Birth Stories
Options
My planned homebirth... long
My labor started on Friday, 11/9 one week after my EDD, and it was pretty mellow. My contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart and they were pretty mild. I had lost my mucus plug that morning so I was pretty excited and called Stephanie (our midwife) who was also excited, but she warned me that it could still be a couple of days but that we'd hopefully have a baby by?Sunday. She was pretty dead on with her prediction, I tried to take her advice and just ignore the contractions until they got more intense but it was definitely really hard to not stop and time them. Next time I will definitely just sleep as much as possible until I feel like I'm in really in labor!?haha. Well by Saturday afternoon nothing new had really happened. On Friday DH and I spent some time walking around some antique/vintage shops in our area and got a bite to eat before we came home. My contractions got to about 4-5 minutes apart during the night (so I got no sleep) but they faded back to 15-20 minutes later on in the morning. Stephanie came over around 1pm (Sat) and by then I had not had any contractions for a few hours. I was so incredibly bummed. I was hoping that I would have had more progress in the length and closeness of my contractions, but instead I was hardly having any. She checked me with the?fetoscope?and heard some strange heart tones and so we decided to use the?Doppler. She was hearing a little murmur which we had never heard before (and which she had never heard before during any of her previous labor/deliveries) But his heart beat otherwise was strong and normal. At that point we had two options; 1. Wait it out and keep monitoring his heartbeat to see if the murmur got either better or worse. and 2. Go to the hospital and get things checked out. At this point I was kind of freaking out, I was so tired of my slow progress and now I was feeling like by staying home we weren't doing what was? best for Oliver. But we decided to pray about it and asked God to take care of things or show us that we needed to go to the hospital. Everyone felt at peace with waiting it out but me. I trusted DH's judgement better than my own at this point. Because I honestly was so emotional that I didn't want to make a decision out of fear and end up with a birth I didn't want. I asked Stephanie to check me for dilation because I felt like I needed to know if I was making any progress. I hadn't been checked at all throughout my pregnancy because I didn't feel like it was necessary and I wanted to avoid anything invasive but now I needed some good news. She checked me and I was 3.5 and 50% effaced... it was so painful though because his head was so low it was making my cervix posterior. So she had to literally lift his head up in order to reach the lip of my cervix... OUCH! She was pleased with where I was at, and assured me that eventually I would have this baby and to just relax and trust my body to do its job. So she left and me and Dh tried walking and relaxing and I took several naps between contractions (they eventually started back up during Stephanie's visit). I watched Garden State and for some reason that helped me sleep. 
I cried a lot on Saturday because of the heart tones that we heard earlier. I kept asking Dh if he thought it was really okay for us to stay home and he assured me that God was taking care of it. I had Stephanie come over later Saturday evening to check his heart again and make sure that it hadn't gotten any worse. It was the same so she left with instructions to take it easy and call her in the morning if we didn't need her sooner. Saturday night my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and a little more intense, needless to say I didn't get any sleep that night either. By the morning (maybe like 7:30) they slowed to about 10 minutes apart but were stronger than they had been. I was hoping that Sunday was the day. I called Stephanie that morning and she said that her and her family would go to church but to keep her informed if anything changed, but that she would be over later that day to check his heart tones again. I had my mom come over Sunday afternoon (she had been over on and off since Friday). Sometime Sunday we went and got an exercise ball to use for labor and? we got some smoothies which was nice because I hadn't really been able to eat much since Friday morning. My dad, brother, sister and niece all stopped by for a quick visit which was nice. Stephanie called me after church to see how I was doing and she also gave me some very reassuring news; she spoke with a pediatrician that attends her church about what she was hearing with Oliver's heart and he said that it is pretty common and if it doesn't get worse then there is no need for concern. YAY! I was so incredibly relieved! I told Stephanie that I would call her later on in the afternoon since everything was so slow going. I called her back around 5pm asking her what we could do besides walking to get things going because I wasn't sure how many more days I could go in this state and she said we could try using Black?cohosh?and blue?cohosh?(herb tinctures) so I had Dh run to Earth Fare?and pick them up. They were pretty gross and I had to take them alternating every 5 minutes for 30 minutes and then walk for 15 minutes and come back and take them again for 30 minutes.?Ick. They did nothing for me. I called her after we had done all of that and I was a mess. I could hardly talk to her I was crying from exhaustion. She said she would be over around 9 and she would check me again and we could decide what we would do from there. She checked his heart tones again and heard the same things. And she checked me and I was 4cm and almost completely effaced, and this time his head was in a different position so it didn't hurt nearly as bad as before... thank goodness. I decided to have her strip my membranes, so she did it very gently as not to break my bag of water because it was bulging. After that I took?castor?oil (ewww. so nasty!) and then she left and told us to call her when we felt like things were picking up. My mom decided she wanted to stay the night because we had planned for her to be there for the birth and she didn't want to miss helping during the labor.?Well not 30 minutes after Stephanie left I had gotten in bed and felt the worst nausea, I hopped out of bed and threw up the?castor?oil, just thinking about how terrible that taste was makes me feel sick now. I was happy that I threw it up though, much better than the other effect it could have had. And then the contractions started, and hard. They came every 7 minutes but they felt like nothing I had experienced at this point. I was having to kneel and rock through them. After about an hour Dh called Stephanie and she was on her way. I was praying asking God for His sweet mercy to come so that I could birth this child already!?haha, seriously I was beyond exhausted by this point and I just wanted to meet Oliver. Well Stephanie arrived and she had me get up from my comfortable spot kneeling in front of the chaise and walk around the house through the contractions... boy oh boy did I start to dislike her, but really I do love her. Anyways, my mom and Dh switched off walking with me, helping me squat and getting me fluids. On and on through the night my contractions continued and finally around 4 or 5 in the morning I needed to rest and sit in the hot water of a bath. It was the best bath of my life. I had read a lot of birth stories and I knew that I definitely wanted to take advantage of the water. Well, although the water felt WONDERFUL and I finally got a little nap, it slowed down my contraction, yet again. Stephanie made me get out and although things are a little hazy from the long hours I was awake at this point, I'm pretty sure I went back to walking and squatting through the contractions. I needed to get my contractions closer together so that things could continue to progress. Also in the early morning on Monday my mother in law showed up with some extra support and some great hot compresses. Until she arrived I wasn't even sure I wanted her there, but her timing was really good. I'm pretty sure that around 1 pm on Monday I was in the bath again for a few minutes - I needed a little alone time (although this took a lot of convincing to everyone else) and I was in desperate need of a rest, as was everyone else, so while I was soaking everyone took a little nap. The next thing I know Stephanie's assistant (who had been at a few of my?pre-natals) came into the bathroom and started asking me questions,?ummmm?awkward! She didn't knock or anything so I was very unprepared, I didn't even know that she had gotten to our house and all of the sudden she is sitting next to me (while?i'm?naked, half asleep and shocked to even see her) trying to get me to let her help me out of the bath and to be dressed. I obviously have a little resentment still, I do like Becky but she is an older lady who decided late in life that she wanted to become a midwife, and that is all good and fine and such but the entire time she was there for my labor and Oliver's birth she wasn't too considerate of what I was needing. But anyways! Eventually Stephanie and Becky decided to get out of the house for awhile and they went to grab some lunch (Stephanie brought me back half a turkey burger which I could only nibble on but it was amazing). I continued to walk the neighborhood, and Dh's poor shoulders were a mess from having to literally hold my body weight during the contractions. On and off I labored, with increments of extraordinarily close and intense contractions to slow spread out ones. At some point Stephanie checked me again and I was a very stretchy 6 cm. The day wore on and turned into the evening. Some time in between afternoon and evening I even crawled around on all fours during contractions to see if that helped, I also spent a lot of time sitting on the toilet (dressed!) because the forced Oliver's head to put pressure on my cervix... this was the most intensely painful thing for me, but it helped and Stephanie had to do this for as long as possible. I think the longest I could handle it without needing to change positions was 30-40 minutes. Finally I got back outside with my mom and Dh and just the three of us were walking. They were literally having to help me pick up my legs and walk through the contractions. We did one short lap and I threw up. I felt so bad for any neighbor who had been peering out their window at that point because it had to be an awkward sight. Well my mom ran to tell Stephanie because she was convinced (as she had been several times) that this was transition (it wasn't quite yet) Stephanie said something like, "Okay, keep walking", she has 7 kids and has been a midwife for 10 years so the woman knows what she is talking about. Well all of the sudden my dad and my sister and brother show up and my mom and Dh take a break from holding my weight and my sister and dad take a turn... well a few steps and then I threw up again. I decided I wanted to go back into the house and have Stephanie check me again and I was 8.5 cm. I felt discouraged and started to cry asking Stephanie when this baby would come and she told me that it could be soon, but that it that with how my labor was going it could also take up to another day. I think I told her something like, "oh okay" and then she left the room and I lost it. In the midst of horrible, painful contractions I completely came to the end of myself and lost all control all I knew was that I HAD to get out of my house. Dh and my mom came into the room and tried to comfort me and help me calm down and breathe through my contractions, which at this point were?soooo?utterly painful. It's funny because I remember trying to rationalize things in my head thinking "If I try to go to the hospital now they probably won't be able to give me any medication because I'm already 8.5 cm, so I will just die here at home"?haha, it's only funny to me now. After a few minutes Dh kicked my mom out because she was trying to get me to breathe like a?Lamaze?type thing and it was frustrating me so Stephanie came in and started to give me a massage and Dh stepped out of the room to get something to eat (poor guy hardly left my side at all for four days)... Dh came in after he finished eating a quick bite and Stephanie had managed to get me calmed down but I was not really lucid at this point. Dh recommended that I get into the tub again and I guess I agreed. They both helped me get into the water and although I have no recollection of any of this they told me later that I slept through my transitional contractions which lasted about 30 or 45 minutes. And then all of the sudden I "woke up" and asked "Is he coming?" and Stephanie said to try and give a little push and see how it felt. Well it felt right, so with each contraction I pushed and Stephanie said that I pushed like a pro. Stephanie kept checking me on and off while I was pushing, I had a lip to my cervix left and she held it back some while I pushed. It was painful, but I honestly felt so?rejuvenated?just to be doing something productive that I was able to just keep going. After an hour of pushing in the tub my water broke and we decided to get onto the bed and try some different positions. So Dh helped me to the bed and things began to pick up a bit more. There were a lot of people in the room (Stephanie, Dh, my mom, his mom video taping, my sister taking pictures and my dad and brother in the living room! oh AND my grandparents on the phone - which I was actually really glad about) and I was definitely aware of it, but I didn't care too much because I was determined to deliver Oliver as quickly as my body would allow. Someone had gotten a mirror so that I could view my progress and all throughout pushing I reached down to feel Oliver's head. He was so low but a little stubborn. The mirror was good for a little while, but it caused me to get a little anxious because I felt like I was making much more progress than I was - I thought he was crowning at one point but he definitely wasn't. But I couldn't really communicate for them to take the mirror away so I just kept on pushing and tried to ignore it as much as I could... kind of a hard thing to do though! I really couldn't have had more support, everyone was cheering me on and giving me a lot of wonderful encouragement and that was really nice. Dh was incredible and I couldn't have done any of it without him. After 2 and a half hours of pushing Oliver's head emerged he was very alert, I reached down and stroked his head and felt his hair, it was bizarre because I could feel his head out of my body but I could feel his legs wiggling inside me still. A minute or two later the rest of his body was born, it was 11:45pm. Stephanie placed him right on my chest and the first thing I said was "He is beautiful!!" and then "Hi Oliver!!! Hi Baby!!", and truly he was beautiful, I was expecting some cone-head at least but he was perfect. I don't think that there was a dry eye in the room. We were all so proud. He did have a little bit of mucous that had to be suctioned and he didn't like that too much, but he was pink, crying and here! He scored a 10 on both?APGARtests. He stayed attached to the placenta until all the blood transferred to him and then Dh cut the cord and Stephanie had to work out a little more of the mucous from his chest. We stayed in bed for probably about 30 to 45 minutes and then I birthed the placenta (I didn't look at it, but later Becky showed it to me and it was kind of neat, I guess!). After that I got settled into a bath to clean up and DH brought Oliver to me to get his first little wash. After the bath Stephanie evaluated me to see if there was much damage----WARNING------ we both knew that I tore a bit but we didn't know how much. I had a 3rd degree tear but it was pretty clean so we decided to forgo stitches and just let it heal naturally. This was a good option for me and I was only on bed rest for the first 4 days and then I had low impact activity for 3 weeks and everything healed perfectly. She then weighed and measured Oliver and it wasn't a surprise to find out that he was a little (though long) peanut at 7.5 lbs and 20 3/4 inches long. After we were settled into bed I tried nursing Ollie and that didn't go well at all. He had a very poor latch and it was incredibly painful. We tried for the first 3 days without much luck and he was getting cranky, luckily my milk came in and in its abundance he was fed, it took a month to perfect his latch but after that it has been smooth sailing. Back to the birth story.... we were settled into bed and I was fed some delicious chicken noodle soup. Things wound down and Stephanie and Becky went on home. My mom and mom-inlaw?stayed (for a week) and got settled in the living room and my sister, dad, and brother went on home too. Dh and I slept, finally, and little Oliver did too. It was an amazing experience. Although it was long and definitely had it's moments of being scary and miserable, to know that I birthed my son all on my own without any drugs to inhibit him or me and with the support of my loved one's around me was, and is, an incredible feeling.?
Stats:November 12, 2007 @ 11:45pm (15 minutes from being my grandpa's 74th birthday)7 lbs 5 ounces20 3/4 inches long83 hours of labor10/10 on APGAR TestsAnd absolutely Beautiful!!!!
I cried a lot on Saturday because of the heart tones that we heard earlier. I kept asking Dh if he thought it was really okay for us to stay home and he assured me that God was taking care of it. I had Stephanie come over later Saturday evening to check his heart again and make sure that it hadn't gotten any worse. It was the same so she left with instructions to take it easy and call her in the morning if we didn't need her sooner. Saturday night my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and a little more intense, needless to say I didn't get any sleep that night either. By the morning (maybe like 7:30) they slowed to about 10 minutes apart but were stronger than they had been. I was hoping that Sunday was the day. I called Stephanie that morning and she said that her and her family would go to church but to keep her informed if anything changed, but that she would be over later that day to check his heart tones again. I had my mom come over Sunday afternoon (she had been over on and off since Friday). Sometime Sunday we went and got an exercise ball to use for labor and? we got some smoothies which was nice because I hadn't really been able to eat much since Friday morning. My dad, brother, sister and niece all stopped by for a quick visit which was nice. Stephanie called me after church to see how I was doing and she also gave me some very reassuring news; she spoke with a pediatrician that attends her church about what she was hearing with Oliver's heart and he said that it is pretty common and if it doesn't get worse then there is no need for concern. YAY! I was so incredibly relieved! I told Stephanie that I would call her later on in the afternoon since everything was so slow going. I called her back around 5pm asking her what we could do besides walking to get things going because I wasn't sure how many more days I could go in this state and she said we could try using Black?cohosh?and blue?cohosh?(herb tinctures) so I had Dh run to Earth Fare?and pick them up. They were pretty gross and I had to take them alternating every 5 minutes for 30 minutes and then walk for 15 minutes and come back and take them again for 30 minutes.?Ick. They did nothing for me. I called her after we had done all of that and I was a mess. I could hardly talk to her I was crying from exhaustion. She said she would be over around 9 and she would check me again and we could decide what we would do from there. She checked his heart tones again and heard the same things. And she checked me and I was 4cm and almost completely effaced, and this time his head was in a different position so it didn't hurt nearly as bad as before... thank goodness. I decided to have her strip my membranes, so she did it very gently as not to break my bag of water because it was bulging. After that I took?castor?oil (ewww. so nasty!) and then she left and told us to call her when we felt like things were picking up. My mom decided she wanted to stay the night because we had planned for her to be there for the birth and she didn't want to miss helping during the labor.?Well not 30 minutes after Stephanie left I had gotten in bed and felt the worst nausea, I hopped out of bed and threw up the?castor?oil, just thinking about how terrible that taste was makes me feel sick now. I was happy that I threw it up though, much better than the other effect it could have had. And then the contractions started, and hard. They came every 7 minutes but they felt like nothing I had experienced at this point. I was having to kneel and rock through them. After about an hour Dh called Stephanie and she was on her way. I was praying asking God for His sweet mercy to come so that I could birth this child already!?haha, seriously I was beyond exhausted by this point and I just wanted to meet Oliver. Well Stephanie arrived and she had me get up from my comfortable spot kneeling in front of the chaise and walk around the house through the contractions... boy oh boy did I start to dislike her, but really I do love her. Anyways, my mom and Dh switched off walking with me, helping me squat and getting me fluids. On and on through the night my contractions continued and finally around 4 or 5 in the morning I needed to rest and sit in the hot water of a bath. It was the best bath of my life. I had read a lot of birth stories and I knew that I definitely wanted to take advantage of the water. Well, although the water felt WONDERFUL and I finally got a little nap, it slowed down my contraction, yet again. Stephanie made me get out and although things are a little hazy from the long hours I was awake at this point, I'm pretty sure I went back to walking and squatting through the contractions. I needed to get my contractions closer together so that things could continue to progress. Also in the early morning on Monday my mother in law showed up with some extra support and some great hot compresses. Until she arrived I wasn't even sure I wanted her there, but her timing was really good. I'm pretty sure that around 1 pm on Monday I was in the bath again for a few minutes - I needed a little alone time (although this took a lot of convincing to everyone else) and I was in desperate need of a rest, as was everyone else, so while I was soaking everyone took a little nap. The next thing I know Stephanie's assistant (who had been at a few of my?pre-natals) came into the bathroom and started asking me questions,?ummmm?awkward! She didn't knock or anything so I was very unprepared, I didn't even know that she had gotten to our house and all of the sudden she is sitting next to me (while?i'm?naked, half asleep and shocked to even see her) trying to get me to let her help me out of the bath and to be dressed. I obviously have a little resentment still, I do like Becky but she is an older lady who decided late in life that she wanted to become a midwife, and that is all good and fine and such but the entire time she was there for my labor and Oliver's birth she wasn't too considerate of what I was needing. But anyways! Eventually Stephanie and Becky decided to get out of the house for awhile and they went to grab some lunch (Stephanie brought me back half a turkey burger which I could only nibble on but it was amazing). I continued to walk the neighborhood, and Dh's poor shoulders were a mess from having to literally hold my body weight during the contractions. On and off I labored, with increments of extraordinarily close and intense contractions to slow spread out ones. At some point Stephanie checked me again and I was a very stretchy 6 cm. The day wore on and turned into the evening. Some time in between afternoon and evening I even crawled around on all fours during contractions to see if that helped, I also spent a lot of time sitting on the toilet (dressed!) because the forced Oliver's head to put pressure on my cervix... this was the most intensely painful thing for me, but it helped and Stephanie had to do this for as long as possible. I think the longest I could handle it without needing to change positions was 30-40 minutes. Finally I got back outside with my mom and Dh and just the three of us were walking. They were literally having to help me pick up my legs and walk through the contractions. We did one short lap and I threw up. I felt so bad for any neighbor who had been peering out their window at that point because it had to be an awkward sight. Well my mom ran to tell Stephanie because she was convinced (as she had been several times) that this was transition (it wasn't quite yet) Stephanie said something like, "Okay, keep walking", she has 7 kids and has been a midwife for 10 years so the woman knows what she is talking about. Well all of the sudden my dad and my sister and brother show up and my mom and Dh take a break from holding my weight and my sister and dad take a turn... well a few steps and then I threw up again. I decided I wanted to go back into the house and have Stephanie check me again and I was 8.5 cm. I felt discouraged and started to cry asking Stephanie when this baby would come and she told me that it could be soon, but that it that with how my labor was going it could also take up to another day. I think I told her something like, "oh okay" and then she left the room and I lost it. In the midst of horrible, painful contractions I completely came to the end of myself and lost all control all I knew was that I HAD to get out of my house. Dh and my mom came into the room and tried to comfort me and help me calm down and breathe through my contractions, which at this point were?soooo?utterly painful. It's funny because I remember trying to rationalize things in my head thinking "If I try to go to the hospital now they probably won't be able to give me any medication because I'm already 8.5 cm, so I will just die here at home"?haha, it's only funny to me now. After a few minutes Dh kicked my mom out because she was trying to get me to breathe like a?Lamaze?type thing and it was frustrating me so Stephanie came in and started to give me a massage and Dh stepped out of the room to get something to eat (poor guy hardly left my side at all for four days)... Dh came in after he finished eating a quick bite and Stephanie had managed to get me calmed down but I was not really lucid at this point. Dh recommended that I get into the tub again and I guess I agreed. They both helped me get into the water and although I have no recollection of any of this they told me later that I slept through my transitional contractions which lasted about 30 or 45 minutes. And then all of the sudden I "woke up" and asked "Is he coming?" and Stephanie said to try and give a little push and see how it felt. Well it felt right, so with each contraction I pushed and Stephanie said that I pushed like a pro. Stephanie kept checking me on and off while I was pushing, I had a lip to my cervix left and she held it back some while I pushed. It was painful, but I honestly felt so?rejuvenated?just to be doing something productive that I was able to just keep going. After an hour of pushing in the tub my water broke and we decided to get onto the bed and try some different positions. So Dh helped me to the bed and things began to pick up a bit more. There were a lot of people in the room (Stephanie, Dh, my mom, his mom video taping, my sister taking pictures and my dad and brother in the living room! oh AND my grandparents on the phone - which I was actually really glad about) and I was definitely aware of it, but I didn't care too much because I was determined to deliver Oliver as quickly as my body would allow. Someone had gotten a mirror so that I could view my progress and all throughout pushing I reached down to feel Oliver's head. He was so low but a little stubborn. The mirror was good for a little while, but it caused me to get a little anxious because I felt like I was making much more progress than I was - I thought he was crowning at one point but he definitely wasn't. But I couldn't really communicate for them to take the mirror away so I just kept on pushing and tried to ignore it as much as I could... kind of a hard thing to do though! I really couldn't have had more support, everyone was cheering me on and giving me a lot of wonderful encouragement and that was really nice. Dh was incredible and I couldn't have done any of it without him. After 2 and a half hours of pushing Oliver's head emerged he was very alert, I reached down and stroked his head and felt his hair, it was bizarre because I could feel his head out of my body but I could feel his legs wiggling inside me still. A minute or two later the rest of his body was born, it was 11:45pm. Stephanie placed him right on my chest and the first thing I said was "He is beautiful!!" and then "Hi Oliver!!! Hi Baby!!", and truly he was beautiful, I was expecting some cone-head at least but he was perfect. I don't think that there was a dry eye in the room. We were all so proud. He did have a little bit of mucous that had to be suctioned and he didn't like that too much, but he was pink, crying and here! He scored a 10 on both?APGARtests. He stayed attached to the placenta until all the blood transferred to him and then Dh cut the cord and Stephanie had to work out a little more of the mucous from his chest. We stayed in bed for probably about 30 to 45 minutes and then I birthed the placenta (I didn't look at it, but later Becky showed it to me and it was kind of neat, I guess!). After that I got settled into a bath to clean up and DH brought Oliver to me to get his first little wash. After the bath Stephanie evaluated me to see if there was much damage----WARNING------ we both knew that I tore a bit but we didn't know how much. I had a 3rd degree tear but it was pretty clean so we decided to forgo stitches and just let it heal naturally. This was a good option for me and I was only on bed rest for the first 4 days and then I had low impact activity for 3 weeks and everything healed perfectly. She then weighed and measured Oliver and it wasn't a surprise to find out that he was a little (though long) peanut at 7.5 lbs and 20 3/4 inches long. After we were settled into bed I tried nursing Ollie and that didn't go well at all. He had a very poor latch and it was incredibly painful. We tried for the first 3 days without much luck and he was getting cranky, luckily my milk came in and in its abundance he was fed, it took a month to perfect his latch but after that it has been smooth sailing. Back to the birth story.... we were settled into bed and I was fed some delicious chicken noodle soup. Things wound down and Stephanie and Becky went on home. My mom and mom-inlaw?stayed (for a week) and got settled in the living room and my sister, dad, and brother went on home too. Dh and I slept, finally, and little Oliver did too. It was an amazing experience. Although it was long and definitely had it's moments of being scary and miserable, to know that I birthed my son all on my own without any drugs to inhibit him or me and with the support of my loved one's around me was, and is, an incredible feeling.?Stats:November 12, 2007 @ 11:45pm (15 minutes from being my grandpa's 74th birthday)7 lbs 5 ounces20 3/4 inches long83 hours of labor10/10 on APGAR TestsAnd absolutely Beautiful!!!!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: My planned homebirth... long