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Since Stacy asked- Lucy's Homebirth
On Sunday January 24th I began to have some light contractions that we started timing around 5 pm. We timed them for about 2.5 hours and were 3-6 min apart and 30sec-1 minute. So we called the midwife to give her a heads up. Then DH and I went for a walk. We tried to go to "sleep" shortly thereafter but neither of us could because we were so excited.
I ended up falling asleep around midnight and when I woke up at 1 my contractions had subsided quite a bit. So then DH managed to get some sleep.
On Monday January 25th -In the morning I sent him off to work because I didn't think they would pick back up.
I got up at around 7:15 and made/ate some breakfast and then the contractions started to get stronger, probably about a 5 on the pain scale. They were really getting me in my back so I took a shower and let the hot water run on my back.
Then I started timing contractions, they were all about 3 minutes apart but were anywhere from 30-1:15 long. So I labored through them a bit in my Bradley relaxation position on the bed. Then I got up and talked on the phone for a bit.
At about 9:30 I threw up my breakfast. The midwife called around then to check on me since it had been since last night when we had talked. She told me it would definitely be today and to call DH home from work when I felt like I couldn't labor alone anymore.
By 10 I was feeling like that and left a message since his phone doesn't ring through when he teaches. I figured he would be home by 10:30, when he wasn't home by 11 they were getting strong and I needed him. So I called the main number and they paged him and he came home right away. He arrived at 11:15.
The midwife arrived just a few minutes before him and began to set everything up and fill up the birthing pool.
He helped me to labor through until around 12:45 when the midwife wanted me to drink some juice / eat peanut butter. I drank a little juice, looked at the peanut butter and then threw up. That's when my water broke.
After that I got into the birth pool at around 1. By 1:15 I told her I felt a lot of pressure and thought that I wanted to push. So she checked me and I was at 10 cm!
I started during the rests of the contractions on my knees with my legs wide and leaning over the side of the tub with my head down. For the first 20 min of pushing I also pushed in the position. Lucy was moving down but it wasn't a great pushing position.
After that I would relax the same way but get up into a squat position to push. On average I pushed 3x with each contraction. I really felt like I was in the zone, I kept my eyes closed and just did what I needed to do.
The midwife would check Lucy's heart tones ever 2-3 contractions. They were sounding great until after 2 pm. She didn't like the way Lucy's heartrate would drop slightly. So she had me get out of the tub just in case.
I pushed a once on land and Lucy's head was born. But at that point the midwife could tell that she has Shoulder Dystocia (her shoulders were stuck on my pelvic bone. So my midwife let me try to push HARD again. Nothing doing, so she had me get on hands and knees and she was helping try to get Lucy's shoulder through.
That didn't work so she moved my leg up into a running position on hands and knees and had me push again. Still nothing. So she had me roll onto my back and by doing that Lucy's shoulder came loose. The whole time of her being stuck was about 3 minutes. I was so in the zone that I was just doing what I was told to get her out. Apparently DH and the midwives were really wanting her out because it wasn't a good place for her to be.
She came out crying nice and loud. Her apgar's were 9 and 10. Her cord was a bit on the short side so she could only lay on my tummy. I pushed out the placenta about 3-5 minutes later, the thing was big! The midwife checked me and I had a small tear inside but nothing outside and nothing needing stitches.
The midwife gave me an herb tincture to help slow my bleeding but I did not need any pitocin. We wrapped lucy up and I got dressed and we went to our bed to lie down. At this point her cord was still attached. We laid together enjoying our little one until the midwife came to check on her at 1 hour and 2 hours. Everything checked out great.
At 2 hours they weighed her, 8bs 4 oz! The midwife was so surprised that Lucy was so big, she had though her to be 7-7.5 lbs. She had linebacker shoulders and her chest was as wide as her head!
After that the midwife left and we went on to enjoy our little Lucy girl who was very prompt and arrived on her due date!
Re: Since Stacy asked- Lucy's Homebirth
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Aww, Congratulations! I am glad that evertything went well, and that she arrived wher she was expected. Enjoy your new bundle of joy
Awww. Thanks Christina! I was hoping you'd share!!! Was it as painful or not as painful as you had anticipated? You better not be like Giselle and say it didn't hurt at all!!! lol JK
I'm so happy for you and she's adorable!!! Cant' believe she was born on her due date...what a punctual little girl!!! :-)
Oh...and would you do a homebirth again?
That shoulder thing would have scared the poop out of me...literally! haha I'm glad you were in the zone!
You know I'm not gonna lie, it was painful. But it wasn't THAT bad. I remember thinking I couldn't go through the contractions without Clayton anymore so I knew they were getting strong- I was having to vocalize (moan) through them and that helped A LOT!
Once I was in the pool the heat and the water helped. Honestly because I stayed relaxed then they didn't seem as strong. If you fight them they will hurt for sure.
I knew they were getting really painful when before I would push my hand would shake but once I pushed it felt so much better!
As soon as I was done I thought to myself, would I do another homebirth or consider a hospital. That's the first time I had thought that.
But after I've thought about it I wouldn't have it any other way. I chose my m/w because she's a CPM and she handled everything perfectly.
I'm convinced ( and this is just me) that if I had been in the hospital one of 2 things could have happened.
1. with the slight decels they could have had me do a c-section (not at all what I want)
or
2. With the shoulder dystocia they could have broken her collarbones pulling on her because I wouldn't have had the option of getting into different positions to help loosen her.
So yes, I'd do the homebirth again!
So nice to read your story sister! I remember when I was in labor with Emmy and thinking I wanted to toss my cookies and not being able to. The nurse kept saying, if you throw up, she'll be born...
Also, they almost had to do a C-section b/c of her heart rate dropping too, but thankfully she finally wiggled her way out
Hope you're getting lots of rest!
Def. good to know!! I think with our 2nd child, I might do a homebirth...wish I was brave enough to do it with my 1st (when that day comes).
Congrats again! I'm so happy for you and you seemed to do a great job!!
She is so beautiful Christina!!!
Wow- what a wonderful birth story- it's so empowering! Thank you for sharing!
Hey lady I have been wondering about you!
Congrats on the cutest little Lucy ever!
Do you have a new blog or anything? I still have your cooking one bookmarked, but last I checked it had little activity. Im very curious about cloth diapering!