Noah Joseph
Sept. 2, 2007
11:27 p.m.
10lbs 0 oz
VBAC
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...m/100_1391.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...m/100_1398.jpg
My water started trickling out at 4am Sunday morning. I awoke with an "Oh!" After telling dh, I went back to sleep until 8a.m. When I got up I called the mw and told her about my water and that I was feeling menstrual like cramps. Around 10 a.m. my Mom returned from church. My Mom was in town for 2 days only to help move my younger sister back into college. I was hoping to not go into labor on Sunday as I didn't want a full house for the delivery, but baby had his own plans!
My labor was really manageable most of the day. I watched a movie with my Mom, ate breakfast and lunch, helped pick up around the house and made sure that the nest was just right for birthing in. I laid on the couch a lot and leaned over my birthball for a bit. Around 4p.m. contractions started coming every 5 minutes or so and averaging 50 seconds long, so we called the mw, who said she would be over in a little while.
When the mw, her assistant, and apprentice arrived around 6p.m. I was about 4 centimeters and they all got settled for a long night. I paced the hall and spent a little time on my birthball in the living room with everyone, but things soon began to get too intense for that. I alternated walking the hall with laying in my dark room on the bed and trying to relax. I had dh do some counter pressure on my lower back during early active labor, but soon found that no touch or sound or light is what I preferred. I hit transition somewhere around 9p.m. I kept waiting for someone to say I could get into the birthtub and was so relieved when dh said I had been given the green light to get in at anytime. I happily slid into the tub and from there time kind of stopped. I want to say I was in about an hour, but I am not sure. I felt so pampered. Dh massaged one foot, while the assistant rubbed another. The apprentice poured water over my belly and kept cool compresses on my neck and forehead. The whole time I made low "oh" noises and groans that felt so right and seemed to help my relax my bottom. And when my mw told me to "bulge out my bottom" during the difficult cntrx I couldn't help but to sing Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" song in my head.
I wasn't sure if I had hit transition or not because I never felt like I was in a place where I couldn't handle the contractions. They were coming quickly but I still felt a small rest between each one. Then I had one contraction that was impossible to get on top of. I felt kind of like I should be pushing but it didn't feel good to push. It felt like my body was shaking itself open. This is the contraction that my mw said finished my dilation, because the cntrx after that I smiled after and was so proud to have been able to have handled.
I was a little surprised to be told I was fully dilated because I had never reached the point where I couldn't handle the labor, but I was delighted to hear I was. My mw was also really surprised that I was progressing so steadily as she had expected a rather long birth for me. She never even used the air mattress she had set up for herself.
I went and pushed on the toilet for a little while. I had thought I would be worried to make noise with so many people in the house, but there was no helping the pushing grunts! After a few minutes on the toilet I asked for the birth stool which they set up in my bedroom in front of the closet mirrors. Dh sat on the bed behind me and I pushed for several minutes. They held a mirror down below for me to see, but all I could see was my heinous hemorrhoids, so I stopped looking soon. When his head started to appear they told me to touch it and it was so odd. I could feel my fingers touching his head, and it also felt like my head I was touching. I got the sensation on both sides but couldn't convey that at the time. At one point in between pushing I stopped and looked at the mw and said, "I don't see how girls do this in the bathroom stall and then go to prom" which made everone including me laugh. It's a great picture, me and dh laughing on the birthing stool.
Finally I stood and faced dh and while leaning on him pushed the head out. It was the oddest experience standing there with the head fully out and waiting for the next pushing cntrx to come. After about a minute it did, and I felt his body slide out, all 10 lbs of it!
While holding him my placenta just slid out. I'll have to see but it seemed like around 20 minutes of pushing in all.
My homebirth VBAC was all I hoped it would be.
It was such a fulfilling birth experience and we are loving our babymoon.
Sept. 2, 2007
11:27 p.m.
10lbs 0 oz
VBAC
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...m/100_1391.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...m/100_1398.jpg
My water started trickling out at 4am Sunday morning. I awoke with an "Oh!" After telling dh, I went back to sleep until 8a.m. When I got up I called the mw and told her about my water and that I was feeling menstrual like cramps. Around 10 a.m. my Mom returned from church. My Mom was in town for 2 days only to help move my younger sister back into college. I was hoping to not go into labor on Sunday as I didn't want a full house for the delivery, but baby had his own plans!
My labor was really manageable most of the day. I watched a movie with my Mom, ate breakfast and lunch, helped pick up around the house and made sure that the nest was just right for birthing in. I laid on the couch a lot and leaned over my birthball for a bit. Around 4p.m. contractions started coming every 5 minutes or so and averaging 50 seconds long, so we called the mw, who said she would be over in a little while.
When the mw, her assistant, and apprentice arrived around 6p.m. I was about 4 centimeters and they all got settled for a long night. I paced the hall and spent a little time on my birthball in the living room with everyone, but things soon began to get too intense for that. I alternated walking the hall with laying in my dark room on the bed and trying to relax. I had dh do some counter pressure on my lower back during early active labor, but soon found that no touch or sound or light is what I preferred. I hit transition somewhere around 9p.m. I kept waiting for someone to say I could get into the birthtub and was so relieved when dh said I had been given the green light to get in at anytime. I happily slid into the tub and from there time kind of stopped. I want to say I was in about an hour, but I am not sure. I felt so pampered. Dh massaged one foot, while the assistant rubbed another. The apprentice poured water over my belly and kept cool compresses on my neck and forehead. The whole time I made low "oh" noises and groans that felt so right and seemed to help my relax my bottom. And when my mw told me to "bulge out my bottom" during the difficult cntrx I couldn't help but to sing Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" song in my head.
I wasn't sure if I had hit transition or not because I never felt like I was in a place where I couldn't handle the contractions. They were coming quickly but I still felt a small rest between each one. Then I had one contraction that was impossible to get on top of. I felt kind of like I should be pushing but it didn't feel good to push. It felt like my body was shaking itself open. This is the contraction that my mw said finished my dilation, because the cntrx after that I smiled after and was so proud to have been able to have handled.
I was a little surprised to be told I was fully dilated because I had never reached the point where I couldn't handle the labor, but I was delighted to hear I was. My mw was also really surprised that I was progressing so steadily as she had expected a rather long birth for me. She never even used the air mattress she had set up for herself.
I went and pushed on the toilet for a little while. I had thought I would be worried to make noise with so many people in the house, but there was no helping the pushing grunts! After a few minutes on the toilet I asked for the birth stool which they set up in my bedroom in front of the closet mirrors. Dh sat on the bed behind me and I pushed for several minutes. They held a mirror down below for me to see, but all I could see was my heinous hemorrhoids, so I stopped looking soon. When his head started to appear they told me to touch it and it was so odd. I could feel my fingers touching his head, and it also felt like my head I was touching. I got the sensation on both sides but couldn't convey that at the time. At one point in between pushing I stopped and looked at the mw and said, "I don't see how girls do this in the bathroom stall and then go to prom" which made everone including me laugh. It's a great picture, me and dh laughing on the birthing stool.
Finally I stood and faced dh and while leaning on him pushed the head out. It was the oddest experience standing there with the head fully out and waiting for the next pushing cntrx to come. After about a minute it did, and I felt his body slide out, all 10 lbs of it!
While holding him my placenta just slid out. I'll have to see but it seemed like around 20 minutes of pushing in all.
My homebirth VBAC was all I hoped it would be.
It was such a fulfilling birth experience and we are loving our babymoon.
