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.

Bliss

Babymoon? Maybe. I don’t know or care what name people call it, but its bliss.

I’m so in love with this little girl and my family.

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.

And so it begins

1:55am-Woke up feeling “weird”. Frustrated because apparently my day of massive mucous expulsion had increased. Debated going to the bathroom and started to roll over on my back…only to feel a big gush of fluid. Nudged my husband

“I think my water just broke”

“HUH? Why do you think that”

He then proceeds to sleepily feel around the waistband of my undies where it is dry. I proceed to sit up and scoot to the edge of the bed and he can see that I am sitting in a puddle. Thank god we followed the directions of the midwife and had a vinyl sheet under our fitted sheet.

Hubs started changing the linens while I waddled to the bathroom to clean up in the shower. Midwife was called and I was instructed to get more sleep if I could. I guess I should also be thankful I bought the Depends like she said to.

Here we go 🙂

Baby Watch 2013

Still nothing. In fact, my daily contractions have disappeared. Nice, huh? Here’s whats going on!

I started evening primrose oil (EPO) daily. Its supposed to help your cervix ripen. Hubs hates the term “ripe cervix” so I make sure to use it often. RIPEN MY CERVIX.

I’ve been walking nearly a mile every night. Walking supposedly helps. I’ve been doing it my whole pregnancy, but now I’m pushing to walk even more. Being fit and all that is good no matter what and god knows I am not up for going to the gym.

My midwife has suggested doing my “homework”. My son’s kindergarten teacher simply told me (much to my shock and awe) that I should “screw”. In other words, get baby out the same way we got her in. At this stage of the game…well…I’ll just let you all wonder whether or not I have attempted that method. After all, I’m a lady 😉

Bouncing on an exercise ball. Opens up the pelvis. Lots of fun.

As for old wive’s tales…I’ve been eating spicy food and pineapple as much as I can tolerate. Apparently both of those send people into labor. So far all I’ve gotten is an acid burn in my mouth from eating a whole pineapple in one sitting. Some old native American woman told my mother during one of her pregnancies to contort herself all these different ways and do handstands or something. Not doing it, lied and told my mom I would. She’s crazy.

Anyone got any other suggestions???

Why I shouldn’t watch shows about birth

You know, I typically really respect people no matter what their birth experience is. I know that my choices aren’t the right thing for everyone. That’s ok. Some people get an epiudural. Some get induced. Some get c-sections.

I was watching Baby Story on TLC this morning. You know, the show where it follows a preg through her birth and whatnot. Well this chick was all “YEAH! I learned about options, got a midwife and a doula and waterbirth!!” and I was like,”Wow, they rarely show these kind of women! I’m excited to watch!” So, she gets to the hospital. Only 2cm dilated, contractions spaced, and not all the way effaced. In other words, not very far along at all. However, she’s screaming at her care team that she needs an epidural now. The midwife is baffled…that’s quite the extreme for a woman that was planning a natural birth. The doula tried all the techniques they practiced to calm her. She wasn’t having it. The medical staff even told her she wan’t far enough along to GET an epidural. She didn’t care. She’s laying in bed screaming “HELP ME HELP ME” because they were delaying the epidural until she had progressed at least a little bit more. Now, I know everyone has their own pain tolerance, but DAMN. She prepped for this, but then acted like any bit of discomfort was a shock. What did you think? So she screamed at all the staff until they gave her what she wanted.

Then, its time to push. Mind you, epidural has definitely kicked in. She pushed twice and then lays back and goes, “Yeah, I can’t do this. Sorry.” The staff just stared at her. Uh hello, there is a baby hanging out in your vagina. You kinda need to finish pushing it out. She kept arguing with them that she wasn’t going to do it. The midwife then tells her, “Look, the baby’s heartrate is dropping. Now you need to do something for your baby, not yourself.” Good. This woman was really getting on my nerves, someone needed to snap her back into reality. She didn’t want a c-section, but didn’t want to push it out…if anything was going to put the baby in distress it was sitting there in limbo and she didn’t want to do anything? Honestly, what was she expecting? Someone to just whip out some forceps and yank it out for her?

The whole thing was just annoying. And then women wonder why doctors laugh at them and believe that epidurals and c-sections should be the norm and get offended. Its because of this.

Thankfully no one really reads this or I’m sure I’d get lots of hate mail. But you know, its true. Women have to fight to give birth the way our bodies were designed because so many just don’t want the inconvenience. Its so backwards.

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.