Birth memory boxes for the girls

I saw this idea on some blog when Penni was a baby so I made her a box. Being a NICU baby she had a lot of "souvenirs" and I wasn't sure what to do with them, didn't exactly want to toss them since it is part of her story.  Anyways this seemed like a neat idea so I made one for Penni

Her birth story is 

here: http://anyasmunchkin.blogspot.com/2010/05/begining.html

Naturally I had to make one for Cora too, except being a home birth we didn't have many souvenirs. Just amazing memories and some great pictures. I thought for quite a long time what I can put in her box so that it can have souvenirs like Penni's did. She didn't even wear a hat for 3 weeks so I didn't even have that to add, I considered a side snapping shirt that she lived in for the first week till the stump fell off, but the shirt was too big to fit in the box, it's only 9"x9". In the end I decided to keep Cora's box simple, just like her birth was, and yes that is her umbilical cord dehydrated, you can sort of see the true knot in it.

Her birth story is here: http://anyasmunchkin.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-homebirth-of-baby-2.html

Here are both girls' boxes side by side, I like seeing the difference in what you end up with as souvenirs after a hospital birth vs. a home birth.

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

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

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

The pool that never got used
 

Pure bliss


Newborn examination


not impressed


8 pounds 6 ounces!

The begining

I wanted to start this so I can keep a diary of sorts of my baby's life, something she can read when she is older. And since we are starting from the beginning it seems appropriate to start with her birth story. So here it goes, December 4th of 2008.

The birth story of Penelope Ada

Well I had an appt. and an NST on Dec. 2nd. I was closed but 80% efaced and no contractions on the NST. I also had some bloody mucous discharge that morning. The day went by uneventfully, I had some more bloody discharge before going to sleep and that was it. I woke up a little past 2am with cramps in my lower belly and back. They were coming less than 10 mins apart, sometimes as frequently as 4 or 5 mins apart. I started getting nervous and realized that this is probably the start of something. Stayed awake for an hour or so and then decided that if this is the real deal I should probably get some rest. I tried to go back to sleep and even though I was very tired I could not sleep through the "cramps" they were tolerable but quite intense. I started worrying that it's back labor, I've had U/S's every 2 weeks and she's been face up for the last 6 or so weeks. So after a night of no sleep and constant contractions (by this point I figured that's what it must be lol) I told my husband in the morning that he can't go to work that day because I may be in labor and we should go get me checked. He was skeptical, said I didn't seem like I was in that much pain, which I told him it was tolerable but definitely there. We cleaned a bit that morning, took the dog for a walk and headed out to the hospital around 11am. They monitored me for a few hours, my contractions were very irregular and registering as very mild, even though laying on my back while being monitored sucked, it put that much more pressure where it already hurt. They checked me and I was 2-3cms so at least I knew it was the real deal and something was happening. Then they did an U/S to check fluid levels which were fine, I asked if she was still face up and yes of course she was lol. So we got sent home, they said I was in "very early labor" (didn't seem that early to me lol since I went from close to 2-3cms in 24hrs, that seemed like steady progress to me)

Home we went, stopped by a mexican restaurant and I made sure to eat some of that spicy salsalol, it also turned out ot be my last meal for many many hours. Contractions were getting a bit more intense, still tolerable but I had to pause and wait them out when they came on. Sitting in the car through them sucked. I tried to keep myself occupied at home, I kept contraction master open all day but they seemed to be consistently 7-9 mins apart and refused to get closer. I got frustrated and closed the site. By 6pm or so the contractions were pretty intense I had to breathe through them and walking through them helped too. But I was definitely feeling the back labor and it was not fun. I got in the tub for a few hours, it didn't help much but it spaced out the contractions a bit more so it gave me more of a break in between. I knew that it could slow down labor, but by this point after a night of no sleep and a whole of contractions I just wanted a break. When I got out of the tub I started timing them again and they were 5-7mins apart, and pretty painful. My husband wasn't making any more comments about not noticing that I was not in pain lol, but he did rub my back when I had the contractions which helped a bit. I remember coming on JM for a while and some girls gave me links to a site that gave suggestions on how to turn a face up baby, so I tried that for a few hours, tried being on all fours during contractions, they still were quite painful, I was quite positive she was still face up. By midnight they were steadily 4-5 mins apart and very painful, my husband wanted to wait for a little while longer to make sure they don't space out and I don't get sent home again. I told him if they try to send me home I'm going to throw a fit 'cause I was pretty miserable by now. At 3am we finally headed back to the hospital. I noticed that when I was up and moving the contractions would come every 3 mins but laying down or being on all fours they were about 5 mins apart.

We got to the hospital I got hooked up again, the contractions were barely registering as mild on the monitor which pissed me off. The nurse saw the pain I was in and offered me epidural right away lol, even though I wasn't even admitted yet. I told her I wanted to be checked first and if I was pretty far along I'd try it natural. It took the doctor what seemed like an eternity to come check me, when she did I was only 3.5-4cms. That frustrated me, she did an U/S fluid levels were still fine and she was still face up. Argh, they sent me walking for an hour. The contractions were coming every 2-3 mins and lasting almost 2 mins, they were excruciating by now. At one point I broke down crying and told my husband all I wanted to do was sleep a little (this was my second night in a row of no sleep) I told him I can't push the baby out being this exhausted, but if I took the epi I felt like I was incapable of doing what should be so natural to me. He reassured me that it's alright, I need to do what I had to get her here safely and if I needed help that's ok too. I felt like I wasn't dilating because i would tense up so much with every contraction just trying to survive them. We finally went back and they hooked me up again, contractions were still not registering very well, the doctor came back and said that she believes me and sometimes the monitors fail, at least that was comforting. She checked me and I was 4-5cms and being admitted. That was a relief, if they tried to send me home at this point I would have probably threatened someone's life. They offered me epidural again and I caved, I just could take it anymore. It was 6am by now and I was exhausted, with each contraction tehre was a lot of pressure in my back the belly would cramp up and it was very painful, and my hips felt like someone was tearing them apart.

I got taken to a nice LDR room (which I was happy about) and was told the anesthesiologist should be there shortly. By now I was almost in tears with every contraction. We were in the room for maybe 20 mins when the nurse came back and said taht because teh baby has an anomaly I have to be moved to a labor room in the front where the nurse's station is. That sucked I went from a big room to a tiny labor room that was freezing. I chose to walk each time they moved me, it took forever to walk those 100 feet of hallway lol. Once I was in the labor room they promised me epidural as soon as possible. I was hysterical by now with every contraction, I didn't scream just a whole lot of moaning groaning and some tears. Oh I also got the shakes, so I've been shaking since about 3 am and it was really getting on my nerves. When the anesthesiologist got there I was in the middle of a horrible contraction, he walked in and said "well someone is ready". It only took him about 5 mins to get the epi in and it kicked in pretty much right away and I felt like a different person. Except just like he said the shakes got worse. It was 8am by now and I wanted to try and nap before I had to start pushing, I was very nervous about not having the energy to push her out. They checked me right after the epi and I was 5cms. I was very amused that my butt felt completely numb, I never thought of that, and it was quite funny to me, also I kept farting and not realizing it 'cause my butt was numb lol, my husband found it quite funny too. I also got a catheter and felt pretty good (except those darn shakes) contractions were still not registering very high, but by this point I didn't care 'cause I knew that I was definitely in labor. I lost track of time at this point too, I was dozing in and out of sleep, some hours later I got checked and I was 8-9cms! I was very excited that my labor didn't slow down with the epi, but seemed to speed up actually. I figured it's because I was actually relaxed and my body was doing what it needed to.

I was check around 1pm and was complete but the cervix had a "lip" they said I can try to push through it but it's better to wait it out to go away on it's own, it'll make pushing faster and easier too. By this point I was starting to feel the contractions again, they did warn me that once she is very low and "in the bones" the epi won't be too effective anymore. It only took about 15 mins for them to come back full force, my mom and sister arrived sometime around then and got to watch me enjoy the last hour of my back labor, it seemed like forever till they came back to check me and I was ready to push, I asked if she was still face up and the doctor said "seems like it" and she was at zero station. I started pushing with the nurse in the labor room and after a few pushes she said the baby's head was right there.

I got moved yet again to a delivery room, only 1 person was allowed, so my mom and sister had to sit in the waiting room, by this time I was very nervous, but it felt good to push because I felt like I was able to do something against the pain of the contractions, and all this was going to lead somewhere. The only thing that still felt sort of numb was the opening of the vagina. Every time I pushed the nurse kept saying "harder harder harder" I thought I wasn't doing a good enough job and considered asking them to turn off the epi so I can feel better when I push, but the I didn't want to feel "the ring of fire". I asked if I'm going to be able to hold her right away and they said no because of the "condition" I was quite upset about that. There were about 15 people in the room. Several doctors, NICU staff for Penni and it's a teaching hospital so a lot of interns standing around staring at me . She was born after 38 hours of back labor and about 30 mins of pushing, on Dec. 4th at 3:59pm, 7lbs 12ozs 20.5" long. When she came out it was so surreal I couldn't believe it. The first thing that struck me was how cute she was and how tiny. They took her away under the warmer and were working on her for a good few mins and I couldn't see her at all. Finally they were ready to take her to the NICU and one of the nurses brought her by to show me and I grabbed my baby out of her arms, as soon as she heard my voice she calmed down and just layed on my chest staring at me. They let me hold her for maybe a min. and took her away and I sat there crying while everything else happened. My husband followed her to the NICU came back a bit later 'cause they kicked him out, said she already scratched up her whole face (her nails were insanely long). I decided that I prefer delivery to labor lol, but either way the end result was very worth it.

First time really holding my baby, the day after her birth