April HBers - Check in here! - Page 3

[ShineliketheSon]

Originally Posted by Latenightanarchy

hey good for you, it's totally possible!!! Good nurses and laid back docs are hard to find but if you can get one then you're golden! I did hypnobirthing as you can see all over this forum, I am a huge pusher! lol, how ironic... pusher.... very funny. Anyway, I really found it helpful to relax and let my body work. I really encourage other moms to try it to get their goals of natural childbirth.

Thanks...we had a wonderful "hospital homebirth" with DD and I hope to recreate that even though it is a different hospital with different midwives. Our midwives assure me that I can have the birth I want and we have a great Doula, and took bradly classes last time around! A natural/non intervention childbirth is definatly the goal no matter where it happens...

[mom2sol]

Hi! Nice to see so many homebirthers.

We are planning our third homebirth- could be April or maybe March.

[CrunchyGina]

Another HBer here! This will be our first HB & hopefully 2nd water birth. We haven't done much to prep except make arrangements for the tub. I need to sort clothes, buy new clothes, & get the apartment together. Really excited though!

[Azreial]

1st hb 5th baby :

We're thinking about a waterbirth but live in an old house so not sure if the floor can hold a birthpool. We really haven't started to get ready at all. I even forgot to ask the mw last visit about supplies well I suppose it'll all work out in the end

[lilgreen]

We're planning a homebirth! Ds2 was a home water birth and it was incredible. I'm not doing anything at this point. I'll probably order a new pool in a few weeks (the other one got slashed). I've still got some supplies from my last hb so I don't have much to get.

Just cruising along right now. This pregnancy is just so simple (other than the awful m/s I had through to 20wks)... been there done that. ho hum.

[Gnatty]

2nd baby, planning 2nd hb...

All I really feel like I need to do soon is order the birth kit so we have all that good stuff on hand. I'd also like to buy another inflatable bath pillow for my back so I can really relax in the bathtub during labor. And maybe some candles, although last time I had a special candle I was going to light and I never even thought of it during labor.

When we get to like 35 weeks or so, closer to birth, I'll start doing other stuff, like
- washing receiving blankets and 1st outfits, big towels, washcloths for massage, and dark cheap sheets and drying them all twice in the dryer and packing them in paper bags.
- corralling trash bags, a small crockpot, unopened olive oil, etc, into one place so my DH or the assistant MW can find them easily.

[honeybunmom]

Second baby, second homebirth here, too.

With 12 weeks left, I figured it's time to start "training" for this birth! I was working out when pregnant last as it was part of my pre-child lifestyle. Um, yeah, not so much, now. So, I need to get in shape for this!

I've been building the baby's diaper stash and knitting for him. Now, I need to dip into my knitting time for my Bradley refresher. Just reading the book. I also was given a book New Active Birth which looks pretty good and will be reading that.

I've been trying to prepare dd who will be present for as much as she wants to experience. We've been looking at pictures of her birth (no crowning shots, so, I've had to rely on birthing books for that) and talking about it (so much so that she has announced to people outside of the family on 3 occasions that the baby will "come out Mommy's 'gina!") and getting a feel for what she'd like to do. Besides recommence nursing herself, she'd like to cut the cord. She'll be 3.5 when the baby is due.

We're supposed to be moving and have moved much of our belongings, including our bed, to our new home. So, if that is not a full go by March 1, I'm headed to Ikea to get everything I need to make the space workable again. And I'd like to rent a tub this time since having my dh and cousin take turns pouring water over my belly wasn't really doing the trick for taking the edge off of my posterior labor with dd.

When my midwives give me the list of supplies again, I'll get whatever is on there. And that'll pretty much be it! Except for finding a great list of affirmations I'd found last time. Hope it's still in my favorites on my home computer.

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by honeybunmom

I've been trying to prepare dd who will be present for as much as she wants to experience. We've been looking at pictures of her birth (no crowning shots, so, I've had to rely on birthing books for that) and talking about it (so much so that she has announced to people outside of the family on 3 occasions that the baby will "come out Mommy's 'gina!") and getting a feel for what she'd like to do. Besides recommence nursing herself, she'd like to cut the cord. She'll be 3.5 when the baby is due.

Funny, I've also been talking about it with my son (who will be 4 1/2) and recently he gave me a very detailed description of the whole process- (that my cervix and vagina will have to stretch open to fit the baby's head, etc) including delivery of the placenta- "a sort of slobby thing that comes out afterwards", and I was thinking that he may know more specifics about birth than many adults!

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by emmaegbert

Funny, I've also been talking about it with my son (who will be 4 1/2) and recently he gave me a very detailed description of the whole process- (that my cervix and vagina will have to stretch open to fit the baby's head, etc) including delivery of the placenta- "a sort of slobby thing that comes out afterwards", and I was thinking that he may know more specifics about birth than many adults!

It's hard for them to deny that they've heard other things we've said when they can give such detail about these sorts of things, huh?

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by honeybunmom

It's hard for them to deny that they've heard other things we've said when they can give such detail about these sorts of things, huh?

Ah yes- but selective hearing and even more selective memory seem to be a well-honed skill by the time kids are 4... and yeah, any talk of vaginas or whatnot is extremely memorable...

[Jude-a-buddies-mom]

Wow that is great to see there are so many others planning homebirths. This will be my 2nd. I can't say I've done any planning but I didn't last time either. I'm sure there will be a few things I will want to plan for but as long as my sister and midwife are there I'm good (oh yeah and hubby too ).

[dawncayden]

2nd homebirth/waterbirth for us.

We need to buy the pool still. We had borrowed a friends fishy pool last time but we are going all out and buying a cushy one specifically for waterbirth.

We need a couple more supplies as well. I luckly found our rubber sheet for the bed so I don't need to get shower curtains for that purpose.

It's very different planning your second home/waterbirth because we did so much research last time around. Each midwife visit is so incredibly boring because we don't have a zillion questions like we did last time around

[lilgreen]

Originally Posted by dawncayden

2nd homebirth/waterbirth for us.

We need to buy the pool still. We had borrowed a friends fishy pool last time but we are going all out and buying a cushy one specifically for waterbirth.

We need a couple more supplies as well. I luckly found our rubber sheet for the bed so I don't need to get shower curtains for that purpose.

It's very different planning your second home/waterbirth because we did so much research last time around. Each midwife visit is so incredibly boring because we don't have a zillion questions like we did last time around

Exactly! Ds1 was a hospital birth with my regular dr. But last time around (home water birth) with ds2 I soaked up every minute of my appointments with the midwives because there were so many questions and so much to learn. My appts now, too, are now so boring and usually end quite a bit short of the alloted time.... except for my appts with one midwife in particular at which we yap constantly but about nothing baby-related . lol.

[Fridaxsky]

Everytime I see how long this thread is getting, I feel so :.

[inky leeuhhh]

ok you all- are any of you planning to have some food ready for your mw's to munch on? and if so, what? im going to go search the hb forum too, but thought id ask here as well.

[emmaegbert]

We got a whole handout on birth supplies when we first hired our midwife. Very specific, no mysteries. They make a home visit for week 36 and want to have all this on hand at that time, so I wasn't going to worry about it yet anyway.

On it she just says to have "your refrigerator well stocked with plenty of nutritious food" starting at week 36 (I mean, I aspire to have that be the case anyway, so its not like a big shift for us). I don't think they expect us to cook for them or anything and I surely don't plan to. If I have a long enough labor I'll probably cook at the beginning anyway, since I find that a very relaxing and enjoyable activity, so depending on the timing of it all we might have some nice hot soup and muffins or something, but I'm not counting on it!

I figure we'll have plenty of fruit, veggies, breads/cracker, eggs, cheese, nuts, milk and juice, box cereal, stuff like that... easy to make foods I'd want around for post-partum anyway (or, frankly, for my hectic life as a student mom...)

I'd assume that any MW with a really restrictive diet will bring her own food anyway- people like that usually do.

[scrapadoozer]

Originally Posted by inky leeuhhh

ok you all- are any of you planning to have some food ready for your mw's to munch on? and if so, what? im going to go search the hb forum too, but thought id ask here as well.

I am but have no idea what exactly. I'd love to hear what others are planning on having around the house!

[Pregnant_Midwife]

ok you all- are any of you planning to have some food ready for your mw's to munch on? and if so, what? im going to go search the hb forum too, but thought id ask here as well.

As a midwife, the stuff I like best is bottled water, and easy to grab finger foods...not a sit down meal. Fruit, veggie tray, cheese and crackers, nuts, granola bars, muffins, yogurt.... anything quick and easy that I can grab and snack on between your contractions.

For my own births, I also make sure to get some really good OJ for after the birth. To me, I still remember how amazing that first glass of OJ is after birthing a baby. Ahhhh..... pure bliss.

[simplymother]

Hi, this will be my 3rd birth--2nd unmedicated, 1st at home.

Thinking I might start feeling the need to get ready SOMEtime soon My midwife gave me the list at my last appointment.

I'm still not sure what to do about a birth pool. The MW's will bring one, and charge us and extra $100. But we already have a hottub (a smallish, 4 person one, a free gift from an old employer) that would surely be more comfortable to labor in, with it's seats and jets and all. But I don't know if it'd be safe with all the chemicals you have to keep in it.

I don't "need" to have a waterbirth--I haven't even read up on it enough to have a strong desire to do it or anything--but I definitely want to be in deep water for the laboring part. And I know last time I was really annoyed to have to get up and move because the hospital wouldn't let me birth in the tub. I remember wanting to just sort of lift up or something, but they made me get out and move in to the bed. I guess lifting up wouldn't really work so well anyway!

I don't understand how you get enough warm water in a birth pool that quickly though. It takes forever to get our hottub filled up, and getting the water warm enough involves boiling pot after pot of water and dumping it in. For hours. My labors are not that long. At least, they haven't been. I know each is different, but I can't count on having all day to get a birth pool set up. I'm gonna want to get in water right away, you know?

I'm a little concerned about the timing also because my mw's are almost 2 hours away. I saw someone said her mw is going to leave her emergency kit just in case--I wonder if mine will because I feel like there's a good chance they could miss it. (Though they say they've been delivering babies here for 20 years and only missed twice, and that because the moms just didn't call.)

Still considering hiring a doula, but the one here is $600! Is that normal? Probably, and all that she does, it is definitely worth it. I just can't really afford it ya know? But at least she lives in town and could get here right away.

I also really need to get on to practicing relaxation/hypnobirthing. I wish, wish, wish I could take a refresher course, but no one around here offers it.

In short, I am lazy and procrastinating everything. But excited nonetheless. Maybe I'm trying not to get all busy doing it because I don't want to get all ready and then . . . Oh wait, still 3 more months!

Anyway, thanks for reminding me of all the things I need to do.

Oh, and my mw did put "a coke for your midwife" on the birth kit list. We never have soda, but I'll probably find out what they like ("coke" here seems to be a generic term for soda of any sort) and keep a few on hand. I'd like to have some munchies available for everyone involved.

[dawncayden]

simplymother, I wonder if you could get a birthpool liner to go inside the hot tub for clean water sake? I'm not sure if you'd want the jets on?
With ds's waterbirth I was in the shower for over an hour while they (doula and dh) got the pool ready, and yes it took lots of boiling big pots of water throughout my labour.
$600 for a doula is average, I've heard more and I've heard less depending on experience and different training.


I never even thought to have food for the midwives last labour well at least they were only there for 5 hours or so, so not too long.