Birth Stories

[jessitron]

Post links to your previous births' stories here!

Here's mine:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=291935

[Slingin'Momto4]

I can't, they are at another site :(

[Goldiemom]

Here is the link to Allissa's story:http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=333027

[Synchro246]

Here's mine:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=445020

The summary is:
Planned homebirth
74 hrs ROM
57 hrs 1st stage Labor (38 of which is with pitocin)
22 hrs of epidural on and off
3 hrs of pushing
1 8lb 8oz baby boy whom I love dearly.

[Synchro246]

Here is the link to Allissa's story:http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=333027

I LOVED the pictures!
Good job mama.

[Goldiemom]

Here's mine:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=445020

The summary is:
Planned homebirth
74 hrs ROM
57 hrs 1st stage Labor (38 of which is with pitocin)
22 hrs of epidural on and off
3 hrs of pushing
1 8lb 8oz baby boy whom I love dearly.

Yikes! I am sorry that you had such a nightmare experience. Hopefully as we get closer to May, we will be able to help you get into a better mindframe so that you can have the birth you want this time. :Hug It can be done. You are one strong Mama!

[clavicula]

Here's mine:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=445020

The summary is:
Planned homebirth
74 hrs ROM
57 hrs 1st stage Labor (38 of which is with pitocin)
22 hrs of epidural on and off
3 hrs of pushing
1 8lb 8oz baby boy whom I love dearly.

Laura: :dizzy::dizzy::dizzy:i hope this next birth will be easy and fast for you!

[WendyC]

Laura - I am in the trenches with you. So my checklist for my May birth is 1. Heal last birth trauma 2. Have beautiful homebirth

Here is my story - it gets kinda nasty at the end. Stupid doctor.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=380136

I am wondering if I can request that we transfer to a different hospital this time. The doctor that was so awful was the on-call doc of the midwife's back-up doctor.

[Goldiemom]

Wendy, you are one heck of a strong Mama! At the moment I have no words, but you did great in spite of all the interventions and one extremely cruel doc.

[jessitron]

I can't, they are at another site :(

Cut and Paste, Julie!

[emiLy]

Here's mine. I have to preface it by saying I wrote it a few days after it happened and now have different feelings about how it went. I wish I had never gotten on the bed, giving the doctor access to me. I wish I had stayed on the floor for the whole thing. The doctor grabbed hold of the head and pulled - I wish she hadn't done that. This time I'm planning a homebirth, possibly UC. Anyway, here it is:

Delia’s Birth Story

I was due Saturday, October 18th. I had Braxton-Hicks contractions Friday and Saturday nights for a few hours. They'd go away when I got up and moved around. Sunday afternoon I took a nap, and woke up to a contraction that was stronger than the ones I'd felt before. I figured it was stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions. I hadn’t had any of the signs that labor was coming on - bloody show, lost mucus plug, etc. Ryan and I went out to dinner and we talked about his snowmobile engine he’s working on. I continued to have contractions throughout dinner, but they didn’t hurt enough for him to even notice anything was happening. I told him I’d been having contractions and we decided that we’d walk around the neighborhood when we got home to see if they would go away.

We walked around for about twenty minutes, timing the contractions. They were coming 3-4 minutes apart! We were having a conversation, though, and they didn’t hurt enough to make me notice them after they started so I forgot to tell Ryan when they were over. Since we live so close to the hospital, we decided to walk over there and get me hooked up to the monitor to see if these were real contractions or Braxton-Hicks. It was a little before 8 PM and we knew that our doctor was about 20 minutes away and would need to get her own kids settled so we figured 8 PM was better than 10 or 11 PM if I really was in labor.

We went inside the house and went to the bathroom and got the cameras, and then walked over to the hospital. I was sure to say how silly I’m sure this is, I’m a first-timer and I’m sure this is just one of those times that first-time moms go into the hospital when they’re not in real labor yet. Everyone was really nice and the nurse who loves to be there for the baby deliveries was working so that worked out well. She hooked me up to the monitor and it was neat to hear the baby’s heartbeat speed up and slow down when it moved and with the contractions. I guess I was on the monitor for about half an hour. Sue, the nurse, came in and said these are definitely contractions and they’re about 2-4 minutes apart and the longest one I remember she said was 70 seconds which I thought was ridiculous because they seemed way shorter than that. I had been having elevated blood pressure for the last few weeks, and my blood pressure was up when she checked it. I had no other symptoms of preeclampsia, though, so luckily I didn’t have to get an IV or anything.

Now that we knew I was having contractions, she checked me and said “Well, you’re definitely not going home.” I was 4-5 cm with a bulging bag of waters. Ryan and I just looked at each other in disbelief. I had a bag sort of packed, but I made a list of things I wanted him to get from home and from a gas station (Gatorade, granola bars). It was almost 9 PM at this point, and we figured we should call our parents before it got too much later. I called mine first because they are an hour ahead. I don’t really remember what I said - just that I was in the hospital and that I was 4-5 dilated and was in labor! Then Ryan called his parents and said pretty much the same thing. While he was on the cell phone with them, the phone in the hospital room rang and it was my doctor. She said she was going to do a few things at home and planned to be at the hospital around 10:30. Ryan left to gather everything we would need, and I wandered around the little area of the hospital near the labor room. We live in a small town of 3500, and this is a small hospital. There is just one labor room and one delivery room. I was glad it was late at night because it was completely quiet - I had the whole administrave wing to myself and I wandered around the lobby and empty board room.

I think my timing is off here because my doctor got to the hospital before Ryan was back from home. He must have stayed with me quite a while after she called and left close to 10 PM. My doctor came in to see me and I was sitting on the bed in between contractions. She said she’d go change into her scrubs and do some dictation work and would come back and check on me in a little bit. Ryan got back and starting setting up the CD player and putting the food in the fridge, etc.

We walked around some more, I was starting to breathe through contractions now, pretty much just trying to take a deep breath at the beginning and at the end. I tried squatting and leaning on things a few times too. About 11:30, I could feel they were definitely getting stronger. I wasn’t talking during them, and I would usually have to stop whatever I was doing to concentrate. Ryan went to tell the nurse that I wanted to be checked again. I was hoping to have made some progress, but was not at all expecting what I got! My doctor checked me around 11:45 and I was 8 cm dilated, with my water bag still bulging!! I asked her about the position of the baby. She said the head was definitely down, but couldn’t tell anything else. I wanted to make sure the baby wasn’t posterior. It had been anterior in the ultrasounds I had had recently so I wasn’t really worried, and the fact that I was so far along with no pain in my back I decided I was convinced the baby was in the right position and could stop worrying about that.

I was so happy I had made so much progress and that they contractions weren’t nearly as strong as I was expecting them to be. I started feeling my belly and kind of scratching/massaging it during contractions to try to make myself relax my abdominal muscles to give the uterus room to do its work. I stayed in the labor room after this, not wanting to walk on the carpet and have my water break on it. I was usually standing during contractions, and I tried to go and sit on the bed in between to rest. I tried to lie down for a few in the bed but those were way harder to deal with, so I decided that standing was best even if it was tiring. I also started feeling like I was going to throw up, which I was expecting after eating a big dinner out just hours before. The nurse gave us a basin and I threw up pretty much my entire dinner (a caesar salad and 2 potato skins for those who are wondering). I peed while I threw up, too. This is where it got a little ugly. :)

An EMT came in and cleaned up the bed and floor and I decided that I was going to stay off the bed even in between contractions and on more cleanable surfaces from then on. This all gets blurry because this is when the contractions were coming really close together. I just remember moaning and massaging my belly and trying a few different positions but mostly just standing and kind of bending my legs slightly. I threw up again, and peed on the floor during it again. I had a contraction while throwing up and that was rough.

I knew this was going to be the hardest part, and I do remember experimenting having the thoughts everyone talks about having during transition. I thought “i can’t do this” but it didn’t make any sense - I WAS doing it. I also thought about pain drugs and wondered what they could do to make me feel any better. I still wasn’t feeling pain that seemed like it could have been dulled or minimized - it was just hard muscle work.

My doctor had said to let her or the nurse know when I was “feeling pushy.” I had no idea what that was going to feel like, so I didn’t even know to tell them. I was squatting in the labor room for one of the contractions, and all of a sudden I pushed with it and it felt good, so I kept doing it. I told Ryan I was pushing even though I didn’t “feel pushy” so he went and told the nurse. She came in and checked me while I was still semi-squatting, and I am so happy about that because she didn’t make me get in bed to be checked. She said she couldn’t feel any cervix because the bag was bulging so much, and that she was pretty sure it was ok to push. Good, because I was pushing anyway! She put a pad down under me and I pushed with the contractions while she went to get my doctor. I told Ryan to write down the time when I started pushing - 1:55 AM.

She and my doctor came back and we moved across the hall into the delivery room. They put a pad underneath me and I squatted next to the bed, leaning forward on my hands for balance. I pushed and in between pushing kind of rested my arms on the bed. My water must have broken with one of the pushes because it started coming out. I pooped at this point, and my doctor was nice about asking if I wanted to wipe or if she should. I wiped, and then they asked me to get up on the bed. I was asking if they could see anything, but I was so low they couldn’t. I didn’t really want to get up on the bed, but I did.

I squatted at the end of the bed, facing the headboard. From there they could see what was happening. The bed was too soft to squat on - leaning forward on my hands I couldn’t balance right. So I got on my hands and knees instead and continued pushing. This is when it started to feel like pain. I could feel the head coming down, and my doctor was kind of stretching me out and saying she could see it. Ryan went and looked and saw it coming, too, which I was so happy he did but I was also scared he was going to faint. I actually told him to get a chair, but he didn’t. My doctor was putting warm washcloths on my perineum and that felt pretty good because it was something to feel besides the stretch of the baby coming down.

Pushing the baby out hurt quite a bit. I don’t remember feeling the ring of fire specifically, just pain in general as I stretched. I made a lot of noise during this, as I had been with the pushing contractions as well. I groaned, moaned, growled, grunted, and even screamed. It didn’t feel like I had a choice, but I do remember trying not to say “Holy Shit” and said “Holy Crap” instead. Ryan later told me I did say “Holy Shit” but we need to look at the video, because I bet I only slipped once and said “crap” all the rest of the times. They told me when the head was out, but I didn’t feel any release. Her shoulders were really big I guess and they were stuck, so it took a while to push those through. I did feel it when she came out all the way and that was a nice relief. :) I looked at the clock right away and said “two-thirty.” I have no idea why I looked at the clock, I didn’t even know it was there, but it’s kind of neat that I announced the time. The nurse said “he” and my doctor said “she” so I told Ryan I wanted him to look and tell me what sex it was. He was looking, but before he could say anything someone said “It’s a girl.” I looked at him and he just looked so happy and amazed and in awe. I was glad because I knew he was expecting/wanting a boy. He had said he didn’t want to cut the cord, but I double checked with him and he still didn’t want to. So after it was clamped a little while later (I asked them to wait until is stopped pulsating, I don’t know how long that took) I cut it myself. All of a sudden, I got up on my knees and took off the hospital gown and the bra I had on. They handed her to me and I talked to her, called her Delia, but the nurse was also rubbing her and holding a tube in front of her face. Delia was choking a little bit and not taking deep breaths. After a few minutes of me talking to her and touching her, they took her over to the warming bed and Ryan went with her while I lay on my back and my doctor had a look at me.


This is when I got really annoyed and whiny. I guess I felt like I had my baby and I didn’t want to be bothered anymore. We were also waiting for me to birth the placenta. I shook really hard and was cold so they gave me a warm blanket which felt really nice and I stopped shaking. I had a few contractions and tried to push with them, but it was harder lying down on my back I couldn’t really figure out how to do it. I passed a few clots which I thought must have been it, but they weren’t. The placenta finally came out about 3 AM with one of the pushes, and my doctor and I talked about it a little bit. She showed it to me in the bowl and I was just glad I was done with that.

My doctor started looking at me for tears, and I asked her if she could just leave me alone for a while and she gave me a really funny look. She wanted to be able to do what I wanted, but wasn’t about to leave me alone for a while! She said I had a pretty bad tear and was going to call in another doctor to look at it. He came in and felt in my rectum, which was completely uncomfortable, but said everything was intact there. So I had a third degree tear and my doctor went ahead and gave me some shots to numb me and then stitched me up. I complained and said “ow” a bunch of times and was generally whiny.

All this time the nurse, a nurse assistant, and Ryan are over at the warming table trying to get all the fluid out of her lungs. I was never worried about her at all - she was always pink and breathing, just not very well. I could hear some of what they were saying, doing her Apgars (I think they’re 7 and 8) and I remember hearing the nurse say she has a big chest - 14.5 inches. She is 19.5 inches long, which we were all surprised by. We were expecting a really long baby! It was about 3:20 AM before they brought her back to me and Ryan and I just looked at her and I let her crawl around on my chest. She rooted and latched on well, which was so SO neat.

We don’t remember for sure, but I think Ryan must have carried Delia from the delivery room back to the labor room. It was really nice to go back to a clean room and bed. I looked back at the scene in the delivery room and decided I was very glad I hadn’t had a home birth like I had considered! Back in the labor room, which I guess was now the recovery room, I got in bed with Delia and Ryan sat in a chair next to us. We had a warm blanket over us and felt very cozy. We called our parents around 4:30 AM. My mom thought my call was her 5:30 wake up call, and was funny when she heard my voice instead of the computer voice. I told her it was a girl, that we had named her Delia, and everything was good! I don’t remember any more of the conversation. Ryan called his parents and told them the good news as well. He and the nurse took Delia to the nursery to be weighed, 8 pounds 5 ounces, and brought her back with a diaper on. Then Ryan folded the chair out into a bed and we slept for a few hours. Delia was born at 2:30 AM Monday morning, and we were home at 6 PM the same day.

I am completely thrilled with the entire experience. I had read so many birth stories over the past few weeks and as much as I hoped I’d be one of those “fast easy first labors” I never really expected to be! From the time I was checked at 8:30 to be 4-5 cm dilated, to 2:30 AM when I delivered Delia, is only six hours. If I had waited to go to the hospital until I really knew I was in labor, I’m sure I wouldn’t have gone until about 11 PM. I am so proud of myself for doing this the way I had hoped I would, and for believing in myself and my body. I wouldn’t change a single thing about how it happened at all! As the days go by, I am even more amazed by my body. My stitches haven’t hurt at all, it’s like nothing even happened down there except that it’s kind of like having the past 9 months of periods all in a few days. It is amazing that I can recover from labor and at the same time start producing enough nutrients to completely nourish a whole other human being with breastfeeding. Ryan found my first and only grey hair the day after Delia was born, so I guess that’s how my body showed its exhaustion.

Four days later, we are settled in at home. Our two dogs and three cats welcomed her and are used to her noises by now. Breastfeeding is going well after a normal but anxious day or two of wondering if we were getting the hang of it. We started the cloth diapering adventure after finishing the package of disposables the hospital sent us home with. She loves being snuggled in a pouch with Dad in between feedings.

[MamaSpruce]

Good idea to share. I don't really have a story to share, just the announcement to my ddc.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=261901

I wrote down my birth story in my journal, but failed to put in online. I had a longish first stage (24 hrs) being almost fully dilated with a pesky cervical lip hanging on for about 6 hrs, dh and 3 midwives attending. Then I pushed for 45 minutes, getting in the tub just a few pushes before my son was born into his papa's arms. I had a moment of surrender that was so key to getting through it for me. Right after I started pushing I said out loud "I'm scared", my midwife asked of what, and I answered "of it getting more intesnse" and we didn't say anything else. It sounds simple but it was such a profound moment for me, just acknowledging my fear out loud allowed me to surrender to it and move beyond it. I wished I had voiced it sooner. I loved my waterbirth and the 24 hours of labor seem a distant memory, though shorter would be nice!

[chrissy]

here's lilah's:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=209960&highlight=Lilah

i can't wait to read all of yours. :love

[MonkeyPrincess]

On November 8, 2004 (the due date I calculated) around quarter after 4 in the morning (our clock is 17 minutes fast and it said 4:32), I had a contraction that woke me up. I knew right away this time was for real! Although it wasn't really any different than the ones I'd been having, other than that feeling of it being time...finally! (I had been experiencing prodromal labor for the last 4 weeks! Very frustrating!)
I got up and went to the bathroom. There was a little bit of bloody show. Then I went downstairs and got a banana and some orange juice. I went back upstairs to wake Mike up and take a shower. I said, "I'm in labor." He says, "How do you know?" I said, "I don't know how I know. I just know!" He then asks, ever-so-sweetly, if he should get up with me or go back to sleep so he can be well rested, in case it takes a while!
The contractions were spaced and irregular, they also weren't that strong. Mike got up and stayed with me while I showered. I called my best friend, Shannon, at 5:30 and talked to her while Mike was doing some stuff around the house (I asked him to find my black stretchy sports bra so I could wear it in the tub, I didn't want to wear a white one cause what would be the point?! I just wore my black one the day before, of course, so Mike did a load of wash for me).
I didn't want anyone rushing over, I thought I still had at least a few good hours before anything really started happening and I wanted to labor alone. Like I said, the contractions were totally manageable and still pretty far apart. I called my mom sometime before 6 am to let her know she didn't have to get ready for work. At this point I was sitting on the couch with a chux under me. I told her I had wished the baby would be born sometime during the night, while it was still dark. (Although, as I was saying that, I decided I liked being in labor as the sun was coming up.) She asked me if I was sure it was today, that she really didn't have to go to work. I told her I was sure, I guess she didn't believe me because she said she wanted to stay on the phone with me while I was having a contraction. I kind of used that as a test, I wanted to see if she could tell when I had one, so with the next contraction, I kept talking and didn't mention that I was having one. She didn't notice a difference so I thought "Okay, she didn't even know, I can still talk through them, I'm not that far." After I hung up with her, I went upstairs. I noticed just a little bit more blood on the chux as I got up.
I called Kate right before 6:30 and told her the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and totally manageable, that I was just calling to give her a heads up and I'd call back when something "real" started happening. She told me she'd be heading in my direction (she's about 45 minutes away), maybe she'd hang out at Ambers (her assistant) house and for me to have something with some protein to snack on since you never know how long labor will be. I remember being slightly annoyed, yet relieved at the same time that she was going to come right away.
I talked to my sisters - Keri and Nicole - next, I told them today was the day and wanted to know what their schedules looked like. Keri was staying home from school and I asked her to watch my 2.5yo, Christopher, at Shannon's. (At this point I was still thinking we had a few hours, and wanted to labor alone.) Sometime after this, I don't know when, we asked Shannon to make the kids lunches and for Keri to come as soon as possible (my bil, Hink, was going to drop her off on the way to taking, my nephew, Patrick to his babysitters).
Around 6:45, I was on the phone with Shannon again, while I went to the bathroom. I talked to her about how unprepared I really was. I had all my supplies; oil and lavendar for massages, finally able to use my birth ball roll on, even knee pads to be comfortable in hands and knees position. But no real plan on how to actually get through the contractions! I started to panic. I thought about one section on a video I show in my Labor and Birth Classes where the mom's contractions never get closer than 10 minutes. That was one of those "ah-ha!" moments, realizing I might never get to that “contractions 5 minutes apart for an hour" point!
In the hall, on my way back to the bedroom I had the first contraction that I needed to stop and focus through. I told Shannon to hold on while I leaned on the banister with my eyes shut and my left foot tensed in the air, mid-step! I had a thought to squat, but just thinking it made me feel like a Barbie doll having both legs ripped off at the same time!

I was kind of able to control the contractions. They were more uncomfortable laying or standing, so my position of choice was sitting in the glider. The older kids were starting to wake up and gather in my bed with Mike and Christopher; Victoria first, then Nick. We told them the baby would be coming today!
At the height of the next contraction (still about 10 minutes from the last one), I threw my protein bar and the phone I was holding and stepped into the pool. And OMGosh! did that feel good! (Even though the water wasn't as hot as I would have liked it.) I didn’t let Mike turn the water off, even when the water started pouring over the side. It just felt too good spraying warm water from the hose over my belly. Christopher came in the pool with me for a minute, but decided to get out real fast.
This is where things get kind of jumbled... I don't think that contraction ever ended. I couldn't get comfortable, but it was never what I would call painful...intense, perhaps. For a little bit I was pacing the pool on my hands and knees like a caged lion. I remember asking God to be with me during this time. I just couldn't keep still. I bit the side of the pool a few times and Mike asked me if I wanted him to get me a washcloth to put over it so I didn't have to chew on plastic. I know I had Mike apply some pressure on my tailbone sometime, it felt good for a little bit but not for long. At one point, I had to go to the bathroom so I tried to stand up, but it felt awful; I think that if I were on dry land at this point, I would've been in pain. Mike called Marilyn, I'm guessing a little after 7 am, and even then I still said for her to take her time. I don't know what I was thinking! For some reason, I didn't let myself believe I was as close as I was. I had conscience thoughts like "Oh, I feel nauseas. Is this transition?!?" and I even said out loud to Mike, "I don't know why I'm shaking and my teeth are chattering...it's too soon for transition." I heard what my body was telling me, I just didn't believe it. With the "peaks" of that constant contraction I felt pressure from the baby's head, and I kept thinking "I would be much more comfortable if I could just get out and poop!" I had the fleeting thought it could be the baby's head, but didn't let myself focus on it long enough to entertain the idea...and what that would mean! Actually, I think focusing on when Kate would be there helped distract me, kind of as if I could let go and things could “really” happen once she got there.
Kate said Mike called her around 7 and told her she should come now. I remember Mike coming in and out of the room, being on the phone, talking to the kids downstairs and helping me with the hose in the pool. At one point I asked him if she (Kate or Amber, either of them would've been fine!) were here yet. He said she wasn't and I was like "She needs to be here NOW!"
I remember hearing Marilyn come in the house and chat with the kids, wondering who came over. I also had thoughts of (possibly saying out loud) "I don't know what's going on...it's too fast! It's just too fast!", "HELP ME!" and "What was I thinking!?!" when Marilyn was in the room. This intense pressure kept coming and going. I screamed through these "rushes" because I didn't want to push through them, I wasn't ready. The pool was overflowing (the warm water from the hose being sprayed on my belly felt too good to turn it off!), the kids were downstairs, Kate wasn't even close and I was in shock. I felt disconnected from myself, kind of like an out of body experience. Things happened really fast, Marilyn got there first (she lives around the corner). Mike was on the phone trying to see where Amber was (she lives much closer than Kate) and after he hung up he said "Amber will be here in a minute...not a real minute, but she'll be here really soon." I remember thinking it doesn't matter, a minute will be too late, real or not. I said, "Well, so will the baby!" and I screamed through the pressure again.
Marilyn, who is also a doula, asked me if I wanted to wait for Kate or to call 911...I remember being irritated with those choices, I thought "No! I don't need an ambulance, if they even make it, they'll want to take me to the hospital and I CAN'T wait for Kate!" She told me if I didn't want to push, to put my head up and pant...I tried. Then I kept screaming.
Then she gave me her hand and I grabbed the side of the pool, I needed something to be anchored to. I just let go of my body and floated to the top. I screamed with every surge to get rid of all that energy (I was afraid if I pushed with the contractions, I'd tear all the way from the front up the back!), then I felt what I can only describe as an explosion inside my body. I saw a "puff" in the pool (kind of like in a cartoon where the fumes are coming out of the exhaust of a car) and realized that explosion must've been my water! It felt like much more time had passed between the explosion and the "puff", before I put it together what it was and that the two were related! I didn’t even think it before I said it out loud, like I was telling myself. Mike was on the other side of the pool; he offered to hold my hand, but I couldn't get myself together enough to let go and find his hand. I told him I couldn't hold his hand, I felt bad that I would be holding Marilyn's and not his, when our baby was being born. She was such a good photographer, I saw her reach for the camera, then change her mind, because I needed to hold on to her! I guess Marilyn knew I was panicking - right before the baby came out, she said to me "Your having a baby. You have everything you need, your husband is here, I'm here. It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining." I can't express how helpful those words were to me, how much I needed to be brought back to the reality of what was happening. I was lost in the sensations my body was experiencing, and very much needed to reconnect my mind with my body, somehow they seperated. There was never any pain, I just all of a sudden had an intense sense of urgency...it started with that one contraction that never really ended.
The next thing I knew, I saw the baby's head coming out and Marilyn said "Here's the head, somebody has to catch the baby!" So Mike put his hand on the baby's head as he was coming out. She said "Now the shoulders will come, one at a time." It was beyond amazing to me because as she was saying it, I FELT it happening! I watched the baby be born into Mike's hands. He put the baby on my chest and called the kids into the room. (We originally planned to have them there, but during one of those surges Christopher was chatting and I yelled "get them out!", I just couldn't take the extra noise. That's the only thing about this birth I wish I could change.)
The kids came up and stood around the pool, Victoria did get to announce the baby's sex to everyone. Even though I don’t remember looking, I must’ve saw it was a boy before they came in. I didn’t think it in words, though, I just already knew when I showed her. I was surprised Mike remembered to call the kids in.
I felt like the water was too cold, I kept saying he's too cold. I asked Marilyn if she thought he was blue. He sounded fine, though. He was crying, I didn't want him to though. I wanted him to be born gently, not being upset, but I think the tremendously fast way he shot out of me was upsetting to him. I tried to nurse him but I couldn't keep his face above the water. Someone, I guess Mike, got a towel to cover him with to keep him warm. Marilyn suggested Mike hold the baby for his body heat, but the baby was still connected to me by the cord. I stood up against the inside of the pool, Mike stood up against the outside, right in front of me and he held the baby to his chest.
Kerianne was the first one to get here. When she walked in the kids told her the baby was here, and it was a boy. She thought they were kidding - until she walked in the room and saw him. Marilyn took a picture, and I remember thinking it would be a good one, and how glad I was I didn’t have to hold on to that memory because Marilyn was taking pictures for me.

I don't know how much time elapsed before Amber got here. I think I told her the baby was cold. Her presence was grounding and steady, I was relieved she was there. She looked at the baby first, then told Mike how to help me out of the pool. Kate got there and did his baby exam.

All these people started coming, I don't know who got there in what order but Shannon, Mom & Dad, Nicole and (my brother) Luke were all there at some point. I could sense people were there, but didn't really focus on who specifically, they were just a presence on the side of the room. (If I could do that part over, I wouldn’t have had anyone come.) I watched the video Shannon took and I was surprised how much I didn't remember. I was there physically, but didn't feel the experience as it was happening. So surreal. Everything was very fast; jumbled and hectic...my mind just couldn’t keep up. The midwives left so fast. Why didn’t anyone tell me the kids could stay home from school, why did they rush to get them there? (Kate later said because things happened so fast, my mind was where it normally would be that time of morning - taking care of the other kids, getting them lunch and getting them to school.) Why didn’t someone get me a shirt - Keri said she would’ve but she was afraid to talk to me because I looked scary - I think I was in shock.

I remember thinking I will never do that again, and I certainly wouldn't do it for someone else! I felt like I got run over by a truck for a long time after Dominic was born, this was the first time I ever felt that way after having a baby. He just rocketed out of me, pushing my bones out of his way. Right after all the other kids were born I felt like I could do it all over again right away! Not this time, I think about it even now and I can't imagine being ready. Nicholas said something about now I just need to have one more baby, next time it will be a girl, then we'll be done - and has since said that once she’s born, all his brothers and sisters will be here...he’s always said there would be five kids). I cried all day at three days postpartum. I felt awful, but it felt good to cry. I’m glad I didn’t keep it in, whatever I was crying about. That, and Mike letting me stay in bed for a whole week, really helped with how well I felt overall postpartum, I think. The afterbirth pains were unbearable, I was writhing in pain while he nursed for the first few days. I don’t remember feeling “connected” to him after he was born, until about the fourth day, that’s when I had that overwhelming rush of emotion towards him wash over me - until then I really liked him and he was the only thing on my mind, it just took some time for my emotions to catch up with me. I tore a little on the inside when he was coming out, and I opted to get stitched up. The numbing medicine worked okay for the first stitch, but I felt the last two. I screamed during that, too. I screamed so much that morning, my throat was sore for two days. I asked all the neighbors if they heard me, but everyone said no. I think they were just being polite. The sitz baths felt really good, but not as good as I remembered with Nicholas. But I did LOVE that Mother’s Milk tea, it just tasted sooo good! It doesn't taste the same way anymore. It's still good but not the same way. The placenta was in the placenta bowl right next to me. We waited a while to cut it. I think I would've waited even longer, I don't know why. Christopher was interested in the umbilical cord. I expected it to be thicker than it was. (When I said that to Kate, she said it was on the thinner side of normal.) She gave us a "tour" of the placenta. It was neat, I never saw any of the other kids. Now it's in the freezer. Nicholas cut the cord. I'm so glad it worked out that way. He was so proud! Although, now - and I don’t know why - I wish we would’ve waited a little bit longer to cut it. I hadn’t thought it then, or I would’ve asked Kate to wait. The stump had a hole in it, between the clamp and his body. Kate came back that night and checked it. She gave him a vit. K shot and I took him to the doctor the next day. It was fine and it fell off on the fourth day. It took 6 days to name him. I love his name. I just woke up on Saturday morning and knew it was Dominic Xavier. I had fun telling Nicole, her reaction made me smile.

Dominic Xavier
7 pounds, 15 ounces
born on his due date - November 8, 2004
around 7:30am

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