our family grace: birth

Showing posts with label birth. Show all posts

14 October 2014

My Homebirth

I honestly thought our little guy would never come. Sunday, August 31st, I had strong contractions on and off all day. We went and walked the mall as a family of three hoping to hurry things along. They got to the point where I wanted to go and drop Bug off at my parent's house before heading home. I definitely thought the little guy was going to come that night!

No.

By 3am contractions had slowed down enough for me to go to sleep. So our midwife went home in the morning with instructions to walk walk walk with the hopes of things picking up the next day. We called my parents to bring Bug on home and made arrangements to go and walk the corn maze down the street.

Still nothing.

We went back to waiting.

Thursday, we were on our way home from my parent's house and talking on the phone with the hubs. It was the only thing that would keep Bug from crying. I specifically remember him telling her to "be nice and gentle with Mommy tonight." Did she listen? Of course not. But I do credit her with getting labor started.

So before bed that night, Bug decided it would be a good idea to crawl and jump all over me. She loved every minute of it. At the time, I did not. I wanted sweet cuddles with my girl, but those were few and far between.

I put her to bed and tried to get some sleep myself. If I had known what was coming, I doubt I would have slept. Luckily, I was oblivious.

The hubs eventually got home around 3 am. I was just starting to wake up with contractions, but nothing too serious. I slept in between them until around 5. That's when I decided to get up and start bouncing on my yoga ball to see where things were going. It wasn't long before I decided to call in the troops. First, I had to tell the hubs what was going on. He admitted to not really understanding what was happening until he heard me say I was going to call our midwife and my mom, the midwife for obvious reasons and my mom to be there when Bug woke up.

Things started off fast. Contractions were already 3 minutes apart and there wasn't much of a break between them. It wasn't long before I found myself laying in the tub.

There is something about water and labor. It felt amazing. I ended up staying in there until it was time to push. At that time, I ended up getting up and crawling into bed.

The time in between getting in the tub and the bed was very intense though. Contractions hit hard in my left hip and my back. It was awful. They hurt more than anything I could ever describe and centered mainly in my hip. The only thing that felt good was my husband rubbing both locations with black pepper essential oil. Afterwards, we thought I'd be black and blue on my hip from how hard the hubs rubbed.

I remember a few times trying to get out of the tub to try a few more positions that would hopefully alleviate the horrible hip pain. Nothing worked. We tried all fours, sitting, and squatting. Nothing worked, so it was back in the tub for me.

It was amazing how free I was to move and do whatever it was I needed to do. I wasn't limited to one space or one position, I could do whatever felt good at the time.

Eventually it was time for me to push. I remember trying to get into the bed and repeating "I can't" over and over again. It was never about the fact that I couldn't do it, I knew I could...I just didn't think I could move myself from the tub to the bed. But with the help of the hubs and midwife, I made it.

At 11:32 my son was born at home. I felt everything. I remember everything. It was amazing.

More than anything I'm extremely proud that not once did I even think about going to the hospital. It wasn't an option. I enjoyed being home way too much. It was so nice to already be in my comfort place. I didn't have anyone poking and prodding me at all hours of the day. There were no bright and annoying lights. The hubs could lay comfortably next to me. When Bug came to meet him, she was comfortable. I loved being home and will definitely have another homebirth whenever we decide to have another baby.

The following pictures are very near and dear to my heart.

08 February 2013

A Birth Story

January 14th came and went. Baby Girl's due date. I woke up like every other morning, got dressed, and went to work. It's a good thing I did too, because there was a lot that I needed to get done. Of course, going to work on your due date comes with a lot of comments. I kept getting "You're still here?" and "When's your due date?" I just laughed at it all and walked around a lot. I was determined to get this baby here ASAP. I got home and had contractions here and there, but every time I thought something was getting started they just died down and disappeared. I was a little disappointed, I didn't really want to go to work the next day. But of course, that's what was in the cards.

January 15th comes around. I had a doctor's appointment at the end of the day. So I left work early, yes I was still at work, and went in for a check up. I finally let them check me and I was at 3 centimeters dilated. Progress! They also hooked me up to a monitor to check to see how Baby Girl was handling things. Everything seemed perfect. I was having contractions, and Baby Girl was doing just fine. They decided to strip my membranes in order to hopefully get something started, they also scheduled me an ultrasound for the 17th. You see, I was measuring 43 weeks at 40 weeks. A little big. So we scheduled it for Thursday morning so the hubs could go with me. Mom met me at the doctor's office and we decided to head to the mall to get things going even more. Still nothing happened...

January 16th was pretty much the same...I went to work, walked around, and told everyone "Hopefully I won't see y'all tomorrow." I had taken a half day already for the doctor's appointment, and I was kinda hoping they'd just tell me to head straight to the hospital.

The morning of January 17th comes and the hubs and I get ready to go and see the doctor. I suggest grabbing the bag just in case they send us on ahead, but the hubs said no. His logic was we can always stop by the house on the way to the hospital. So I agree and we head to go and see how our baby girl is fairing. We get there and I'm starting to get nervous. I just want to go to the hospital and have this baby! We get called back to the ultrasound room and get ready to see how big this baby girl really is. Turns out, she's perfect size, nothing to worry about in that sense...but we had another problem, her fluids were really low. The lowest fluids can get is 7, and that's where they were. The ultrasound tech said we would most likely be induced today...Okay, we say and we're walked to go meet with the doctor. She walks in and immediately says those magic words, "Head to the hospital." She didn't even check me, all she said was "I'll see you again in a little bit." I wasn't planning on being induced, but that's what baby needed and that was okay. I was ready to get baby girl here.

So the hubs and I head home to pick up the hospital bag and I grabbed something quick to eat. I knew I probably wouldn't get anything to eat once I got to the hospital. I called my mom to tell her the news. She then sent out the word to family. Next was to call work and tell them I wouldn't be coming in that day, or for the next 12 weeks for that matter.

We get to the hospital and check in. Mom beat us there and had already been up to the room to pray over it. It was perfect and I'm very thankful she got there before us to pray. There was a certain peace when we got there. They started me off on the lowest level of pitocin and my doctor came in to break my water (such a weird feeling!) and check me. I had already progressed to a 4 from when they last checked me. Progress! This was around 12:30.

Contractions started to pick up. It was kind of fun to watch them peak. Is that weird? We passed time by watching TV. I can't really remember what we watched. I do remember that the hubs tried to show me a youtube video during the middle of a contraction. I didn't really appreciate it at the moment.

Here's the video, to give him credit, it is actually quite hilarious...I just had to watch it again after the contractions were over.

Soon the contractions got really intense. I asked for some Demerol to help me out. I was able to take a little "nap". I say nap, really I just laid there with my eyes closed and breathed deeply. When I woke up I called the hubs over to talk about an epidural. I said I would go as long as I could without one and I felt that I had reached that point. Not only was I having contractions, but I was throwing up. I couldn't handle both. Epidural it was. So the anesthesiologist came and got me some medicine. But it didn't take fully. I felt everything on my left side.

Before I knew it, I was at 10 centimeters and it was time to start pushing.My little girl was here at 8:31pm. I was in labor for 7 hours and pushed for 1 hour. Clearly my little girl was ready to be here, she just needed a little push. I do feel like if we had waited one more day she would have decided to come on her own, but we did what was needed and I wouldn't change a thing! My baby girl is here and she's perfect.

I did tear, and there was a little meconium in the water, so it was another hour before I got to hold her. That about killed me. I wanted my little girl in my arms! But I had to get stitched up and she needed to be cleaned up and checked. After we were both deemed presentable, she was in my arms and nursing. It was perfect.