Around 5pm on Wednesday I decided I was going to make the Hershey's Chocolate Cake I had heard about that sends women into labor. I called my husband at work and let him know that we were going to the store when he got home to get the rest of the ingredients.
When Jay got home we went to the store, picked up cocoa, milk and butter and headed home. On the car ride I started to get contractions and casually mentioned it to DH, and told him it probably was nothing, after all I had been having contractions for weeks and still no baby.
By the time we got home I started thinking these just may be the real thing. I started timing them, and they were 2-3 minutes apart but still totally manageable. DH got in the shower to clean up after work, and I surfed online to distract myself from the contractions. By the time DH got out of the shower, I was no longer able to focus on the internet during a contraction, so I asked DH to page Linda, our midwife.
Linda called back about 20 minutes later, and told her we were going to head to my MIL, Karen's house, the half way point between home and the birth center. She was about 45 minutes away from the center, same as us, only in the opposite direction.
Jay and I gathered a few last-minute items from the house and headed out. Neither of us had eaten since lunch so we stopped at McDonalds and got a chicken sandwich, knowing I would need some protein to get me through labor. I ate between contractions, and then put on my MP3 player with a 60 minute MP3 of thunderstorms with classical music in the background.
We arrived at Karen's house pretty fast, or at least it seemed that way, and paged Linda again. She let us know that she was on her way to the birth center, so we could meet her there. Karen was already on her way.
We arrived at the birth center around 9:15pm and were greeted by Linda and Karen. We went inside, and I changed into my birth skirt to get more comfortable. The contractions were still manageable, and Linda suggested we all take a nap to gear up for hard labor. I couldn't get comfortable at all, so I rested sitting on the birth ball, while laying my upper half across the bed. I continued listening to my MP3 player.
Linda came in and listened to the baby around 11:30pm. Since my contractions seemed to be about the same as when I came in, Linda expressed concern that I was tired and that labor may be stalling, so I needed to start moving around and keeping labor going, or I really needed to think about going home and trying to sleep there where I was more comfortable. I knew that I was making progress, and going home at this point would be a bad choice, so I got up, got dressed and DH and I went for a walk outside. 40 degrees is MUCH colder when you are in labor, and I quickly decided I was not going to be walking outside. We came back into the birth center and I walked to the bathroom. Just as I reached the bathroom door, I had a contraction that stopped me in my tracks, and apparently I was loud because I woke Karen who was sleeping in the next room.
By the time I made it back to the birth room, the contractions were much stronger. Linda had me test the water in the birth tub, and it was the perfect temperature, so after a very hard contraction I decided to go ahead and get in.
The water was GREAT, it cut the pain in half and really took the edge off the contractions. Linda and I chatted about birth, and my fear of transition, and she reassured me that I would make it through it. Around this time the contractions really started picking up and were very intense. I was handling them very well by breathing and reminding myself that I would get a break as long as I made it through the contraction.
Karen was wiping my face with a cold cloth and DH was rubbing my back as I was draped over the side of the tub with the jet pointed at my back. All of a sudden I had an VERY painful contraction that caught me totally off guard and I lost my concentration for a moment and started freaking out a little bit. Linda was great, and coached me through that contraction reminding me that I could handle them. Immediately after that contraction Linda got up and mentioned that she was going to call the other midwife (she likes to have an assistant for the actual birth & post partum hours) by the time she got to the phone I was having another intense contraction with hardly a break from the last one. When Linda got back in the room I was in the middle of a third without a break.
Linda suggested I change positions and try laying back against DH. I did so and the contractions let up and I got a nice long break where Linda listened to the baby. I was fairly sure I had just come through transition because I was feeling quite a bit of pressure. With the next contraction I told Linda I thought I had to push, but I wasn't sure. She told me to go ahead and push to see how it felt. I pushed with the next contraction and my water broke and I pushed out the bloody show.
With the next contraction my body made me push, there was no "urge" to push, I was just pushing. His head came about halfway out, but I could feel that I was stretching too fast, so I started panting through the rest of the contraction. After, his head went back in and I quickly complained that my push had been for nothing. Linda assured me that I had done a great job with that contraction and pushing slowly was helping me to stretch.
All of a sudden I start feeling the baby move deep in my pelvis, I begged him to stop moving and then I realized that he wasn't actually moving and shouted "You've got to be f*cking kidding me! He has the hiccups!" Which caused everyone to chuckle a little, even me. With the next contraction I started pushing and panting again, slowly pushing his head out with Linda's guidance, I shouted a few times that it hurt, burned, and I was in pain. Linda gently reminded me to focus on pushing, and that I was plenty strong enough to do this.
With one more push his head was out, and Linda began to assist him in rotating his shoulders, and with the next contraction and one small push I had a beautiful little boy placed on my chest. He was blue at first, but with a little rubbing he pinked up and started breathing. At first he was just making grunting noises, and then louder cries. I could hear DH sobbing behind me, and see the flash bulb of Karen's camera reflecting off the water.
He was born at 1:07am on March 30,2006, right on his due date.
Jay and I gazed at him for a while while Karen continued taking photos. After a few minutes I started having contractions again, and Linda reminded me I still had to deliver the placenta. After a few small contractions and a tiny push the placenta was out and placed in a bowl, left to float in the tub until we were ready to cut the cord. Linda commented on how thick the cord was and how big of a placenta I had. After about a half an hour, Linda clamped the cord and DH cut it.
We got out of the tub and into the bed to enjoy our new bundle. He was totally uninterested in breastfeeding for the first hour or so, but he finally got latched on and nursed about two hours after the birth.
Once he was finished, I got up and went to the bathroom, and got back in bed so I could be checked for any tears. I had two very tiny tears that didn't need stitches and a couple of skid marks. After I was checked Linda took DS's footprints, tested his reflexes and weighed & measured him. He was 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches long. We called family members with the news and his stats, and decided to stick around the birth center until morning so we could get some sleep.
DS nursed well in the morning, and we left the birth center and headed for home around 11am.
We had tons of visitors all day, wanting to get all of that out of the way so we could enjoy the next few days quietly with just close family.
Thursday night, our first night home was fairly sleepless. DS decided he wanted to nurse from 1am-1pm the next day, 12 hours straight. Around 5am we figured out how to nurse laying down, so I was finally able to get some much needed sleep.
Friday night was much better, since DS was able to eat while laying down in bed with me, I only had to get up once, and that was at about 6am when I needed him to eat on the other side. After he ate, we layed together on the couch and slept until 10am.
Saturday morning Linda came over to check on us. She said we both looked good, DS has lost about 5oz, and she said he will probably gain fast once my milk comes in. She is coming back later in the week to do DS's PKU test. We had a few more visitors, and are enjoying our time with DS. My milk came in around 4pm, which really seemed to please him, he drained one side in 20 minutes flat and went right to sleep with milk dripping down his chin. Adorable!
So, that's our story! I would never go near a hospital for a birth again. After experiencing both, I can say it is a NIGHT AND DAY difference. Plus I can now say for 100% that it was the hospital that ruined my breastfeeding relationship with DD, breastfeeding DS was so easy this time, because there was no forumla available at 5am when he was nursing like crazy
DS is just amazing, I can't seem to put him down, and DH and I LOVE co sleeping! I do not know how I would get any sleep if he weren’t co sleeping and nursing! It's only been two days, and I honestly can't remember life before him! I am cherishing every moment, I know how fast the time passes.
When Jay got home we went to the store, picked up cocoa, milk and butter and headed home. On the car ride I started to get contractions and casually mentioned it to DH, and told him it probably was nothing, after all I had been having contractions for weeks and still no baby.
By the time we got home I started thinking these just may be the real thing. I started timing them, and they were 2-3 minutes apart but still totally manageable. DH got in the shower to clean up after work, and I surfed online to distract myself from the contractions. By the time DH got out of the shower, I was no longer able to focus on the internet during a contraction, so I asked DH to page Linda, our midwife.
Linda called back about 20 minutes later, and told her we were going to head to my MIL, Karen's house, the half way point between home and the birth center. She was about 45 minutes away from the center, same as us, only in the opposite direction.
Jay and I gathered a few last-minute items from the house and headed out. Neither of us had eaten since lunch so we stopped at McDonalds and got a chicken sandwich, knowing I would need some protein to get me through labor. I ate between contractions, and then put on my MP3 player with a 60 minute MP3 of thunderstorms with classical music in the background.
We arrived at Karen's house pretty fast, or at least it seemed that way, and paged Linda again. She let us know that she was on her way to the birth center, so we could meet her there. Karen was already on her way.
We arrived at the birth center around 9:15pm and were greeted by Linda and Karen. We went inside, and I changed into my birth skirt to get more comfortable. The contractions were still manageable, and Linda suggested we all take a nap to gear up for hard labor. I couldn't get comfortable at all, so I rested sitting on the birth ball, while laying my upper half across the bed. I continued listening to my MP3 player.
Linda came in and listened to the baby around 11:30pm. Since my contractions seemed to be about the same as when I came in, Linda expressed concern that I was tired and that labor may be stalling, so I needed to start moving around and keeping labor going, or I really needed to think about going home and trying to sleep there where I was more comfortable. I knew that I was making progress, and going home at this point would be a bad choice, so I got up, got dressed and DH and I went for a walk outside. 40 degrees is MUCH colder when you are in labor, and I quickly decided I was not going to be walking outside. We came back into the birth center and I walked to the bathroom. Just as I reached the bathroom door, I had a contraction that stopped me in my tracks, and apparently I was loud because I woke Karen who was sleeping in the next room.
By the time I made it back to the birth room, the contractions were much stronger. Linda had me test the water in the birth tub, and it was the perfect temperature, so after a very hard contraction I decided to go ahead and get in.
The water was GREAT, it cut the pain in half and really took the edge off the contractions. Linda and I chatted about birth, and my fear of transition, and she reassured me that I would make it through it. Around this time the contractions really started picking up and were very intense. I was handling them very well by breathing and reminding myself that I would get a break as long as I made it through the contraction.
Karen was wiping my face with a cold cloth and DH was rubbing my back as I was draped over the side of the tub with the jet pointed at my back. All of a sudden I had an VERY painful contraction that caught me totally off guard and I lost my concentration for a moment and started freaking out a little bit. Linda was great, and coached me through that contraction reminding me that I could handle them. Immediately after that contraction Linda got up and mentioned that she was going to call the other midwife (she likes to have an assistant for the actual birth & post partum hours) by the time she got to the phone I was having another intense contraction with hardly a break from the last one. When Linda got back in the room I was in the middle of a third without a break.
Linda suggested I change positions and try laying back against DH. I did so and the contractions let up and I got a nice long break where Linda listened to the baby. I was fairly sure I had just come through transition because I was feeling quite a bit of pressure. With the next contraction I told Linda I thought I had to push, but I wasn't sure. She told me to go ahead and push to see how it felt. I pushed with the next contraction and my water broke and I pushed out the bloody show.
With the next contraction my body made me push, there was no "urge" to push, I was just pushing. His head came about halfway out, but I could feel that I was stretching too fast, so I started panting through the rest of the contraction. After, his head went back in and I quickly complained that my push had been for nothing. Linda assured me that I had done a great job with that contraction and pushing slowly was helping me to stretch.
All of a sudden I start feeling the baby move deep in my pelvis, I begged him to stop moving and then I realized that he wasn't actually moving and shouted "You've got to be f*cking kidding me! He has the hiccups!" Which caused everyone to chuckle a little, even me. With the next contraction I started pushing and panting again, slowly pushing his head out with Linda's guidance, I shouted a few times that it hurt, burned, and I was in pain. Linda gently reminded me to focus on pushing, and that I was plenty strong enough to do this.
With one more push his head was out, and Linda began to assist him in rotating his shoulders, and with the next contraction and one small push I had a beautiful little boy placed on my chest. He was blue at first, but with a little rubbing he pinked up and started breathing. At first he was just making grunting noises, and then louder cries. I could hear DH sobbing behind me, and see the flash bulb of Karen's camera reflecting off the water.
He was born at 1:07am on March 30,2006, right on his due date.
Jay and I gazed at him for a while while Karen continued taking photos. After a few minutes I started having contractions again, and Linda reminded me I still had to deliver the placenta. After a few small contractions and a tiny push the placenta was out and placed in a bowl, left to float in the tub until we were ready to cut the cord. Linda commented on how thick the cord was and how big of a placenta I had. After about a half an hour, Linda clamped the cord and DH cut it.
We got out of the tub and into the bed to enjoy our new bundle. He was totally uninterested in breastfeeding for the first hour or so, but he finally got latched on and nursed about two hours after the birth.
Once he was finished, I got up and went to the bathroom, and got back in bed so I could be checked for any tears. I had two very tiny tears that didn't need stitches and a couple of skid marks. After I was checked Linda took DS's footprints, tested his reflexes and weighed & measured him. He was 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches long. We called family members with the news and his stats, and decided to stick around the birth center until morning so we could get some sleep.
DS nursed well in the morning, and we left the birth center and headed for home around 11am.
We had tons of visitors all day, wanting to get all of that out of the way so we could enjoy the next few days quietly with just close family.
Thursday night, our first night home was fairly sleepless. DS decided he wanted to nurse from 1am-1pm the next day, 12 hours straight. Around 5am we figured out how to nurse laying down, so I was finally able to get some much needed sleep.
Friday night was much better, since DS was able to eat while laying down in bed with me, I only had to get up once, and that was at about 6am when I needed him to eat on the other side. After he ate, we layed together on the couch and slept until 10am.
Saturday morning Linda came over to check on us. She said we both looked good, DS has lost about 5oz, and she said he will probably gain fast once my milk comes in. She is coming back later in the week to do DS's PKU test. We had a few more visitors, and are enjoying our time with DS. My milk came in around 4pm, which really seemed to please him, he drained one side in 20 minutes flat and went right to sleep with milk dripping down his chin. Adorable!
So, that's our story! I would never go near a hospital for a birth again. After experiencing both, I can say it is a NIGHT AND DAY difference. Plus I can now say for 100% that it was the hospital that ruined my breastfeeding relationship with DD, breastfeeding DS was so easy this time, because there was no forumla available at 5am when he was nursing like crazy
DS is just amazing, I can't seem to put him down, and DH and I LOVE co sleeping! I do not know how I would get any sleep if he weren’t co sleeping and nursing! It's only been two days, and I honestly can't remember life before him! I am cherishing every moment, I know how fast the time passes.
Awwwwwwwwww...
Guess I miss thie itsy-bitsy...
