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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Homebirth of baby #2

Once again I have neglected my poor little blog, oops. Well in July 2012 I got pregnant, we both knew that we wanted a home birth this time around. I started researching and interviewing midwives and by September was set on Sunshine, from Sunshine Midwifery, and we started prenatal care appointments. I had home visit appointments, they felt more like having a friend over for some tea and a chat. To say that the experience was different from my first pregnancy would be an understatement. The experience with the care I received through this pregnancy was out of this world. Having a kind, experienced, understanding, accommodating, loving midwife is something every pregnant woman deserves. I had a low key pregnancy, some nausea early on, a 20 week ultrasound that showed that "my baby is growing well" that's all I was told. They did want me to come back for a second ultra sound to get better pictures of her head, but I declined. Having at home prenatal visits made the pregnancy very low key, not having to rush to appointments, or try to arrange child care, it was easy, it was nice. 40 weeks and 4 days of this pregnancy seem to have flown by, and I did my best to enjoy them given this is probably our last baby. Well, without further ado here is the birth story...



The weekend after my due date passed I started being a little more active, and was surprised that I actually had the energy for it. All I did was spend a few hours walking the mall on sat. and on sunday. On sunday night I also ate almost a whole pineapple. At that point I was 40weeks 3 days, not too bad so I wasn't in any particular rush to evict the baby, just seeing what would happen. That night (or early monday morning) I woke up around 1:30am to a warm trickle down my leg, I freaked out thinking I was peeing my pants, jumped out of bed and ran for the toilet. Water was gushing out of me and flinging everywhere as I was running, quite comical actually. I was still convinced I peed myself, until I saw some chunks of mucous, then I realized that my water had broken. I got excited texted Sunsine, my midwife, and got ready to go back to bed. I glanced back into the toilet when I went to flush and realized the water was kind of dark, upon closer examination I realized it was greenish which meant meconium. At that moment I had a mild nervous breakdown. I got worried for the baby, thought that home birth was out of the question, a million things rushed through my head. I called Sunshine told her that there was meconium, asked if home birth is out of the question. She explained to me exactly what she can do for the baby, chance of complications, what the hospital could do that she couldn't etc. I sent her a pic of the water and she said that the meconium was fresh and moderate and said if I didn't want to go to the hospital then go back to sleep and try to get some rest because I'll need my energy. She said she'll come check on me and the baby in the morning and I was fine with that, assured me to call if I had any other concerns and she'd be on her way asap. I tried to go back to bed but the water kept gushing at the slightest movement so I ended up sitting on the toilet for a while until the gushes stopped. Around 2am contractions started up, they were about every 10mins and not too intense or painful, but I could not sleep through them. I stayed in bed for a few hours but gave up around 5am and just got up. I got online and talked to a few friends that work with midwives asking for advice and opinions I was also drinking tons of water, I know that the amniotic fluid replenishes so I was trying to flush the meconium out, I didn't know if this was logical or not but it seemed to be working. As the morning went on the water was getting clearer and clearer.
Sunshine came over around 9am to check on me, listened to the baby's heart rate for a good while and it sounded great, listened through a contraction and baby sounded like she was handling the contractions perfectly. She said she didn't want to check me to avoid introducing any sort of bacteria and possible infection, I was fine with that since I didn't originally want to get checked at all, and haven't yet at up to that point. She explained to me in more detail what the meconium meant, the risks etc and I decided that at that point I wanted to stay home, I took my temp every few hours paid close attention to baby movements and promised not to leave the house. She left me several tinctures for different things and left saying she'll be back later that day unless I needed her sooner than to not hesitate to call her. I went about my morning as usual, had a bit of an emotional roller coaster day, realizing that it was our last day as a family of 3 and wanting to give Penni as much of my attention as possible. We had a low key morning, then around noon Penni and David left for a couple hours so I took a valerian/poppy seed tincture and was able to get an hour of uninterrupted sleep. When I woke up from the nap Penni and David had returned with lunch (In-n-out! yay!), I felt pretty good and a bit more rested. Contractions were coming stronger but still 10mins apart. I decided it was time to bake baby's birthday cake and to make lasagna for the birth team. I started on those things, taking it slow and easy, contractions weren't too bad still and I was handling them fine on my own. 
Penni got picked up for a sleep over at grandma's later in the afternoon, and I almost had a melt down, thinking it's the last time I see her as my only child, when she comes back she'll be an older sister. Silly I know, I think the hormones were doing a number on me. By that point I had to stop and breath through contractions, preferably while bending over something. I had baked the cake by then, and was finishing arranging the lasagna, Sunshine came back to check on me. I had a contraction when they got there and we waited for it to pass so we can talk, she again listened to the baby and everything sounded great, she said she'd rather not check me and I said that's fine. So she got ready to leave and I had another contraction, debated asking her to stay and wait for an hour or so because I thought things might be picking up. But given that my contractions were still mostly 10 mins apart I didn't say anything. Later she told me that she also debated staying a while, but thought that maybe she should go home and rest since we might be in for a long night. It was around 8pm at this point. I decided to take the valerian/poppy seed tincture again and see if I can take another nap. When Sunshine left I quickly finished the lasagna and was bent over the counter with an intense contraction. Next one came only a few mins later, and they kept coming 2-4 mins apart. David was helping me through them at this point, the hip squeeze was helping greatly. He also started filling up the birth pool at this point. After about 25 mins of those intense contractions I called Sunshine (she lives an hour away, so I knew she'd be only halfway home) and said that she should probably come back, she heard me have a contraction over the phone and said she was coming right back. Zhanna was texting me and I told her she should probably come over because things were picking up, she was suppose to be our photographer. I was sitting on the toilet at this point because I thought I had to poop. Contractions were coming fast and hard and felt like they weren't fully letting go in between. My whole back and pelvis were incredibly sore and I had the shakes. At some point I think the tincture kicked in because I was able to relax better in between contractions, they were still coming every 2 mins or so. David was trying to fill up the pool as fast as he could while helping me through contractions. When I was on the toilet he was pressing on my knees and it felt good to push against him that way. He suggested that I try and move to the birth ball so he can do the hip squeeze for me. We did that for a few contractions, they came on fast and hard. I was draped over the ball and he was squeezing my hips. One of those contractions had me screaming in pain, and when it was over I muttered "I don't know how much longer I can do this for" I immediately thought I was such a whimp, thinking I had hours of labor ahead of me and already having a hard time handling things. After a few contractions on the ball I decided to go back to the toilet, because I thought I was about to poop my pants. Back on the toilet David was pushing at my knees and I was pushing really hard against him because I felt the slightest relief from doing so. Zhanna came over at this point and wanted to know what she could do to help, I was so out of it and in the moment I had no idea what to ask for. A few mins after her Sunshine came back. When she walked up to the bathroom I was having a really hard contraction that I was having a hard time coping with, she started coaching me to take deeper and longer breaths I followed her advice but started feeling a burning sensation. I reached down to see if I was crazy or if the baby was starting to crown. I felt baby starting to crown, I couldn't believe it, everyone says that I had a crazy eye look at this point. I looked up at Sunshine while feeling baby starting to crown and she asked "what's there?" I said "the baby is coming!" She threw on some gloves squatted in front of me, asked me to stand up and a minute later the head was out, immediately followed by the body. Sunshine caught the baby and I tried to grab her, they told me to wait a second because baby had cord wrapped around her neck, then I was finally able to take my baby. She cried right away, I was in disbelief. I couldn't believe how quickly things went, Sunshine quite literally walked through the door and caught the baby. Talking it all over later we were saying that had I been planning a hospital birth I probably would have delivered on the side of the road because by the time I realized that things were that close I was mins away from birth. I never got any cervical checks, not during pregnancy or labor, one of the things I wanted. But I also didn't get my water birth, something I really wanted. But I wouldn't change anything for the world. Because baby came so fast I tore more than I would have preferred but I'm grateful for how everything went, proud of myself that I stuck it out, and if I ever am blessed with another low risk pregnancy I would most definitely have another home birth. Hopefully with the same midwife. Right after I was able to put my baby on my chest I checked her gender and announced to everyone "I told you it was a girl!" and she had a true knot in her cord too! crazy events.
Baby was born at 9:15pm, after just over an hour of very intense labor and 18 hours of early labor. She was 8lbs 6ozs and 20" long. We are now a very happy family of four :)
Her name is Coraline Ayla.

 Last few mins of labor
 “We have a secret in our culture, and it’s not that birth is painful. It’s that women are strong.” – Laura Stavoe Harm ?We have a secret in our culture, and it?s not that birth is painful. It?s that women are strong.? ? Laura Stavoe Harm photo 28180_10152155611032334_919114717_n.jpg

She is here! I did it! I can't believe all this just happened! loved this moment, love this picture.  photo 378697_10152155611027334_1836251634_n.jpg

Falling in love
"Babies are bits of star-dust blown from the hand of God. Lucky the woman who knows the pangs of birth for she has held a star." ~Larry Barretto  photo 21220_10152155611082334_27957343_n.jpg

The pool that never got used
  the pool that never got used photo 529411_10152155611142334_696108769_n.jpg

Pure bliss
getting aquatinted photo 399967_10152155611282334_280054585_n.jpg

Newborn examination
 photo 64146_10152155611382334_1807330963_n.jpg

not impressed
not impressed with the newborn exam :) photo 65596_10152155611357334_214192373_n.jpg

8 pounds 6 ounces!
8lbs 6ozs! photo 66795_10152155611362334_1716374436_n.jpg