Ginger Katla
11/10/08
11:02 p.m.
8 pounds even
19 inches
Birth Story
Monday morning dh woke up not feeling well so decided not to continue work on his shop. The plan was for him to finish the shop before the baby arrived so that we could move his current shop out of the house and create a baby space in the new shop. He had diarrhea throughout the night before and just wanted to rest during the day. We had already taken dd out of preschool as a means of germ prevention, so I juggled dd and work during the day. I took a nap with dd mid afternoon and afterwards felt horrible. Dh was feeling better so he took over for dd and I rested. At about 7:30 p.m. I vomited quite a bit and then went to bed in the guest room. Dh had a hard time getting dd to bed, but she finally fell asleep about 9 p.m. At 9:20, while I was laying down, I felt and heard a huge pop in my stomach area. Because I was half asleep, I layed there for a bit wondering if it was the aminiotic sac. I had earlier felt a lot of pressure in my stomach and bowels and wondered if that had something to do with it. Sure enough, I stood up and gush...
I called my midwife right away and let her know. Because we had virtually nothing ready, she said she'd come over right away. I whispered to dh that my water had broken (he was in our bed with dd) and he got up to help. I picked out my labor clothes and went to take a shower.
While in the shower, mild contractions started and I felt nauseous by the end of it. I threw up again after the shower. I put on my labor clothes and started laboring! With dd's birth, I was induced with pitocin and later had an epidural, so I wasn't sure what to make of the timing, length, etc, but it seemed like they were coming pretty fast. After maybe an hour of contractions getting more and more intense, I felt the urge to push! I could hardly believe it. I was barely able to rip off my pants in time to get in the pool (which was only half way full). I gave a bit of pressure during the next contraction and it felt like my colon was going to come out my butt, so I stopped and waited. I think there was a big pause then before the next contraction. The midwife told me to see if I could reach down and feel a head inside and sure enough, there it was! I wasn't comfortable guiding the head out myself, so dh got in the pool and helped. In a matter of moments her head was about half way out and at the next push, the rest of her head and her whole body were out. 11:02 p.m. I could hardly believe it! Only 1.5 hours of labor! She wasn't breathing right away when I brought her to the surface, so the midwife sucked some mucous out of her nose and mouth and tried to stimulate her. She was breathing in about 10 seconds. It took over an hour for the placenta to come out, mostly because I was reluctant to give in to the any contractions and push. But it finally did. Midwife and doula cleaned me all up, gave me lots of potions and drinks and weighed and measured the baby. They stayed until about 3 a.m., then packed up.
All in all a wonderful birth! One other really cool thing is that I decided to take dd to the hot springs pool the day before so we had our last dd and me outing. It was so special.
I'm so glad we decided to have a homebirth because we live 1 hour from he hospital and I probably would have had Ginger on the road.
11/10/08
11:02 p.m.
8 pounds even
19 inches
Birth Story
Monday morning dh woke up not feeling well so decided not to continue work on his shop. The plan was for him to finish the shop before the baby arrived so that we could move his current shop out of the house and create a baby space in the new shop. He had diarrhea throughout the night before and just wanted to rest during the day. We had already taken dd out of preschool as a means of germ prevention, so I juggled dd and work during the day. I took a nap with dd mid afternoon and afterwards felt horrible. Dh was feeling better so he took over for dd and I rested. At about 7:30 p.m. I vomited quite a bit and then went to bed in the guest room. Dh had a hard time getting dd to bed, but she finally fell asleep about 9 p.m. At 9:20, while I was laying down, I felt and heard a huge pop in my stomach area. Because I was half asleep, I layed there for a bit wondering if it was the aminiotic sac. I had earlier felt a lot of pressure in my stomach and bowels and wondered if that had something to do with it. Sure enough, I stood up and gush...
I called my midwife right away and let her know. Because we had virtually nothing ready, she said she'd come over right away. I whispered to dh that my water had broken (he was in our bed with dd) and he got up to help. I picked out my labor clothes and went to take a shower.
While in the shower, mild contractions started and I felt nauseous by the end of it. I threw up again after the shower. I put on my labor clothes and started laboring! With dd's birth, I was induced with pitocin and later had an epidural, so I wasn't sure what to make of the timing, length, etc, but it seemed like they were coming pretty fast. After maybe an hour of contractions getting more and more intense, I felt the urge to push! I could hardly believe it. I was barely able to rip off my pants in time to get in the pool (which was only half way full). I gave a bit of pressure during the next contraction and it felt like my colon was going to come out my butt, so I stopped and waited. I think there was a big pause then before the next contraction. The midwife told me to see if I could reach down and feel a head inside and sure enough, there it was! I wasn't comfortable guiding the head out myself, so dh got in the pool and helped. In a matter of moments her head was about half way out and at the next push, the rest of her head and her whole body were out. 11:02 p.m. I could hardly believe it! Only 1.5 hours of labor! She wasn't breathing right away when I brought her to the surface, so the midwife sucked some mucous out of her nose and mouth and tried to stimulate her. She was breathing in about 10 seconds. It took over an hour for the placenta to come out, mostly because I was reluctant to give in to the any contractions and push. But it finally did. Midwife and doula cleaned me all up, gave me lots of potions and drinks and weighed and measured the baby. They stayed until about 3 a.m., then packed up.
All in all a wonderful birth! One other really cool thing is that I decided to take dd to the hot springs pool the day before so we had our last dd and me outing. It was so special.
I'm so glad we decided to have a homebirth because we live 1 hour from he hospital and I probably would have had Ginger on the road.
:
Ginger!
