Arielle's Birth Story

Finally, I'm making time to write the birth story!  Thanks for your patience from those of you who enjoy reading the details! :)  I'm going to intersperse the story with pictures from that day.

First of all, to back up to my last pregnancy post, you may remember that we had used evening primrose oil to see if we could get anything started.  At the time, I was dilated to about 3 cm and "very stretchy."  Sherry felt like I would go really fast again, once things got started . . . but nothing really got started that day.  That was last Weds, and nothing happened on Thursday at all, so I figured I was in for a bit of a wait . . . no big deal, since I wasn't even quite at the 39 week mark yet.  The main concern was my blood pressure, which was the only reason Sherry thought it might be good if baby came sooner than later, but she wasn't really worried either way.   

 Sherry had sent home a blood pressure cuff with me on Weds. so I could monitor it at home.  I was taking it 3 times a day and writing down the numbers.  We talked briefly on Thursday, and agreed to be in touch daily so I could keep her up to date on that.  In the meantime, Jim had blown up the birth pool "just in case," and sometime (maybe Weds. or Thurs. night?) we had put the labor sheets on the bed, also "just in case."  And then we waited.  Friday morning, I had some physical signs that made me think labor might be starting soon.  I even had some contractions off and on, but looking back now I can see that they were just more Braxton-Hicks.  It had been so long since I'd been in labor that I didn't remember exactly what it felt like, so these contractions were tricking me!  I was in touch with Sherry throughout the day, letting her know I thought something was going on, and I also put my mom on alert that she might need to take the kids.  But Friday passed without anything actually happening, even though that morning I'd been sure we would meet our baby by nighttime!

 On Saturday I talked with Sherry again, and she offered to come up and check on me, and do another round of evening primrose oil, but only if I wanted to.  She said it was up to me to decide if I wanted to risk being disappointed if nothing happened again.  I talked it over with Jim, who didn't mind either way, and finally decided to go for it, mostly only because I thought it would be nice to have the baby on the weekend.  I was still dilated to a 3-4 cm when she checked me.  After Sherry and her student left, we went to Walmart for a while to get a few things.  I hoped that the extra walking would help.  It didn't seem to!  We hung out at home the rest of the day, and I did go through one emotional meltdown of discouragement, but then I got ahold of myself and we all went out for a walk in the brisk fresh air.  At that point I just gave it over to God and felt peace that this baby would come in His perfect time, whether that was now or a couple weeks from now!  I felt peace too that if our little "nudge" with the evening primrose oil didn't work again, that we wouldn't bother to try to move things along anymore.  My blood pressures had been maintaining at pretty much the same numbers over the course of the weekend--still high, but not alarmingly so, and I didn't feel really stressed that they would be an issue in the long run.

 I called Sherry around 9 pm Saturday night to let her know nothing was happening, and I was going to bed.  We planned to continue to keep in touch daily, and I had instructions to call her if I sensed something really was going on.  She also assured me that she didn't mind me calling multiple times, and didn't mind coming up to check on me even if it turned out to be a false alarm.  I tend to feel really bad about "bugging" people, so it was nice to know that she was fine with me being a pest. :)  Jim and I stayed up till around 11 or so, watching a couple episodes of Hogan's Heroes online.  I felt nice and relaxed, I wasn't having any contractions, and looked forward to a good night's sleep.  Before we went to bed, we took off the labor sheet and the plastic sheet that were over our normal sheets.  The plastic sheet makes everything really hot, and I didn't want to be sweating all night.  Besides, I joked to Jim that taking off the labor sheets would probably cause me to go into labor. ;)

 So we went to bed and I slept soundly until just before 2 am.  I woke up with stomach cramps and headed for the bathroom.  As I was getting ready to go back to bed, I realized that the cramps kind of felt like labor pains--or at least what I thought I remembered labor pains feeling like!  I decided to stay up for a little while and see if I had more, and if they were coming at regular intervals or not.  I brought my Kindle out to the couch and tried to read a bit in between contractions (which I soon realized they were).  I had downloaded a handy free contraction timer on my iPod, so I used that to see how long they were lasting and how close together they were.  From the beginning they were lasting about 30-60 seconds and coming about 4-5 minutes apart.  But I still wasn't sure this was the "real thing."  (Dumb me!)  I timed about 7 or 8 of them, reading in between.  I realized I was having to breathe and concentrate through them, and finally decided I'd better wake up Jim, around 2:30 am.  Poor guy was a bit disoriented, and I'm sure he figured it might be a false alarm, but he gamely got up and started getting the birth pool ready in the living room while I brought out the box of birth supplies.  And we put the labor sheets back ON the bed. :)  This was all in between me breathing through contractions and trying not to get too grumpy.  I called Sherry around 2:40 to let her know that I *thought* I was in labor, but it still might be a false alarm (I was still in disbelief at this point, I guess :)).  She said they would be on the way as soon as possible.

 Jim started filling the pool and got the package of towels in the oven to warm up.  I wandered around, trying to time the contractions and find comfortable positions.  It turned out that I felt most comfortable standing up this time, or leaning over slightly and hanging onto something like the counter in the bathroom.  The contractions were definitely coming closer together at this point, but I was still able to work through them pretty well.  The pool took a little while to fill, and Jim kept having to mess with the water temperature to keep it at around 100º.  This was a little bit frustrating (for me ;)) because I wanted his support through the contractions and he kept having to leave my side!  But it wasn't that bad--just seemed frustrating at the time. :)  (It's funny in retrospect, the things that become really annoying during labor.  Later on when I got in the tub, I was in the quiet, dimly lit living room, which is right beside our bedroom, and I got seriously annoyed that our bedroom light was on and everything was brightly lit up in there!  I told Jim I knew it was stupid, but I really needed him to turn it off because it was bothering me. :))  Anyway, back to the contractions . . . we were still waiting for the water to get deep enough, and it was getting close.  I was standing by the piano, right near the pool, waiting to get in, when suddenly I had an extra intense contraction and felt a pop and a gush--my water had broken!  This was the first time since I had Sam that it had broken before getting in the water.  I really hadn't expected it, but there it was . . . and by now I knew without a doubt that this was really and truly labor.  No need to feel bad about dragging the midwives out of bed in the middle of the night!

 We noted the time when my water broke--it was 3:13 am.  I got in the tub just a couple minutes later, so around 3:15 am.  Using the birth pool this time (vs. the bathtub) was amazing.  I loved having the freedom to get into different positions and having the water so much deeper.  I think I was pretty much in transition by the time I got into the pool.  Jim stayed with me as much as he could, aside from jumping up to turn the hose on (we had it hooked up to the laundry sink) and add more water once or twice when I felt like we needed a little extra warmth.  I tried to relax and breathe through the contractions, which were coming right on top of each other, and hoped that the midwives would arrive soon!  It seemed to be taking forever for them to get there!  (Although it really hadn't been that long.  :))  I was still kind of in disbelief that my labor was going so fast.  I knew it had the potential to do so, but part of me really figured I was in for a totally different kind of labor this time around, being my 4th child and not having given birth for more than 6 years.  I told Jim that I was starting to feel "pushy."  I really didn't want to push until the midwives got here, but I'm also not the type that can hold back if my body is saying it's time to push!  Jim calmly said, "Just do whatever you have to do and it'll be fine."  I'm sure he was hoping I could wait a bit too, but I appreciated him being calm about it. :)

 Sherry and the assisting midwife, Kathryn, arrived around 3:35 am (I think).  I have probably never felt happier about seeing someone come through the door. :)  They got right to work getting out their supplies and getting ready, as they could tell it wouldn't be long!  Sherry got her gloves on right away when I told her I felt like pushing.  At this point I was on hands and knees in the pool and I suddenly had a tremendous urge to push.  At the same time I felt like I needed to change position and ended up in more of a sitting position with my back against the side of the pool, and I heard Sherry beside me calmly saying "We have a head!"  It had all happened so fast, I could hardly believe the head was already out.  I rested for a little bit and then the rest of the baby came flying out with the next contraction.  And I suddenly felt a LOT better. :)

 The baby looked really whitish gray and wrinkly, and the cord was around her neck so it took her a minute to get a good breath and start making some noise.  The midwives calmly rubbed her and flicked her feet to get her started, and then she began to cry and pinked up quickly.  Her first Apgar score at one minute was an 8 due to her color and tone not being great, but her second Apgar at 5 minutes was a 10.  By then she had gotten lots of good color and was working on clearing her lungs nicely. :)  While all this was going on, I hadn't remembered to look and see if we had a girl or boy.  I remember Sherry calling the baby "Buddy" or something, so my first assumption was that we had a boy . . . but then I looked and was super surprised to find out we had a girl!  Jim had already noticed, I think, but hadn't said anything yet.  When I said, "We have a girl!" he replied, "I know.  I thought she would be!"  The neat thing is that I had really hoped for a girl this time around, although I would have been happy either way, of course. :)  But when we first found out I was pregnant, I just had the feeling for some reason that it was a girl.  As the pregnancy went on, though, I wasn't so sure anymore.  It seemed like the pregnancy in general felt a lot like my pregnancy with Julia, but it had been so long that I couldn't remember for sure.  And I felt like I was carrying more like I did with Sam.  Anyway . . . it was neat how God gave me the desire of my heart and now we have two girls and two boys.  Both Julia and Josiah had really hoped for a sister, as well, so they were quite excited!  And although Sam had said he hoped for a boy, he totally adores his baby sister, as you can probably tell from the picture further up the page. :)

 Anyway, back to the story. :)  I cuddled the baby in the pool for a few minutes, all wrapped in a towel.  She was covered with lots of vernix, so she looks pasty white in the very first pictures we have (which the assisting midwife took, and won't be posted here for modesty reasons :)).  The midwives and Jim got out towels and made a path from the pool to our bed, then they helped me and the baby out of the pool (she was still attached to me with the cord, as they hadn't cut it yet) and onto the bed, where the placenta was delivered a few minutes later.  Then Jim cut the cord, and Sherry took a cord blood sample (I'm RH negative, so we needed to know the baby's blood type in case I would need a Rhogham shot), and I was able to nurse the baby for the first time.  She caught on quickly, a lot like Julia did when she was first born!  The midwives left us alone and Jim and I enjoyed those first quiet moments with our new daughter.  Later, Jim took the baby while Sherry examined me for tears.  I did have one, but thankfully they gave me the option of not having stitches, and just letting it heal on its own.  I have always torn a little bit when giving birth, but have never had to have stitches except when Sam was born.  I think I tear because I am in too much of a hurry to get the baby OUT!  Then I was able to get cleaned up and back into bed, and Sherry did the newborn exam, weighed her, etc., while Kathryn took pictures for us.  It was really special having more pics this time around, of baby's first hours!  I was thankful she offered to do that for us.

Sam had woken up just after the baby was born because he heard her crying.  He peeked out of their room while we were still in the pool, and we sent him back to bed, with the promise that we would get him up to meet her as soon as we were all settled.  He stayed wide awake from around 3:45 on, and we finally let him get up around 6 am.  The midwives left by around 6:30, then Sam and Jim went to work making a big breakfast, while I snuggled in bed with Arielle (who was still nameless at that point).  It took us the better part of the day to choose a name for her!  We were finally able to start calling family and letting them know she was here, which was quite exciting. :)  Then Jim and Sam cleaned up the birth pool and Josiah and Julia finally woke up and got to meet their new sister.

As you can tell, all of the kids were thrilled to find that they had a baby sister. Julia had been asking me almost daily if THIS would be the day that the baby would be born . . . finally her long wait was over!  They marveled over Arielle's tiny fingers and toes, how tiny and perfect she was . . . and they still tell me over and over daily how cute and sweet she is.  They love to hold her, and Julia is interested in all the "new" things that happen with a baby, like nursing and diaper changing.  She can't wait for me to give Arielle her first bath, so she can help. :)

 The rest of our Sunday was very low-key and restful.  Jim and I ended up both taking naps, and we sent the kids outside to play for most of the afternoon.  In the evening, my parents came by to see the baby, and Dad ended up getting takeout for us from our favorite local seafood/BBQ place.  Those first meals after having a baby are SO yummy . . . finally I have enough room to fit in some good food without getting heartburn! :)

So, that is the (very long-winded) version of the story.  I am so very grateful that everything went well and our sweet Arielle Grace arrived safely.  Also that my blood pressure stayed in a safe range and didn't do anything crazy there at the end!  We are enjoying our "babymoon" and it's been such a blessing to have Jim home all week, and friends bringing in meals . . . we're getting quite spoiled!!!  I love that my main job right now is to cuddle a sweet, warm baby girl, and that I can take my time getting back to "normal" (which I'm sure will be a new normal!).  Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)

Josiah's Birth Story

Well, it's taken me a little longer than I planned to post the birth story . . . but I've been getting lots of good rest and bonding time with my new little guy, which has been wonderful. :) Anyway, here's the story, for those who enjoy all the details!

Mid-afternoon on Thursday, I started having a few mild contractions. Nothing all that painful, and not close enough together to bother timing them, but thinking back on it I realize that they were different from normal "Braxton-Hicks" contractions. Jim was home that day (it's really neat how God has worked it out that he's always been home when each of my labors started!) and we decided to go grocery shopping that evening. I was feeling pretty tired and had no clue what to make for supper, so we planned a quick stop at Burger King before going to Hannaford and Walmart. On our way to town, Jim gave me a funny look and asked me if I was in labor. I said, "Not that I know of!" and asked him why he thought that. He said I just looked a little funny and he wondered why I had my hand on my belly. I explained that it had been bouncing around too much on our bumpy road, so I just had my hand there to keep it still. But I added that I was having contractions now and then, but I still didn't think I was in labor. He appeared unconvinced and continued to give me some funny looks. :)

After a quick stop at the bank, we headed to BK. As we were standing in line, I realized that the contrax. were starting to get a little more uncomfortable, as well as being closer together. We got our food and headed outside to eat at a picnic table (it was a gorgeous evening), and all during supper I was getting more uncomfortable. By the time we finished eating, I decided it would be a good idea to see if we could get ahold of my parents and see if they could take the kids, just in case this was the real thing. They weren't home, but knowing that they always do their grocery shopping on Thursday nights, we figured we could probably track them down easily. We headed to Walmart and sure enough, they were there. My mom was pretty surprised when we came up to her and asked if she would like to have a couple kids for the evening! After leaving the kids with them, we went back to our truck and Jim switched the carseats over to their car. At this point (this was around 7 pm), I was having to pause and concentrate through the contractions, which were coming ever closer together. I decided to start timing them, so I would have accurate details to tell my midwife when I called her. They were coming about every 3-5 minutes and lasting 30-45 seconds. I knew at this point that I was definitely in labor; I just wasn't sure whether to call Sherry on the way home, or wait till we got there. In the end, I decided to wait and make sure things didn't slow down when we got home.

As we walked in the door, I knew I'd better call her, pronto. :) After all, she barely made it to Julia's birth, and this labor was acting awfully similar to Julia's! I tried her home phone first and got the answering machine, so I called her cell and got her immediately. (She was working one of her other jobs that night--she waitresses part-time.) Knowing she was on the way made me feel better. This was around 7:20 pm. Jim and I set to work getting things ready. Well, I should say that Jim set to work. I gave him instructions between contractions. :) He put the towels in the oven to warm them, changed the sheets, got out other labor supplies, and ran the bath for me. I got into the bath quickly. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not--I knew I was in active labor, but the contractions were still about 3 mins. apart or so, and I've heard that sometimes the water can slow them down if you haven't progressed enough. But I really wanted to be in the water, so I decided to chance it, and if things slowed down I could always get out again. I'm not sure exactly what time I got in the tub. Maybe around 7:45-ish. Thankfully things didn't slow down, instead I could feel that the contractions were coming closer together and getting more intense. By the time Sherry and the other midwife, Cindy, arrived, around 8:22 pm, I was definitely in transition. Jim was hanging out by the tub, holding my hand and encouraging me, telling me what a great job I was doing. (He's gotta be one of the best labor coaching hubbies in the world. :) He lets me squeeze his hand as hard as I want, rubs my back if I want him to, and breathes on my face to help me focus on my slow breathing through each contraction.) Sherry and Cindy got to work setting up their gear and Sherry checked the baby's heartbeat now and then with the Doppler. Everything was looking good. Before too long, I was feeling the need to bear down with the contractions. This is one of the reasons I LOVE homebirth. There's no one standing there telling you to push in some crazy position (such as on your back, legs up in the air), telling you how long to push, etc . . . just a midwife encouraging you to listen to your body and work with it. I would never say that labor is fun . . . but it is so much easier to work with your body than against it. :) (By the way, Sherry did give me helpful ideas for positioning, etc. but she's very "hands-off" and lets me do what comes naturally and feels most comfortable, and I really appreciate that.)

As I started to push, Sherry checked to see where the baby was at and the head was moving well down the birth canal. There was still a little lip of cervix there, so Sherry held it back to help the baby get past it. She had asked Jim if he wanted to catch the baby, and he said sure. We had talked about this a bit ahead of time, and he had thought it might be neat to do that. As the baby's head started to emerge, I heard her ask Cindy for scissors, and was trying to figure out why in the world she would need them. It turned out that the baby was born "in the cull" which means the bag of waters hadn't broken and his head was coming out inside the bag. Jim caught his head and then the bag ended up breaking on its own, at which point everything burst into the water, including the rest of the baby. :) Sherry got him up onto my chest right away and Jim said "It's a boy!" He took his first breath and let out a holler, and continued to yell very loudly for a good long time. They didn't even have to suction his nose or mouth, and he cleared his own lungs out very well. :) That was one thing that was totally different from Julia's birth--she was very calm and relaxed after being born. Not Josiah! He seemed plenty mad about his fast trip into the world! Start to finish, the active labor part was probably about 2 hours--we were at BK around 6:30 and Josiah was born at 8:40 pm.

I cuddled him there in the tub for a while, as we waited for the cord to stop beating. That seemed to take forever! It finally stopped and Sherry clamped it, and Jim cut it. The placenta was born a few minutes later. In the meantime, Josiah had gotten nice and pink (actually red--probably from all the screaming :)), and received 10s on both his Apgar scores. I handed him over to his Daddy and got up and took a shower (which is another great thing about having a tub birth). After that, I climbed into bed and attempted to nurse the baby. (I'd actually already tried to get him to nurse right after birth, but he wasn't having any of it, being too upset. He never really did catch onto it that night, so I was a bit worried about that. But later on in the early morning, he began to "get it" and by now he is doing very well with it, so I'm very thankful.) It was at this point that we started trying to figure out what to name him. We had considered a bunch of names, but none really stuck out to us as "this is the ONE." Josiah was the one we both liked the most, so that's what we ended up with, and now I'm really liking it. And the "Charles" is after Jim's grandfather.

Sherry did Josiah's newborn exam and also checked me out at some point. I had a very small tear, but nothing that needed stitching. Jim started calling our families, and we decided to have my parents bring Sam and Julia back so they could meet their new brother and sleep in their own beds. Sam was very excited about the baby! Julia was unsure at first, but she hasn't shown too much jealousy and is definitely getting used to having him around now. My parents took the kids again on Friday for us, which was a great blessing, and Jim has been able to be home this week, which has also been wonderful. :) I'm getting lots of rest and the kids are getting lots of good Daddy time. But poor Jim--I think he'll feel more rested when he goes back to work. :)
So that is the story! It was another great experience and I am so thankful for another precious, healthy little guy to love and enjoy. He's starting to squawk a bit right now, so I'd better go nurse him. I'll try to update more in the next few days! Thanks for all the sweet comments on my last post--you guys are the best! :)

Julia's Birth Story

Baby Julia--1 day old

Here's the full story, at least as much as I can remember of it! Some of the details regarding time, etc. are fuzzy because everything happened so fast.

I had hoped that my water would break so that I would KNOW when it was the real thing, but that didn't happen this time around. But on Saturday morning, I started wondering if something was starting, because of a few physical signs that I noticed. Throughout the day, I was having quite a lot of swelling in my ankles again, causing me to decide to rest and elevate my feet that afternoon. Jim pulled out the "hide a bed" from the couch, and I laid there and watched "Roman Holiday" while Jim and Sam did things outside. When the movie was almost over, I paused it to go to the bathroom. At that time, I noticed that I was having some "bloody show" which is one of the signs that labor may be starting soon. I kept checking it for a little while, and the bleeding was increasing over the next half hour or so, so I decided to call Sherry and let her know that something was happening. We agreed that I would call her again when and if things picked up. I also called my mom, to put her on the alert that we might need them to come and get Sam before the evening was over. At this point, I wasn't yet having any contractions, just a very little bit of a crampy feeling. I can't remember what time all this was happening, but I think it was around 4:30 or 5 pm, or maybe a little later.

Within what seemed like only a few minutes, but may have been a half hour or so, contractions had started. At first, they weren't very bad, and I could walk and talk through them with no problem. I zoomed around, straightening up the house, and getting out some of the birth supplies. Jim helped make up the bed with the labor sheets, and fed Sam some supper. I called my mom again and told her that it would be good if they could come get Sam as soon as possible, since labor had definitely started. We got all of Sam's stuff ready to go, and my dad arrived to get him around 6:20 or 6:30 (just guessing here). Before this, I had also called Sherry again (around 6 pm, I think) and told her that I was having contractions that were about 3 minutes apart, and lasting about 30 seconds. I was still talking through them, but it was getting harder to do so. She asked if I would like her and Amy (the assisting midwife) to get ready and come up. I thought I may be jumping the gun a bit, but told her that I would like them to, because I just thought I would be more comfortable knowing they were here. It was nice to know that Sherry was on the way!

As soon as Sam had left, Jim got some more stuff ready while I tried to get myself comfortable when each contraction hit. I tried curling up on the bed with a rice bag, sitting on the toilet, and standing up leaning over and holding onto the bed or the hope chest, and breathing through them. Jim then took a quick shower. As he was finishing up, I was having a really strong contraction, which I was groaning through, and he asked me, "So, do you think you're heading into transition?" At which point I "lost it" a little and said that I really didn't know, and for him to please not ask me questions because I did NOT want to talk right then! Then I felt so bad and apologized for getting upset . . . but he wasn't hurt--he just figured that I had answered his question with a big "yes" by the way I responded. :) He asked if I would like him to run a bath for me. At first I said no, and then I changed my mind, thinking that the warm water would probably feel good and might dull the pain. At this point, the contractions were definitely closer together than 3 minutes--probably more like 1 1/2-2 minutes.

Once I got into the bath (I'm guessing this was around 6:45), I did feel better. The hot water felt wonderful. I had several more contractions, and though the pain wasn't really dulled, I just felt a bit more relaxed being in the water. I yelled to Jim that I needed him, so he came in and I grabbed his hand through the contractions. Now that they were coming so close together, I started to get nervous that Sherry might not make it in time, but I thought I was crazy to even be thinking that. But I told Jim that I thought he should get out the paper she gave us called "When Baby Arrives before the Midwife," and look it over. He did so, while I sat in the bath and groaned some more. At one point I remember saying, "I hope Sherry gets here soon!" and just about that time, Jim jumped up and went out of the bathroom, and then I heard him talking to someone, so I assumed that she had just arrived. Jim and Sherry came back into the bathroom, and she asked how I was doing. I'm not sure how I responded, but I think I said I was OK (I was between contractions at that point). She went back into the bedroom to set up her supplies, and I grabbed Jim's hand again as another contraction hit, this time with a lot more pressure. There was this sort of "explosion" (that's really how it felt, like a big balloon popping!) and we realized that my water had broken, and the bath was now filled with all kinds of icky stuff. But there was no getting out now, because after my water broke, I had a sudden overwhelming urge to push! I said to Jim, "I think I have to push!" and I heard Sherry call from the bedroom, "What did she just say?" To which Jim yelled, "She thinks she has to push!" Sherry said, "That's what I thought I heard!" and came right back in the bathroom. She said she usually wouldn't do an internal exam so soon, but she'd better just check and see what was going on. As she checked me, she said that the head was right there! I was almost starting to panic because of how fast everything was happening. Sherry stayed very calm and helped me focus on her, and slow down my breathing as I pushed. The baby's head was crowning after probably 1 or 2 pushes (again, I can't remember for sure); it was unbelievable to me that I would be holding my baby in a few more seconds. Sherry asked Jim if he wanted to catch the baby, but I interrupted that he couldn't because I needed to squeeze his hand! Fortunately he didn't mind; I think he would rather have her do the catching, anyway, since she's experienced at it. :) I think I had about 2 more pushes, which brought out the baby's head, then I had to hold back for a minute while Sherry unwrapped the cord from around the baby's neck. It wasn't tight, but just looped around. Then I pushed the rest of the baby out into the water (the easy part), and then Sherry put her up on my chest and suctioned her nose and mouth. After a few seconds, we looked to see what we had, and were amazed to realize it was a baby girl!!! She was covered with white vernix, but was so beautiful to us. She only cried a tiny bit, but was mostly very calm--probably because of being born into the water. Sherry checked her heartbeat, and covered her up with towels, and then I just cuddled her there in the tub for a while, with Jim kneeling beside us. In the meantime, Sherry called the other midwife, to let her know she didn't need to come after all. Then she took a cord blood sample to test and find out the baby's blood type, and then when the cord stopped beating, she clamped it and Jim cut it. By this time, we had decided for sure to name her Julia Anne. We had two possible girl names picked out, but we decided she looked like a Julia. :)

Jim took her from me and cuddled her while I got up and took a shower. That was another really nice part about giving birth in the tub--it was so easy for me to clean up afterwards! Then I got into bed and Sherry checked me for tears (I had only minimal tearing in the birth canal, and no perineal tears at all!), and then she did the Apgar tests on Julia, and declared her to be a perfect 10. Her color was nice and pink (under the vernix) and her reflexes and all that they check for were great. She also checked my blood pressure, which was around 140/85. It's so funny to me how God worked that out--there was no time for the b/p to even be an issue, since Sherry had no time to check it before the baby was born! She didn't even have time to check the fetal heartbeat with her Doppler, either. All the checking had to be done after the fact! Thankfully both mommy and baby came through the birth just fine, and were perfectly healthy. :)

So that is the birth story. Julia was born literally only 5 minutes or less after Sherry arrived! Jim ALMOST had his first experience delivering a baby. I am so very thankful that we did a homebirth, as we would never have made it to the hospital in time (we could have made it to our local hospital, but if I had been doing a hospital birth, it would have been at another hospital which is an hour away). And I definitely loved the whole homebirth experience. Of course it was still painful and all, but it was so nice to be in my own home, and crawl into my own bed afterwards. Everything felt much, much more relaxing.

Sherry with Julia and me, at our checkup yesterday

Well, I may think of more things to add to this later, but right now I need to go change Julia's diaper and nurse her. She is a sleepyhead, but she does nurse well when she finally wakes up enough to do so. She will have a checkup tomorrow with her pediatrician, so we will see how that goes. We are definitely enjoying our sweet little baby girl. God is good, and we are blessed!

Sam's Birth Story

I was inspired by Crystal, who recently shared her daughter's birth story on her blog. I wrote Sam's story all out in an email to a friend soon after he was born, so here is the somewhat condensed and edited version. I thought it might make sense to share it on this blog rather than my regular one, since this one already has to do with pregnancy stuff. Be forewarned, though--it's still very long! It will be fun to compare our next birth story with this one in about 5 months or so.

My water broke at 6 am on Friday, March 5th, 2004. I called the midwives and was told to come in at 9 so they could confirm
that that's what had happened. At this point I wasn't having any noticeable contractions, just fluid gushing out and getting me all wet! So that was a little uncomfortable, but not all that bad. My appt. was with Katrina, which was nice since I was already familiar with her. One thing we noticed right away was that she was dressed in scrubs, so we figured she must be delivering that day. She confirmed that yes, my membranes had ruptured, and she didn't want to do an internal exam because after the membranes rupture they try to keep them to a minimum to reduce the chance of infection. But as far as she could see by just looking, I wasn't dilated yet, or at least only a tiny bit at the most. She put me on the monitors for about half an hour, during which I was having some contractions, but not painful ones. Some of them had a tiny bit of cramping, but mostly it was just a tightening feeling like all Braxton Hicks. They were about 7-8 min. apart at that point. She said we may as well go home, and get some rest, and if my contractions hadn't sped up at all by about 6 pm, to call in and then come in, because they would likely have to induce me. We made sure she knew that we lived an hour away from the hospital, and she was very casual about it--to the effect of, well, it's your first baby; you'll have plenty of time. :) All the way home, the contractions were still about 7-8 min. apart, and I started getting a little more cramping with them, but not much. The gushing fluid was still the most uncomfy thing. We stopped off at Walmart for a few minutes, then came home to have some lunch and pack any last minute things that we may have forgotten in our frenzied packing that morning.
(We took everything with us that we thought I may need for labor, etc., since we thought we might have been staying.) It wasn't more than half an hour after we got home, that my contractions really picked up--started getting very crampy and about 3-5 minutes apart! I called Katrina again and she was very surprised that they had sped up that much, but still not really thinking I needed to hurry back. She said not to rush over there since I still probably had a while to go, but to
come within an hour or 2. She said when I felt like I needed to be at the hospital and not at home anymore, that was the time to come. Well, that time arrived very rapidly! I was trying to eat some lunch, and was getting such terrible cramps that I kept having to rush to the bathroom between bites. I couldn't believe how fast this had all happened. I decided we needed to leave before too long, but wanted to take a shower first to see if that would relax me. It did help, and I didn't look forward to getting out and making the hour long drive back there, but I knew we had to leave!

All the way back to the hospital I kept having contractions about 3 minutes apart; some were extremely painful and I got a little cranky with Jim, who was trying to comfort me and remind me to breathe through them. :) Poor guy! I was SO relieved to arrive at the hospital; I think I was a little scared the baby might arrive on the way! At the door, they immediately got me a wheelchair and Jim grabbed our bags and pushed me in, leaving the Suburban for the valet guys to park. We flew to the elevator, up 2 floors, and then made a very quick trip down the halls to the birthing pavilion! They immediately put me into their triage room, along with another woman who was also in labor, to check me out. (There was a privacy curtain between, but we could still hear each other moaning. :)) In between contractions, I managed to get into one of those lovely hospital gowns and they hooked me up to a monitor to check the baby's heart rate. In a few minutes, Katrina came in to check on me, and this time she did check for dilation. I was very happy to hear that I was 7 centimeters already! We had only been at the hospital maybe 15 minutes at that point! She said, "I think you're going to have this baby sooner than later, very
likely before my shift ends at 8 tonight!"

After that, Jim and a nurse walked me to my own room. It was much nicer to be in a private room and be able to make whatever noise I wanted without being embarrassed! :) Actually, from what I could hear coming from other rooms, I didn't make too much noise at all. I guess different people handle labor lots of different ways. The 2 nurses I had, Debbie and Patty, were absolutely wonderful. And Jim was an incredible support, too! I discovered that what I most needed him to do was to breathe with me, breathing on my face so I could feel and hear it, and just do it with him. And I needed to hold his hand and be able to squeeze as hard as I could during the contractions! In between contractions, I felt pretty good and it was nice to be able to just rest. Of course, during all this the nurses were monitoring me, and taking blood pressure, etc. etc, which was a little frustrating because I just wanted to be able to concentrate on labor, but I know it's just what they have to do. And it ended up that my blood pressure was so high that they got concerned about possible pre-eclampsia, so they had to hook me up to an IV and give me magnesium sulfate for that. (The mag sulfate was probably the worst thing about
post-labor and delivery--I had to be on it for the next 24 hours, and it made me feel so weak and groggy that it was NOT fun.) Anyway, back to the story . . . it's all a bit fuzzy now in my mind, but I do remember Katrina coming back in and checking me again, and I was fully dilated at that point. All along I'd been having the urge to push, but it was getting stronger, and now I could push to my heart's content! She could feel that the baby's head was already well descended into the birth canal. I was amazed that I had come so far, so fast! The nurses were great on instructing me how to push, and they kept saying over and over how I was doing it so well and making good progress.

I have to say that pushing was such a relief compared to breathing through the contractions. I mean, the breathing really did help, but pushing was great because it felt so good to make progress on actually getting the baby out. And what they told me to do was take several good breaths, then give a nice long push, then another big breath, another push, and another. I tried to get 3 or 4 good strong pushes in on each contraction. Katrina had gone out of the room somewhere along the line,
and as I was pushing, the 2 nurses started saying how they might get to deliver the baby because it wouldn't be long! It was so encouraging to hear that!! They were anxious to get Katrina back in there, and she made it in plenty of time. They brought in a big mirror so I could look and see my progress. Part of the time I liked to look and part of the time I didn't want to! It was a little scary at that point, knowing I was so close to the actual delivery. But it was so incredible when I could look and see the top of the baby's head in the mirror. They asked if I wanted to feel it, so I did, and that was really neat too. Anyway, at one point as I was pushing, I asked Jim, "Do you really think I can do this?" And of course he assured me that I
could-- that I was almost there! And Katrina was telling me how wonderful I was doing, and that I had only been pushing for 35 minutes, and he was almost out! Then they said one more big push would do it, and I gathered all the courage I could, and gave it my best, and out he came! It was the most incredible relief and an awesome experience!! They got him up on my tummy very quickly so I could touch him, after they suctioned out his nose and mouth. He was crying, but not too bad . . . and then Jim got to cut the cord! I cuddled with him a little more and then they put him on the warmer thingy to do the various tests and stuff. He didn't like that one bit! As they did that, Katrina got me stitched up and cleaned up a little. Oh, another funny thing--as soon as he popped out, I asked Jim, "what did we have?" and he said, "it's a boy!" . . . ."Oh wait, no, that's just his umbilical cord . . ." But he was right after all, even though he wasn't looking at the right part to start with. :)

We named our precious baby Samuel James. He was just a little guy, being 3 weeks early . . . 5 lb., 14 oz. and 19.5" long.

Within a couple hours, I was all put back together, Sam was bathed and dressed, and we got to eat some supper and make phone calls to our families. And so that was my birth experience! I never even got to use the labor tub, as I had hoped, but in the end, I didn't even care! I was just so focused on getting him out, it didn't really matter what means were used to accomplish it!

So that's my birth story. For Sam's birth, at least, I was blessed to have a very short, easy labor and delivery. Though it was very intense at the time, I would much rather have it be that way and get it over with quickly! I had only 5 1/2 hours total of active labor; Sam was born about 3 hours after we arrived at the hospital. I hope all my babies will come that quickly and easily, and I'm also hoping that giving birth in the comfort of my own home will help me to relax more, so I won't be as likely to have the blood pressure issues that I did in the hospital. We will see!