****PICS ARE IN THE NEXT POST****
This is a long and probably choppy story, but that is what happens when you have a nursing baby and can not sit for one stretch to finish anything on the computer:)
Sakura Naomi Isabelle
7/27/09
3:09 AM
9lbs 2oz
20 inches
The morning of Saturday, July 25th, I woke up and saw that I had lost a bit of my mucous plug. I was still having the semi-contractions (not quite painful, but stronger than the BH’s I had been having through out the whole pregnancy.) I decided that I wanted to get walking, to see if things would start up for me. We went to the mall, and walked and shopped for an hour or so, but the pain in my hips was killing me. So that plan did not quite work. We got some shopping done and came home. We just hung out, and watched a movie after dinner. All day I continued to have those contractions. I went to bed around midnight and slept horribly. At least once an hour, I would have a mild *real* contractions that were just enough to wake me up. Of course, once I was up, it took me just enough time to fall back asleep, that once I did, I would wake back up to a contraction. Fun stuff:) When I woke up around 7 or 8, I let DH know that I had been having these contractions, and that hopefully the shopping we had to do that day would make things stronger. All morning I continued to have these contractions. They could be to 30 minutes apart or so if I was sitting, or 3-4 minutes apart if I was doing the dishes-lol. We went to Costco when the opened, at 10 AM, and I continued to have contractions. Poor DS was holding my hand, and kept looking at me like I was nuts when I would stop or slow down and squeeze his hand whenever a contraction would start-lol. Even walking around, they were still far apart, and sporadic. We got home and rested for a while, playing Monopoly on the XBOX while we waited for 2 PM to roll around - when the local farmers market opened. At this time I also had DH set up the birth pool and room with all the things (or maybe it was before we left, I don’t remember.) As soon as we got into the car at 2 PM, the contractions got more regular. Out of nowhere-it was kind of weird. They were about 6 minutes apart at that point, so technically this is where I say the real labor started. Since everyone likes to have a number for how long labor lasted - lol. (totally not being serious here) This is when I would stop and concentrate while I was having the contraction. We went to Albertsons, and then to the Farmers Market. We were gone for about 1 hour or so, with contractions staying around 6 minutes apart. Occasionally there would be longer between them, or I would have a mini-contraction in between. When we got home, I asked DH to start filling the tub, and I decided to time the contractions for a while to see if they were regular still. So I labored in the birth room with my computer and a hot dog timing them. They were now around 4 minutes apart. At one point DH came in with the video camera and taped me through the end of one contraction, and I immediately picked up the hot dog to take a bite. He made a comment about not being able to do this in the hospital-lol! A little after this my mom called and we told her that the kids were getting pretty hyped up, and she could come over to help with them as soon as she wanted to. She and my younger sister were coming over to help with the kids during labor and afterwards. She got here around 5:30 or 6 I would say. I was not paying attention to the clock at any point really, which was nice. DH helped me make dinner. I wanted to make a point of eating something good so I would not be out of energy later on. Sometime after I ate dinner, I stood in the kitchen and worked on a little glow in the dark puzzle of the earth to distract me. Shortly after this, so probably around 9 or 10, my mom got the kids into bed and put them to sleep. By this point I had gotten in and out of the tub probably 3 or 4 different times. It was very nice to be in the tub. The water definitely softened up the contractions and made it easier to relax through them. I also spend quite some time laboring on the toilet. Wasn’t really a relieving position, but I found that sitting or lying made the contractions space waaaay out, which I just did not want to happen. Sitting on the toilet let me actually sit down, with our having the contractions space out as much. Plus, the contractions were just so much easier to deal with while I was standing up. Again, just like during my labor with DD, the contractions never got super close together, or long at all. I would say at most 3-4 minutes apart, and lasting about 45 seconds. Towards the end of the day, they definitely were super strong, but nothing I had to make any noise through. Twice my DH and mom convinced me to lay down on the mattress in the linving room and get some rest. I did not really want to, but I did. The contractions got close to 8-10 minutes apart and sooooooo difficult to deal with compared to when I was up, so I said forget rest, I need to be standing up and moving around. The position I enjoyed the most throughout labor was just hanging on DH, and swaying back and forth during contractions. Some time after midnight I got into the tub for the last time. I was in there for a few hours, until the end. This is the point where the contractions were really getting up there in intensity. More often than not I needed to vocalize through them. Being in the water helped so much. I could float in between contractions, and lay over the side of the pool during them. I know I threw up a few times and thought that I must be in transition. I did not ever really think that I couldn’t do it anymore, but I do remember thinking that this would be where I would give into just about anything if I were at the hospital - and that I was glad I was at home. I was thinking that if I was in transition, then I should be close to the pushing stage, but I was not feeling any urge to push. I tried to kind of push during the contractions, but it was not helpful, so I stopped that. I checked myself and felt the head about mid finger in, not sure if there was any cervix left, and bulging bag. I think I must have checked after two or three consecutive contractions, with no change. I was getting irritated-lol. I said a few times that I just wanted my water to break, cause then the head would put more pressure on the cervix and it would go quick from there. I whined about it for a little, then said something like “this is getting ridiculous, I’m just gonna break it.” So I pinched a little (it took a little effort) and broke my water at 2:49 AM. That was pretty cool! I could then feel all of her hair, which was really neat. I had never felt that with either of the other kids. I had a few more contractions after this, and noticed that they were a bit stronger than before (with the water intact) but not much. Felt like pushing during one of the contractions at 3:05 AM. I pushed for a total of 4 minutes, in the water. It was either 2.5 for the head, 1.5 for the rest, or 3 for the head, and 1 for the rest. Pushing did not feel like I remembered with DD. With her, pushing was a great relief, and not painful. This time it was just painful-lol. It was beyond awesome to be able to actually feel her head come down as I pushed. Once her head was out, I pushed but her shoulders did not come immediately. I had my hands at the base of her neck. Not pulling, just there. Her shoulders were not coming, and DH was telling me to not pull (I guess it looked like I was pulling,) and my mom was trying to get me to push like in the hospital, couting to 10... And I am sitting there telling DH that of course I was not pulling her head, and telling my mom to be quiet. I was trying to explain that I did not want to push w/o the urge… All the while, I felt her pull back up inside of me a few times, and kind of started to worry about her shoulders getting stuck. I stuck my finger to the side to try and find an armpit, and just pushed, and she popped out. Looking back, it was really only a minute or so, nothing to worry about... I pulled her up and put her on my chest. It was so cool being able to be the one to actually “catch” the baby. She was covered in super thick vernix. Oh, and 4 minutes of pushing a 9+ lb baby, and no tears! We did not know the sex. For the past few weeks, we had been telling DS (4) that his big job was going to be to tell us if baby was a boy or a girl. He was going to be the first one to know. So I kept baby right there and told DH to wake up DS. It took him a few minutes, and he walked in with a very sleepy 4 year old. His face lit up when he saw the baby. I told him to look and see if there was a penis or not (I, along with everyone but DH was convinced it was a boy.) And I lifted up her butt, and DS said- ‘there is a penis! It is a boy mommy.’ or something like that-lol… My mom said “no, that’s definitely a girl!” DS said “okay, goodnight.” and went back to sleep -lol. She was a little gurgly. I sucked on her nose and mouth, but not much came out, and I was not really worried, but my mom was. The tub was almost black looking, so I got out and squatted on the floor to deliver the placenta. It took just a few minutes. DH got me a bowl for the placenta, and we walked to the bath tub to clean up. I nursed her for a few minutes in the tub and then we got some embroidery floss and cut the cord. The placenta is in our freezer right now - I am waiting a bit to encapsulate it. I gave the baby to my mom while DH helped me clean up the rest of the way and get dressed. Then I had a plate of dinner. Chicken and corn and stuffing. We got baby dressed in her first cloth diaper and laid down for the rest of the night. It was already starting to get light out. My mom and sister stayed with us until Friday and I have been able to pretty much just sit and relax, which has been really nice. I was up and in my regular routine as soon as I got home with my other kids, so this has been very different. I am convinced It is why I feel 100% better, and have sooo much less bleeding. I bled for 6+ wks with each of my other kids. I am so glad that we decided to go unassisted - It was awesome and really nice being at home and being able to do whatever I wanted to:)
