Special Delivery! We have a new baby in the family! and here is his birthstory:
Our newest beeba
**A little backstory first, for those who did not know, About a week ago, my regular midwife went on vacation, and left another midwife to cover her births… the day she left, i got a call that the covering midwife is not a provider on my insurance, and so i would not be covered with her. We went into planning and getting ready mode to do an unnassisted birth at home, including tons of research. happily, several days later, after we had figured out exactly what to do to handle the birth on our own, the covering midwife called back and offered to attend the birth at no cost to us, that she would make sure we would have no out of pocket from her, since we were not supposed to with the regular midwife. So at practically the last minute, we replanned to go to the hospital**
For the non-web savvy (family)- I always use Beeba 1, 2, or 3 instead of the kids names on this blog. DH means dear husband, DD is Dear daughter, and DS is dear son.
I woke up just in time on Friday the 21st to say goodbye to DH with the kids, poured cereal for them, and figured all would be a normal day. The kids were
excited that Grandma was coming later in the afternoon. I was a little shocked that I had slept through the night, since in recent nights I had woken many many times to go to the bathroom.
After getting the breakfast, I went to the bathroom and when wiping, noticed bloody show. this was about 8am. I was a little encouraged that labor would be soon from the bloody show, but knew that technically it could still be days away.
All 5 of us, a little while after he was born
20 minutes later, I had the first of what i was sure would turn out to be just more of the braxton hicks I’d been getting for over a month… in the past days, though, the braxton hicks had started getting painful, crampy, so I marked in my computer timer and then ignored it.
Another 15 minutes passed, and another contration came… then 11 minutes, 13, 8, 5, then it slowed down to 16 and 15… before jumping back to 5, 8, 7… etc…
Over the first hour or so, I worried that 1, labor might come too fast to get anywhere, or 2, that it might be false labor…
The next hour, things kept up, moving faster, sometimes going as little as 2-3 minutes between, then moving back to 5-6 or even a couple times 10-15 minutes apart…
And these contractions were short, most lasting no more than 30 seconds, and they were MILD. they felt like menstral cramps. with a hard belly.
At home Saturday
At 10ish, DH called and told me that he had forgotten his cell phone at home… and that he would be home for lunch to pick it up. So, when the contractions got close enough and regualr enough that I was pretty sure they were for real, i still held off on calling him, and instead focused my energy on getting laundry done (I got all but one load dryed and folded.) and on getting the kids lunch when they decided they were hungry.
By noon, I was 2 minutes apart, and starting to get antsy, but calling anyone at that point was not going to get anywhere faster (with DH already on his way to have lunch anyway) so I just waited it out with the kids, and had them get their shoes so we’d be ready to leave when daddy got home.
When DH got home, and realized that I was at 2 minutes apart pretty regularly then, he freaked out, and went into panick mode… but we got in the car and headed up to the hospital… I truly think I was calmer then he was at that point.
THough, despite all, I am pretty sure I wound up despite swearing I would not be, in transition at least at the end of the ride.
Beeba 2 is very interested
Despite that by the time I got to the hospital I was feeling very ouchy during contractions… the midwife had not yet arrived, and the nursing staff did not
seem to to believe that I was actually in Labor… especially since I refused to lie down in a bed… and chose to stand through the contractions as I had been
doing the past several hours. and maybe since I was talking through them as well…
When the midwife got there, I had to ASK them to fill the tub for me… and a few minutes later, the midwife asked me if it was alright to do an internal, because she said the nurses were asking her if she was going to send me home!? ha… at that point, I didn’t care too much, so she did the internal, and no only could she feel the head (and not too far away, lol) but I was a solid 9.
Very shortly after that, I started feeling pushy, and finally got to a point where I was no longer talking through the contractions… I was too busy groaning and moaning. At the first of my loud moans, Beeba 2 (both kids were sitting in the room eating dry cereal and watching the birth) got very upset, and yelled… she was worried. I made DH take her out for a walk
and Beeba 1 stayed in the room. Beeba 1 stayed very calm through the entire birth, in fact.
A few minutes and several pushes later, I could feel baby crowning… I reached down and could feel his head trying to come out. A small gush and the membranes ruptured… and then in the next 2 pushes out came his head. The midwife checked to be sure that the cord was not wrapped around his neck (it wasn’t) and then sat back, as I was holding his head myself.
another push or two and I had my baby in my hands, and brought him up out of the water myself. That was pretty amazing to have caught him myself… And in retrospect, if we had done the birth at home on our own, I have a feeling I would have done the same thing…
Beeba 3 is a very strong newborn, and immediately after birth was trying to lift his head up to look around. Now, at not quite 2 days old, he lifts his head up an looks around each time he wakes up…
it took a while for the placenta to be expelled, but in the meantime, we waited quite a while before cutting the cord, not hours as we might have had we done the birth at home, but certainly the cord was no longer pulsing.
Nanna Cuddles
I managed to get through this birth with no real tearing, and I got a beautiful baby boy from the deal… He weighs 7 pounds 11 ounces, and is 19.5 inches long. He is a calm and content little person and while he seems content to go for longer than I expect during the day between nursing sessions, I have discovered that he is a bit of a cluster nurse at night, nursing as often as every 45 minutes to an hour through most of the night. (and for very long nursing sessions… luckily I can sleep through them for the most part)
His big Brother and big Sister love him very much, and want nothing more than to give him kisses and touch him, and they are very gentle about it. They were both there when he was born, and they understand that he came form mommy’s tummy, and that he came out in the tub. Beeba 2 liked yesterday to sit on the side of the tub and tell us that it was the baby’s tub.
I can’t wait to get up and about, but for this weekend, I am resting, recuperating from a fast and overall easy birth. I’m sore, but happy, and Beeba 3 is a happy little man. We left the hospital at 9ish the night he was born, and came home (after a u-turn to retrieve the camera that had been forgotten on the way out) and the big kids did not get to bed until very late that night, (they are usually in bed by 7:30) but we are all happy and well.
big sister loves
