Sunday, March 16, 2014

5 little birds are now in my nest....(homebirth story)



This was my first homebirth.

My contractions started last month, seriously!  I would get contractions  that would get regular and painful but then stop after 3 hours. It was frustrating, exhausting and painful. I didn't want to have a baby as early as 35 weeks but once I hit 37 weeks and was full term it would really frustrate me when it would happen. I would think labor was actually starting but then as soon as they got painful and regular they would stop.

My due date came and passed, something I have never experienced with my other 4 children the days drug on.....

 My contractions would start everyday only to stop after a few hours. I was emotionally, a mess thinking everyday was going to be the day only for the sun to come up the next morning and baby was still in my belly. Luckily I was feeling pretty good no major complaints other than the typical pregnancy stuff.

On Saturday morning I had a "bloody show" a sure sign  labor is coming (according to google 1-3 days.) Thought for sure Saturday was going to be the day contractions continued on an off all day. I finally went to bed at 9 pm.

At 4 am Sunday morning I woke up to contractions I could not sleep through.  They were bad enough I needed to stop and breathe through them. I called my midwife at 7:30am and she wasn't sure it was labor either because of my sporadic contractions.  They were bouncing between 3-20 minutes apart. She said she would stop by in a few hours with some herbal tinctures to possible get contractions more regular.

So I ate some breakfast: Yogurt, OJ and a Lara bar.

She arrived at 10am and after some discussion  she decided to check me and sweep my membranes before we started with some herbal  tinctures. I was already at 5cm so she decided to stay and get her medical stuff from the car as well as call her 2 assistants.

Within 15 minutes of  her checking me  I started getting contractions 1-3 minutes apart that were pretty intense. I  sat alone in my room bouncing and rocking on my birth ball all the while watching  a weird but true animal show on  Animal Planet ( it was just what was on and I was in too much pain to care) I remember thinking in my head how funny it was that I was watching a wild animal show while I was feeling quite animalistic at that moment.

11pm came around and I new my kids were getting hungry so I cut up some apples for them. Papabird ordered pizza for everyone  and the midwives were making tea for themselves ( now I feel rude, I forgot to offer them a drink.)

11:30  despite the fact that baby was positioned well I started getting back pain that did not go away during contractions. I thought the shower would help relax me I labored in the shower on all fours for about an hour. I started bleeding and was a little worried at first but I was assured everything was okay and that it was just my cervix dilating.

12:30 back to my room and back on the ball  my contractions slowed down a bit to 3-6 minutes apart which made me wonder if labor would just fizzle out again. I tried to stay focused and went back to rocking and bouncing on the ball.

Meanwhile  Papabird  was  keeping the kids entertained with video games. They would all pop in and say hi to me from time to time but the midwives would come in after a few minutes and have them leave me be. I didn't mind the kids around but I was afraid they would get upset if they saw me in too much pain.

1 pm I started to feel like a wanted to squat while pushing and just knew that soon my water would break. I moved over to the side of my bed where I had laid out water proof pads and squatted there through contractions while resting my head on my bed. One of the midwife assistants came in and stayed with me. rubbing my back through contractions and giving me counter  pressure. I was at the point now where I don't want to do this anymore the contractions were looooooong and intense. The other assistant came in and my midwife as well. They must have known that I was close.

Not sure exactly what time the next events happened but my water broke, I looked down and it was stained with merconium I asked  my midwife if this was okay as I was a bit panicked by it. They assured me it was fine (I was still scared.) With my other babies the head came down with the my water breaking but this was not the case. About 5 contractions went by before I could feel the head moving down. I turned around toward my closet mirrors, I wanted to watch the birth and pull my own child out of me. I was pretty silent through the whole labor processes but as the head came down I got a bit loud,  moaning, yelling, whimpering, crying thinking there was NOWAY I was going to get this head out. I think I let my fear of birthing a LARGE baby get the best of me. In my head I kept saying I can't do this, what if the baby is too big, they are going to have to call  911. I then realized what I was doing so I took a deep breath and said to myself I CAN do this. Your body will not grow a baby it cannot birth. I few pushs later  baby sipped out of me. What a relief! It was the biggest rush of endorphin's I think I have ever experienced. 1. It  felt so good for the pressure and pain to be gone and 2. My baby was here. I did not catch the baby or guide her out, my midwife did.I was to focused on getting the baby out. She  laid the baby down between my legs ( I was still squatting) Baby was was sooooo blue. I was worried he/she was not okay but my midwife wiped out the babies mouth and then he/she cried. I lifted up a leg to see what it was (I expected to see boy parts) but I did not, there were  girl parts!!!!  I picked her up an fell in love.
Baby bird #5!
 Getting baby ready to be weighed.....9lbs6oz. 21 1/2 inches long. Not my biggest baby at all!!

My 2 older children really wanted to watch the birth but I was so scared at that time that there was going to be a problem I never called them in. They were just one room away playing Rock Band on the Xbox and doing the song "We Got the Beat!"

I birthed the placenta then the midwives helped me into bed so all the kids could come in and see her.Things didn't go exactly as I had planned but my baby was born safely at home and is healthy and happy and thats all that really matters.

Now I just need to give her a birdie blogoshpere name!
Canary? Hummingbird? Raven? Not sure yet......

Side note: I did eat my Placenta 2 tablesspoons of it raw. My midwife cut it up into pill size pieces for me and I swallowed them whole like a pill with cherry juice, It had no taste. Why would I eat my placenta you may ask? Well that is a blog post for another day. If you just cannot wait  ......just google it!

2 comments:

MommyKuehner said...

She is sooo cute!! Congratulations!!!

Body Factory said...

Wow what a journey. God bless you and your new addition. Thanks for sharing!