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Friday, June 5th, I had contractions for a couple hours and thought it was enough to give Paulette and Mom (Nathaniel's mom) a heads-up. But they quit. My mom did the same thing with Aaron, so I wasn't anxious. I was a little stressed by the "any moment now" and "could be next week" tension, but I was not worried about the baby being 'overdue'--s/he wasn't a library book!
So Thursday night the 11th, Elisabeth was up crying "Don't take my footstool away," so after a while, Nathaniel thought of letting her go stand on it. She fell back asleep then, but after we'd been awake a while. So Friday night as we went to bed, I thought, "Not tonight, please, we need to get caught up on sleep."
I woke up Saturday and as had become my first thought every morning, "Oh, no labour last tonight!" I made breakfast and the three of us enjoyed fresh bread and jelly, coffee and milk and cherries. Elisabeth was delighted to eat breakfast on the 'big bed,' something we rarely do.
I had several things I wanted to do and putzed around the house. My concentration at getting things done was worse than usual, and I felt really fidgety and 'pacey' (no, not spacey--pacey), and pictured a lion going back and forth. I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions.
I wanted to go to Joann's and Hobby Lobby, but had things around the house I really wanted to do first. We never got there, as I kept doing other thungs and by the time I was ready, I was working enough through the contractions enough that I didn't want to be the middle of the store, haha!
I got around to hanging laundry at 3 pm, started at 10 am. I forget what else I did. Lol!
I had checked my dilation when I woke up and thought it was about the same as it had been for several weeks. I checked again at 1 or 2 pm and could tell I was definitely dilating. I guessed I was 3-4 cms dilated. I had some of the mucus plug on my finger. I had a pre-labour bowel movement, and the second that day, so I knew my body was getting ready and started letting myself get excited.
I'd been having contractions off and on from 10ish, and around 2 pm I thought they were more regular, so we timed them with Contraction Master, from 3-4 and they were 10 min apart, but not hurting at all. I called my midwife at 4 pm and as I hung up, had one that felt sharp. After that I started leaning or sitting on the birth ball (aka Nathaniel's exercise ball) and rocking thru them. That's when we got the picture of Elisabeth and me leaning on the ball. We called Nathaniel's mom too.
I just did getting ready stuff from then on between the contractions. I called my folks and let them know and my brother. Nathaniel got Elisabeth to sleep at 9:30 pm. We called Susan to come around 10 pm. I really wanted Elisabeth to be awake for the baby. We'd been watching homebirths on Youtube, and she had a good idea what would happen. I'd played with her Little People and showed her the mama in the birth pool and 'working' to get the baby out. I knew she'd do best with Susan, but had a couple of friends willing to come over.
At 10:30 pm, I felt like getting in the pool, put it off as long as I could, and called Paulette to come. She checked me and said I was 8-9ish. I was pretty excited about that! It was wonderful to get in the pool. We had made the bed with the sheets that could get messy and be pitched afterward and put a sheet protector on the couch and the floor by side of the pool I'd be getting in and out of. We spread some chux pads around, too and got towels out on the couch.
I leaned over the edge of the birth pool and held Nathaniel's and Paulette's hands and then later leaned back against his arm for quite a while. He whispered in my ear, "Breathe" and "open" and "relax" and did horse lips (raspberries) with me some. They really helped to make my whole body relax--I would tense up a lot during contractions. I blew out a lot too.
At midnight, I moved to lean facing out against the edge of the pool and started feeling pushy. Paulette told me to just breath the baby down. I asked Mom to get Elisabeth, since I had her 10 minutes after feeling pushy.
She snuggled and dozed for a while. When I started feeling like I couldn't not push, I felt like vocalising, so I was moaning "Ooooooooooopen" and kinda growling and just moaning.
Elisabeth asked "What's Mama doing?" and said, "I want my mommy." When the contraction let up enough, I talked to her and reminded her that Mama was working hard to get the baby out and was making noises,but I was okay. She settled down and snuggled and read books with Mom in the rocking chair.
I thought I would have the baby very shortly after feeling pushy. After about 45 minutes, I checked myself and told Paulette I felt the amniotic sac and another bump. She checked and said I had an anterior cervical lip. She massaged it while I pushed, and it disappeared, and she said, "Go ahead and push now." My water broke while she did that. I had been feeling the head descend and then suck back up several times.
I was leaned back against Nathaniel again. This time I felt the baby moving and kicking like he was swimming out! That was a really amazing feeling.
I really started to push and felt the head come down. It was very intense pressure. The peak of one contraction ended, and Paulette told me to keep pushing with it, but I waited til the next contraction. I looked over and told Elisabeth that the baby was almost gonna come out! Before the baby started crowning, I reached down and supported the perineal area. Her head felt all squishy, and I could feel her hair. I told Nathaniel to feel her head. When the next contraction came, I pushed in little pushes instinctively instead of one big push. Even with the little pushes, it still felt like her head popped out! "The head's out!" Paulette told me to feel for the cord, I was surprised when I felt her ear, haha! The rest of her just slid out with the next push. The cord was around her neck and rather short.
I caught her as she slid out and lifted her up to my chest. She was lavender, which is normal. I was laughing and half-crying, "Oh, Jesus, I just had my baby! Oh my baby, you're here! Oh baby!" it was incredible. We untangled her, and I held her against my chest. I just sat there and laughed and said, "Hi!", amazed at the miracle. I looked at Elisabeth and said, "It's our baby!" Elisabeth said hi to her then.
Elisabeth had been on Susan's lap, but she came over to the edge of the pool and was jumping up and down. Susan asked, "Is it a boy for sure?" Paulette was wiping her face and suctioned her mouth out and she started crying. I lifted her leg after a minute, and Nathaniel and I both looked, and he said, "It's a girl!" and I said, "You have a sister!" Then we all laughed--no boy! I had been saying I thought the baby was a boy all along. Susan chuckled, "At least a girl has a name!" It still took us til Tuesday morning to decide.
I sat there and said, "My baby girl is here! Ohhh, hello!" She had lots of hair. I just laughed and snuggled her. She cried some, which surprised me, since she was born in the water, and the lights were dim.
I got out and sat on the couch and delivered the placenta about a half hour after she was born. I don't remember feeling any contractions. I didn't bleed very much. I said, "Well, now I need a sewing machine!"(to sew them matching outfits.) Like I did with Elisabeth, I thought, "Labour isn't so bad. I could have another one here soon!" I had a little skin split where I couldn't support the entire perineum, but it didn't hurt as much as I had with Elisabeth's birth.
Paulette got me comfortable in bed and nursing Abigail after weighing and measuring her on the bed and then helped Nathaniel empty the birth pool. Clean-up was pretty easy after all, we had towels and chux pads, and it was very easy cleaning up--of course, I wasn't doing any of it, but it was still simple. We all went to bed, no nurses coming in for random weight checks or whatever; it was lovely. We woke up late Sunday morning, and Nathaniel was holding Abigail, and Elisabeth woke up and leaned against our bed and saw her on his chest and said, "There's my baby!"
So altogether, I had regular contractions for 10 hours and pushed for an hour. Even with the anterior cervical lip and her asynclitic head (tilted), it was so much better just being at home. Five days after she was born, I realized, if her head was bruised (her forehead was bruised, so we figured she had been asynclitic earlier, hence the lip because the pressure wasn't even), it must be bruised because she was pushing on bone, not muscle. I had been walking and sitting awkwardly. So I went to my chiropractor and walked out normally! That made a huge difference. I had thought the way I was feeling, that I was bruised inside, but no, I just needed an adjustment. Also, she was born at 42 weeks, and it was nice to have a careprovider who was not insisting on induction.
It was the most incredible experience I've ever had. I still look at Nathaniel and say, "We had her right in our living room, right here!" I had a birth high for at least three days. It was wonderfully healing after Elisabeth's birth.
Labels: 42 weeks, birth, blessings, Family, labour support, miracle, My Man, natural birth, pregnancy, waterbirth
