Submitted by Joni
On Sat, May 7 I woke up and was having contractions every 5 minutes for half an hour. I got all excited and thought it was labor for sure, so I got up and called the answering service. By the time she called back, the contractions had pretty much died down. The midwife (Erin) told me to go lie back down and if contractions picked up, then I should call back. I went and layed down and fifteen minutes later,
they came back. I decided I would sit for another fifteen minutes to see what happened before calling again. This time they died and didn’t come back. I lost a couple hours of sleep for nothing.
On Wed, May 11, in the evening I thought I lost my mucous plug. I was
sure I was going to have the baby that night or the next morning.
On Thurs, May 12, In the morning, I had a few contractions, but they
didn’t really seem to be going anywhere, so I told Adrian to go to
work. I really lost my mucous plug that morning. I was hoping that
something might happen if we went for a walk, so we walked to the
library and grocery store (a few blocks, not a really long walk).
Nothing.
Thurs night, there was talk about going to The Container Store, but I
really really didn’t feel like going. So, we didn’t go. When I tried
to go to bed at 10:30, I wasn’t at all sleepy. I think I read for a
while and then gave up and got on the computer for a while and then
made myself go to bed at midnight. At 1:50, I woke up with a
contraction. After 15 minutes (and roughly three contractions), I
knew it was labor. I waited another fifteen or 20 minutes before
calling the answering service just to make sure they weren’t going
away. At 2:30, I called and talked with the midwife (Susan). She
told me, after I described what was going on, to call her back in an
hour unless things picked up or something really changed (like bloody
show or water breaking). My mom came up at that point and I told her
I was in labor. She asked what she could do and I told her to get the
fold out couch ready.
I also called the doula (Tammi) and let her know what was going on and that I
would call her when I called the midwife to come. At 3, I called the
midwife and told her to head on over knowing it would be an hour for
her to get here. Tammi came around 3:30 and I had tried the bath, but
it really didn’t work for me, so I was getting out when she arrived.
Running the bath woke Adrian up, but he was thinking that it would be
hours yet and was trying to go back to sleep. At 4, Aelliana woke up
and hopped into our bed with Adrian. He tried to get her to go back
to sleep. But after half an hour the midwife arrived and they needed
to get birth supplies that were stored in the bedroom. So he gave up.
At that point, 4:30am, I had just peed and the birth assistant (Lori)
had just gotten there. Lori and Tammi waited a moment for me to turn
off the light and make sure Adrian was decent before going in for the
birth stuff.
Let me note that all the contractions were in my back and my back was
really hurting for the entire labor. Any kind of movement made my
back hurt and seemed like it also encouraged contractions. This trip
to the bathroom brought on a real doozy of a contraction and I threw
myself on the sofabed to get through the contraction. I think it was at this point that I started to vocalize a little bit. I had been doing some breathing with a little bit of noise, but I think it was this contraction where I was sort of saying “oooooh” as I was
breathing. I could feel my cervix really opening up. And then my
water broke.
I was still wearing my pants and underwear and they told me I had to
get them off. I thought about this and told them to cut them off.
They told me more firmly to move, it would only get harder later, and
so I moved enough that they could pull my pants off.
We must have gotten the pants off between the contraction that broke
my water and the next one, because I then remember feeling an
overwhelming urge to push. I was apparently making a lot of noise.
My throat was pretty sore later too.
After my water broke, I felt the head and it seemed like she was crowning. I was really surprised and asked Tammi if it was time to push. She told me not to be afraid and that it might be time to push. I told her I wasn’t afraid. I had
asked because I was really surprised. It took another 1 1/2 hours
after my water broke with Aelliana before she was born, so I hadn’t
expected to be ready to push so soon although I knew Nova was pretty
low when labor started.
I pushed four or six times and her head popped right out. Then one
more push and the rest came. I remember them saying, there’s a cord.
Susan must have unwrapped the cord before I pushed again. Adrian was
holding my leg and they had me lie a little bit on my back (I had been
on my side) so that when Nova came out Susan could bring her up and
put her on me. 10 minutes later, the placenta came out. This was a
surprise too because with Aelliana, it was more like 1/2 hour.
After some bonding/warming/nursing time, it was time to check Nova out
a little more thoroughly. They took her and tied up one of the
blankets and attached a hook that has a little scale on it. She
weighed 7 lbs 12 oz (4 oz more than big sister) and was 19 1/2 inches
long.
I did have a little tear, but when asked if I could keep my knees
together or did I want a stitch, I opted to keep my knees together.
Adrian missed most of my labor this time because we both thought it
was going to last longer and I didn’t really feel like I needed him.
My birth plan said I wanted an intervention free birth, would people
please remind to breath while pushing, and not to cut the cord until
the placenta was delivered. Everything came true.
While I wouldn’t say it was a dream birth, there were many wonderful
things about it. It was not easy; this labor was really painful and I
kept thinking “I can’t do this for x many more hours”. I didn’t want
to move for most of the last hour (even though I did get up and was
still talking between contractions up until I started pushing). The
aftercare was wonderful. There was no separation and instead of
insisting that we warm the baby up in the oven (say), they got the
heating pad and put that on me and some blankets to warm Nova up.
Being able to go to sleep in my own bed and not having to deal with
people coming in for vitals was wonderful. I would much rather have
my toddler interrupt my sleep than hospital staff.
Although Aelliana and my mom didn’t actually see Nova come out, they
heard her cry and then rushed in. Aelliana got to see her new sister
when she was just moments old. Apparently my mom asked Aelliana if
she wanted to go see the baby coming out (my mother could tell I was
pushing from the noises I was making), but Aelliana said no. My mom
thought I would be pushing much longer too.
If asked if I would recommend a homebirth, I would have to say that
each woman needs to give birth where she feels most comfortable. I
knew that a hospital birth would not work for me this time because I
would have been too worried about what they would do to the baby
after. If I had been vbac’ing, I would not have done it at home.
Adrian asked when it was all over if this labor had been better than
going to the dentist and I didn’t really answer the question, but I
think it was worse. I had said after Aelliana’s birth that going to
the dentist was worse.
So, for me, giving birth at home this time was really wonderful. If
I’d had to try to go to the hospital, I’m not sure I would have. I
really just didn’t want to move and it was nice to not have to go
anywhere. We all appreciated the aftermath. It is so much more
relaxing to be in your home and have people you know taking care of
you than to be in the hospital. We have gotten way more sleep than we would have in the hospital too.
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This was great to read… we are considering a home birth for our next one! Thanks for sharing!
~Tabitha~
freshmommyblog.com
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