The Homebirth of Freya Elizabeth Jane, July 5th, 2008
On July 4th I lay down with the boys around 9:30 and fell right asleep. Around 10:30 I woke up to a few contractions that felt a little different but was trying to ignore them. When Pat came to bed at 10:45 I was suspecting labour was beginning. I waited a few min for him to settle Cormac down and then got up to go to the washroom. As soon as I rolled over my water broke, so I told Pat and he got up with me. We wanted to move quickly to set things up as our last birth was so quick we weren’t sure how much time we’d have.
We called the midwife and she asked us to time the contractions for 10 min and call her back. I did that while Pat called the grandma’s and started filling the pool. My contractions were 3 min apart and 1 min long from the start, but were very manageable. We called the MW back and within 30 min everyone was here. I played on the computer and breathed through ctx until about 12:15 when I decided to get in the pool.
The pool was great and I was still quietly breathing through ctx while Pat sat beside me. I remember telling him this was exactly how I had imagined the birth. Shortly after that things got a bit more intense, and I started vocalizing a bit. Soon I realized I was in transition (I heard Pat’s mom arrive sometime during this time). Even realizing I was in transition didn’t make it any easier, and I broke down and had a little “I can’t do this” cry. However I was very soon feeling pushy, and I heard the MW’s getting ready and coming over to sit by me. I don’t know how long I pushed for, but I was only in the pool for 60 min so it couldn’t have been long. The MW did a check and her head was on the perineum, I had a few more big pushes and her head was out, and the rest of her was out in one more push. She was born at 1:17 Am, 2 1/2 hrs after my water broke.
The MW scooped her out and unwrapped the cord which was 2x around her neck. They put her on my chest and she started to scream. They told me she was a girl and we were all laughing about the insane amount of vernix she had on her (it was coming off in big chunks). The next bit is a bit of a blur, I was bleeding a lot so as soon as the cord stoped pulsing the clamped it and Pat cut it. They handed the baby to Pat and gave me a shot of oxytocin. The MW’s helped me out of the pool and I lay down on the couch and had a small ctx and the placenta came out. I was still bleeding a lot (it was a mild hemorrhage) so they gave me a second shot. They were getting ready to set up an IV when the bleeding finally stopped and my uterus started to firm up. Sometime in all this Cormac woke up and came down to see the baby, then asked to go back to bed.
Once I stopped bleeding I sat up and Pat brought me the baby. She latched right on and nused for quite awhile. After that the MW checked her out and we got her dressed. She was 7 lbs 6.5 oz ( a full 1 ¼ lbs less then Rohan and Cormac), 20.5 inches long. We all went upstairs, by which point both the kids were up and had a peek at their new sister. Grandma’s and MW’s left shortly after this, and we all crawled into bed for our first night as a family of 5 (although it took Pat until 4 am to get the boys to settle back down….)
Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...3&id=654541894
On July 4th I lay down with the boys around 9:30 and fell right asleep. Around 10:30 I woke up to a few contractions that felt a little different but was trying to ignore them. When Pat came to bed at 10:45 I was suspecting labour was beginning. I waited a few min for him to settle Cormac down and then got up to go to the washroom. As soon as I rolled over my water broke, so I told Pat and he got up with me. We wanted to move quickly to set things up as our last birth was so quick we weren’t sure how much time we’d have.
We called the midwife and she asked us to time the contractions for 10 min and call her back. I did that while Pat called the grandma’s and started filling the pool. My contractions were 3 min apart and 1 min long from the start, but were very manageable. We called the MW back and within 30 min everyone was here. I played on the computer and breathed through ctx until about 12:15 when I decided to get in the pool.
The pool was great and I was still quietly breathing through ctx while Pat sat beside me. I remember telling him this was exactly how I had imagined the birth. Shortly after that things got a bit more intense, and I started vocalizing a bit. Soon I realized I was in transition (I heard Pat’s mom arrive sometime during this time). Even realizing I was in transition didn’t make it any easier, and I broke down and had a little “I can’t do this” cry. However I was very soon feeling pushy, and I heard the MW’s getting ready and coming over to sit by me. I don’t know how long I pushed for, but I was only in the pool for 60 min so it couldn’t have been long. The MW did a check and her head was on the perineum, I had a few more big pushes and her head was out, and the rest of her was out in one more push. She was born at 1:17 Am, 2 1/2 hrs after my water broke.
The MW scooped her out and unwrapped the cord which was 2x around her neck. They put her on my chest and she started to scream. They told me she was a girl and we were all laughing about the insane amount of vernix she had on her (it was coming off in big chunks). The next bit is a bit of a blur, I was bleeding a lot so as soon as the cord stoped pulsing the clamped it and Pat cut it. They handed the baby to Pat and gave me a shot of oxytocin. The MW’s helped me out of the pool and I lay down on the couch and had a small ctx and the placenta came out. I was still bleeding a lot (it was a mild hemorrhage) so they gave me a second shot. They were getting ready to set up an IV when the bleeding finally stopped and my uterus started to firm up. Sometime in all this Cormac woke up and came down to see the baby, then asked to go back to bed.
Once I stopped bleeding I sat up and Pat brought me the baby. She latched right on and nused for quite awhile. After that the MW checked her out and we got her dressed. She was 7 lbs 6.5 oz ( a full 1 ¼ lbs less then Rohan and Cormac), 20.5 inches long. We all went upstairs, by which point both the kids were up and had a peek at their new sister. Grandma’s and MW’s left shortly after this, and we all crawled into bed for our first night as a family of 5 (although it took Pat until 4 am to get the boys to settle back down….)
Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...3&id=654541894
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