link to pic: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=552381&l=61ddd&id=680340702
Sorry so long but here it is the birth story of Sophia……..
On the 23rd of December I noticd some gobbly goop comin outta me --- it wasnt anywhere near bloody and looked too whitish to be what i remember as show so i ignored it plus i thought it was a bit early to see show since i was only 36 weeks. Any ways over the following days i had more and more of it and it was thicker and kinda stringy...
Its weird cuz thats when I really started nesting and not sure why I couldnt get into nesting before but this is when I really started to notice how dirty the house was and how I wanted to finish all the laundry as quickly as possible and buy the car seat that I was holding off on buying until that specific store had a sale...well they were having a sale so off I went and bought it. I cleaned out the linen closet and arranged everything as well as the receiving blankets for the baby and other blankets and stuff that I would need. I went into my formal living room and rearranged the chairs, cleaned the bathroom and washed the towels in there and made everything perfect and locked the door...now it was ready for any visitors...I finally finished the hospital bag which was sitting in the closet for weeks unfinished so that if i decided on going to the hospital it would be ready and if dh insisted I go so then i would have to go. I put together the cradle, the glider rocker, and the baby changing table....maybe i threw myself into labor...lol...with all i did in those ten days.
Now on the 29th of December I started having what I wasnt sure was contractions....nothing like i had before...cuz i had back labor with all of my babies and didnt feel anything at all until I went into labor and usually from the first contraction it is very intense, 5 minutes apart, back labor that tells me immediately I am in labor. Everytime I have gone to the hospital from the first contraction and after being checked I am usually already between 6-7 cm and have the baby within 2 hours.
So this time I was stumped cuz it wasnt back labor and it was like menstrual cramps but not that intense and very irregular..it must have started around 4am....but they were weird cuz the timing was off...it would come back anywhere from 30 minutes to 2hours...so I wasn't sure if they were contractions or not but after reading and reading on the boards it fit people's descriptions...but i went about my business.....that day i went to the park twice....once with my dh and the kids and then later on in the evening with my friends....I just ignored these contractions that were still very irregular thinking that they would eventually stop and they werent painful enough i thought to be real contractions. I got home from the park at 11pm.
On my way home driving from the park, I had lots of pressure but figured I really needed to go the bathroom since the park's bathroom was so disgusting I couldnt go there and I had drank alot of soda, coffee, tea with my friends. Once we got home, I put the kids in their beds and ran to the bathroom and relieved myself....this time the gobbly gook that I had been seeing was a little pinkish...nothing near bloody .... just a bit pinkish...
i called my friend to let her know and she begged me to go the hospital then saying that I needed to at least be checked and I told her how could I justify going to the hospital when I wasnt contracting regularly and told her I was going to bed....now she thought I was absolutely insane and begged me to call her if anything happened and she would rush me to the hospital as she knew my dh was in another city and was on his way back but wouldnt be back until around 4:30 am or so...anyways she lives like 30 minutes from my house and then it would take us an hour to get to the hospital so i was hoping i would get my ooops uc birth. of course she had no clue of this.
Around 3:30 am i awoke to a pop!!!! This was after 24 hours of these irregular contractions. It was so scary because it was loud so it startled me and i really didnt think that my water broke until I stood up and felt the warm liquid fall down against my legs...I started to absolutely freak out....cuz usually after my water breaks I have the baby within a half hour...I went to the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the bathroom...then i was running around and i tried to bend down to get the mat i had prepared to birth on from under my bed...once I knelt down I had my first serious contraction like five minutes after my water broke so I had to stop and breathe....I got the mat out from under the bed and set it up.
My dd and her friend heard me rustling in the bedroom so they came running in...yeah they were awake all nite preparing a surprise for me...they had rearranged the furniture and cleaned the living room and made it spotless and I told them i would love to see it now but i am in labor and its not a good time....so i instructed my dd to call her dad and tell him i am in labor and i instructed my dd's friend to call her mom on my mobile and tell her that I am in labor but not to worry everything was under control. I was having contractions every 2 minutes but they weren't that bad as long as I breathed thru them.
I went to check on the water in the bathtub and it had already gotten cold...OH MY GOD I thought who turned off the water heater and then I remembered that the electricity had a short and we turned off all the water heaters and were supposed to turn them back on but we missed my bathroom!!!
Now my dh walked thru the door...oh wow when I heard his voice - ur early, and ur here...he looked at me and realized what was happening....and after a bit of an argument he hauled me off into the car to go the hospital....i fought with him and told him he was gonna be very lucky if I didnt have the baby in the car but he said its okay as long as we are on the way. By this time it was almost 4am….the drive to the hospital in traffic and in the day time is an hour – we got there in half an hour with contractions coming every two minutes but still they were manageable. I kept on telling myself that its okay to be in pain and these contractions are opening me up and its only temporary and I kept on saying to myself just relax and you can do this and I think all this mental talking really worked in my favor.
4:25am - I was checked and found to be 8 cm dialated and was told I would have the baby within a half hour. So they took me up to labor and deliver and I immediately put my plan in play. My plan was to be adamant about what I wanted….they were usually good about letting you do what you wanted but there were some midwives that force you on the bed to put that nasty belt around you and then don’t let you get up especially knowing that you are soo dilated….anyways I looked at her and said sternly I am not getting on the bed….and she said okay no problem and I told her I don’t want any messing with anything and everything natural and she said okay so I realized I got probably a great midwife cuz she seemed like she would let me do as I pleased. So I was standing and having my contractions and she would take that Doppler thingamajig and check the heartbeat every so often and say everything is great…then around 4:55am I started getting tired of standing and I told her we would have to try something else…so I asked for a birthing ball and she went out to get it and came back within two contractions…I tried it and said no way and apologized for making her get it…and then she asked me if I wanted to get on the bed and I said no way but then she told me that I wouldn’t have to lay down but she could raise the back of the bed as far as it goes and I could hang over the edge with a pillow – if you can imagine that I was on my knees with my face towards the back of the bed and my back side facing the midwife…I liked that position it was comfortable and relieved my aching legs…so I stayed like that for awhile and still having those contractions – every so often she would reach underneath me and check the heartbeat and reassure me that it was okay.
Around 5:15 am I was getting impatient…I told her why is it taking so long – the stupid lady downstairs told me I would have the baby in a half hour…was she stupid or what!? Now it hadn’t been that long but I felt like it was hours.. She proceeded to tell me very calmly that she didn't know and that we wanted it to happen naturally so we will just wait and see what is going to happen…so I said okay and I felt it was time to change positions and asked her to help me get back into the standing position on the floor…but she said maybe it was better to squat on a mat on the floor and told me to hold on while she would get the mat…I think I was being a bit mean at that point and told her that if she wasn’t back with two contractions that I was gonna get dh to help me down and I was gonna stand.
5:30 am - Before she came back I felt the baby descend further…it was so weird how I could actually feel the baby moving down…it was more amazing then anything else…so she had gotten the mat and I told her to forget it cuz something was happening….All of a sudden the next contraction was so bad I had to moan through it …and the next one and the next one….I knew I was close to the end but I didn’t know how close and I usually don’t have to push my babies out they just pop out by themselves…So I remembered reading a birth story where the momma was doing mini pushes thru the contractions and it felt good so I started doing that….and it did feel good to be able to push a bit thru that pain but I didn’t want to push to much cuz I didn’t have any urge to push….by the third or fourth contraction around 5:38 am the minipush turned into its own major unstoppable force and the baby 's head popped out and the ring of fire was so bad that my moan turned into a scream but I came to my senses when the midwife was screaming for me to breathe and once I did I gave it a tiny push and the rest of the body came flying out. She was out and screamed right away and the midwife helped me maneuver around the cord and the baby so that I could sit on the bed and hold my sweetheart. She was covered in vernix…it was amazing to see this creamy stuff all over her body. I immediately put her on my chest and she immediately quieted down….after a couple of minutes dh helped me put her to the breast. The placenta immediately followed and was checked over by the midwife and found to be complete…I had minimal bleeding and no tears and not even a skidmark.
So I didn’t get my ooops uc but I got a completely natural birth on my own terms and am very happy to be finally holding her on the outside instead of on the inside.
I was 37 weeks and four days. She was born on December 30th at 5:38am weighing 2kilos and 700 grams. She is breastfeeding like a champ with her older brother who is 20 months old. My milk came in quickly on the second day of her birth and tandem nursing has been working out okay so far. I usually breastfeed them both in the football hold – Sophia on a pillow since she is so tiny and her brother can reach the breast easily without a pillow.
Sorry so long but here it is the birth story of Sophia……..
On the 23rd of December I noticd some gobbly goop comin outta me --- it wasnt anywhere near bloody and looked too whitish to be what i remember as show so i ignored it plus i thought it was a bit early to see show since i was only 36 weeks. Any ways over the following days i had more and more of it and it was thicker and kinda stringy...
Its weird cuz thats when I really started nesting and not sure why I couldnt get into nesting before but this is when I really started to notice how dirty the house was and how I wanted to finish all the laundry as quickly as possible and buy the car seat that I was holding off on buying until that specific store had a sale...well they were having a sale so off I went and bought it. I cleaned out the linen closet and arranged everything as well as the receiving blankets for the baby and other blankets and stuff that I would need. I went into my formal living room and rearranged the chairs, cleaned the bathroom and washed the towels in there and made everything perfect and locked the door...now it was ready for any visitors...I finally finished the hospital bag which was sitting in the closet for weeks unfinished so that if i decided on going to the hospital it would be ready and if dh insisted I go so then i would have to go. I put together the cradle, the glider rocker, and the baby changing table....maybe i threw myself into labor...lol...with all i did in those ten days.
Now on the 29th of December I started having what I wasnt sure was contractions....nothing like i had before...cuz i had back labor with all of my babies and didnt feel anything at all until I went into labor and usually from the first contraction it is very intense, 5 minutes apart, back labor that tells me immediately I am in labor. Everytime I have gone to the hospital from the first contraction and after being checked I am usually already between 6-7 cm and have the baby within 2 hours.
So this time I was stumped cuz it wasnt back labor and it was like menstrual cramps but not that intense and very irregular..it must have started around 4am....but they were weird cuz the timing was off...it would come back anywhere from 30 minutes to 2hours...so I wasn't sure if they were contractions or not but after reading and reading on the boards it fit people's descriptions...but i went about my business.....that day i went to the park twice....once with my dh and the kids and then later on in the evening with my friends....I just ignored these contractions that were still very irregular thinking that they would eventually stop and they werent painful enough i thought to be real contractions. I got home from the park at 11pm.
On my way home driving from the park, I had lots of pressure but figured I really needed to go the bathroom since the park's bathroom was so disgusting I couldnt go there and I had drank alot of soda, coffee, tea with my friends. Once we got home, I put the kids in their beds and ran to the bathroom and relieved myself....this time the gobbly gook that I had been seeing was a little pinkish...nothing near bloody .... just a bit pinkish...
i called my friend to let her know and she begged me to go the hospital then saying that I needed to at least be checked and I told her how could I justify going to the hospital when I wasnt contracting regularly and told her I was going to bed....now she thought I was absolutely insane and begged me to call her if anything happened and she would rush me to the hospital as she knew my dh was in another city and was on his way back but wouldnt be back until around 4:30 am or so...anyways she lives like 30 minutes from my house and then it would take us an hour to get to the hospital so i was hoping i would get my ooops uc birth. of course she had no clue of this.
Around 3:30 am i awoke to a pop!!!! This was after 24 hours of these irregular contractions. It was so scary because it was loud so it startled me and i really didnt think that my water broke until I stood up and felt the warm liquid fall down against my legs...I started to absolutely freak out....cuz usually after my water breaks I have the baby within a half hour...I went to the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the bathroom...then i was running around and i tried to bend down to get the mat i had prepared to birth on from under my bed...once I knelt down I had my first serious contraction like five minutes after my water broke so I had to stop and breathe....I got the mat out from under the bed and set it up.
My dd and her friend heard me rustling in the bedroom so they came running in...yeah they were awake all nite preparing a surprise for me...they had rearranged the furniture and cleaned the living room and made it spotless and I told them i would love to see it now but i am in labor and its not a good time....so i instructed my dd to call her dad and tell him i am in labor and i instructed my dd's friend to call her mom on my mobile and tell her that I am in labor but not to worry everything was under control. I was having contractions every 2 minutes but they weren't that bad as long as I breathed thru them.
I went to check on the water in the bathtub and it had already gotten cold...OH MY GOD I thought who turned off the water heater and then I remembered that the electricity had a short and we turned off all the water heaters and were supposed to turn them back on but we missed my bathroom!!!
Now my dh walked thru the door...oh wow when I heard his voice - ur early, and ur here...he looked at me and realized what was happening....and after a bit of an argument he hauled me off into the car to go the hospital....i fought with him and told him he was gonna be very lucky if I didnt have the baby in the car but he said its okay as long as we are on the way. By this time it was almost 4am….the drive to the hospital in traffic and in the day time is an hour – we got there in half an hour with contractions coming every two minutes but still they were manageable. I kept on telling myself that its okay to be in pain and these contractions are opening me up and its only temporary and I kept on saying to myself just relax and you can do this and I think all this mental talking really worked in my favor.
4:25am - I was checked and found to be 8 cm dialated and was told I would have the baby within a half hour. So they took me up to labor and deliver and I immediately put my plan in play. My plan was to be adamant about what I wanted….they were usually good about letting you do what you wanted but there were some midwives that force you on the bed to put that nasty belt around you and then don’t let you get up especially knowing that you are soo dilated….anyways I looked at her and said sternly I am not getting on the bed….and she said okay no problem and I told her I don’t want any messing with anything and everything natural and she said okay so I realized I got probably a great midwife cuz she seemed like she would let me do as I pleased. So I was standing and having my contractions and she would take that Doppler thingamajig and check the heartbeat every so often and say everything is great…then around 4:55am I started getting tired of standing and I told her we would have to try something else…so I asked for a birthing ball and she went out to get it and came back within two contractions…I tried it and said no way and apologized for making her get it…and then she asked me if I wanted to get on the bed and I said no way but then she told me that I wouldn’t have to lay down but she could raise the back of the bed as far as it goes and I could hang over the edge with a pillow – if you can imagine that I was on my knees with my face towards the back of the bed and my back side facing the midwife…I liked that position it was comfortable and relieved my aching legs…so I stayed like that for awhile and still having those contractions – every so often she would reach underneath me and check the heartbeat and reassure me that it was okay.
Around 5:15 am I was getting impatient…I told her why is it taking so long – the stupid lady downstairs told me I would have the baby in a half hour…was she stupid or what!? Now it hadn’t been that long but I felt like it was hours.. She proceeded to tell me very calmly that she didn't know and that we wanted it to happen naturally so we will just wait and see what is going to happen…so I said okay and I felt it was time to change positions and asked her to help me get back into the standing position on the floor…but she said maybe it was better to squat on a mat on the floor and told me to hold on while she would get the mat…I think I was being a bit mean at that point and told her that if she wasn’t back with two contractions that I was gonna get dh to help me down and I was gonna stand.
5:30 am - Before she came back I felt the baby descend further…it was so weird how I could actually feel the baby moving down…it was more amazing then anything else…so she had gotten the mat and I told her to forget it cuz something was happening….All of a sudden the next contraction was so bad I had to moan through it …and the next one and the next one….I knew I was close to the end but I didn’t know how close and I usually don’t have to push my babies out they just pop out by themselves…So I remembered reading a birth story where the momma was doing mini pushes thru the contractions and it felt good so I started doing that….and it did feel good to be able to push a bit thru that pain but I didn’t want to push to much cuz I didn’t have any urge to push….by the third or fourth contraction around 5:38 am the minipush turned into its own major unstoppable force and the baby 's head popped out and the ring of fire was so bad that my moan turned into a scream but I came to my senses when the midwife was screaming for me to breathe and once I did I gave it a tiny push and the rest of the body came flying out. She was out and screamed right away and the midwife helped me maneuver around the cord and the baby so that I could sit on the bed and hold my sweetheart. She was covered in vernix…it was amazing to see this creamy stuff all over her body. I immediately put her on my chest and she immediately quieted down….after a couple of minutes dh helped me put her to the breast. The placenta immediately followed and was checked over by the midwife and found to be complete…I had minimal bleeding and no tears and not even a skidmark.
So I didn’t get my ooops uc but I got a completely natural birth on my own terms and am very happy to be finally holding her on the outside instead of on the inside.
I was 37 weeks and four days. She was born on December 30th at 5:38am weighing 2kilos and 700 grams. She is breastfeeding like a champ with her older brother who is 20 months old. My milk came in quickly on the second day of her birth and tandem nursing has been working out okay so far. I usually breastfeed them both in the football hold – Sophia on a pillow since she is so tiny and her brother can reach the breast easily without a pillow.
Enjoy your lovely baby.
