After three bouts of early labor that fizzled out (the first being on Christmas day), I knew something was different the morning of January 18th. All of the other sessions had been at night, and this was during the morning. Because of the false alarms, though, I was reluctant to get everyone's hopes up or call in the troops just yet.
Contractions started around 10AM, and were about 10 minutes apart. I hung out at home playing with my son until lunchtime, when we went to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. A good friend had called earlier inviting herself over that night, so we had a few things to prepare.
I find being out in public while in labor one of the coolest feelings---one of those "I have a secret" type of things. If most people knew, they'd freak out and yell at you to go to the hospital right away, but I think it is one of the best ways to get your mind off of things.
Once we got home, contractions were closer to 6 minutes apart, but still not painful. Around 3PM I finally called the midwife just to give her a heads-up, but asked her not to come over yet. I was determined that Daniel would stay at work the whole day, but finally I couldn't handle DS anymore because I didn't want to sit down at all to play with him. Daniel started wrapping things up around 3:30 and started to head home.
Once he arrived home to play with Reid, I got in the tub to relax. Things seemed to be slowing down a bit, but yet the contractions were a little stronger. Reid got in with me for a while, but that really threw me off so we both got out. He then proceeded to have the biggest meltdown I've EVER seen him have, once he realized that I was in labor and the baby was really coming today. He was having some severe anxiety over things, and I started to worry that it would rub off on me and hinder my ability to labor calmly. I managed to get him calmed down, though, and we started preparing dinner.
When I got out of the tub the contractions changed, and I started feeling downward pressure and didn't really want to talk through them anymore, although I could. I called the midwives around 6:00, just as my mother arrived at our house. Our dinner guest arrived shortly after that, and everyone started cooking while I holed up in the bedroom for a bit. Still nothing painful, but I definitely wanted to be by myself.
The midwife and two student midwives arrived at 7PM and took my vitals. I then chatted with everyone at the dinner table for a bit and picked some potatoes off of the baking sheet while they got their supplies set up in my bedroom. The midwives then went downstairs to settle in, and I didn't leave the bedroom for over 36 hours!
Someone came up to check my vitals every 30 minutes, and after the 8PM check my contractions changed and I started needing to vocalize through them. This coincided with the first bloody show. Things were really happening! I was leaning against the sink at this point through contractions, which seemed to feel pretty good, but I finally realized that sitting on the toilet felt even better. I sat there for quite a while, until I decided that it was putting too much pressure on things and might cause swelling.
I got on the floor on all fours with my hands up on the step that goes up to our tub and stayed there for the rest of the labor. I tell you, I'm glad we didn't end up hiring a doula this time, because even Daniel had absolutely nothing to do other than bring me water and keeping me company---I wanted no one touching me at all the entire time!
Around 10:30 my vocalizations changed and Daniel called the midwives upstairs. I'd say this was definitely transition, and I remember saying between contractions, "How many more like that can there possibly be?!?" Then I vomited at least a liter, if not two. I also vomited at transition during my first labor, but this time was so cool---as SOON as I vomited, my eyes snapped open and into focus, and I was present and calm. It was just amazing!
I started getting pushy a little after 11PM, and the baby's head came out in one push along with a gigantic SPLOOSH of my waters breaking (all over Daniel!). The shoulders hurt a lot more than I remember with Reid, but that was also only one push and she SHOT out---luckily Daniel caught her, or she would have landed on the bathroom floor. Only three minutes of pushing!
I feel so grateful that her amniotic sac didn't rupture until right when she was born, because if it had we certainly would have ended up transferring to the hospital. There was thick meconium in the fluid, so she was suctioned before the birth of her shoulders. Her lungs sounded wet at first, but this cleared up as soon as she nursed for the first time. I suspect that this might not even have been due to the meconium, but more because she didn't have time for the fluid to get squeezed out of her lungs during birth since the membranes didn't rupture until the moment of birth. Who knows? She's doing fine now, and doesn't seem to have aspirated any meconium.
I didn't really tear, just one small pull. There wasn't any time for swelling, either, so I'm feeling great. We don't have a name for her yet, but she was 8 pounds at birth and 20.5 inches long.
I don't know if Daniel has put any pictures on our website yet, but here's the URL---they'll show up one of these days: family website
Contractions started around 10AM, and were about 10 minutes apart. I hung out at home playing with my son until lunchtime, when we went to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. A good friend had called earlier inviting herself over that night, so we had a few things to prepare.
I find being out in public while in labor one of the coolest feelings---one of those "I have a secret" type of things. If most people knew, they'd freak out and yell at you to go to the hospital right away, but I think it is one of the best ways to get your mind off of things.
Once we got home, contractions were closer to 6 minutes apart, but still not painful. Around 3PM I finally called the midwife just to give her a heads-up, but asked her not to come over yet. I was determined that Daniel would stay at work the whole day, but finally I couldn't handle DS anymore because I didn't want to sit down at all to play with him. Daniel started wrapping things up around 3:30 and started to head home.
Once he arrived home to play with Reid, I got in the tub to relax. Things seemed to be slowing down a bit, but yet the contractions were a little stronger. Reid got in with me for a while, but that really threw me off so we both got out. He then proceeded to have the biggest meltdown I've EVER seen him have, once he realized that I was in labor and the baby was really coming today. He was having some severe anxiety over things, and I started to worry that it would rub off on me and hinder my ability to labor calmly. I managed to get him calmed down, though, and we started preparing dinner.
When I got out of the tub the contractions changed, and I started feeling downward pressure and didn't really want to talk through them anymore, although I could. I called the midwives around 6:00, just as my mother arrived at our house. Our dinner guest arrived shortly after that, and everyone started cooking while I holed up in the bedroom for a bit. Still nothing painful, but I definitely wanted to be by myself.
The midwife and two student midwives arrived at 7PM and took my vitals. I then chatted with everyone at the dinner table for a bit and picked some potatoes off of the baking sheet while they got their supplies set up in my bedroom. The midwives then went downstairs to settle in, and I didn't leave the bedroom for over 36 hours!
Someone came up to check my vitals every 30 minutes, and after the 8PM check my contractions changed and I started needing to vocalize through them. This coincided with the first bloody show. Things were really happening! I was leaning against the sink at this point through contractions, which seemed to feel pretty good, but I finally realized that sitting on the toilet felt even better. I sat there for quite a while, until I decided that it was putting too much pressure on things and might cause swelling.
I got on the floor on all fours with my hands up on the step that goes up to our tub and stayed there for the rest of the labor. I tell you, I'm glad we didn't end up hiring a doula this time, because even Daniel had absolutely nothing to do other than bring me water and keeping me company---I wanted no one touching me at all the entire time!
Around 10:30 my vocalizations changed and Daniel called the midwives upstairs. I'd say this was definitely transition, and I remember saying between contractions, "How many more like that can there possibly be?!?" Then I vomited at least a liter, if not two. I also vomited at transition during my first labor, but this time was so cool---as SOON as I vomited, my eyes snapped open and into focus, and I was present and calm. It was just amazing!
I started getting pushy a little after 11PM, and the baby's head came out in one push along with a gigantic SPLOOSH of my waters breaking (all over Daniel!). The shoulders hurt a lot more than I remember with Reid, but that was also only one push and she SHOT out---luckily Daniel caught her, or she would have landed on the bathroom floor. Only three minutes of pushing!
I feel so grateful that her amniotic sac didn't rupture until right when she was born, because if it had we certainly would have ended up transferring to the hospital. There was thick meconium in the fluid, so she was suctioned before the birth of her shoulders. Her lungs sounded wet at first, but this cleared up as soon as she nursed for the first time. I suspect that this might not even have been due to the meconium, but more because she didn't have time for the fluid to get squeezed out of her lungs during birth since the membranes didn't rupture until the moment of birth. Who knows? She's doing fine now, and doesn't seem to have aspirated any meconium.
I didn't really tear, just one small pull. There wasn't any time for swelling, either, so I'm feeling great. We don't have a name for her yet, but she was 8 pounds at birth and 20.5 inches long.
I don't know if Daniel has put any pictures on our website yet, but here's the URL---they'll show up one of these days: family website
