Drumroll, Please!

So… I know you guys are dying to hear how the birth went. We had a few prenatals and when she was 40 weeks 6 days, she went into early labor early that morning.

Her contractions were about 15 minutes apart, and she wasn’t having any trouble working through them, so she just kept the midwife updated who kept me updated.

The next morning, I get a phone call at about 5:30, and she is having contractions 3-4 minutes apart so we are on our way over. I get dressed and drive the hour down to see her.

When I looked at her, I was just fascinated with how her belly would get hard during a contraction. It would just squish all around the baby’s bum, and I thought it was the coolest thing I have ever seen. She was breathing through them, but could still talk between the contractions, so I knew she wasn’t that far along.

After a couple hours of watching her, we decide to go out and get some drinks while she labors. It was like watching a pot boil haha. We went to a coffee shop and talked for an hour and went back to see how she was doing.

She was able to sleep while we were gone, so we checked the baby, and everything was good. A couple hours later, she doesn’t look like her contractions are getting harder or closer at all, so the midwife offers to check her to see.

She is 3-4 cms, so we leave and tell her to go out and have fun, walk around, do things to speed it up, or just relax and enjoy the last moments before you have your baby.

I got home and waited for the call to go back. I fell asleep thinking I would get a call early in the morning, but at 8 am I woke up and was terrified I had missed the call.

At 9:15, the midwife called and her water had just broken, so today we were having a baby.

I drive down, and there was a huge difference from Saturday. She was shaking and throwing up, and she wasn’t talking during or inbetween contractions. She was definitely in transition this time.

She moved to the bedroom to labor on the bed, and we sat watching, giving her little words of encouragement here and there. She labored beautifully. She would say it hurt and she couldn’t do this, but her mom was the greatest support I have ever seen. She would reassure her and tell her she is doing great, and she would calm right down.

Inbetween her contractions, she would fall asleep. She had been up for 2 days and was so tired.

Finally, a little before noon, she started grunting during contractions. She did this for about an hour, and there still wasn’t any bulging during her pushes, so Christy decided to check and see what was going on.

She still had an anterior lip of cervix, so we flipped her onto her hands and knees to get rid of it. As soon as she was over, she pushed with her next contraction, and there was definite bulging. She was fully dilated and ready to go.

The coolest thing about her being on her hands and knees was seeing the line of being fully dilated. At the end of your butt crack, when you are fully dilated, there is a line that looks kind of like a wrinkle. It extends up about 2 inches when you are fully dilated. This way you don’t have to be checked and we all know you are good to go.

She pushed for about an hour and the baby would come down, and then go right back up after the contraction was over.

We had her switch back onto her back and had her go through some directed pushing. We had her try a few different ways, and they worked great, but the baby still kept going back up. She wasn’t descending at all.

So, we decided it was time to do the squat. Inbetween contractions, we moved her to the end of the bed and had her squat on the floor. After one push this way, she was doing soooo much better. But her foot kept cramping, so we decided to have her do hands and knees on the floor.

The midwife told her that she needed to keep pushing, even after contractions to keep that baby descended. She was getting so tired, and having a head inbetween your legs doesn’t help.

Once she figured this out, she pushed beautifully. The baby was out about 20 minutes later, and when her head was out, she kept making the cutest faces. She would purse her lips and look around, and just taking stock of the world. The next push she was out and the midwife caught the baby and then laid her on the floor in front of her mom.

Once the baby was out, she wouldn’t stop bleeding. She had to have someone else hold the baby because she got so dizzy.

The second the midwife figured there was something wrong, she got a dose of Hemhalt and gave it to her. It slowed the bleeding down, but not enough. She gave another dose and we sat her down and the bleeding finally slowed down enough we didn’t have to worry.

Because she was sooo tired, her uterus was exhausted too and was having trouble contracting to stop the bleeding. Once it got that jump start, it worked beautifully.

Her placenta came out, and had some trailing membranes, but the midwife did a beautiful job making sure she got them all without tearing anything.

After that was out, we had her sit on the floor for about another half hour. We then moved her to the bed and started the clean up and the placenta exam.

After that we did the newborn exam, and then we did the postpartum talk, and helped the baby latch on, and then we left.

The birth was sooooo amazing. We only turned the lights on when we looked for tears, and otherwise it was just us and the family in the room with her.

She did beautifully! She labored so well, and watching her and her husband hold the baby later just brought tears to my eyes. (Even though I had to stop myself from crying multiple times since I got there…)

She actively pushed for 2+ hours, but we think if she had not been scared of the hurt of pushing and kept the baby down inbetween, she would have had her out sooner. She was 8 days ‘overdue’, by hospital standards, and if she had been in a hospital, because of her long drawn out labor, she would have been augmented or even sectioned because of the longer pushing phase.

The family is doing great, and it was an amazing first experience!!!! Yay, Homebirth!!