NAK! *yay* 
Ainslee Fae was born September 24th, at eight thirty-ish in the morning. It was my first UC(an awesome one!), lasting about seven hours. She was born in the caul, into my own hands. It was perfect. We are doing great! Story coming soon...
Thursday, September 27th...
Wow! These last few days have been awesome! Ainslee is doing great, nursing like a champ and being just about the sweetest baby ever. Here is her birth story...
I went to bed Sunday night, sure that Baby wouldn't be coming until the 29th... My little brother's birthday. I thought I had jinxed myself joking about it, and since she was 9 days late already, what the heck... Why not?
I woke up at around 1:30 am simultaneously needing to pee and having a contraction(don't you love that?*haha*) and was laying there waiting for the contraction to subside when I felt something oozing out of my hoo-ha... I thought "Huh?" and reached down and it felt pretty slimey(sorry, TMI :P) and it continued to ooze further with the contraction. I got up to go ahead and pee and clean up and made it about 7 of the twenty steps to the bathroom when stuff came *splurting* out of me... AH! I thought my water had possibly broken!
I went pee to find lots of bloody mucus making it's way out... I wasn't sure about my water having broke, because I had clear fluid running down my legs as well as all of the mucus. I was pretty excited though... I felt like it was the beginning of labor, but was trying not to get my hopes up. I cleaned up the mess on carpet(and the trail into the bathroom) and laid back down with DP for a bit. I tried to go back to sleep(I'd only had about three hours so far) but kept thinking about being in labor. I probably laid there for about forty five minutes, and had another 6 or seven good contractions when DP rolled over and asked me what I was doing(I guess he felt my eyes on him). I told him I was having a baby(the contractions had me convinced now... These were no BH) and he asked me if I was sure... I told him it was the real deal, but I don't know that he believed me until another 3 or four contractions later I started oozing goo again... I had to jump up and run to the bathroom, telling DP on the way that I was oozing stuff because he asked me where I was going. *haha* Again, halfway there I made yet another mess... You just can't catch that stuff in your hand.
I came back and laid down for a while, but felt like I was keeping DP up(he had to leave for work early) so went and ran a nice hot bath. I took the clock with me so I could time cntx... They were coming every 4-5 minutes. I got tired of sitting in the batch... Bored and lonely, I suppose, the cntx. weren't hurting enough at that point in my mind. I got up to make some RRL tea, and DP got up and asked if he should call into work. I didn't know what to tell him, so said he could just go and maybe he could come home and have a baby for lunch. *haha* I had no idea how long labor would take(14 hours with my first, hosp. intervention and such). He called in. I spent a little while longer in the bathtub, but my contractions weren't really picking up, so I got out and tried to sleep some more. It was around 3:30 that I had to start breathing through them... In and out of the bathtub some more, going between bed, bathroom, tub, kitchen counter (rocking and swaying and gyrating through them). About an hour of that and I was pretty tired... My contractions weren't regular at all... 2 minutes, three minutes, four minutes, six, two minutes... I laid down not really counting on getting any sleep, but hoping to rest. And I did! My contractions slowed down, I don't know how much, but I would doze off for a bit, and wake up to another that I had to breathe through. I wasn't really keeping track of the time anymore, and after a while the contractions were intense enough that I thought I would try the tub again. No sir-ree... Too little! It cramped my style in a big way. I went to the bedroom(still really tired) and kneeled by the bed leaning over onto a pillow... I'd rock back and forth through them, and about this time I had couldn't stop myself from vocalizing a bit. I have to say that I was kind of shy about making noise in front of DP, but eventually just didn't care. I was naked, and the fan was blowing in the window right on my hiney... I was cold so put on a huge black hoodey, but decided the cold air on my toosh felt good. DP teased me for that. As they got more intense, I wanted to be close to DP. I got in bed beside him and laid down(again the irregular contractions gave me time) and would get on my hands and knees when I felt one coming on, and then I'd rock back and forth. DP was being a bit of a bug... He kept asking why I'd not had the baby yet. 
I told him I'd sent him stuff to read so he wouldn't be asking me all these silly questions. *smile* He told me he'd thought he'd let me read it all so he could ask me stupid questions. But then he'd rub my belly through a contraction and be all sweet, and that fixed my frustration.
I was having to vocalize a bit more now... They were really starting to hurt. I was worried about my contractions being so irregular, and that they might not be doing anything. But I focused, and felt like I needed to move forward more to dilate my cervix, if that makes sense... Like I had to rock farther forward, or gyrate more openly, to get it to open up? It hurts worse to do so, but I made myself do it. I went to the bathroom and felt my cervix once... I don't know how to tell how dilated I was, but I felt a good lip on the bottom so it made me work harder to really move through the contractions. I had another half hour or so period where I was wandering about trying to find the best place to support myself though a contraction. I was on the bed when my 3yo DS woke up... And I was having a BIG painful contraction, and vocalizing pretty loudly. He ran in the room, asked DP what was happening, and he told him I was having the baby... He immediately ran and grabbed me by my hip(about where he could reach from his place on the floor) while I was trying to rock, and I could have died... I was like AHHHH!!! I hurt, and was trying to focus, and worried about being loud in front of him, and hurting his feelings... But he was so sweet ans so excited. We had watched a bunch of homebirthing and UC videos together... He tried looking between my legs and asked if the baby's head was coming out!
I had to go to the bathroom... I knew that it was getting down to business, and I couldn't handle messing with DS at the moment. I went in there and shut the door. I feel bad because I kind of shut the door in my son's face, but he was still excited... He barged in a minute later( I was on the toilet at this point... Should note that I had been pooping my brains out throughout this whole experience, and felt like I might again) and the look on his face was all happiness before I told him to get out because "mommy is having the baby and it hurts and I want my privacy", and that made me feel better. DP came in after a bit and asked me if I needed anything... I told him no... I was too busy rocking away on the toilet, feeling like I had to poop, pooping a little(ack, more TMI), and trying to convince myself that I wasn't nuts for choosing to birth this way. 
So there I was on the toilet, and the contractions were finally coming like I felt they should. They really hurt, and I was really having to make some noise. Lots of "ooh, ohh, ooohhh, ooooohhh!, ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!! OHHHHH!!!!". My DS, bless his sweet heart, sat outside the door and listened to me, saying every now and then "Don't cry". I felt like I was barely hanging on, and kind of frantic... But I knew I had to deal. I felt up inside, and I felt the bag of waters bulging! I figured the horrible pain and the need to poop so intensely must mean that I ought to push at this point... I didn't "get the urge" really, and pushing DID NOT make it feel better, but I did start pushing with my contractions, a little. I was worried about hemorrhoids(how silly to be worrying about my butt sat a time like this, I though to myself) and I think that stopped me from really putting my all into it. I pushed maybe five times on the toilet, moaning really loudly, kind of growling/screaming... I felt for sure the neighbors(we live in a duplex) must think I'm nuts. *haha* I thought, "screw this" and got into the bathtub... I HAD TO DO THIS ALREADY, I thought. I got on my knees, squatting down and holding onto the side of the tub and PUSHED through two contractions. I felt inside and the bag of waters was right there, and I could feel her head right there in the bubble! I was feeling the "ring of fire" and had this frantic joy, like ALMOST!, and I pushed twice more REALLY HARD, feeling with my hand the bag of waters and her head as they stretched my perineum. I sat straight up then, pushing my hips forward and gave a HUGE push, and her head came out... Still in the bag of waters! I yelled for DP, holding the bubble her head was in, in awe... Yelled again and he wasn't coming and I felt like I had to push so squatted a bit and pushed, and out she came... I caught her, the bag of water breaking as I lifted her from between my legs, and I had to pull it off of her. Her cord was slung over her shoulders from right to left, and she had a knot in it just over her left shoulder... I thought "wow" but it didn't occur to me at all to be worried about that... Her cord was sooo long. I got her cord off of her shoulders and sat in the tub holding her, saying Lord only knows what about being happy to see her... DP and DS came in seconds later, DS promptly said "I have to kiss the baby" and kissed her greasy little head. I was dazed and happy, and feeling her cord... I had my fingers holding the knot loose so that she could "get all of the blood"(that's what was going through my head). DP said something about "she" and it occurred to me to check... She was a girl! We sat in the tub for awhile, drained the water and ran some fresh, and she breastfed for a bit.
DS ran away when she started to cry, and DP tied her cord with the tie I had braided and cut it. I had him take her so I could get washed up... I stood up and pushed out the placenta... Didn't have a contraction or anything, but I felt like I wanted it out, and it came out. It came out, and so did a bunch of blood... I ended up loosing quite a bit, and had some nasty dizzy/faint spells that I am still dealing with a bit, but all is good. DP made me oatmeal, and I swear he put a cup of blackstrap in it, this after making me eat a huge bit right off the spoon... He's so sweet. We all sat about in the glow, enjoying baby and eating oatmeal... There was some worry about my blood loss, but we didn't stress out about it. I went to sleep nursing Ainslee(a name that we had picked out a few weeks ago after months of deliberation*we so had a feeling she'd be a girl*) and DP entertained DS and tried to clean up the mess in the bathroom. He's a vegetarian, and I guess all the blood and gooshiness did him in... He ended up digging the whole in the garden, and I got the placenta and various bits out of the tub to put in it. My DS is so cute... He's been talking about the "bladenta", eventually getting it right and saying "placenta", this whole time. I guess it sat in the tub long enough that day for him to get a good look and a mind full of ideas. *haha*
It was a really awesome experience, and I am so happy to have made it though. I am completely content with the way it turned out. I would have liked for DP to have seen her come out, but everything happens the way it does for a reason... I suppose I needed to do it all by myself. UC rocks!
Ainslee Fae was born September 24th, at eight thirty-ish in the morning. It was my first UC(an awesome one!), lasting about seven hours. She was born in the caul, into my own hands. It was perfect. We are doing great! Story coming soon...
Thursday, September 27th...
Wow! These last few days have been awesome! Ainslee is doing great, nursing like a champ and being just about the sweetest baby ever. Here is her birth story...
I went to bed Sunday night, sure that Baby wouldn't be coming until the 29th... My little brother's birthday. I thought I had jinxed myself joking about it, and since she was 9 days late already, what the heck... Why not?
I woke up at around 1:30 am simultaneously needing to pee and having a contraction(don't you love that?*haha*) and was laying there waiting for the contraction to subside when I felt something oozing out of my hoo-ha... I thought "Huh?" and reached down and it felt pretty slimey(sorry, TMI :P) and it continued to ooze further with the contraction. I got up to go ahead and pee and clean up and made it about 7 of the twenty steps to the bathroom when stuff came *splurting* out of me... AH! I thought my water had possibly broken! I went pee to find lots of bloody mucus making it's way out... I wasn't sure about my water having broke, because I had clear fluid running down my legs as well as all of the mucus. I was pretty excited though... I felt like it was the beginning of labor, but was trying not to get my hopes up. I cleaned up the mess on carpet(and the trail into the bathroom
) and laid back down with DP for a bit. I tried to go back to sleep(I'd only had about three hours so far) but kept thinking about being in labor. I probably laid there for about forty five minutes, and had another 6 or seven good contractions when DP rolled over and asked me what I was doing(I guess he felt my eyes on him). I told him I was having a baby(the contractions had me convinced now... These were no BH) and he asked me if I was sure... I told him it was the real deal, but I don't know that he believed me until another 3 or four contractions later I started oozing goo again... I had to jump up and run to the bathroom, telling DP on the way that I was oozing stuff because he asked me where I was going. *haha* Again, halfway there I made yet another mess... You just can't catch that stuff in your hand. I came back and laid down for a while, but felt like I was keeping DP up(he had to leave for work early) so went and ran a nice hot bath. I took the clock with me so I could time cntx... They were coming every 4-5 minutes. I got tired of sitting in the batch... Bored and lonely, I suppose, the cntx. weren't hurting enough at that point in my mind.
I got up to make some RRL tea, and DP got up and asked if he should call into work. I didn't know what to tell him, so said he could just go and maybe he could come home and have a baby for lunch. *haha* I had no idea how long labor would take(14 hours with my first, hosp. intervention and such). He called in. I spent a little while longer in the bathtub, but my contractions weren't really picking up, so I got out and tried to sleep some more. It was around 3:30 that I had to start breathing through them... In and out of the bathtub some more, going between bed, bathroom, tub, kitchen counter (rocking and swaying and gyrating through them). About an hour of that and I was pretty tired... My contractions weren't regular at all... 2 minutes, three minutes, four minutes, six, two minutes... I laid down not really counting on getting any sleep, but hoping to rest. And I did! My contractions slowed down, I don't know how much, but I would doze off for a bit, and wake up to another that I had to breathe through. I wasn't really keeping track of the time anymore, and after a while the contractions were intense enough that I thought I would try the tub again. No sir-ree... Too little! It cramped my style in a big way. I went to the bedroom(still really tired) and kneeled by the bed leaning over onto a pillow... I'd rock back and forth through them, and about this time I had couldn't stop myself from vocalizing a bit. I have to say that I was kind of shy about making noise in front of DP, but eventually just didn't care. I was naked, and the fan was blowing in the window right on my hiney... I was cold so put on a huge black hoodey, but decided the cold air on my toosh felt good. DP teased me for that. As they got more intense, I wanted to be close to DP. I got in bed beside him and laid down(again the irregular contractions gave me time) and would get on my hands and knees when I felt one coming on, and then I'd rock back and forth. DP was being a bit of a bug... He kept asking why I'd not had the baby yet. I told him I'd sent him stuff to read so he wouldn't be asking me all these silly questions. *smile* He told me he'd thought he'd let me read it all so he could ask me stupid questions. But then he'd rub my belly through a contraction and be all sweet, and that fixed my frustration.I was having to vocalize a bit more now... They were really starting to hurt. I was worried about my contractions being so irregular, and that they might not be doing anything. But I focused, and felt like I needed to move forward more to dilate my cervix, if that makes sense... Like I had to rock farther forward, or gyrate more openly, to get it to open up? It hurts worse to do so, but I made myself do it. I went to the bathroom and felt my cervix once... I don't know how to tell how dilated I was, but I felt a good lip on the bottom so it made me work harder to really move through the contractions. I had another half hour or so period where I was wandering about trying to find the best place to support myself though a contraction. I was on the bed when my 3yo DS woke up... And I was having a BIG painful contraction, and vocalizing pretty loudly. He ran in the room, asked DP what was happening, and he told him I was having the baby... He immediately ran and grabbed me by my hip(about where he could reach from his place on the floor) while I was trying to rock, and I could have died... I was like AHHHH!!! I hurt, and was trying to focus, and worried about being loud in front of him, and hurting his feelings... But he was so sweet ans so excited. We had watched a bunch of homebirthing and UC videos together... He tried looking between my legs and asked if the baby's head was coming out!
I had to go to the bathroom... I knew that it was getting down to business, and I couldn't handle messing with DS at the moment. I went in there and shut the door. I feel bad because I kind of shut the door in my son's face, but he was still excited... He barged in a minute later( I was on the toilet at this point... Should note that I had been pooping my brains out throughout this whole experience, and felt like I might again) and the look on his face was all happiness before I told him to get out because "mommy is having the baby and it hurts and I want my privacy", and that made me feel better. DP came in after a bit and asked me if I needed anything... I told him no... I was too busy rocking away on the toilet, feeling like I had to poop, pooping a little(ack, more TMI
), and trying to convince myself that I wasn't nuts for choosing to birth this way. So there I was on the toilet, and the contractions were finally coming like I felt they should. They really hurt, and I was really having to make some noise. Lots of "ooh, ohh, ooohhh, ooooohhh!, ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!! OHHHHH!!!!". My DS, bless his sweet heart, sat outside the door and listened to me, saying every now and then "Don't cry". I felt like I was barely hanging on, and kind of frantic... But I knew I had to deal. I felt up inside, and I felt the bag of waters bulging! I figured the horrible pain and the need to poop so intensely must mean that I ought to push at this point... I didn't "get the urge" really, and pushing DID NOT make it feel better, but I did start pushing with my contractions, a little. I was worried about hemorrhoids(how silly to be worrying about my butt sat a time like this, I though to myself) and I think that stopped me from really putting my all into it. I pushed maybe five times on the toilet, moaning really loudly, kind of growling/screaming... I felt for sure the neighbors(we live in a duplex) must think I'm nuts. *haha* I thought, "screw this" and got into the bathtub... I HAD TO DO THIS ALREADY, I thought. I got on my knees, squatting down and holding onto the side of the tub and PUSHED through two contractions. I felt inside and the bag of waters was right there, and I could feel her head right there in the bubble! I was feeling the "ring of fire" and had this frantic joy, like ALMOST!, and I pushed twice more REALLY HARD, feeling with my hand the bag of waters and her head as they stretched my perineum. I sat straight up then, pushing my hips forward and gave a HUGE push, and her head came out... Still in the bag of waters! I yelled for DP, holding the bubble her head was in, in awe... Yelled again and he wasn't coming and I felt like I had to push so squatted a bit and pushed, and out she came... I caught her, the bag of water breaking as I lifted her from between my legs, and I had to pull it off of her. Her cord was slung over her shoulders from right to left, and she had a knot in it just over her left shoulder... I thought "wow" but it didn't occur to me at all to be worried about that... Her cord was sooo long. I got her cord off of her shoulders and sat in the tub holding her, saying Lord only knows what about being happy to see her... DP and DS came in seconds later, DS promptly said "I have to kiss the baby" and kissed her greasy little head.
I was dazed and happy, and feeling her cord... I had my fingers holding the knot loose so that she could "get all of the blood"(that's what was going through my head). DP said something about "she" and it occurred to me to check... She was a girl! We sat in the tub for awhile, drained the water and ran some fresh, and she breastfed for a bit.DS ran away when she started to cry, and DP tied her cord with the tie I had braided and cut it. I had him take her so I could get washed up... I stood up and pushed out the placenta... Didn't have a contraction or anything, but I felt like I wanted it out, and it came out.
It came out, and so did a bunch of blood... I ended up loosing quite a bit, and had some nasty dizzy/faint spells that I am still dealing with a bit, but all is good. DP made me oatmeal, and I swear he put a cup of blackstrap in it, this after making me eat a huge bit right off the spoon... He's so sweet. We all sat about in the glow, enjoying baby and eating oatmeal... There was some worry about my blood loss, but we didn't stress out about it. I went to sleep nursing Ainslee(a name that we had picked out a few weeks ago after months of deliberation*we so had a feeling she'd be a girl*) and DP entertained DS and tried to clean up the mess in the bathroom. He's a vegetarian, and I guess all the blood and gooshiness did him in... He ended up digging the whole in the garden, and I got the placenta and various bits out of the tub to put in it. My DS is so cute... He's been talking about the "bladenta", eventually getting it right and saying "placenta", this whole time. I guess it sat in the tub long enough that day for him to get a good look and a mind full of ideas. *haha*It was a really awesome experience, and I am so happy to have made it though. I am completely content with the way it turned out. I would have liked for DP to have seen her come out, but everything happens the way it does for a reason... I suppose I needed to do it all by myself.
UC rocks!
Ainslee Fae!
Enjoy her! great name. My little girl was born in the caul too. 
good thing too because he had that weird cord insertion thing going on (where it attaches in and runs along side of the placenta...scary!!) I forget what its called.
: can't wait to read your story!
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