not to the point where I wanted to make any noise but I just ended up feeling that I would be more comfortable in my own environment without everyone staring at me like I was ticking time bomb... which really got to be a little disconcerting! I think they couldn’t believe that I was playing cards while I was going into labour. I told Matt I was ready to head home and we got our stuff together and headed out. The ride home was interesting. I tried to time my contractions and they were somewhere between 3-5 minutes apart, but I was still not entirely feeling like I was in labour.

When we got home I got changed into my nightgown and was thinking about attempting to get some sleep since I knew I would need as much energy as possible. The midwife called at about 11pm not long after we got home and said that she wanted to come check on me, even though I wasn’t feeling intense labour yet. She said she wanted to take a shower and I told her to take her time, I was doing fine. I sent Matt to bed to sleep as he had been up since 2:30am in the morning. Matt was still adjusting back to sleeping nights and being up days as his holidays only started two days before and he had been working the nightshift.

I ended up on my knees hanging over my birthball in the middle of the living room. I had a ball of amethyst that I kept in my right hand and squeezed and played with while I rocked over the birth ball. I think Janet arrived at about 12:30. I had my eyes closed and I didn’t move or really pay attention to her, just kept focused on being relaxed and working through the contractions. They were getting stronger. I ended up talking to myself saying ‘Relax, relax, relax’ and throwing the occasional ‘Just breathe’ in there. One of the affirmations I had found that really resonated with me was a combination of ‘My job is simply to relax, my body will do the rest’ and ‘all I need to do is relax and breathe – nothing more’. So relax relax relax became my mantra! I drank water and at some point asked Emily to fetch me a banana which I then ate.

Janet just sat their quietly observing me, then after awhile she asked if I could let her know when the contractions started and ended so she could time them. At 01:20 she asked if she could do an internal to access where I was at, so she could figure out how soon she needed to try and find a second attending. At some point we discussed the weather and she basically said she needed to let me know that in these weather conditions it could take longer either for us to get to the hospital or for an ambulance to get out to us in the event of an emergency. She asked if she could check the weather online and found that the storm warning had been lowered, so we could relax a little bit. She asked if I was comfortable with knowing there could be that time delay and I said ‘This is what I want’. So I consented to the internal. She was very impressed and said ‘Amy you’re amazing’. I was at 4-5cm at that point (also 80% effaced and baby’s head at -1, although she didn’t tell me that until a few days after the birth when I asked to see her notes from the birth). Somewhere around this time Janet started calling around to try and find the second attending. She had one midwife who had said she would be willing, so she called her and let her know what point I was at, and basically got her opinion on the storm situation and said she would keep her posted so she could come when I was closer to actually giving birth.

I ended up having to get up and go to the bathroom a few times because my bladder was so full from all that cranberry pop I drank at dinner time. I had a little bit of loose bowel movement but I think I was honestly pretty empty because my body had been clearing out over the past few days. When I came back into the living room I decided I wasn’t comfortable on my knees anymore, so I got my pillow and leaned over the back of the couch with my head resting on it. I had my eyes closed pretty much the whole time, just blocked out the world and focused on being relaxed. Janet would come and check the baby’s heartbeat with the Doppler once in awhile, monitoring any changes during contractions. Baby stayed fine. It was during the time I was hanging over the couch that I really felt like I needed more support than I was getting. I wanted Matt to be there with me, but I knew that he needed as much sleep as possible so he could better support me in later labour. But I did feel alone or awhile there, but capable of dealing with it. I don’t know how much noise I was making at that point but Janet eventually said she wanted to get the pool set up. I tried to help out but basically just told her and Emily where they could move stuff and where everything they needed was. They got the table out of the corner, put down the waterproof sheets and got the pool set up on top of them. Janet tried to hook the hose up to the kitchen faucet but was having problems, so I said they could go in and wake up Matt. I think that was around about 3am. He got up and helped Janet get the hose plugged in and the pool started filling up, then he came and helped me work through the labour. I was having a lot of lower back pain so he started rubbing my back. I think I was a little snappy (‘Lower!, Harder, softer!’) until he was rubbing my back in the right places with the right amount of pressure, then it was great. I started feeling nauseous and while I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to be sick I got Matt to grab the bucket anyway, and then I was sick. Janet said that was a great sign that I was going into transition and I knew that also. I found it a bit embarrassing because I was heaving and couldn’t control my bladder while trying to deal with that and the contractions, so I was peeing all over the place. Janet said ‘I see all kinds of bodily fluids in this job, don’t worry, don’t be embarrassed about it’ She ended up applying pressure to some point on my wrist to try stop the nausea and it did work. I was still able to drink water from a bottle but that ended up being too much effort before too long.

Janet wanted to do another internal and I had to sort of work towards being up for it. The contractions were getting much stronger and I didn’t really want to move from where I was labouring somewhat comfortably. But I ended up laying down on the floor so she could examine me. That was the one point in the labour I really felt out of control because the pain became so unbearable having contractions laying down on my back. She checked me and when she was done I somehow managed to pull myself up off the floor and move in the middle of a contraction. The pain was SO intense I just had to get out of that position and back to my leaning. It was awful. I was like that’s it! No more internals! I wasn’t lying down again for anything. I remember thinking how in the world can anyone labour on their back, it’s agony. I was 6-7cm (still 80% effaced and baby at -1, also didn’t find that out until a few days later) and had a bloody show.

Not long after that I was able to get into the birthpool. My sister was very busily boiling pot after pot of water on the stove as the hot water tank had run out of water, so the pool wasn’t as high as it eventually ended up but it was absolute heaven when I got in. I remember warning my sister that ’I am going to get naked now’ and so I did! I can’t imagine giving birth with clothes on and I really didn’t care who saw me or have any inhibitions. After I got into the pool my contractions were very mild for about the next 2-3 contractions. I was on my knees at first as Matt and I were trying to figure out what the best position was, whether I could hang over the pool or lean back on it or what. I ended up leaning back on it. Matt sat on a chair behind me and I put my hands up over my shoulders and held onto his hands. They started making sure I was drinking water very regularly. I had a lot of frustration with the straw length, we only had really long slurpee straws, not the bendable ones that were recommended we get (forgot about them!). So it was really hard to drink the water sometimes and I was really parched. Note to self: Buy bendy straws for next time. Occasionally Matt would pull one of his hands away and I would feel panic rising and demand he return his hand. I felt I could only really focus and get through things calmly if I had both of his hands to hold. I experimented with the noises I was making during the contractions until I found what really worked, which was basically humming/singing ‘haa/hoo’ noises at different pitches depending on what I was feeling. It worked so well.

At some point I ended up going into that slightly delirious state I had heard about and seen in some births on tv. I think it was a combination of being semi-asleep between contractions and that I already have a tendency to talk in my sleep sometimes. I said a few weird things to Matt. I remember telling him to send away people that weren’t at the birth, and something about sandwiches, I have no idea! I was still talking myself through the contractions, and when they ended up pretty intense I begged/demanded that Matt tell me I could do it. I just needed him to encourage me because knowing he had faith in me gave me faith in myself. From that point onward he talked me through every single contraction. When I would start saying ‘it’ll pass’ or something similar to remind myself that contractions were not endless, he would take my lead and talk me through it also, and that really helped me.

At some point I remember silently and briefly considering what it would like to transfer to a hospital and get the epidural, and I thought I very likely would not be able to handle being in the car. Just another sign of being in transition, thinking I couldn’t handle what was happening.

Around 6am after being in the tub for two hours I first got the urge to push. With one of the contractions I felt intense pressure in my butt, I couldn’t help but push, and the pushing made me arch out of the water. Around then Janet called the second midwife she had spoken with earlier and told her she had better come on over. Janet came and spoke to me and asked if she could do an internal to assess where I was at. I said ‘I don’t think I could handle it’, and she asked if I didn’t think I could handle the labour, or if I didn’t think I could handle the internal. I said the internal, and actually thought that was a silly question, I didn’t doubt my ability to give birth at all. I just remembered how intense the pain was in the previous internal and now, having the urge to push and the contractions being that more intense, there was no way I was taking another one. She asked that I do my best to breathe through contractions and not push until the back-up midwife arrived. With each contraction I had the urge to push right at the end and really couldn’t help push a little, and I was still arching out of the water with most. I remember how strange I thought it was that I was feeling all the pressure in my butt. I had read that was what would happen, but it was just very weird to experience it and not really feel any pain or pressure in my vagina. At first I felt like I was just going to have a bowel movement but I soon realised that it was normal and got over the fear of pooping in the tub! And that didn’t happen.

The back-up midwife arrived about half an hour later at around 6:30. I remember reaching down and finding that I could feel the baby’s head, it was very soft and squishy. I told Matt then told him to tell Janet. After pushing during contractions leaning back on the tub for awhile Janet suggested that I move onto my knees. I somehow managed to do that and I had my arms around Matt’s neck at that point, or my hands on his shoulders. The contractions and pushing became much more intense, and it only seemed like 5 minutes from that point until the birth to me but it was really more like 15. Janet had sent my sister to bed to get some rest a few hours earlier, and she got up and saw the birth (she was woken up by my screaming, her words!). Baby started crowning and the pain became very intense. I remember hearing myself screaming and almost feeling outside of myself. I felt like I was tearing, and I thought ‘I am tearing’ (I wasn’t!). I hadn’t expected to feel the pain all the way around. I had gone into the labour not wanting to make a lot of noise, and up until that point I had laboured almost silently, or in the midwifes words I just sang my way through labour. I remember saying how much it hurt, that it was stinging and burning, and Janet talked me through it, explaining what I already knew… baby was crowning, I was feeling the ‘ring of fire’. I ended up hyperventilating because I wasn’t able to breathe with all the screaming I was doing, and Janet told me to breathe. She reminded me of the baby and told me to breathe for the baby. That calmed me down straight away and I was able to take in some nice deep breathes. I was really digging into Matt’s shoulders with my fingers and hands, I felt like I was clinging on to him for dear life! Then baby’s head was out! That was an incredible feeling and I could relate to reading about other women’s finding that an orgasmic release. It was a HUGE relief and an incredible feeling. I gasped and really fell against Matt, it was like WOAH! About ten seconds later baby was born with the next push at 6:58am. I was briefly a bit disorientated because it was a lot to process. I think Janet encouraged me to pick up the baby and she assisted me in doing so. Baby took a breath and slipped back under the water, and we think took in a mouthful as a result of which baby had a lot of spit-up in the first 24 hours. Then I had the baby in my arms. Very wet and slippery and wriggly. Baby didn’t cry at all, just looked around with big eyes and eventually let out a bit of a cry after having chest rubbed. I was kind of shocked. Obviously I’d been pregnant for 40 weeks, I knew I was in labour and about to give birth but all of a sudden there was a baby in my arms! I talked to the baby and asked ‘what are you? A boy or a girl?’… Janet got Matt to check and he just looked sort of baffled, he had no idea what baby bits look like and didn’t want to get it wrong. Then Janet accidentally told us by saying something like ‘She’s cold’. She quickly apologised to which I said it was ok, and I double checked, it was indeed a girl! I said ‘I knew you were a girl!!!’ but I was still quite surprised. Towards the end I had become hesitant to trust in it being a girl in case it was a boy, and I didn’t want to be disappointed either way. She was beautiful. Eyes were a very dark color, black with a slight blue tinge to them. She had a full head of dark hair, just as expected.

Janet commented on Matt crying and he said it was from hearing me scream so much, I felt bad that it had been so hard on him but so appreciative that he was there for me, he really got me through it all. I felt incredibly alert and energetic and I think I said ‘That was easy!’. I had absolutely no grasp on the passage of time so I had no idea what time it was or how long the labour had been, and I hadn’t cared about the time while was in labour. Later discovered that I was only in labour for 10 hours, 5 of which were active labour and just 1 hour from first pushing urge until birth, all of which were amazing for a first time Mum.

Baby and I got out of the pool about 1 minute after the birth. The midwifes had set up a birthing stool at the edge. I had wanted to deliver the placenta outside of the water and was fine with moving. I said hello to the back-up midwife Kelly as that was the first time I had seen her-my back had been to the room where she was sitting. The water in the pool was very red with blood and I was gushing blood (midwifes words-‘like a tap’) though unaware of it, I was focused on the baby. I was given a precautionary shot of oxytocin in my right thigh. I remember noticing my stomach and being amused by how squishy and empty it was. I also remember having the feeling of wishing someone would take the baby away because I didn’t know what to do with it. 12 minutes after baby was born the placenta was delivered. I found it very easy to push it out, I’m not sure why some women compare that to giving birth a second time. At some point Matt cut the cord but I’m not sure if that happened before or after the placenta was delivered. He hadn’t wanted to throughout the entire pregnancy, but we kind of bullied him into it!

We moved to the bedroom after placenta was delivered. Baby stayed with Matt and Emily in the living room while the midwifes assessed me. Janet examined me for tears and explained everything she was doing. I didn’t tear even though I thought I had, there were just abrasions on both sides. Both midwifes kept telling me how amazing I was, how I had had the perfect birth, that I’d birthed like it was my third baby not my first. I thought it was funny but was happy to be praised and very pleased! I was still bleeding quite a lot, soaked all the way through the first pad, my underwear, and the blue undersheet on the bed. Janet wasn’t too concerned but said that I was bleeding more than she typically expected from most white women, so she stayed beside me and monitored me for longer than she would normally. Desana was born at 6:58am and I think Janet stayed until 11am.

Desana was brought into the room and had her assessment done. Weighed and measured, everything checked. Everything was perfect, only unusual thing was that she had a non-problematic sacral dimple (dimple in the back, right above the bum). Matt said that one of his brothers had one too. I don’t know if it’s genetic, but maybe! She weighed 7lbs10oz and was 20 inches long. Janet helped me get started with breastfeeding. I had baby skin-to-skin with me and while I was feeding her she did her first poop, lovely meconium all over my arm, down my side and over the bedsheets. Naughty little baby! After everything I was so wide awake I had trouble getting any sleep at all for the first 48 hours or so, even though I was exhausted.

Overall it was an amazing experience. I am very proud of it and very grateful that my husband is such an amazing man and that he helped me birth our baby. I am very lucky to have achieved the exact birth experience I hoped and planned for. Now I hope to be an advocate for homebirth and doing it naturally, or at least be able to offer a different perspective on what the birthing experience can be to my friends and family. I do not think my birth was a fluke or that I just got lucky. I very much believe it went so smoothly because I believed in my ability to birth the baby naturally, and I trusted in my body and in the process. My midwife said I could have done it on my own. After many months of preparation there was a wonderful outcome, my beautiful baby girl!

Water broke at 9pm December 21st
Internal at 01:20am: 4-5cm, 80% effaced, baby at -1
03:35 vomiting-sign of transition
Internal at 03:50am: 6-7 cm, 80% effaced, baby at -1
04:00 contractions noted by midwife as strong in intensity, moved to birth pool
05:55am grunting sound during contraction, indicating pushing urge
06:58 baby delivered, Apgars 8 and 9
Contractions stayed at 2-3 minutes apart the entire labour, each 60-90 seconds long
10 hours total labour time

Baby Girl: Desana Rose
12/22/07 - 6:58am (CST)
7 pounds 10 ounces
20" long (51 cm), head 14" (35cm)
Born at 40 weeks even, on her duedate

I only have a few regrets but I think they are important to acknowledge. I'm only posting these here on the Birthing Naturally board.

Regrets:

Not having bendy straws. Seriously! It is hard to relay what you need when in labour and struggling to drink the water was a real pain.
Not having taken pictures or video of the labour/delivery. Totally the last thing on my mind when in the process, but now I would like to have that extra visual record of the experience. I especially regret having no picture of me with the baby right after giving birth. I still dont have a picture of us together, I'm always behind the camera! :sad:
Not having Matt’s support in early labour. I coped ok and I knew that he needed rest so he could be there for me later, but I really felt somewhat alone for the first couple of hours. Alone but capable of dealing with it on my own.
I don’t know if I exactly regret having that second internal, but I think at the next birth I will trust more in the symptoms my body is displaying as indicators of the progress, and hopefully the midwifes will trust in that too. I really never felt the need to know where I was at during labour, but I think my midwife did. Discussing the birth with my midwife, she said she regretted the second internal. I didn’t feel violated I just couldn’t handle the pain of having moved from the position I was comfortably labouring in.
I'm still undecided about whether I really regret not having my Mum at the birth or if I just feel guilty about it. Part of me wishes she was there so she could have experienced it as she never went into labour and had c-sections both times. But part of me thinks I would have been inhibited and not had such a great experience. Who knows.

Here's my short little birth story, xp from my Lodge:

My due date, of which I was completely certain, was Feb 3. Mom arrived Feb 2 and stayed through Sunday the 10th; all that week we eagerly awaited labor but it never happened, despite a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions and, toward the end of the week, even some uncomfortable ones. I dropped Mom off at the airport at 5 am on the 10th, and as soon as I got back home and went back to bed, I started having regular, painful contractions. They dropped off as the day went on, though, and I wondered by lunchtime if I would ever go into labor! That night, after J put Henry to bed, things started up again. I called the midwife to let her know what was happening, but didn't want to "call it" for fear of bringing her all the way out to the house for nothing! She told me to call her back in half an hour and let her know how I felt. When I did that, intending to tell her to just wait a while until we could see if it was really going to happen, her husband told me she had "had a feeling" about the birth and had already left her house!

The midwife and the doula arrived shortly before 11 pm. I got a little performance anxiety while we set up and then just sort of sat around, and my contractions petered out for a while. I decided to lie down and try to get some sleep. I spent about 15 minutes in bed before I had to get up to go to the bathroom--while I was there I had super intense contractions and had some bloody show. This was it. It was midnight, and I climbed into the birth tub--it felt sooo much better! I had regular contractions there, and got out once to go to the bathroom and vowed never to leave again! It was so hard to walk back to the tub. I threw up twice, which was unpleasant but I did feel better afterwards. I don't know exactly how long I pushed, but I would guess maybe 30 minutes altogether. It was very intense--I remember thinking I wouldn't be able to do it; that the baby would get stuck because I was too afraid to push her out. But, bit by bit, it happened. It was so scary! It was also very painful, and I distinctly had the thought, "This was a BAD idea!" ... but before I knew it, the birth was coming like a freight train and I wouldn't have been able to stop it if I tried. Her head was out, and just a half second later I pushed out her shoulders. I couldn't believe it! I could not believe that it actually worked; that we actually did it!

The only sad part was that Henry, who was sleeping downstairs, was awakened by all the noise, and J had to go down and comfort him, and J missed the birth. But we sort of thought that might happen, and all things considered we only wish we had managed to get more video of the labor! There's only one little bit, and it's during a hard contraction so I don't think we'll be breaking it out on home-movie night anytime soon.

This was most definitely the hardest thing I have ever done ... well, J asked me if it was really harder than boot camp, and I told him I'd have to think about it. My throat is sore from all the roaring I did, and of course my tummy is sore too and I am tired, but I feel a million times better now than I did after Henry's birth. And June was bigger than her brother! She weighed in at 8 lb, 6 oz, and 22 inches long, with a 13.5 inch head. She was born at 2:09am on Feb 11, at 41w1d. She started nursing right away, and was so alert! It was amazing. We both went into the bathroom and cleaned up in the tub, then settled in for the rest of the night. She has been nursing and sleeping ever since. I feel so blessed!

I've added some pics. There are some truly amazing ones but there is nudity, lol. It's too bad, because I love these pictures and would have liked to share!

Here's the pool when I inflated it:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/sabirn/tub2.jpg

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/sabirn/tub1.jpg

Mere seconds after the birth:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_2836.jpg

Henry sees her for the first time:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_2843.jpg

Daddy and his children:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_2845.jpg

In the herbal bath cleaning up after the birth:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_2851.jpg

Settling in for the remainder of the night:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_2857.jpg

About 5 hours old:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/sabirn/23-1.jpg

The morning of the birth--she's about 7 hours old here:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMGP0079.jpg

Such a beautiful feeling!
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r70/sabirn/22-1.jpg

Jesse Liam's Birth Story

Jesse certainly took his time getting ready for his grand entrance into the world. I had been contracting fairly regularly for weeks, but my little man wanted to keep everyone in suspense. At 41 weeks I was placed on the induction list. At 41 weeks 3 days I was called by the case room staff and offered an induction but declined. That day I also saw my doctor, Dr. D, and her resident, Dr. W. We discussed induction and decided to continue to wait. I also requested a membrane sweep…something I had been against for the longest time, but decided that it would likely be the lesser of the two evils (membrane sweep vs. induction). My cervix was really posterior, so she had a hard time even finding it. She found it and told me I was 2 cm dilated and about 40% effaced (kinda funny since I was 2-3 cm/50% with bulging membranes 4 days before that). Then she started the membrane sweep. Honest to God, if I had to choose between labor and a membrane sweep, I’d choose labor! It was excruciating. She only got half way around before I couldn’t stand it anymore and yelled at her to stop. But she might have stirred some stuff up. I lost part of my mucous plug the next night, at 41 weeks, 4 days. I was so excited that I had to get Steve to come check it out! At that point my contractions were about 10 minutes apart and fairly regular. I was hoping that it was the beginning of labor, but nope! Some contractions woke me up overnight, but they petered off in the morning.

I continued to go to the case room daily for my NSTs. They were all reactive, and my kick counts were all fabulous. The baby was always moving up a storm in there. The pressure to induce from the OB staff was intense and I was starting to really question myself, but deep down I just *knew* that it wasn’t the right decision for me and my baby. I started trying natural methods of induction, like nipple stimulation. That only made me really sore! I even tried sex, which was SO not appealing to me at the time! On Tuesday, at 42 weeks I had another BPP and NST. They were both top notch. I met Dr. D at the case room and she checked my cervix again. This time I was still 2 cm, but 60% effaced. My cervix was really soft and baby was at -2 station. My Bishop’s score was a 6. So, had we decided on induction, at least my cervix was favorable. But she didn’t push induction at all. She fully swept my membranes though! It still hurt, but not nearly as much as the first time. That evening I lost more of my mucous plug and my contraction were stronger and more consistent. I went to bed early, around 10 PM, thinking that this was really it this time. I contracted all night, and they woke me up a few times. But I slept really well!

I woke up on the morning of January 9, 2008, at 42 weeks 1 day almost certain that it would be “the day.” I was right. I was having lots of blood streaked mucous, and the contraction became quite regular. I thought the baby might be in a slightly posterior position, so I spent some time on the birthing ball, resting my upper body on my bed. I spent most of my time though puttering around the house trying to get everything ready to go. I got a shower and finished packing my hospital bags. I don’t think Steve really caught on that I was actually in labor, because he was really “takin’ it easy” all morning. Around lunch time he decided it was time to chuck the Christmas tree! I got after him to get a shower and get ready. I think he knew then that I meant business! At that point my contractions were coming about every 3-5 minutes and were getting stronger. I called Dr. D’s office, but she was on her lunch break and not in the office. I was thinking I could go in to the clinic and she could check my cervix there before I decided to go to the hospital. I really didn’t want to head straight to the hospital only to find out I was still at 2 cm. It was around then that I called my Aunt Cathy at her school. My mom and dad had already gone home to Stephenville 3 days prior, and my other 2 back up people (Steve’s sister Shelley, and my friend Wendy’s Mom) were unavailable. Since Aunt Cathy had offered to come in with me, she was it! I talked to her, and she said she’d be here in a couple of hours (she lives 1 ½ hours outside of town). Dr. W then returned my call, and suggested that I head on in to the case room.

I kinda took my time though. I got something to eat and took my final belly pics. I wanted to make sure I had pictures of my belly the day I went into labor. I think my belly was pretty spectacular. Anywho, we loaded up the car and drove to the hospital. When I buzzed the caseroom (it’s a locked unit) I told them who I was and said I was there for my NST. They let me in, and when I got to the desk, I mentioned to the nurses that I *might* be in labor. The triage nurse that day was Robin. I recognized her from when I was a student. She’s also a British-trained midwife. She hooked me up to the monitor and told me she’d only leave me on it for 20 minutes because she didn’t want me lying down much, since I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable. I lied down on the bed and listened to my hypnobabies CD for a bit. After 20 minutes she came back and checked the strip. My contrax were actually every 2-3 minutes at that point. But I only had 2 acels, and Robin said she wanted to get one more acel on the strip so that the other nurses and the docs wouldn’t hassel me. After a few minutes, we got the acel, and she unhooked me from the monitor. Then she checked my cervix. She said that I was 3-4 cm, and about 70 % effaced. It was midway between anterior and posterior. I was a bit disappointed, but she reassured me that I was progressing really well. She called Dr. D, and came back and told me that Dr. D said I could be admitted at that point, or I could go and walk around the hospital for a little while and come back and get checked again. I always said I didn’t want to be admitted too early, but my contractions were coming so quickly and were getting so much stronger, I decided to be admitted. I asked for Birth Room #1, because that was the one with the Jacuzzi. At that point Robin leaned in to me and whispered to me. She said that I should get in the Jacuzzi on my hands and knees as soon as I got my room. She told me that since I was so overdue, the staff would probably try to put me on continuous EFM, but since the baby was slightly posterior, that would be a really bad idea. She said I need to be mobile and use positions that would get the baby into the best position. That was my plan anyways, but it was good to hear someone, especially a midwife say it.

Room #1 wasn’t quite ready for me, so I had to wait about a half an hour to actually get my room. Aunt Cathy showed up in that time. That was a bit of a relief. I wanted people I knew around me. I had to get up and walk around. Sitting or lying down was just not cutting it. I finally got my room around 4 PM. My nurse was Dawn. She asked if I had a birth plan, so I got a copy and handed it to her. Then I got in the Jacuzzi. They put a stool in the tub for me to lean forward on. I was getting more uncomfortable though. I wanted to get my MP3 player, but I was afraid of dropping it in the tub. Steve stayed with me. The nurse popped in and out every new and then. She came in once or twice with the Doppler to check the baby’s heartrate, which was always fine.

After about 40 minutes or an hour (I completely lost track of time), I had to get out of the tub. I just could not get comfortable at all. My knees were hurting, and I just needed to move. So I got out and toweled off and put on a hospital gown. It was a big bathroom, so I just walked around a bit. I started feeling a lot of pressure in my bum, like I was really constipated. The nurse told me that it was probably just the baby, but if I did need to move my bowels, that could be causing some of it as well. She said that I might get some relief with an enema. So she gave me two of them, and I ran to the bathroom. I DEFINITELY got some relief. At least then I KNEW that what I was feeling was the baby. Things really picked up after that. I walked around moaning and breathing through my contractions and I’d sit on the toilet between them. I only had seconds though between my contractions. They were coming so fast. I tried to use my birth ball, but it was just too uncomfortable. I couldn’t sit on the bed either. The toilet was the only place I could get comfortable. That was a bit hard for me to take, because in order to use the Hypnobabies, I needed to first get into a fully supported position…even if it was just for a minute. But I only had 20 seconds, at the most between contractions. So I had to make-do. I remembered reading in the Sears’ Birth Book about how Martha Sears coped better with her contractions when she relaxed her belly, so that she’d look 11 months pregnant, instead of tensing up and looking only 7 months pregnant. I gave it a try and it really did help some. It gave me something to focus on…just sticking my belly out as far as I could during a contraction.

With the contractions being so intense, the nurse asked me if I wanted to be checked, and I did. At that point I was about 6 cm and pretty close to fully effaced. I got back up quickly because I couldn’t stand lying down. After that, my nurse went to break, and Robin, the triage nurse relieved her. I will be forever grateful to her for that. She really helped me through the rest of my labor. Steve was pretty much a by-stander for the most part. Which was fine. I was in my own world, just going with it. And Aunt Cathy was designated the official photographer. She’d had c-sections with both of her children, so I think she was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. But that was OK with me. I just wanted her there. I think that, more than anything, I wanted witnesses to the birth. But Robin was amazing. The contractions got so intense. And yeah, they were painful. I don’t remember the pain now though, but I do remember the intensity. It was really overwhelming. Robin really helped me through them. She talked to me and held my hands. She was so calming. It was at this point that I was really starting to doubt myself. I kept saying “I can’t do it.” I remember thinking “this is why people get the epidural.” Robin assured me I was doing fantastic. I didn’t ask for pain meds. I really felt like I couldn’t take much more, but I knew that with all my soul I didn’t want any pain meds. I didn’t want Demerol. I didn’t want an epidural. I knew that I wouldn’t be OK with that decision after all was said and done. Robin really helped me through that time.

It was around then that I started getting really pushy with my contractions as well. At the height of each contraction, I could feel my body involuntarily pushing and I would grunt and try to breathe. Robin asked me if I was feeling pushy, and I told her I was. She told me she wanted to check me because it seemed to her that I was progressing really fast. I guess they wanted to make sure they called Dr. D soon enough for her to actually make it there! I told her that I couldn’t lie down, it would hurt too bad. I NEEDED to move. She assured me she would be super quick. She waited until a contraction was ending, and I literally jumped on the bed and assumed the position as quickly as I could, so that I could get back up before the next one came. At that point I was about 8 cm. She told me that the baby’s position was OT (occiput transverse) which was not a great thing. She wanted me to get into extreme left lateral position to try to get the baby to turn anterior. I told her I couldn’t do it. A contraction came and it was HORRIBLE lying there. My body was pushing during the contractions and it was like a freight train was coming…there was no stopping it. I NEEDED to get up so badly. But we all knew that pushing at that point was a bad thing. My cervix wasn’t fully dilated. I knew that she was right though. It was then that Robin mentioned to someone (not sure who) that I try the nitrous oxide gas. I heard her say it and I told her I’d agree to it. I had actually been thinking about asking for it at that exact point. My plan was to go without pain meds completely, but I always knew that if I DID need something, I’d use the nitrous oxide. It’s VERY safe and wears off very quickly. They set it up and I was using it with the next contraction. The exact time on the birth record was 1910h, so 7:10 PM. I breathed it in and at first I didn’t think it was doing anything. The nurses kept telling me to breathe, because I started pushing. When I was pushing, I wasn’t breathing, and vice versa. Focusing on breathing in the nitrous oxide helped me to stop my body from pushing a little. Dawn checked me after a bit and all that was left was a lip of cervix on one side. She pushed it back during my next contraction and the baby’s head came down a bit.

According to my birth record, the second stage started at 1940h, or 7:40 PM. They got me over on my right side for some reason. I kept breathing in the nitrous oxide during the contractions, but my body was pushing even harder. My water broke while I was pushing. I remember feeling the warm fluid coming out. It didn’t all come at once though. More came out with every contraction. It was so strong and so intense. Probably the best word to describe the pushing part is “primal.” It was so animal-like. And the noises I was making were pretty animal-like too! I really didn’t care though. I remember feeling Jesse descending. It felt like he was coming out my bum. It really does. I’d heard people say that before, but I never realized just how much it feels like being really constipated. At some point my Aunt Cathy asked if I wanted pictures of Jesse being born. I said I did. I do actually have a pic of him crowning, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to look at it yet. I remember Dr. D and Dr. W getting there. They were all gowned and gloved up. I remember Dr. D asking Dr. W if she’d ever done a side-lying delivery, and she said “no.” Things went so quickly. I could feel Jesse’s head moving down with each contraction. I was still using the nitrous oxide a bit and was a bit loopy in between the contractions, when the gas would really hit me, but they were coming so quickly. I remember the sensation of when Jesse was crowning, except that I don’t remember it being painful. I do remember that I wanted it to be over! I remembered reading in Hypnobabies that the best way is to push the baby out between contractions…there’s less tearing that way. Well, that didn’t quite work out! I pushed with all my might! Steve told me later that both Dr. D and Dr. W were trying to hold him back! They were trying to guard my perineum. But he barreled on out! Steve told me later that it was really weird, seeing me with a head at both ends. I remember feeling Dr. D then reach up for his shoulder. After the shoulder came out the rest of his body slid on out.

Though he didn’t get his name right away, Jesse Liam Snow was born at 8:11 PM. Dr. D had to peel back the membranes, which covered his face. Then she placed him right up on my chest. I was pretty loopy at that point, from the nitrous oxide and the endorphins, and I felt completely dumbfounded. I had been so concentrated on the pregnancy and the birth for so long. The fact that I had a baby and that he was here and lying on my chest was sort of a foreign concept to me. I still didn’t know if the baby was a he or a she at that point, and Steve was looking at the two of us in wonder. Dr. D nudged Steve and said, “Alright Daddy, do your job!” Steve clued in and exclaimed, “It’s a boy!” I was totally confused at this point, what with there being a baby on my chest, AND the fact that I had been so sure it was a girl. I looked at Steve and said, “Are you sure?” Everyone in the room cracked up laughing. Steve laughed and said, “Oh, yeah, I’m sure!” I was in complete awe and wonder, looking at my little baby.

At some point I became aware of the cord. I felt it on my lower belly. Dr. D waited for it to stop pulsating, and then she clamped it and got Steve to cut it. She waited for the placenta to detach and applied gentle traction and I gave a little push and out it came. After a couple minutes of cuddling with the baby, Dr. D told me she had to check me out. I think she suspected the damage was pretty bad. She had the OB, come in with her. A nurse took the baby so that they could check him out. Then Dr. D told me to use the nitrous oxide again for the pain. After they checked me Dr. D spoke with the OB about what to do and then she came to talk to me. She said that the baby did a lot of damage on the way out and told me that the best option was for me to get a spinal so that they could do the repair. I would need to go to the OR. I asked if Steve and the baby could come too. Of course they couldn’t, but I wasn’t completely comprehending everything at that point. I guess the endorphins were starting to wear off, and I was starting to feel the pain. I was also starting to shake really badly. So they wheeled me off to the OR.

Someone started an IV in my left hand and then it took about a half hour for the anesthesiologist to get the spinal started. I remember him mentioning something about my tattoo, and it was a bit of an issue, but he got it done. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. My legs were all pins and needles. I couldn’t wiggle my toes. I tried, but I couldn’t. They put my legs up in the stirrups and the OB did the repair. Dr. D and Dr. W were there for part of it. Dr. D talked to me through a lot of it. She told me how perfect the baby was, and how healthy the placenta was. No one believed that he was overdue. I got back to the birth room at around 11 PM. Steve was there, with Aunt Cathy and the baby, and my brother was there too. I was still shaking really badly. They put this blanket on me that fills up with warm air. I didn’t feel cold, but I was cold. My temp was pretty low. Steve came over to me holding the baby. We tried to figure out what to call him. But I was flat on my back and couldn’t get a good look at him to decide if he was a Liam or a Jack (the two names we had picked out). They couldn’t raise the head of my bed because it might drop my blood pressure. After I stopped shaking enough, one of the nurses helped me nurse the baby for the first time. Dr. D then gave him his first dose of oral vitamin K.

We got up to my room on the obstetrics ward around midnight. The baby went to the nursery to get checked out and cleaned up while I got settled away. I was just starting to get my legs back, so I needed a bit of help transferring from the stretcher to the hospital bed. After about a half hour one of the nurses brought the baby to me in the bassinette. I got to really look at him for the first time. I still couldn’t believe he was a boy! And it was then that I decided that he didn’t look like a Liam or a Jack. We came up with Jesse the next afternoon.

Anywho, the long and short of it is, I’m completely happy with Jesse’s birth. Sure, it would have been nice to not have ended up with a 3rd degree tear, but I gave birth to my son on my terms and I know I made the right decisions. He was born alert and very healthy, which was always priority number one.

Birth Stats:
Jan 9, 2008 @ 8:11 PM
8 lbs 11.8 oz
20.75 inches

The story of Amelia Brooke….
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Actually starts Jan 28, 2008. I had a night of frequent bathroom trips and bh. Just before 7 am a pattern was starting with my contractions. Then my nephew arrived, whining as usually and my body shut down. After several minutes of moping in bed I got up for the day and went about my daily routine. I felt tired and irritable as I had the day before I had Jere. Convinced I was fooled by my own body because I had yet to pass my mucous plug, a sign I had had with all 3 previous pg that my pg was ending. I mean I had seen some mucousy discharge, but it was only about the size of a dime, with my other children it looked like a cup of apple jelly.
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At the end of the day my sister retrieved her son and I was able to relax once again. I had random strong contractions from the time he left. These contractions reminded me of the day before I had Jeremiah, but I didn’t want to put too much hope into a night of prodromal labor. I thought that night for sure I would at least lose my plug. I must have not shown how much those contractions irritated me, because neither my hubby nor my mother asked if there was anything wrong that night. I went to target to pick up a game and some trivial items and many times found myself biting my bottom lip to get through those random contractions. Hubby and I stayed up together until about 12, and then we headed to bed.
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Some time after 3, but before 4, I started my nightly bathroom runs. After emptying my bladder I returned to bed and was met with a long hard contraction. I groaned lightly through it, and made an attempt to not wake my son or hubby. After what seemed like no time another contraction hit, and my reaction this time was to make a low “oh” sound to get through the intensity and focus on being as quiet as possible, so that I didn’t disturb the others that slept in my room. By 430 I was up and down many times, trying to find a position that made the contractions more tolerable and so I could be quiet through them.
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Between 4 and 5 while I was up and down, in and out of bed, I started my computer. I opened a browser to a contraction log page, but never managed to be at my computer at the start or end of any contraction… but by this time I had put on my glasses an could note my contractions were at least 1.5-2 min long and an interval of 1-1.5 min from end to start. I made a quick post over several contractions to the bulletin board, and then sent a link to Augustfading over instant messenger.
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Between this time and 7 am my kids started waking for the day. Unable to fulfill their demands I insisted hubby wake and help me. It was shortly after this time that things got very difficult for me. The kids were in the room, making demands. They wanted computer games, food, etc. I just wanted to be alone. I decided I would try to relax in the tub for a few moments, because the kids normally leave me alone for my bathtime. As I walked into the bathroom, hubby asked if I thought it was real labor or false, and I snapped at him that I wasn’t in the mood to judge right then. His response was “I think it is real.”
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I was unable to get comfortable at all in the tub so relaxing there was not going to be an option. About this time My “Oh’s” got to be a low growl with raspberries at the end as the contractions wore down followed by me attempting to take deep breathes. I think while I was in the tub my water may have broken, but I don’t know for sure. I got out of the tub and attempted to dry off. As I left the bathroom, I brought some chux pads to set under me incase my water were to break on the bed. I came back to the bedroom. I decided to lie down on my side to try to relax. It must have worked because I felt as though I was lightly dozing between contractions, but I had to struggle through several more contractions. I know that Gwen and Jeremiah were in the room watching me with curiosity. For some reason, it did not register to me that Prissy was the only family member not staring at me. Around this time my memory of what was happening gets hazy. I know with contractions I was trying my best to “Oh” and follow with raspberries, especially when breathing seemed difficult. More details will have to be recounted to me from hubby (or I’ll just have to have him write his side of the story)
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Eventually hubby said something that concerned me.. I think it was about the color of something. I reached down and had some bloody fluid. It wasn’t entirely blood so I assumed it was bloody show, which I had never witnessed in my previous births. Shortly after this I started feeling pushy. My contractions were full on bear growls. After about 4-6 contractions of light, fought back pushes, I had growing concern about my water breaking and the baby being malpositioned. I had been sleeping on my right side when I had first woken, and previous nights that had allowed the baby to slip into a transverse position from what I could feel. So now I added to my list of anxieties. Somewhere in here I’m sure I told Lee I was happy I was never going to birth again. Then I vomited into a trash can. I could tell hubby was doing his best to be supportive and tell me everything was going ok. But he had NEVER witnessed birth before. So he had concern in his face as my vocalizations changed.
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This is probably the part of the birth story I regret the most. We were doing well on our own. I probably was progressing slowly because I had a lot of birth anxieties about birthing in this environment. There had been many recent disagreements with my mom about what was needed for the birth and what was not. One of the things I was adamant about was that my baby would not be first touched by any one but Lee AND that my baby would not need to be touched by gloves because whoever touched her would need to thoroughly wash their hands first. I had strong feeling before inviting her into our room that she wouldn’t respect either of those things. Lee was handling things fine. But I worried he would be overwhelmed and I invited someone that had not expressed complete confidence in my desires and wants into our private birthing space.
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I knew that the fore water would have made the birth canal more lubricated and easier for the baby to glide down. I told hubby to go ahead and bring mom into the room so that he had additional support for me. He asked if I was sure because it may have involved my nephew joining in the room, which he knew I truly did not want. Mom was concerned when she learned how long I had been laboring, as it was longer than my first labor, and expressed her concerns ~ yes she brought her fears and gave them to me, a big mistake to do to a laboring mother. She had no knowledge of my anxieties, and I highly doubt she would understand how anxieties could hinder labor.
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They attempted to reposition me. They wanted me to flip onto my hands and knees. But I barked out that changing positions at this time was NOT going to happen. I struggled my way back to the bed. I attempt to get comfortable on my side, but it’s not happening. As I attempt to roll to my other side, I grabbed a leg and pushed through the contraction, fully expecting a huge gush of fore waters. Instead, I felt head moving into the birth canal. The contraction felt like it took forever. My mom told me I was pushing too long and I needed to stop, I think I grumbled back that my body wouldn’t let me stop yet. At the end of the contraction, I was left panting. It seemed as though no time passed before my body was bearing down in another push contraction. It was another long contraction, which resulted in her head crowning. I could feel pulling on my perineum in many directions. I wouldn’t say it felt like fire.. but I know how too small a shirt feels as it is stretched over a head *chuckles*
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Again I panted, maybe had 2 breathes in before I pushed again, as much as I wanted a break from this. I felt her head exit, and as it did fluid started gushing out from behind it. The warm water was a welcomed sensation. She screamed as her head made its forced entry into the world. What a loud scream! Jere told her to be quiet. It relaxed my mind a great deal to feel the fluids and hear her scream, but not my body. Two more hard contractions forced the rest of her body out.
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Mom and Lee discussed she was a girl and offered her up to me. We waited for the cord to stop pulsing, which wasn’t very long. I suggested waiting until after the placenta passed before cutting the cord. But the cord looked white and like twisted twine or an old phone cord. So I gave lee the ok to cut the cord thinking the tight twisting was preventing her from benefiting from delayed cutting. It did not appear to have a pulse to it like I remember Jeremiah’s cord and it did not seem to bleed as though we had cut through a pulsing object.
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I attempted to nurse her, which lasted maybe 2 minutes. Then decide d I needed to change positions for the placenta to pass. I moved into a tailor sit as I had done after my last birth, and felt as though the placenta had most likely passed, but could still feel cord between my legs. I shifted positions and in place of the placenta were 3 very large clots. I decided to lie back down and see if the different position allowed it to pass. I hadn’t started bleeding yet, just the passing of clots. So I was uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to go to the hospital. I didn’t feel like I was ever going to pass out, but the passing of large clots continued randomly. After about 30 minutes of being in the bed, not having her nurse, passing clots, and the placenta not passing I decided to go stand in the shower and see if I could have any standing positions in the shower that would allow the placenta to detach.
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I walked like there as a bowling ball between my knees, looking down at the blood dribbling out of the cut cord from it hanging downward. My thought process was to vacant to think of grabbing the loose end and holding it up. I walked slowly, waiting and anticipating the placenta falling out at any moment before I actually stepped into the bathroom. As soon as I could turn on the shower, I did, then I stepped into the cold running water in hopes it would quickly warm up. Shortly after the warm water hit my back, the placenta fell to the tub with a thud. Yells from the bedroom, where blood was being wiped from the floor and linens were being changed, asked if I was ok. I let them know it was the placenta hitting the tub they had heard and not me. Then one of them came in to the shower and grabbed up the placenta into a ziplock bag. After that I took a long refreshing shower. I came back to the bed and she was ready to nurse.
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My after birth rant:
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It was after the birth my mom started barking orders at Lee. She wasn’t about to let him it and marvel at the only birth he had ever witnessed. I learned later that he felt gypped out of the experience. He wanted the time to sit back and marvel in the experience. He wanted to spend time in awe of his new baby, and me. It was probably 2 days after the birth that he disclosed that mom wouldn’t let him touch Amelia immediately. She wanted the glory of saying she delivered my baby, which is what she says about Jere. I often find myself saying that she caught my baby, but I delivered him right after she makes such a comment. In addition to that, shortly after the birth I found my mom had tried to hide some neoprene gloves in the trash can. As I thought back upon it I never heard her wash her hands (not that she didn’t, I’m no going to ask we had enough difficulties in communication right now) but either which way I had expressed no gloves at birth and she had them anyways ~ I did not buy them, they were not a part of my birth kit! AND she denied my hubby the experience of catching his last child just so she could be a glory hound. I find this infuriating to no end. I try to make my request of everyone very simple and straightforward. Why my request should be discarded even by my mother at my last birth is just frustrating beyond belief.

I posted my birth story on my blog!
http://rabbatphotography.wordpress.c...lias-birthday/
Comments always welcome on the blog :-)