Better late then never

Pics from the birth! None during since it went so fast 🙂 Here’s one taken a few days before she was born.

Huge! And then…we got to meet our little girl!

 

Check out the moudling on that noggin! 

She was a hefty girl. No wonder it felt like I was carrying a bowling ball in my pelvis those last  few days.

Big brother got to help our midwife with the newborn exam. He was totally in awe of his baby sister…

Giving his sister her first “bath”. Soo much vernix in her hair!

Loving on the girl.

Hello world. Introducing Emma Rose.

She’s here!

I know the suspense was killing you…but she is here! Lets rewind:

Friday June 7, 2013

1:55am- I woke up feeling odd and my water broke! No contractions, husband took care of the sheets and I hopped in the shower. Called the midwife. She let us know that sometimes contractions won’t pick up for a while, so we should try and get some sleep.

2:18am- So much for sleep! We had just settled back into bed and I got a wicked contraction. We crossed our fingers that it was a fluke and then…

2:22am- Another contraction. Crap, 4 minutes apart? After NOTHING?

2:26am- This is really happening. Husband runs downstairs to turn on the porch light. It hurts even worse. I’m on all fours on the bed and call my midwife. She gives me some reassuring words and calls back in a few minutes and talks with the hubs. She says she will start heading to us. I stopped looking at the time.

I turned on some soft lights, found the “spa” station on Pandora, and hunkered down in a nest of pillows. I concentrated on breathing calmly through each contraction and tried to rest during the breaks. I mumbled “another” to hubs whenever a surge would start so he could keep track. I honestly spaced out in my own little world.

The contractions suddenly got harder. I could feel baby so much lower! I let husband know that I would need to push “soon, but now now. Just soon.”

Not too long after, I heard my midwife come into the room with her assistant. She muttered, “She’s in the zone!” and they went ahead silently setting up their gear. They came over and checked baby with the doppler (she was doing great) and took vitals on me. They confirmed my want to push soon. I nodded and said I was almost there…so they checked to see how far along I was. Do I get a gold star for knowing my body? I was 9cm and baby was completely engaged!

Labor got harder and the pain was intense. I went to the bathroom and ended up vomiting. Tried laboring on my knees at the foot of the bed, but the pain was too much. I asked when I could start pushing and got the “ok”. I tried it and it was awful. I didn’t feel the pressure, just sharp pain. It didn’t feel right and I hated it. I tried a few more pushes while contracting and it just wasn’t working. My legs and arms shook and I just couldn’t hold myself up. Baby wasn’t tolerating the pushing in that position either. It hurt bad…looking back, I definitely know that was when “transition stage” labor started.

They helped me move to the bed on my side. One leg high up in the air…let me tell you, it felt great to have my hips that far apart! The contractions were coming one on top of the other at this point and I will be honest, I was really doubting myself. The pain was intense. I started talking nonsense. I told the baby she was mean and bad. I told my husband I hated him. I told the midwife that I wanted morphine. I said I didn’t want to be pregnant. I didn’t want to have a baby anymore. I wanted to go to the hospital and let them take it out.

Of course I didn’t mean any of it. The baby was crowning. Her head was RIGHT THERE. I just needed to say it. I was pushing out a baby, I could say whatever crazy stuff I wanted, dammit! I could feel her head coming out and to my surprise, hubs was watching it! He looked terrified and excited…he was encouraging me to push because he could see her. The tone of his voice was something I had never heard…it was beautiful. He was just so excited to meet his daughter because he could see her coming and he was impatient! It was really, really encouraging. I felt her come down and out more and more with each push and I just became determined. I put my all into it and listened to my team to let me know how close to the finish line I was. And then…

5:16am- She was out. Feeling that little body pop out completely is by far the most amazing, wonderful relief in the world. They put her wiggly, wet body onto my chest and I held her and looked into her eyes. They were wide open and curious, then she took a big breath and started crying. She is the most beautiful little girl in the universe. She just looked at me and cried and I was in love.

The placenta was birthed shortly after…maybe only 15 minutes later. Hubs went to get the big brother since he slept through the whole thing. He walked in and just stared at her. I remember smiling like a fool this whole time. Baby latched on and nursed like an old pro. It was bliss.

8:00am Now, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Around this point, the midwife noted that I was bleeding a bit more then she would like. We ran through her protocol over the next bit…I got injections of Pitocin and Methergen to help contract and slow the bleeding. Some IV fluids to help keep me hydrated. I had trouble getting up to use the bathroom…felt dizzy and close to passing out. After two attempts, the midwife let me know that I might need a blood transfusion and that she would feel comfortable at least getting me checked out at the hospital. I agreed and they called paramedics for transport. The hospital staff was great. Turns out I did lose too much blood (for an unknown reason) and my decreased blood volume was making me dizzy. On top of that, I was clotting in my uterus and they weren’t coming out with my contractions. I had the clots manually extracted, got two bags of blood, and a room for the night. Baby stayed with me the whole time and I felt great, much to the staff’s surprise. We came home the next afternoon.

What it comes down to is that my homebirth was amazing. Everything went well and the clotting/blood issue would have happened no matter where I gave birth. I regret nothing and I am so thankful that I had the support and experience that we did.

So close!

Mother’s Day is this Sunday…it also marks week 37. In otherwords, I will be full term!!!

*happy dance*

I’m really thankful. Sure I had “morning” sickness for way too long and all the aches and complaints of a standard pregnancy, but after trying to get to this point after so long I’m just thankful. Soon I will have a beautiful little baby in my arms. Literally years in the making 🙂

Things are going well otherwise. Last Friday we were at Toys R Us when I started having contractions. After 3 of them, lasting 1 minute and 10 minutes apart, husband decided we needed to get home and monitor the situation. After an hour of it we called the midwife to let her know what was up. We picked up the boy from school and I’ve gotta give husband some props here…he went into full on labor coach mode and I was really impressed 🙂 I was on the floor and the ball and the couch and anywhere that was comfortable. It was a long 5 hours and I was exhausted so I napped since the contractions didn’t change much. I woke up to no contractions!

Not sure if it was because she dropped or the barometric pressure we’ve had or maybe it was pre-labor, but Friday happened. It has been a week and I’ve had bouts of contractions every day since “the incident”. The contraction blocks come and go, but all day long I am cramping like crazy. Oh, and I’m VERY well acquainted with my mucous plug. With the boy, the plug came out in chunks and regrew over and over. This time? It looks like my vagina sneezed. TMI? Maybe. I’m ok with that.

I’m convinced that I won’t make it to my due date and my midwife is skeptical as well. We’re all ready at home with our birth supplies and its not that I want her out, I just have a feeling its coming soon. Husband isn’t thinking she will show up until June 8. We’ll see!

I’ve been slacking

I know I haven’t posted in (what seems like) forever. To be honest, I was worried that I would jinx something. I’m currently on bedrest. Last week there was bleeding and I had to go to the hospital. A sonogram showed that Peanut was still there, but the heart rate was a little slow. I’ve been taking the last week to kind of not think about anything negative and just take it easy as much as possible.

Yesterday I had a prenatal appointment with my midwife and she says I’ve got another week of rest, just to be sure everything is good. Its for the best though, I just keep telling myself that I have to keep Peanut healthy. I’m not even allowed to walk around the grocery store unless I get one of those scooter things. No lifting (even the laundry…which really needs to get done).

She also said everything looks really good. Although, she is questioning if I’m as far along as we thought. I had bloodwork done and we’re going to have another sonogram next week to check the date. The hospital never measured Peanut to double check the date, so we might be off.

Either way, I’m just trying to stay super positive and hope for the best.

what I want

My birth story with #1 is far from a lot of horror stories I hear, so I consider myself lucky. I’ve done a ton of research about what other choices there are out there since then and I am making sure that I have options and am not ignored this time!

First off, I decided to go with a midwife practice instead of an OBGYN. I also knew I wanted a birth center instead of delivering at a hospital. It was important that the midwife treat me as competent and be there for guidance. NOT someone that uses their title as an almighty power stick or something. I want to be kept informed of every single aspect and make decisions with the help of a midwife, not feel forced into “options”. I also wanted to birth in a home-like, comfortable environment.

I found the perfect birth center and a great group of midwives. They don’t believe in medicating the moms and keep it all natural. They have an acupuncturist and massage therapist on staff, in addition to tubs with jets, patios to walk on and birthing balls. They serve you breakfast after you have the baby and just take care of you every step of the way. The midwife is kind of on the hippie side, but I don’t mind…in fact, I think it is preferred at this point. They also have mandatory birth classes where husband and I will learn all sorts of techniques to manage the pain and remain calm during the labor and delivery. I’m so grateful because really, husband was such a deer in the headlights the first time and I really want to have this experience with him helping me through it. And you know, mandatory classes means that he has to learn! He wants the same sort of experience and felt so out of control/helpless the first time. His biggest fear is seeing me in so much pain and not being able to help, but I have full confidence that he will be able to pull through!

The best part is that if there are ANY emergency complications, there is a hospital immediately across the street! My midwife will go over and make sure that the hospital staff keep things as close to what I want as possible. Also, if I start labor and have a complete panic and want to just go to the hospital and get an epidural (for some god forsaken reason), I have that option and they will help me with that, too. They are just there to make sure that baby and I are happy and healthy through the whole process. I couldn’t ask for much more.