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One day before my EDD and one day after the midwife's date I FINALLY went into labour, after having fairly uncomfortable contractions every 10 minutes for 6 days. I couldn't take it anymore and had some acupuncture (which got me pregnant in the first place) and the next morning when I woke up I was having mild pains in my lower back every 3 minutes. I didn't know if anything would come of it so I took my son to playland with a friend, a half hour's drive from here. A couple of hours later the pains were getting really uncomfortable and I had a show so I phoned my husband to meet me at home, and drove myself home.
By the time dh got home a half hour after that I had already started on the chocolate mud cake to celebrate our baby's birthday, but still couldn't believe we would soon have a new little baby in our lives. This was about noon. By 3:00 our midwife Jodi had arrived and our other support person Toni about an hour after that. Early on in labour I started to use humming through the contractions as I wanted to use sound to help me and not wait until I was screaming out of control.
Did some walking to get things moving, then spent awhile sitting on the ball, humming and started having someone put pressure on my hips during the contractions. This pressure (on acupressure points) made a HUGE difference in the pain and allowed me to cope through a totally natural birth. Later spent an hour or two in the birth pool on the patio which was nice to have my huge weight supported by water, but felt the need to get out (and baby was getting anxious).
By this point it was about 7pm and my husband finally joined me as he had been entertaining our 3 1/2 year old son all day. This was when labour became quite intense and I needed a HOT towel on my back and hip pressure during every contraction, which were coming almost back to back now. Spent some time leaning on the dining room table and rotating my hips clockwise to help the baby turn down the birth canal.
Finally moved to the bedroom (and blessed air conditioning) for the final, horribly painful hour, spent kneeling on the floor leaning over the end of the bed. Having someone hum with me when my hums became more like screams was really helpful, and also the constant hip pressure. I felt the baby coming down and was suddenly overtaken by a huge urge to push (which I never had with my first son). I pushed like a madwoman for a couple minutes and then came that blissful feeling of a slipperly little baby sliding out.
The baby cried straight away which surprised me as ds #1 didn't cry at all at birth. It's such a wonderful feeling to gather up a new slippery baby and hold it to your skin!!! We had all thought this baby would be a girl so I guess my "OH! It's a boy" didn't sound too enthusiastic but we soon fell in love with our little Paddy (Patrick Sean). Our 3 year old insisted on being woken up for the birth so he sat on the floor and watched as his little brother was born and seems really glad to have been part of it all.
Jodi said it obviously wasn't painful enough because 5 minutes later we were talking about doing it again! Well we were expecting a girl......
Big brother has been coping wonderfully and often gives little brother kisses and pats. I'm struggling with exhaustion and depression after being unable to eat the placenta because it was falling apart and rotting at the birth (don't know why, but it looks like we're lucky our little guy arrived so healthy). Hopefully some more acupuncture and herbs will help.
One day before my EDD and one day after the midwife's date I FINALLY went into labour, after having fairly uncomfortable contractions every 10 minutes for 6 days. I couldn't take it anymore and had some acupuncture (which got me pregnant in the first place) and the next morning when I woke up I was having mild pains in my lower back every 3 minutes. I didn't know if anything would come of it so I took my son to playland with a friend, a half hour's drive from here. A couple of hours later the pains were getting really uncomfortable and I had a show so I phoned my husband to meet me at home, and drove myself home.
By the time dh got home a half hour after that I had already started on the chocolate mud cake to celebrate our baby's birthday, but still couldn't believe we would soon have a new little baby in our lives. This was about noon. By 3:00 our midwife Jodi had arrived and our other support person Toni about an hour after that. Early on in labour I started to use humming through the contractions as I wanted to use sound to help me and not wait until I was screaming out of control.
Did some walking to get things moving, then spent awhile sitting on the ball, humming and started having someone put pressure on my hips during the contractions. This pressure (on acupressure points) made a HUGE difference in the pain and allowed me to cope through a totally natural birth. Later spent an hour or two in the birth pool on the patio which was nice to have my huge weight supported by water, but felt the need to get out (and baby was getting anxious).
By this point it was about 7pm and my husband finally joined me as he had been entertaining our 3 1/2 year old son all day. This was when labour became quite intense and I needed a HOT towel on my back and hip pressure during every contraction, which were coming almost back to back now. Spent some time leaning on the dining room table and rotating my hips clockwise to help the baby turn down the birth canal.
Finally moved to the bedroom (and blessed air conditioning) for the final, horribly painful hour, spent kneeling on the floor leaning over the end of the bed. Having someone hum with me when my hums became more like screams was really helpful, and also the constant hip pressure. I felt the baby coming down and was suddenly overtaken by a huge urge to push (which I never had with my first son). I pushed like a madwoman for a couple minutes and then came that blissful feeling of a slipperly little baby sliding out.
The baby cried straight away which surprised me as ds #1 didn't cry at all at birth. It's such a wonderful feeling to gather up a new slippery baby and hold it to your skin!!! We had all thought this baby would be a girl so I guess my "OH! It's a boy" didn't sound too enthusiastic but we soon fell in love with our little Paddy (Patrick Sean). Our 3 year old insisted on being woken up for the birth so he sat on the floor and watched as his little brother was born and seems really glad to have been part of it all.
Jodi said it obviously wasn't painful enough because 5 minutes later we were talking about doing it again! Well we were expecting a girl......
Big brother has been coping wonderfully and often gives little brother kisses and pats. I'm struggling with exhaustion and depression after being unable to eat the placenta because it was falling apart and rotting at the birth (don't know why, but it looks like we're lucky our little guy arrived so healthy). Hopefully some more acupuncture and herbs will help.
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