Natural Pregnancy Project

Sunday night around 8pm I was talking with a friend online {Dawn} and I was talking about how uncomfortable I was, not to mention how BIG I was. I decided to have Kent take a picture of me so I could show her.

We took the picture and then a while later I had a contraction that literally made me get off the chair and move. After a couple more of them I decided to time them. I walked around the house for about an hour and the contractions were 5 minutes apart and they actually ‘felt’ like they were doing something. I still wasn’t sure if this was the real thing or not and figured that I’d go and lay down and see what happened. Then I got another one that for some reason made me realize that I needed to call out my midwife and birth assistant. It was around 10:30 pm at this point and my midwife had to drive from Maryland to get here…just over an hour drive and my birth assistant was about a half hour away.

My birth assistant got here first, and of course I was sitting on the toilet…I just kept having to empty my bladder. It was right around then that my bloody show started, very faint at first and then very apparent. She started to get things ready in the bedroom while Kent took our 2 year old over to a friend’s house, since it was so late at night and Gage had made it clear that he was not going to sleep. Just around the time that Kent got back my midwife got here and she too started to prepare her supplies. She heard me in the bathroom…seemed to be my favorite place…and with contractions I was bearing down a little, it just felt so darn good to do it…LOL

They helped me back to my bed and she had me do a few test pushes, just to see how it felt…it felt good but not ‘right’ yet, so I asked her to check me. I was 6 cms at that point and so I just continued to walk around, rocking my hips like a belly dancer for each contraction, and making some odd sounds until it would pass. We decided that a nice warm bath would do me well to relax in, so Heidi my birth assistant ran the water and I got in with Kent at my side. The water felt great, I ended up laying on my left side in the tub with Kent pouring glass after glass of water over my belly and thighs. Then suddenly I wanted OUT of that tub…LOL Poor Kent, here he is trying to get a 185 pound wet, laboring pregnant woman out of a tiny tub by himself.

I got back to the bed and asked to be checked. So at 2am my midwife checked and I was 8-9 cms…it was then that my resolve went out the window and I asked her to break my water. I knew that once that was done that it would be over quickly…or so I thought…joke is always on me! She broke my water and the first 3 contractions were so brutal that I was sure that I had made the very WRONG choice to have my baby at home…LMAO…anyway after the first 3 mean nasties I actually drifted off to sleep of all things…and for the next roughly 2 hours I would snooze and then wake to have a mellow contraction, and sleep some more.

At 4:15 am my midwife wanted to check and see what was going on. All that was left of my cervix was a small lip, and so with the next contraction she helped me get rid of it…easier said than done…ugh that hurt like hell! Once that lip was gone I really started to feel the urge to push, and so I slowly started to do so with each contraction. Just some small pushes, and I was able to feel the baby moving down and then I felt ‘it’…the ring of fire that I’ve heard so many moms talk about. Lord have mercy the burning was amazing, and I knew we were soooo close, yet it felt like forever those last 3 minutes of small pushes and breathing to let my perineum stretch out.

My midwife told me to reach down and feel her head and asked if I wanted to see in a mirror…I just couldn’t do it, so I just focused on having my baby instead. Then I felt her head come out and took a breather to wait to push out her shoulders…OMG shoulders…what a sensation that was…Anyway, once those shoulders popped out the rest of her just slid out as nice as butter and I lifted her onto my chest and we started to rub her and get her to cry.

The first thing I said was “I DID IT!” I was shocked that I really had done this without medication, not to mention at home! It was a good minute or two after that that I asked Kent what we had, he took a peek and announced “It’s a GIRL”, needless to say we all went wild, and I was crying, saying over and over “I DID IT” I was so amazed that it was over and I had done this without pain meds, something that I really was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to do, since it had been so easy to cave for the epidural during my last birth.

After we got her dried off, my midwife and birth assistant lowered the lights in our bedroom and left Kent and I alone with our new baby to spend some time bonding as a family. How wonderful to have that time together, we laid in bed just looking at each other and our daughter for about a half hour. My midwife and birth assistant came back in, Kent went and woke up Andrew my 12 year old son, so that he could see his new sister, and the midwife did the newborn assessment, weighed and measured our baby,  made sure that I had something to eat, got to the bathroom and then they took their leave and left us to get some much needed sleep.

This was the healing birth experience that I craved with my body and soul after having two medical births in the hospital with my other two children. I still can’t get over what we did here in my home, and how we were able to welcome Morgan Hunter to the world in such a gentle and loving manner. Thank you to everyone that made it this far reading my birthstory. Please Welcome Morgan Hunter, November 8, 2004 Homebirth Baby!

Jenifer Evison

[tags]natural birth story, natural birth stories, homebirth story, homebirth after two hospital births[/tags]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sage’s Birth Story – my 4th child, the second born naturally at home

There were so many FIRSTS for me with this birth… I’ll try to remember them all.

The first thing that was different for me was the way labor started.  I’d never seen that I’d lost my mucus plug before and I KNOW I never had bloody show before.  This time, I saw it at about 2 in the afternoon (almost exactly 24 hours before the birth).  I had those pesky Braxton Hicks contractions all day – like I had for the previous 27 weeks… so didn’t think too much of them.

My previous 3 labors have ALL progressed relatively the same way: Water Breaks.  A few hours of contractions, never really regular, never really becoming “intense” until nearly full dilation.  Push for a few minutes.  Baby.

This labor… not like that at all!

I know now that I must have been in labor when I went to bed around midnight on Tuesday.  But, since my water hadn’t broken and no contractions hard enough to wake me, I went to sleep.  At 1:30 am I awoke and went to the bathroom (as usual!) – but realized when I laid back down that I would probably not be getting any sleep!  I was having pretty intense contractions that would NOT let me fall back to sleep.  I gave up in a few minutes and went to get into the bath tub… just to relax for a few minutes… that turned into about 3 hours.

Around 3 am (I think) I tried to wake Josh up b/c I’d left my water bottle in the van and wanted him to go out and get it.  He kind of laughed, grunted, and fell asleep again.  Sometime after that my oldest, Bobby (then 9), woke up – in a very weird wide-awake state.  I mentioned something to him about a new baby.  I was feeling pretty weak at that point (still in the tub) so I asked him to go get some orange juice for me.  He did, then laid outside the bathroom in the hallway.  He told me around 8 am that he didn’t even know I was in labor – just thought I was taking a bath!

I waited until about 4:30 am and woke Josh up again.  I was at the point then where I just didn’t want to be alone and I really wanted him to get up and go get the stupid water bottle – and fill it for me, of course!  He got up and came into the bathroom with me after that.  At about that time, I was starting to figure that I was feeling a little more “needy” than I usually do in labor and that he wasn’t “getting” it… so I decided to wait until 5 am and call the midwife – just to give her the heads-up so she could be prepared for me to call her back.  Since my water hadn’t broken and I had no regularly spaced contractions yet, I figured it’d still be a while.  After that, things are a little more foggy…

The tub wasn’t working for me – or, rather, it was working *too* well and making me too relaxed.  I decided to get out and move.  It was about this point when I realized that this was indeed the real thing.  I started that cycle where I have a contraction – then have to pee, over and over again.  I was in so many positions just trying to get comfortable for a little bit.  The contractions were still on average of 3 to 4 minutes like they’d been all along.  I sat on the birthing stool for a bit, then would get up on my knees and lean over the birthing ball.  That would get tiring, so I’d curl up on my side in the fetal position which made the contractions SO much harder.  Finally – back to the bathtub.  I’d never been drawn to the water so strongly before during labor, but that’s where I had to be.

At around 7 am I started taking mental inventory – Josh was doing better about helping me out, but the kids would be awake any time.  I was envisioning him taking care of them and still trying to help me, and the thought of him being so stressed out was making ME stressed out.  So, it was about that time I told him that if he wanted the midwife here for the birth, he’d better call her soon.  I’d been praying continually for the past few hours that God would simply let me see His will – even if it wasn’t what *I* wanted.  (I had wanted to birth unassisted, but my husband wasn’t in agreement!)  Just then, the midwife called US back to see what was up.  When she said that she would get ready and come over, I honestly didn’t think she’d make it there in time.

After the next hour and a half, the midwife came with her assistant.  She popped her head in the bathroom to ask if I needed anything.  I said that no, I was fine for now, and then I didn’t see her again for another hour.  At some point after that (it is all really foggy at this point!) the MW did ask me if I wanted to be checked.  Well – although I’ve said for 9 months that I would NOT be checked until I felt the pushing urge – my faith was faltering b/c it had already been SO long and I just *thought* it should have been going faster.  So, I told her to check and at that point I was 8 cm and the bag of waters was “bulging”.  She said, “If at any point you want me to break it, just let me know.”  That offer rang in my head over and over again in the next few hours!  Looking back, this is the point where I could just HEAR God *screaming* in my ear – “Do not let her break your water – the baby WILL come out”!  There was no quiet whispering.

The last few hours of labor were filled with all of my whirring thoughts of how much I had wanted to avoid even facing the issue of other people at this birth.  At one point I told everyone to go out and leave me alone.  At more than one point I was downright nasty.  At one point I was crying.  LOL!  I had never experienced all of this in labor!  I was usually so even-keeled.  I have never cried in labor!  Josh commented on it more than once afterwards – he told me that he’s not used to seeing me cry and didn’t know what to do.  I told him he’d already done it.. he’d just BEEN there.

The MW kept suggesting I give “just a little” push – and I kept telling her NO!  I was bound and determined NOT to push until I felt the urge to do so.  After some time that seemed like forever, but was probably only a half hour or so of transition – I remember saying (I’d been in my bedroom for a while at this point), “Jesus, PLEAAAASE help me DO THIS!” and then suddenly “I HAVE to get in the water NOW!!”  So it was off to the bathroom -  again!  I got in the tub and felt this huge urge to push (new for me!  I’d never felt that before) and gave a huge push – at which point my bag of water broke and baby crowned all at once!  After that I said, “I have to get OUT of the water NOW!!!”  The MW said, “Okay, we’re going to help you stand up.” but I could not possibly imagine how that was going to happen and I yelled at her, “I REALLY don’t think I can STAND UP”  LOL!  I’m not sure how I thought I was going to get out of the tub if I didn’t stand!  But, somehow I did get out.  After that I just leaned over the side of the tub – MAN!  I’d never considered that position, but it was really perfect!  I pushed 3 or 4 more times and out he came!  SCREAMING!  Another first for me — all 3 of the babies before him came out and just sort of looked around calmly… not Sage!

So, I whipped myself around as fast as possible and grabbed my baby who Josh had already pronounced “A BOY!” and I sat there until the placenta was delivered about 5 minutes later.  We used the cord ties I’d made from embroidery floss. Josh declined when the MW offered him the scissors to cut the cord and so I did it!  Another first for me.  I *really* wanted to get back in the tub and wash off at this point but was still bleeding a good bit.  The MW gave me shepherd’s purse and assured me that I wasn’t hemorrhaging, and that she was just giving it to me as a precaution.  Fine with me.  So, I “let” Josh take the baby and then climbed into the tub.  The walk to my bedroom from the bathroom seemed to take FOREVER!

After a total of about a half hour, baby finally calmed down enough to nurse – and once he latched on, he didn’t let go for a FULL HOUR!  It was so funny.  I’d never had a baby nurse for more than a few minutes right after the birth — he was born hungry!  The MW kept coming back in to weigh him and kept saying, “WOW!  He’s still nursing?”  So, I guess maybe he wasn’t 10 lbs. 2 oz. when he was BORN — just by the time she weighed him!  LOL!

I did have a tiny tear this time, but when the MW offered a stitch, I said, “NO!  I’ll just stay in bed for a few days.”  Honestly, My perineum wasn’t even sore after the first few hours.  I’d bought 3 of those ice pack pads b/c I always wish I had more.. but I only used ONE of them!

All in all, it wasn’t what I had planned or wanted – but it all worked out just fine.  I allowed myself to be strong enough to say NO when I needed to.  My MW (who is a personal friend of mine as well) really tried to not be too pushy – but it’s her job.  I’m sure she felt she had to do something to earn her money!  I knew that and expected it ahead of time – so it made it easier for ME to be in charge of the situation.  It also allowed me to see once again, that I didn’t really *need* anyone else there at all.

Kim B.
Maryland

[tags]natural child birth stories, homebirth story[/tags]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!