James Roger's Homebirth Story
I went to bed like usual April 14th, 2006, except this time it was a little harder to get to sleep and I finally got up about 1:30am to get some water. I was hungry which is unusual for that hour. I was used to getting up about 4 or 5 am to enjoy one of those lovely protein shakes. ; p So, that was a little different.
I went to bed and actually fell asleep and awoke from dreaming about kind of painful contractions. I didn’t think it was real since I thought I had just dreamt them. So, I went back to sleep and about 4:30 am I awoke to another painful contraction and had to go pee really bad. On the way my mucous plug fell out. I knew labor was imminent. I knocked on the wall of the bathroom to get my husband Roger up. I had him time contractions and they were about 3-6 minutes apart. I had him call my midwife and she said to try to get back to sleep. About 5:30 I couldn’t sleep through them so I had him call my midwife back and she said she was going to get some coffee and be on her way. I didn’t realize how intense contractions would be. Wow!
My midwife got to our house at about 7am and checked me and said I was about 4 cm’s. I had a few contractions on the bed and then she had me get in the tub. My contractions were steadily increasing in intensity while I was in the tub for about an hour or two. I finally got out of the tub and labored the rest of the time on my bed. For about an hour and a half I labored pretty hard, but nothing really happened. Then about 12:30 I started pushing. I had somewhat of a cervical lip left, but pushed him around that with the midwives help. For about two hours I had intense pushing. It was hard work getting him out. Little by little he got closer, finally his head was out. The midwives thought the rest of him would come out easily afterward, but after a minute or two he didn’t budge. This is when the excitement happened. His head started turning purple because of lack of oxygen. I was so into my birthing world, I was kind of confused at what was happening. They started to tell me to push even without contractions. We tried every imaginable position to get this little guy out. Finally my midwife had Roger put me on the edge of the bed with my butt hanging over the side and that opened me up just enough so my midwife could reach in and pull him out. Later they told me he just kept coming and coming. He is one long dude. And they also tried to break his collar bone and they couldn't get that to happen either. His heart rate was impressively good throughout the whole labor.
As soon as he came out they were like oh my, looks like a 10 pounder. I’m thinking no way. His head was still purple and his body was pale and limp. I was just trying to get him to breathe by rubbing him. I was so happy he was out. He still wasn’t breathing, but his heart rate was good and they proceeded to give him oxygen and when that didn’t work they tried to bag him. That also didn’t work so my midwife had to give him mouth to mouth and as soon as she did that he took his first breathe. He pinked up just nicely. The whole time he was out and not breathing I just had this intense feeling of someone watching over us and protecting us and I knew everything was going to be all right. Later I found out several people were praying for us. Thank you so much. God is good to us.
Overall, I think we had a wonderful homebirth besides the excitement at the end. I know next time that I need to not drink whole milk and milkshakes at the end of my pregnancy. I did think through the whole labor that I didn't want to do this again, but because he was so big and I know we can be more careful next time that the next one doesn't get so big it won't be so intense and long of a labor. Well, at least I know I can birth a 10 pounder, well anything under 10 pounds. Lets not go there again.
Well, he finally came at about 2:41pm, was 9lbs 15 ounces and 23 inches long. It took us a few days to figure out what to call him, but glad we settled on James and the tradition of daddies name as the middle name. That way we can call him J.R. for short. Pictures are up of him at www.steckfamily.blogspot.com By the way my midwife had no idea he was going to be so big or she would have induced me 2 weeks earlier. I just hid him well. She’s been doing this for 30 years and she thought she was feeling a lot of extra water.
I went to bed like usual April 14th, 2006, except this time it was a little harder to get to sleep and I finally got up about 1:30am to get some water. I was hungry which is unusual for that hour. I was used to getting up about 4 or 5 am to enjoy one of those lovely protein shakes. ; p So, that was a little different.
I went to bed and actually fell asleep and awoke from dreaming about kind of painful contractions. I didn’t think it was real since I thought I had just dreamt them. So, I went back to sleep and about 4:30 am I awoke to another painful contraction and had to go pee really bad. On the way my mucous plug fell out. I knew labor was imminent. I knocked on the wall of the bathroom to get my husband Roger up. I had him time contractions and they were about 3-6 minutes apart. I had him call my midwife and she said to try to get back to sleep. About 5:30 I couldn’t sleep through them so I had him call my midwife back and she said she was going to get some coffee and be on her way. I didn’t realize how intense contractions would be. Wow!
My midwife got to our house at about 7am and checked me and said I was about 4 cm’s. I had a few contractions on the bed and then she had me get in the tub. My contractions were steadily increasing in intensity while I was in the tub for about an hour or two. I finally got out of the tub and labored the rest of the time on my bed. For about an hour and a half I labored pretty hard, but nothing really happened. Then about 12:30 I started pushing. I had somewhat of a cervical lip left, but pushed him around that with the midwives help. For about two hours I had intense pushing. It was hard work getting him out. Little by little he got closer, finally his head was out. The midwives thought the rest of him would come out easily afterward, but after a minute or two he didn’t budge. This is when the excitement happened. His head started turning purple because of lack of oxygen. I was so into my birthing world, I was kind of confused at what was happening. They started to tell me to push even without contractions. We tried every imaginable position to get this little guy out. Finally my midwife had Roger put me on the edge of the bed with my butt hanging over the side and that opened me up just enough so my midwife could reach in and pull him out. Later they told me he just kept coming and coming. He is one long dude. And they also tried to break his collar bone and they couldn't get that to happen either. His heart rate was impressively good throughout the whole labor.
As soon as he came out they were like oh my, looks like a 10 pounder. I’m thinking no way. His head was still purple and his body was pale and limp. I was just trying to get him to breathe by rubbing him. I was so happy he was out. He still wasn’t breathing, but his heart rate was good and they proceeded to give him oxygen and when that didn’t work they tried to bag him. That also didn’t work so my midwife had to give him mouth to mouth and as soon as she did that he took his first breathe. He pinked up just nicely. The whole time he was out and not breathing I just had this intense feeling of someone watching over us and protecting us and I knew everything was going to be all right. Later I found out several people were praying for us. Thank you so much. God is good to us.
Overall, I think we had a wonderful homebirth besides the excitement at the end. I know next time that I need to not drink whole milk and milkshakes at the end of my pregnancy. I did think through the whole labor that I didn't want to do this again, but because he was so big and I know we can be more careful next time that the next one doesn't get so big it won't be so intense and long of a labor. Well, at least I know I can birth a 10 pounder, well anything under 10 pounds. Lets not go there again.
Well, he finally came at about 2:41pm, was 9lbs 15 ounces and 23 inches long. It took us a few days to figure out what to call him, but glad we settled on James and the tradition of daddies name as the middle name. That way we can call him J.R. for short. Pictures are up of him at www.steckfamily.blogspot.com By the way my midwife had no idea he was going to be so big or she would have induced me 2 weeks earlier. I just hid him well. She’s been doing this for 30 years and she thought she was feeling a lot of extra water.
And James is just too cute!
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