http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sassy_...eyla/my_photos
I had a very smooth l & d at home last night, from 8pm-1am, in the tub/shower/laying-in-bed, and then semi-reclined in bed and pushed out a 9 lb. 4 oz boy in 25 minutes! Nearly born in the caul, but Kari, my awesome, non-intrusive male midwife broke the water w/ my agreement at the start of second stage labor, and he came out perfect and healthy.
More details later....
ETA:
Tuesday morning, August 9th, 2005, I woke up feeling like I had pretty bad menstrual cramps, and I felt pretty grumpy. By noon I warned my husband that he should wrap up all business & meetings for the day as soon as he could, because things could be happening later. By the time the buggle and I had a long afternoon nap for a few hours, when I woke up and felt exhausted enough to sleep again (around 3pm), my cramps were too strong to allow me any rest, and I remember thinking to myself that a lot of women describe the transition from false or early labor to true/active labor as being unable to sleep through the discomfort, and I wondered if today would be the day! I felt really wiped out and really uncomfortable with the lower back aches, so I let my mom entertain my son and I laid in front of the fan on my bed and enjoyed the cool air. It has been chilly most days here in Finland, but August 9th was a balmy/humid/tropical type day, with a gust in the air that didn't reach us inside our flat, so I resorted to a fan blowing right on me to keep from getting too sweaty. I later jumped in the shower to cool off and clean off, and I remember thinking that there would be no point in putting on lotion afterwards since I may very well be getting in and out of the birth tub before too long! Around 6pm, my mom left me alone with the buggle, and my husband arrived home soon afterwards, and nothing had changed yet....but by 7:30 I noticed that the cramping would come on harder for a few moments every once in awhile, and by 8:00 the crampiness in my lower back (accompanied by a braxton-hicks-esque contraction in the front) would come QUITE strong for 15-30 seconds, and I decided to start timing them, and they were every 3-6 minutes, so we called the midwife. My son would watch a cramp overtake me and mimic whatever I did (lean over and grab support on the table, moan a few nonsensical words, etc) and since there was music playing, he thought it was a game/dance! Even I had to laugh. I noticed bloody show for the first time, which continued for a couple of hours, and clear/runny mucous along with it. For many days I had noticed white mucous being released and I felt sure things must be progressing but never saw any hint of pink so I never felt too encouraged, but since the contractions were pretty regular and pinkish show was now appearing, I knew for sure things were happening, and I got in the birthing tub to relax and help with the discomfort through the contractions. My mom entertained my son and then took him outside to walk him in the stroller to sleep. Around 9:30-10 oclock things were pretty painful for around half a minute, every five minutes, and my husband massaged my back in the shower/tub with me, and soon afterwards my midwife arrived and took a look to see how far along I was. Having him internally examine me hurt terribly, but when I did build up enough courage to push down when he put his hand inside, the pain subsided and I just felt my muscles working. He found that the water hadn't broken yet and I was around 5 cm dilated. I was feeling some nausea and fatigue, so I left the heat of the shower room and continued to labor laying on the bed, on my left side (in the dark with 'Deep Forest' playing on the stereo). I felt sooooo tired and unwilling to imagine the energy that would be required to birth my baby so soon, and just had so many whiney and wimpy thoughts running around my head. I actually complained like a kid to my husband that I was too tired, 'didn't wanna do this', while face down in the bed. I was starting to feel so uncomfortable in my lower back, most keenly at the peak of a contraction of course, that I asked my midwife to use the water injections to help me out. They hurt like a bitch, or more specifically like 4 bees stinging in turn, but as soon as I recovered from the shock of that burning pain, I did noticed that it immediatly helped remove the back pain from the equation, and I felt the contractions only in the front, which were still quite powerful, but much better! (After about 30 minutes the pain relief started to wane and after about 90 minutes we did the injections again a second time, and they helped again with the intense back sensations.) I suppose it was around 11, although I'm not sure, that the midwife checked me again and found I was 7-8 cm dilated, and the pain was getting truly intense, and I found that taking a hot shower helped a bit....which I did for a few moments, followed by walking around the apartment, followed by sitting on the edge of the bed (our bed is just mattresses on the floor) in a bit of a squat. Things were intense through each contraction no matter what I did, and after midnight we found I was 9-10 cm dilated, and the midwife encouraged me to push down on his fingers to help the water to break, (this hurt terribly and seemed to really exacerbate the pain of the contraction, until I really dug in and was able to engage all my pelvic muscles in a hard push, then it didn't hurt at all and I was able to hang onto the push and endure things quite well--strange!) and he was able to feel the head nicely engaged, but the waters intact, and my contractions were hitting me like hurricanes and I agreed to let him break the waters and allow this baby to come on out and have the ordeal be over with. I still felt such fatigue, no sense of energy or empowerment at all, just soooo tired and the pain hit me so cruelly during each contraction (I thought at the time), and I felt disgusted and disappointed with myself for not being a powerful birther and just being this little wimpy girl hanging on for dear life while the ordeal passed over me. Anyway, the midwife did break the waters, caught the flood in a plastic bag, and it was about 1am when things switched to second stage labor. Within a couple of contractions with me pushing down on my midwife's fingertips, he was able to see the head---full head of dark hair! Just a few minutes later I found out first hand what people refer to as the 'Ring of Fire' as I pushed the baby's head out and could not believe the burning pain could be so strong! I felt so 'full' as I pushed the baby out, but by 1:36am I did just that, and mini-bug was born and placed on my tummy. After a little while of him clearing out the mucous from his throat, he started crying, and soon afterwards, nursing like a pro. My mom and my son were back inside, my son woke up and we wanted to wait to clean up the scene before introducing him to his mama and little brother, but he was getting really hysterical hearing me yell in pain as the midwife stitched up a small tear, so as soon as my crotch was mended, and the midwives left, I covered up things with a towel, and my toddler joined the scene. Unfortunatly, he was so freaked out as his sleep had been interrupted in the middle of the night to so much activity he couldn't understand, and he just felt so upset and confused. He needed one on one attention from me, in the dark, nursing him, to be able to let go of some very intense hysterics and fall asleep, and I got a little tense that I was missing out on time with my newborn to ease my son's tantrum, but at least daddy and grandma got some nice time with mini-bug and found out he was 51cm and 4.18kg ! Big boy. Finally my toddler slept, and I held and nursed the baby a long while, and finally left him sleeping by his brother as I went to shower and clean up, and my husband cleaned the room all up nice while I showered. I crashed in bed with the baby but was too excited to sleep, so I just stared at him, and later my husband showered, ate,a nd joined us, after sending text messages and emails out to everyone he could think of to announce his second son's birth! All in all, a success, I think.
I had a very smooth l & d at home last night, from 8pm-1am, in the tub/shower/laying-in-bed, and then semi-reclined in bed and pushed out a 9 lb. 4 oz boy in 25 minutes! Nearly born in the caul, but Kari, my awesome, non-intrusive male midwife broke the water w/ my agreement at the start of second stage labor, and he came out perfect and healthy.
More details later....
ETA:
Tuesday morning, August 9th, 2005, I woke up feeling like I had pretty bad menstrual cramps, and I felt pretty grumpy. By noon I warned my husband that he should wrap up all business & meetings for the day as soon as he could, because things could be happening later. By the time the buggle and I had a long afternoon nap for a few hours, when I woke up and felt exhausted enough to sleep again (around 3pm), my cramps were too strong to allow me any rest, and I remember thinking to myself that a lot of women describe the transition from false or early labor to true/active labor as being unable to sleep through the discomfort, and I wondered if today would be the day! I felt really wiped out and really uncomfortable with the lower back aches, so I let my mom entertain my son and I laid in front of the fan on my bed and enjoyed the cool air. It has been chilly most days here in Finland, but August 9th was a balmy/humid/tropical type day, with a gust in the air that didn't reach us inside our flat, so I resorted to a fan blowing right on me to keep from getting too sweaty. I later jumped in the shower to cool off and clean off, and I remember thinking that there would be no point in putting on lotion afterwards since I may very well be getting in and out of the birth tub before too long! Around 6pm, my mom left me alone with the buggle, and my husband arrived home soon afterwards, and nothing had changed yet....but by 7:30 I noticed that the cramping would come on harder for a few moments every once in awhile, and by 8:00 the crampiness in my lower back (accompanied by a braxton-hicks-esque contraction in the front) would come QUITE strong for 15-30 seconds, and I decided to start timing them, and they were every 3-6 minutes, so we called the midwife. My son would watch a cramp overtake me and mimic whatever I did (lean over and grab support on the table, moan a few nonsensical words, etc) and since there was music playing, he thought it was a game/dance! Even I had to laugh. I noticed bloody show for the first time, which continued for a couple of hours, and clear/runny mucous along with it. For many days I had noticed white mucous being released and I felt sure things must be progressing but never saw any hint of pink so I never felt too encouraged, but since the contractions were pretty regular and pinkish show was now appearing, I knew for sure things were happening, and I got in the birthing tub to relax and help with the discomfort through the contractions. My mom entertained my son and then took him outside to walk him in the stroller to sleep. Around 9:30-10 oclock things were pretty painful for around half a minute, every five minutes, and my husband massaged my back in the shower/tub with me, and soon afterwards my midwife arrived and took a look to see how far along I was. Having him internally examine me hurt terribly, but when I did build up enough courage to push down when he put his hand inside, the pain subsided and I just felt my muscles working. He found that the water hadn't broken yet and I was around 5 cm dilated. I was feeling some nausea and fatigue, so I left the heat of the shower room and continued to labor laying on the bed, on my left side (in the dark with 'Deep Forest' playing on the stereo). I felt sooooo tired and unwilling to imagine the energy that would be required to birth my baby so soon, and just had so many whiney and wimpy thoughts running around my head. I actually complained like a kid to my husband that I was too tired, 'didn't wanna do this', while face down in the bed. I was starting to feel so uncomfortable in my lower back, most keenly at the peak of a contraction of course, that I asked my midwife to use the water injections to help me out. They hurt like a bitch, or more specifically like 4 bees stinging in turn, but as soon as I recovered from the shock of that burning pain, I did noticed that it immediatly helped remove the back pain from the equation, and I felt the contractions only in the front, which were still quite powerful, but much better! (After about 30 minutes the pain relief started to wane and after about 90 minutes we did the injections again a second time, and they helped again with the intense back sensations.) I suppose it was around 11, although I'm not sure, that the midwife checked me again and found I was 7-8 cm dilated, and the pain was getting truly intense, and I found that taking a hot shower helped a bit....which I did for a few moments, followed by walking around the apartment, followed by sitting on the edge of the bed (our bed is just mattresses on the floor) in a bit of a squat. Things were intense through each contraction no matter what I did, and after midnight we found I was 9-10 cm dilated, and the midwife encouraged me to push down on his fingers to help the water to break, (this hurt terribly and seemed to really exacerbate the pain of the contraction, until I really dug in and was able to engage all my pelvic muscles in a hard push, then it didn't hurt at all and I was able to hang onto the push and endure things quite well--strange!) and he was able to feel the head nicely engaged, but the waters intact, and my contractions were hitting me like hurricanes and I agreed to let him break the waters and allow this baby to come on out and have the ordeal be over with. I still felt such fatigue, no sense of energy or empowerment at all, just soooo tired and the pain hit me so cruelly during each contraction (I thought at the time), and I felt disgusted and disappointed with myself for not being a powerful birther and just being this little wimpy girl hanging on for dear life while the ordeal passed over me. Anyway, the midwife did break the waters, caught the flood in a plastic bag, and it was about 1am when things switched to second stage labor. Within a couple of contractions with me pushing down on my midwife's fingertips, he was able to see the head---full head of dark hair! Just a few minutes later I found out first hand what people refer to as the 'Ring of Fire' as I pushed the baby's head out and could not believe the burning pain could be so strong! I felt so 'full' as I pushed the baby out, but by 1:36am I did just that, and mini-bug was born and placed on my tummy. After a little while of him clearing out the mucous from his throat, he started crying, and soon afterwards, nursing like a pro. My mom and my son were back inside, my son woke up and we wanted to wait to clean up the scene before introducing him to his mama and little brother, but he was getting really hysterical hearing me yell in pain as the midwife stitched up a small tear, so as soon as my crotch was mended, and the midwives left, I covered up things with a towel, and my toddler joined the scene. Unfortunatly, he was so freaked out as his sleep had been interrupted in the middle of the night to so much activity he couldn't understand, and he just felt so upset and confused. He needed one on one attention from me, in the dark, nursing him, to be able to let go of some very intense hysterics and fall asleep, and I got a little tense that I was missing out on time with my newborn to ease my son's tantrum, but at least daddy and grandma got some nice time with mini-bug and found out he was 51cm and 4.18kg ! Big boy. Finally my toddler slept, and I held and nursed the baby a long while, and finally left him sleeping by his brother as I went to shower and clean up, and my husband cleaned the room all up nice while I showered. I crashed in bed with the baby but was too excited to sleep, so I just stared at him, and later my husband showered, ate,a nd joined us, after sending text messages and emails out to everyone he could think of to announce his second son's birth! All in all, a success, I think.
Can't wait to hear more...
