Hello everyone!
I'm sorry I've been blissed out in my baby moon, I cannot beieve its already been a week! I finished my birth story, and i feel like my head is back in the game to update the baby thread and to be a leader again... I had truely forgotten how much the baby moon takes over all ability to function, haha!
Well, without further ado...
On Wednesday night, I went to bed around 11:30, my normal time. I laid in bed for about an hour looking at the ipad, although I wasn’t feeling very tired, I tried to go to sleep. After laying in bed for about another hour and unable to fall asleep I decided to get up and jump on my computer for a little while. When I came down to the kitchen I made some Raspberry Leaf tea and proceeded to pace the living room. I wasn’t having any contractions or anything to say that labor was eminent, but something, although at the time I couldn’t figure out what, was off. I just felt strange, I paced with my tea until 3:00am. Then I felt tired enough and I went to bed.
I woke up at 6:00am, and felt a few contractions. They were very light and not painful in the least, but I felt good about feeling my body do something. I got up and went to the bathroom and then laid back down in bed to fall back to sleep, I still didn’t feel that I was going into labor anytime soon and even though it took me about 30 minutes or so, I ended up falling back to sleep. Jason said goodbye to me, around 8:20am, like he does every morning when he leaves for work. And at that point, I felt that I was still having the easy, but good feeling contractions, and they gave me the desire to go for a long walk.
I got up, ate a good breakfast and dug my sneakers out of the closet. At about 10:30 I headed out and walked down into town. I walked about 2 miles (holy crap! That’s a long way while in early labor!), when I got back home around noon I ate some lunch and sat down to see what the contractions were doing. They were still moving along, not unpleasant yet, but at least they still there and most importantly they were still being consistent.
I sent a text to Peggy (our midwife) at 12:18 and told her I was having contractions about 10-12 minutes apart and that I was heading back out to walk some more. She called me and made sure I was feeling okay, I was, but I also wanted to make sure the contractions stuck around and didn’t fizzle off. So off I went, to walk some more!
At 2:00 I texted Jason and told him I was still having them and for him to come home around 4:00. Then at 3:00 something started to change, I called my parents and told them to head up, and I sent a text to Jason and said “maybe he should come home now” and a few seconds later he walked through the door and said “okay”. It’s amazing how he just knew he needed to come home (he has a 35 minute drive, so he knew before I did that I was going to need him). I also texted Peggy to let her know they had moved to 3-5 minutes apart and kicked up on the intensity. She texted me back that she was going home to get her gear and she would see me in an hour.
It's interesting to me, because even when the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes and lasting a full minute or longer, I was still very paranoid that they would fizzle off. After talking to Peggy and my mom, the next day, about this fear that lingered through out my entire labor, we feel it’s rooted from going over my due date, and feeling as though my body was somehow ‘betraying’ me by not going into labor when ‘I’ thought it was time. And for that reason I kept believing my body would continue to betray me and stall labor.
When Jason got home (about 3:15) he started to get all of the labor stuff together and setting up the pool. I sat on my ball, leaning on a stool with a pillow, and continued to quietly and effectively labor. With my contractions coming about every 3-5 minutes, I had to pay attention to them now, and breath through each one.
Peggy and two of her interns showed up around 4:00. They checked the baby’s heartbeat, my blood pressure, and assessed my contractions. They were getting stronger but still controllable and I just zoned in on each one and breathed through them. By 5:15 my parents arrived, and my mom started helping me relax through each one as I needed to vocalize through them now, they were still 3-4 minutes apart but the strength was definitely increasing.
At this point I was off the ball and now wondering around the kitchen and living room. Every time a contraction started I would stop and lean on who ever I was near, and someone else would put counter pressure on my lower back as I moaned and swayed. I had a phenomenal birth team, every person in the house (Jason, three midwives, and my parents) knew what to do for me as soon as I showed that a contraction was beginning, it was truly a well oiled machine!
I continued to walked around the house and hang from people during contractions for another two hours. At around 7:30 Peggy asked me if I wanted to get into the pool, but I was worried I would slow down or stall labor, but by 8:00 I had had a few very strong and very intense contractions and announced that “those sucked, and I didn’t like that at all!” when Peggy and my mom both said I needed to get into the tub, and that I would not slow down at this point. I agreed and got in.
Wow, did the hot water from the pool feel so incredible! I immediately leaned over the side of the tub and relaxed, I closed my eyes and felt as though I could drift right off. But, another contraction came, and it was the strongest yet, when I pushed away from the edge of the pool to counter act the pain, I felt her head move down. And at the same time right at the tail end of the contraction the need to push rushed over me. I yelled out that I needed to push and Peggy told me to sit back and feel for her head.
I was a little nervous about feeling for her head, I really didn’t think I was that far along. But when I reached down, I could feel her right there, the top of her head was already peeking out, and she was still in the caul! Peggy told me if I wanted to I could pinch the bag of water with my fingernails to try to get it to release some of fluid and make the pressure less. I attempted to but it was very slippery and I couldn’t quite grab it enough. I had another contraction, and pushed her head out and as her head emerged my bag of waters broke, it was an amazing sensation, and just like I had read about, it popped! And with the next contraction I pushed the rest of her out and reached down and pulled her out of the water and onto my chest.
Lucianna Quinn was born at 8:11 pm on March 6th, 8 pounds 2 ounces and 21.5 inches long.
She is now 6 days old, and has already gotten back to her birth weight. She nurses like a champ, and is so quiet and happy. She seems to never cry, and is just so sweet and cuddly! We are absolutely over the moon in love with her.
Less than an hour old
2 days old
3 days old
. So beautiful and peaceful, i am so happy for you that you had such an amazing birth. Your daughter is beautiful, thank you for sharing your story and pictures!
Beautiful story and beautiful girl! Congratulations!!
Beautiful baby, beautiful story.....
And then I stayed all teared up through the rest of the story! Sounds like it was a really lovely labor and birth. Welcome to the world, Lucianna! 
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