Well, last night was the night for us. Apparently repositioning that hand did work wonders! Right now I'm too tired, etc to do a birth story but here are our stats:
Nadia Celeste was born at 3:53am today, September 7, 2006, into Daddy, big sister and midwife Joi’s hands. She’s 8lbs, 8oz and 20” with a little bit of strawberry blonde fuzz (not the full heads of black hair that her older siblings had.)
Sisters
Nadia
---------------------REALLY LONG BIRTH STORY---------------------------
Monday, Labor Day, I had about 4 hours of regular contractions that wouldn’t get any closer and they stopped as soon as I called Stacy, one of my midwives. She stopped by to do a prenatal about 5pm Wed evening. It was my regular appt and after we did all the chatty stuff she palpated a found a hand up by babies head which didn’t surprise her since I’d been having light-ish contrax since the Monday episode. When we did the vag exam we found I was 90% effaced and 4cm on the outside but a 2cm on the inside. Since hand was by the head though I was a lopsided softness and it was probably causing the bursts of contrax that wouldn’t go anywhere. The side where the hand was is not as soft. So Stacy went in and adjusted everything and baby pulled the hand away from its face so now I just had crown presenting. Once she did that I started contracting every 3-5 minutes for about 30 seconds.
Somehow I knew that this was it. They weren’t getting further apart and the weren’t getting any closer so I asked Chris (DH) if everything was ready to fill the pool and told him we were out of film! The look on his face was one of “OMG” as he rushed out the door to Lowe’s for the pool parts and to Target for film. While he was out I called Angela, my girlfriend who was my labor support, and let her know that if she was bored I had something for her to do that night. LOL! I can’t remember specifically what the ctrx were at when Angela got there, all I knew is that I NEEDED to walk. We walked all around our development and got back after dark to the older ones waiting up to see how mommy was. In the mean time I talked to the midwife on the phone a couple times to let her know the status of things and she was kind of surprised how well getting the crown into proper position actually worked. She thought it would help but didn’t really count on how much. By the time we got back, the contrax were coming 2-3 at a time for 45ish seconds then giving a rest of a couple minutes. While I could talk through them I really didn’t feel like it at that point.
Chris and I got the older ones to bed, with a little bit of a fight. They knew something was up but weren’t sure what. We let Anastasia (almost 5) know that if the baby did come that night we’d go in and wake her up so that she got to see the birth. She’d been SOOOOOO excited about it. Either things slowed during bedtime or I was able to put them aside, who knows which?
Angela and I chatted in the master bedroom about things and I was able to breathe through the contrax which felt more and more intense. After one last call around 11pm with the midwife where she gave some great advice about lightly bearing down with each one (it really worked as sort of an internal counter pressure to the pain) I decided that the two midwives I was working with should come over. Ctrx were about 2-2.5 minutes apart, about 1 minute long and taking my full concentration to breathe and bear down but I was feeling great still between them: chatting, drinking my water and energy drinks.
Stacy and Joi arrived around 11:45 and they were able to watch me through a couple to see how things were going. They did some pressure work and did this belly lift thing that really put the pain/much lower and probably more effectively on my cervix. We put off doing the internal but around 12:30ish we did one. I was still funneling like my check during the appt but was at a 7 on the outside and 6 on the inside. We/I decided to give it another hour to see if my water would do anything (like break) but I doubted it since I had had my water broken with the other two. They thought that I probably wouldn’t go much more open with my water intact since it was a very full sack and it wasn’t putting enough direct pressure on the cervix. After that hour I decided that no matter what I’d have them break the waters and when she checked again I was at a 8/7. I do have to admit that the vag checks were hurting WAY worse than my contrax! Out came the finger condom with the barbs on it! We had a shower curtain set up on the floor with a ton of Chux pads to catch the mess. Good thing too…. The water kept coming, and coming and coming… I was surprised at how much was there! No wonder I wasn’t going much further!
Before they did that I’d told Chris that from past experience the pain was totally going to change with no fluid and while they were setting up for me, he was in the bathroom getting the pool filled. I did a couple ctrx on the floor on my back which felt REALLY good (to have them in a different position). Then got up and had one on the way to the pool… Got in the pool and the relief was instant!! They were still painful and intense but the water felt SOOOO good. By this point we were wondering where the baby was! Stacy did a check and discovered that I still had a lip preventing the head from getting out and around the pubic bone so through a couple more ctrx she held it open while I pushed and we finally got it around the baby head. Can you say “OMG OUCH” with me!!! Yeah… the adrenaline was kind of intense and it was a good thing I’d gotting Chris to bring up a bowl for catching vomit. After a couple more, they had me stand up between contrax to help the crown past the pubic bone and I did a couple squatting bear down contrax to help that along.
By then I was on my hands and knees and at that “I know this is the end stage but OMG this is WAY too hard” The thing that helped most with that was pushing. Even though I wasn’t having the “urge”, pushing back against the pain made it much more bearable and actually moved baby down the canal so she was crowning within 3 good ctrax. Somewhere in there the midwives had Chris go get Anastasia up from her bed, Angela grabbed the video camera and the whole pushing thing happened with Chris, Anastasia and Joy waiting to catch. I was on my hands and knees still with my forearms on the side of the pool so baby came out face up looking at everyone until I was able to push the rest of her body out (no tears thank you!!) and surface. The water birth was an unexpected thing since I didn’t know if I would want to get out or not to push. All I knew is that laboring in the water felt really good with the older two so I wanted to make sure I had a pool to do it in this time.
Once baby was out, Anastasia was supposed to say whether it was a boy or girl but I think she was a little groggy. I couldn’t see since I hadn’t turned over yet so all the adults kept prompting her… She finally said something like “It’s a girl, Mama, I have a new sister!” (I’ll have to go to the tape on that one.)
I was able to turn over and we hung out in the pool until the placenta arrived 12 minutes later complete and normal sized. I wasn’t sure what to expect since Gavyn had had such a humungous one. This one did have a really tough membrane so apparently I just grow really good membranes for amniotic sacs? No wonder I needed help with breaking the waters!
After getting out of the pool (complete with the shakes) they got me all snug in bed and the then nameless baby girl nursed for 45 minutes while general cleanup and afterbirth type stuff like vitals were done. After everyone left, the 4 of us crawled in to the bed and just had some quite time… there still was too much alertness for anyone to sleep but finally Anastasia went back to her room saying “I can’t wait until Gavyn meets our new sister in the morning.”
Deb
Nadia Celeste was born at 3:53am today, September 7, 2006, into Daddy, big sister and midwife Joi’s hands. She’s 8lbs, 8oz and 20” with a little bit of strawberry blonde fuzz (not the full heads of black hair that her older siblings had.)
Sisters
Nadia
---------------------REALLY LONG BIRTH STORY---------------------------
Monday, Labor Day, I had about 4 hours of regular contractions that wouldn’t get any closer and they stopped as soon as I called Stacy, one of my midwives. She stopped by to do a prenatal about 5pm Wed evening. It was my regular appt and after we did all the chatty stuff she palpated a found a hand up by babies head which didn’t surprise her since I’d been having light-ish contrax since the Monday episode. When we did the vag exam we found I was 90% effaced and 4cm on the outside but a 2cm on the inside. Since hand was by the head though I was a lopsided softness and it was probably causing the bursts of contrax that wouldn’t go anywhere. The side where the hand was is not as soft. So Stacy went in and adjusted everything and baby pulled the hand away from its face so now I just had crown presenting. Once she did that I started contracting every 3-5 minutes for about 30 seconds.
Somehow I knew that this was it. They weren’t getting further apart and the weren’t getting any closer so I asked Chris (DH) if everything was ready to fill the pool and told him we were out of film! The look on his face was one of “OMG” as he rushed out the door to Lowe’s for the pool parts and to Target for film. While he was out I called Angela, my girlfriend who was my labor support, and let her know that if she was bored I had something for her to do that night. LOL! I can’t remember specifically what the ctrx were at when Angela got there, all I knew is that I NEEDED to walk. We walked all around our development and got back after dark to the older ones waiting up to see how mommy was. In the mean time I talked to the midwife on the phone a couple times to let her know the status of things and she was kind of surprised how well getting the crown into proper position actually worked. She thought it would help but didn’t really count on how much. By the time we got back, the contrax were coming 2-3 at a time for 45ish seconds then giving a rest of a couple minutes. While I could talk through them I really didn’t feel like it at that point.
Chris and I got the older ones to bed, with a little bit of a fight. They knew something was up but weren’t sure what. We let Anastasia (almost 5) know that if the baby did come that night we’d go in and wake her up so that she got to see the birth. She’d been SOOOOOO excited about it. Either things slowed during bedtime or I was able to put them aside, who knows which?
Angela and I chatted in the master bedroom about things and I was able to breathe through the contrax which felt more and more intense. After one last call around 11pm with the midwife where she gave some great advice about lightly bearing down with each one (it really worked as sort of an internal counter pressure to the pain) I decided that the two midwives I was working with should come over. Ctrx were about 2-2.5 minutes apart, about 1 minute long and taking my full concentration to breathe and bear down but I was feeling great still between them: chatting, drinking my water and energy drinks.
Stacy and Joi arrived around 11:45 and they were able to watch me through a couple to see how things were going. They did some pressure work and did this belly lift thing that really put the pain/much lower and probably more effectively on my cervix. We put off doing the internal but around 12:30ish we did one. I was still funneling like my check during the appt but was at a 7 on the outside and 6 on the inside. We/I decided to give it another hour to see if my water would do anything (like break) but I doubted it since I had had my water broken with the other two. They thought that I probably wouldn’t go much more open with my water intact since it was a very full sack and it wasn’t putting enough direct pressure on the cervix. After that hour I decided that no matter what I’d have them break the waters and when she checked again I was at a 8/7. I do have to admit that the vag checks were hurting WAY worse than my contrax! Out came the finger condom with the barbs on it! We had a shower curtain set up on the floor with a ton of Chux pads to catch the mess. Good thing too…. The water kept coming, and coming and coming… I was surprised at how much was there! No wonder I wasn’t going much further!
Before they did that I’d told Chris that from past experience the pain was totally going to change with no fluid and while they were setting up for me, he was in the bathroom getting the pool filled. I did a couple ctrx on the floor on my back which felt REALLY good (to have them in a different position). Then got up and had one on the way to the pool… Got in the pool and the relief was instant!! They were still painful and intense but the water felt SOOOO good. By this point we were wondering where the baby was! Stacy did a check and discovered that I still had a lip preventing the head from getting out and around the pubic bone so through a couple more ctrx she held it open while I pushed and we finally got it around the baby head. Can you say “OMG OUCH” with me!!! Yeah… the adrenaline was kind of intense and it was a good thing I’d gotting Chris to bring up a bowl for catching vomit. After a couple more, they had me stand up between contrax to help the crown past the pubic bone and I did a couple squatting bear down contrax to help that along.
By then I was on my hands and knees and at that “I know this is the end stage but OMG this is WAY too hard” The thing that helped most with that was pushing. Even though I wasn’t having the “urge”, pushing back against the pain made it much more bearable and actually moved baby down the canal so she was crowning within 3 good ctrax. Somewhere in there the midwives had Chris go get Anastasia up from her bed, Angela grabbed the video camera and the whole pushing thing happened with Chris, Anastasia and Joy waiting to catch. I was on my hands and knees still with my forearms on the side of the pool so baby came out face up looking at everyone until I was able to push the rest of her body out (no tears thank you!!) and surface. The water birth was an unexpected thing since I didn’t know if I would want to get out or not to push. All I knew is that laboring in the water felt really good with the older two so I wanted to make sure I had a pool to do it in this time.
Once baby was out, Anastasia was supposed to say whether it was a boy or girl but I think she was a little groggy. I couldn’t see since I hadn’t turned over yet so all the adults kept prompting her… She finally said something like “It’s a girl, Mama, I have a new sister!” (I’ll have to go to the tape on that one.)
I was able to turn over and we hung out in the pool until the placenta arrived 12 minutes later complete and normal sized. I wasn’t sure what to expect since Gavyn had had such a humungous one. This one did have a really tough membrane so apparently I just grow really good membranes for amniotic sacs? No wonder I needed help with breaking the waters!
After getting out of the pool (complete with the shakes) they got me all snug in bed and the then nameless baby girl nursed for 45 minutes while general cleanup and afterbirth type stuff like vitals were done. After everyone left, the 4 of us crawled in to the bed and just had some quite time… there still was too much alertness for anyone to sleep but finally Anastasia went back to her room saying “I can’t wait until Gavyn meets our new sister in the morning.”
Deb
: Congratz 
Congrats Mama and Family!
Congratulations!
