dewlady
12-05-2005, 05:08 PM
so i also have been lurking herer on and off for a few years, after the birth of my 3rd child. i started lurking againg in dec, 2005 since i got preg. last spring. the birth of my fourth child, OPAL ELIZABETH on NOV 26th was so amazing and interesting that i wanted to share.
my due date was DEC. 20th. my other 3 kids came as follows:
ASJA JULIET born at home on april 12, 1999, 4 hours of labor, 42 weeks ges.
8 lbs 2 oz
JOVAN CRICKET born at home on sept 21, 2001, light labor all day, heavy labor for 3-4 hours, 40 weeks + 1 day gest. 7lbs 10 oz
NELO DEW born at home 36 hourg of labor 7 hours of pushing, 37 weeks +4 days gest. 6 lbs 10 oz
so i didn't quite know what to expect. my best guess was another boy to be born maybe a week or so early...
so i had no worries when our family traveled 9 hours away to southern MD to spend thanksgiving with friends. we got there on teusday night. on wednesday mornig i started leeking fluid but it took me a few hours to admit that it really could be starting. i was in contact with my midwife in ny through the next few days, trying to see if we could reseal the bag long enough for me to get home and dicussing weather or not i could safely make the trip home or if i should stay there to have the baby. on thursday i woke up in the middle of the night with light contractions. i just sat with each one and tried to talk with my baby... telling her to please wait at least till we got home. i felt very connected to my baby. i asked her that if she could wait 24 hours i would get us home. we left fo home the next mornig at 7 am. mind you this meant 9 hours without holiday traffic in the car with a 6, 4 and almost 2 yr old.... but they were so understanding...we stopped along te way and met with my friends midwife at her house. i wanted to check on the baby and check my cervix to see what my chances were of making it home.. 4th kid, could come fast. she said that my baby sounded great and i would have checked my own cervix except for that my water had been leaking for a while now and i was being careful to avoid infection. i was only 3 cent...which was about what i guessed. she gave me a beer, told me to lay back in the car and relax!!! it actually worked. the contractions slowed down enough so that i could sleep a lot on the way. the really hard part was having to pee a lot and then i had the runs (TMA) and i was nervous about all the trips into public restrooms. we got back to our home around 6 pm.
i was so relieved. my homebirth midwife was on the road also, away for the holidays herself, trying to race back home to meet me. we both decided we felt better going to the hospital, which is a primarilly midwife based practice.
they were great. we got to the hospital around 8 pm because they wanted to give me IV antibiotics. i didn't have a problem with that since my water had broken so long ago and i had been through so much and been to so many different bathrooms! now i just had to convince my body that it was okay to have the baby now. so i talked to my baby again. i said, "okay it's okay now. you can come..." that was around 9:30 pm. i got into the nice deep tub that i didn't even know they had and hung out with my 6.5 yr old that came with us.
my midwife got there at 10:15 pm. by 11 i was in enough pain that i got out of the tub to try another position. they brought in a yoga ball and i spent a while there. then i got on all fours on the bed. the nurses and midwife were so not in my face. they ley my homebirth midwife and mom and dh do everything for me. pressure on my back, a hand to hold. it all felt very controlled. more so than the other times. i stared pushing and that was very fast OPAL was born at 12:27am she was tiny, 5lbs 9oz. 36 weeks and 4 days gest. in the same pattern as my other births. kinda wierd.
after 30 minutes of nursins/snuggling with me OPAL had to be taken away to get oxygen. she had what they called TTN or fluid on the lungs in a premature baby. at 630 am they transfered her to the bigger hospital NICU...
she was totally stabalized by the time we got there 2 hrs later. but alas it took us 48 hours of constant pressure on the staff to finally get her out of there!
that however is another story...one that involves squirting water into my baby's diaper so it would weigh enough, and using a supplemental nursind system to supplement my daughter with more of my own pumped milk (weird, huh!)
we have been home for a week now and everyone is great.
this birth showed me that the connection i feel with my children in utero is so real and so beautiful. i was able to talk to my body and baby to achieve such a great birth.
thank you for hearing my story. mara dew :)
p.s i would love to post pictures if someone can walk me through it and if someone could help i would also like to do a signiture line ...thanks.
my due date was DEC. 20th. my other 3 kids came as follows:
ASJA JULIET born at home on april 12, 1999, 4 hours of labor, 42 weeks ges.
8 lbs 2 oz
JOVAN CRICKET born at home on sept 21, 2001, light labor all day, heavy labor for 3-4 hours, 40 weeks + 1 day gest. 7lbs 10 oz
NELO DEW born at home 36 hourg of labor 7 hours of pushing, 37 weeks +4 days gest. 6 lbs 10 oz
so i didn't quite know what to expect. my best guess was another boy to be born maybe a week or so early...
so i had no worries when our family traveled 9 hours away to southern MD to spend thanksgiving with friends. we got there on teusday night. on wednesday mornig i started leeking fluid but it took me a few hours to admit that it really could be starting. i was in contact with my midwife in ny through the next few days, trying to see if we could reseal the bag long enough for me to get home and dicussing weather or not i could safely make the trip home or if i should stay there to have the baby. on thursday i woke up in the middle of the night with light contractions. i just sat with each one and tried to talk with my baby... telling her to please wait at least till we got home. i felt very connected to my baby. i asked her that if she could wait 24 hours i would get us home. we left fo home the next mornig at 7 am. mind you this meant 9 hours without holiday traffic in the car with a 6, 4 and almost 2 yr old.... but they were so understanding...we stopped along te way and met with my friends midwife at her house. i wanted to check on the baby and check my cervix to see what my chances were of making it home.. 4th kid, could come fast. she said that my baby sounded great and i would have checked my own cervix except for that my water had been leaking for a while now and i was being careful to avoid infection. i was only 3 cent...which was about what i guessed. she gave me a beer, told me to lay back in the car and relax!!! it actually worked. the contractions slowed down enough so that i could sleep a lot on the way. the really hard part was having to pee a lot and then i had the runs (TMA) and i was nervous about all the trips into public restrooms. we got back to our home around 6 pm.
i was so relieved. my homebirth midwife was on the road also, away for the holidays herself, trying to race back home to meet me. we both decided we felt better going to the hospital, which is a primarilly midwife based practice.
they were great. we got to the hospital around 8 pm because they wanted to give me IV antibiotics. i didn't have a problem with that since my water had broken so long ago and i had been through so much and been to so many different bathrooms! now i just had to convince my body that it was okay to have the baby now. so i talked to my baby again. i said, "okay it's okay now. you can come..." that was around 9:30 pm. i got into the nice deep tub that i didn't even know they had and hung out with my 6.5 yr old that came with us.
my midwife got there at 10:15 pm. by 11 i was in enough pain that i got out of the tub to try another position. they brought in a yoga ball and i spent a while there. then i got on all fours on the bed. the nurses and midwife were so not in my face. they ley my homebirth midwife and mom and dh do everything for me. pressure on my back, a hand to hold. it all felt very controlled. more so than the other times. i stared pushing and that was very fast OPAL was born at 12:27am she was tiny, 5lbs 9oz. 36 weeks and 4 days gest. in the same pattern as my other births. kinda wierd.
after 30 minutes of nursins/snuggling with me OPAL had to be taken away to get oxygen. she had what they called TTN or fluid on the lungs in a premature baby. at 630 am they transfered her to the bigger hospital NICU...
she was totally stabalized by the time we got there 2 hrs later. but alas it took us 48 hours of constant pressure on the staff to finally get her out of there!
that however is another story...one that involves squirting water into my baby's diaper so it would weigh enough, and using a supplemental nursind system to supplement my daughter with more of my own pumped milk (weird, huh!)
we have been home for a week now and everyone is great.
this birth showed me that the connection i feel with my children in utero is so real and so beautiful. i was able to talk to my body and baby to achieve such a great birth.
thank you for hearing my story. mara dew :)
p.s i would love to post pictures if someone can walk me through it and if someone could help i would also like to do a signiture line ...thanks.