Virginia Rose is arrived! Dd1 picked the Rose part and I really like the sound of Ginny. 7lb, 1oz on Sunday, May 17, at 938 pm.
Had cx all day from 3 am, and they were 10-20 minutes apart. Dh went to work at 245 pm.
I made supper with my mom and took the girls (dd1 & dd2) to the park...just waiting for labour to really 'begin' thinking that once it begins in earnest it'll probably be five - ten hours....so I'm trying to keep busy and keep positive.
630 pm called dh and said he should probably be home within the hour because the cx were stronger, but still mostly 6 to 10 minutes apart.
Called the midwife around 7 and said the same thing, cx about 6-10 minutes apart but pretty strong. She said, "Well put your girls to bed and use your best judgment and call me when you think you need a hand, you don't want to feel like a watched pot!" "Okeedokes," thinks I.
Dh got home at 745, girls fell asleep by 8, my mom was watching tv.
Cx about 6 minutes apart and I had to 'huff & puff & breathe' through them, lasting about a minute.
Dh and I made up the bed and got all the homebirth stuff ie/towels and throw-away bed pads and some gatorade and a movie on the laptop (Pulp Fiction of all things) and I kneeled on a mattress on the floor, bent over the bed, comfortable between cx, and still managing the cx.
9 pm - I decided to have a shower to kill time and for a change of scenery. Had four cx in the shower and when I got back to bedroom I was disappointed that I'd only been gone 12 minutes. 912 pm.
913 pm - strong cx that made me yelp at the end of it and my water broke with a sploosh on the matress.
914 pm - dh calls midwife says, water broke. I had another cx right away during the phone call, and during this one I yelled again. I heard my mom take dd1 from her bed in the room next to ours and put her in the attic in the guest room.
Midwife is on the way.
Next 2 cx are BIG and I think, Uh oh. I feel my body shudder and twinge and the head is coming down. I scream. Freak out my mom totally! Dh is used to hearing me scream in labour.
"The baby is coming now!"
Dh says, "No way. It's not, you're fine. Hang in there. You are doing great." He goes downstairs to turn on the porch light.
Another cx and I feel the same (transition, I guess?) and I tell dh to call 9-1-1 because I feel the baby coming NOW.
I don't know what time it is at this point. I climb onto the bed and tell Will to shove a bed pad under my bum cuz I think I need to poo. Women in labour are so funny!
I think that at least if an ambulance gets here they can give me some laughing gas and I'll stop screeching. Somehow, that seems better than just waiting for midwife.
He calls 9-1-1 and tells them whatever and I'm screaming in the background because it hurts so much and it's waaaay faster than I expected.
My mom is running up the stairs to check on dd1 and down the stairs to check on dd2 to make sure I'm not waking them up and then she comes and holds my head and I said something along the lines of I'm going to die and rip and in half and she says I'm not. Whew.
My body is doing all the work and it is startling and ferocious and fabulous and powerful and noisy too!
Dh is pushing on my perineum and basically holding the baby's head in. Why? I dunno. Panic, partly, but it saved me from getting any tears at all. He's awesome! So, he's got one hand on my bottom, one on the phone and after a cx I say, "I need a drink." He looks at me like, uh, I'm kinda busy here. Too cute.
Puts down the phone and grabs me a drink.
Few more cx. Baby's head is almost out, in comes Jack the Fireman. Burly guy, about mid 50s. Apparently, he has delivered 10 babies already in his career. In between cx we chat, what's your name etc, during cx I scream. Baby's head comes out, face down, with cord around the back. Jack tells me to stop pushing, my mom says the same. I do, he flips the cord off, but it wasn't wrapped all the way around, just the back.
Baby is blue and grey and gets pushed the rest of the way plop onto the bed. She is snuggled in the fetal position so we don't know the sex yet. We cover her with a towel and rub her back and she starts to vocalize a bit. Jack goes to clamp the cord and I say, "No, don't clamp it if it is still pulsing," and he checks and he says it is so we leave it.
Now the paramedics arrive. Apparently, they couldn't find the house number. Maybe the screaming alerted them to the correct house.
The lady paramedic tries to suction the baby and I say, "No, she is vocalizing she doesn't need to be suctioned." Then I unwrap baby and say to dh, "Girl." He smiles.
Midwife arrives! She says, "I heard the sirens and thought, hm I'm not gonna make it."
Baby starts to pink up. Midwife says, "Anyone get time of birth?" "937," says a paramedic. Dh says, "938." Wow that was fast.
Midwife gives me oxytocin to get the placenta out. Second midwife arrives. (There are always 2 midwives at homebirths, one to resuscitate the baby, one to resuscitate the mother if need be. I don't know how to spell resuscitate.)
Paper work gets passed around. Placenta is born. Jack the Fireman leaves. Paramedics ask if we are going to the hospital. Nope. Uh, okay, they say. They didn't really get to do anything. I don't even think they were there when the baby was born...or were they just standing against the bedroom door?
My mom says the paramedics were there when the feet were still 'in' and then when the feet came out, they saw that part. Wahoo. I do like to cause a scene.
Firetruck and ambulance in front of my house on a quiet Sunday night of the long weekend.
Anyway...it all worked out. But it was a bit surprising. Probably pretty stressful for my mom and dh, but for me, the best birth yet.
:
Had cx all day from 3 am, and they were 10-20 minutes apart. Dh went to work at 245 pm.
I made supper with my mom and took the girls (dd1 & dd2) to the park...just waiting for labour to really 'begin' thinking that once it begins in earnest it'll probably be five - ten hours....so I'm trying to keep busy and keep positive.
630 pm called dh and said he should probably be home within the hour because the cx were stronger, but still mostly 6 to 10 minutes apart.
Called the midwife around 7 and said the same thing, cx about 6-10 minutes apart but pretty strong. She said, "Well put your girls to bed and use your best judgment and call me when you think you need a hand, you don't want to feel like a watched pot!" "Okeedokes," thinks I.
Dh got home at 745, girls fell asleep by 8, my mom was watching tv.
Cx about 6 minutes apart and I had to 'huff & puff & breathe' through them, lasting about a minute.
Dh and I made up the bed and got all the homebirth stuff ie/towels and throw-away bed pads and some gatorade and a movie on the laptop (Pulp Fiction of all things) and I kneeled on a mattress on the floor, bent over the bed, comfortable between cx, and still managing the cx.
9 pm - I decided to have a shower to kill time and for a change of scenery. Had four cx in the shower and when I got back to bedroom I was disappointed that I'd only been gone 12 minutes. 912 pm.
913 pm - strong cx that made me yelp at the end of it and my water broke with a sploosh on the matress.
914 pm - dh calls midwife says, water broke. I had another cx right away during the phone call, and during this one I yelled again. I heard my mom take dd1 from her bed in the room next to ours and put her in the attic in the guest room.
Midwife is on the way.
Next 2 cx are BIG and I think, Uh oh. I feel my body shudder and twinge and the head is coming down. I scream. Freak out my mom totally! Dh is used to hearing me scream in labour.
"The baby is coming now!"
Dh says, "No way. It's not, you're fine. Hang in there. You are doing great." He goes downstairs to turn on the porch light.
Another cx and I feel the same (transition, I guess?) and I tell dh to call 9-1-1 because I feel the baby coming NOW.
I don't know what time it is at this point. I climb onto the bed and tell Will to shove a bed pad under my bum cuz I think I need to poo. Women in labour are so funny!
I think that at least if an ambulance gets here they can give me some laughing gas and I'll stop screeching. Somehow, that seems better than just waiting for midwife.
He calls 9-1-1 and tells them whatever and I'm screaming in the background because it hurts so much and it's waaaay faster than I expected.
My mom is running up the stairs to check on dd1 and down the stairs to check on dd2 to make sure I'm not waking them up and then she comes and holds my head and I said something along the lines of I'm going to die and rip and in half and she says I'm not. Whew.
My body is doing all the work and it is startling and ferocious and fabulous and powerful and noisy too!
Dh is pushing on my perineum and basically holding the baby's head in. Why? I dunno. Panic, partly, but it saved me from getting any tears at all. He's awesome! So, he's got one hand on my bottom, one on the phone and after a cx I say, "I need a drink." He looks at me like, uh, I'm kinda busy here. Too cute.
Puts down the phone and grabs me a drink.Few more cx. Baby's head is almost out, in comes Jack the Fireman. Burly guy, about mid 50s. Apparently, he has delivered 10 babies already in his career. In between cx we chat, what's your name etc, during cx I scream. Baby's head comes out, face down, with cord around the back. Jack tells me to stop pushing, my mom says the same. I do, he flips the cord off, but it wasn't wrapped all the way around, just the back.
Baby is blue and grey and gets pushed the rest of the way plop onto the bed. She is snuggled in the fetal position so we don't know the sex yet. We cover her with a towel and rub her back and she starts to vocalize a bit. Jack goes to clamp the cord and I say, "No, don't clamp it if it is still pulsing," and he checks and he says it is so we leave it.
Now the paramedics arrive. Apparently, they couldn't find the house number. Maybe the screaming alerted them to the correct house.
The lady paramedic tries to suction the baby and I say, "No, she is vocalizing she doesn't need to be suctioned." Then I unwrap baby and say to dh, "Girl." He smiles.
Midwife arrives! She says, "I heard the sirens and thought, hm I'm not gonna make it."
Baby starts to pink up. Midwife says, "Anyone get time of birth?" "937," says a paramedic. Dh says, "938." Wow that was fast.
Midwife gives me oxytocin to get the placenta out. Second midwife arrives. (There are always 2 midwives at homebirths, one to resuscitate the baby, one to resuscitate the mother if need be. I don't know how to spell resuscitate.)
Paper work gets passed around. Placenta is born. Jack the Fireman leaves. Paramedics ask if we are going to the hospital. Nope. Uh, okay, they say. They didn't really get to do anything. I don't even think they were there when the baby was born...or were they just standing against the bedroom door?
My mom says the paramedics were there when the feet were still 'in' and then when the feet came out, they saw that part. Wahoo. I do like to cause a scene.
Firetruck and ambulance in front of my house on a quiet Sunday night of the long weekend.
Anyway...it all worked out. But it was a bit surprising. Probably pretty stressful for my mom and dh, but for me, the best birth yet.
:
Congratulations! 
Happy babymoon!
Me, too!
