Friday morning on 7/24/15 I headed over to my grandparents house to help my grandpa get my grandma ready for the day. My parents had left out of town the night before so I was going to help out my grandparents until they got back. I was 1 day past my due date.
When I got to their house I made a large batch of waffles for my grandma who is on hospice. It is her favorite breakfast and I take out the salt so that she doesn't have too much salt in her diet. We fed her breakfast and then her home health aide came to help for the morning. Grandpa and I decided to take a trip to Costco with the kids while the aide was there.
We loaded up the car and off we went to Costco. We got the necessities like a 50lb bag of flour, a giant watermelon, a new pair of PJs for Mac, some blueberries, and about a hundred samples. You better believe I pushed that cart all over Costco and I even ran into two friends. We chatted, they wished me luck and then grandpa and I fed the masses ice cream from Costco. (And when I say masses you obviously know that was all 5 of us who went to Costco!!)
The drive home was uneventful and I dropped grandpa off at home. Rich helped me unload the car and then I put Mac down for a nap. While he was napping I opened up some crafts for the girls and fell asleep for 2 glorious hours while they did crafts!
When I got up I started working on dinner for everyone and sent rich and the kids to the park. Right before they got home my uncle Paul called me and told me he was coming to napa to help grandpa and grandma for the weekend. He told me not to worry about helping or feeding them dinner, that he would take care of it all. Apparently that was the thing that was holding me back from labor.
You see, I am a firm believer that emotional issues can inhibit labor. If there is something or someone that needs to be there or needs to happen or not happen and it is stressful (even subconsciously) that it can stall labor. For example... With Mac it was my first homebirth and I knew I needed my dad to be there for the birth. He left and came back to Arizona after my due date and then I went into labor the night he came back. For this birth my parents left out of town and I knew that I would be okay if they were here or not.
During dinner I had 3 contractions in a row. They didn't hurt, they just took me by surprise because my contractions have been every 30 minutes for the past couple weeks. I thought to myself, "hey this could lead to something."
After dinner I used the bathroom and around that time I texted my midwife to tell her I had a few contractions and I would let her know if they turned into anything. This was around 630pm. Rich was downstairs with the kids so I came down and told him that I thought we should pack up our bags and go to my sister's house.
The problem with our current situation is that we are living with my parents. My mom didn't want us to have a homebirth in her house. We were very respectful of her wishes so we decided to continue with our plan of a homebirth and birth our baby a few miles away at my sister's house.
I texted my sister to tell her we were on our way to her house. She said she would be home around 8. After a few more contractions I went to find Rich and he was sitting on he couch playing on his iPad. I looked at him and said, "seriously?" He didn't believe that it was really happening. So I told him again it was time to start packing up. He jumped up and started rushing around to get stuff together.
Believe it or not I didn't believe it was happening either. This was the first pregnancy that I wasn't being checked every couple days, had my membranes stripped, or multiple ultrasounds. This was also the first baby I didn't know the gender.
At 730 I texted my midwife to let her know I thought labor was starting and since she is an hour away she should come meet us at the house. At this point rich and I finally got the kids loaded and we were at my sisters around 8. Rich got Mac to bed and started blowing up the birth tub.
830 and the tub still isn't ready but my midwife arrives. The contractions are tolerable and still kind of far apart. I told rich that I wasn't in hard labor yet and I told him this all the way until 930 pm.
During this time we laughed and joked and put family on FaceTime. Telling them all we would FaceTime when things got closer. At some point the birth photographer showed up and started taking pictures.
As soon as the tub was ready I jumped in. It was much hotter than expected so I spent time in an out of it to keep cool. Every contraction rich pushed on my lower back to help with the pain. It was extremely helpful and comforting to have him there with me the whole time. My sister ashley was also awesome as she got cool towels, helped with the kids, and made sure (along with ryann) that my drink was always full.
Ryann and Cara helped a lot too. They got me water and kisses and hugs and ryann even played music on her iPod for me. The music was somewhat ridiculous and when chipmunk Christmas music started playing I made her turn it off.
We had joked for the past few months that this baby would be born at 1030. Ryann was born right around 730. Cara around 830. Mac exactly at 930 and we thought it would be funny for this baby to be born at 1030. When I finally told rich I was in "hard labor" at 945 I knew there was no way I would be having a baby at 1030. At 945 I was still 6 cm with a thick cervix and my water hadn't broken.
Come 1020 and rich is texting my sisters telling them he will call when things get closer. The girls are downstairs watching a movie and playing games with a friend and my mom is on FaceTime. I am out of the tub and sitting on a birthing ball when all of the sudden I feel like I need to push.
I get kind of excited so I hop back in the tub and I have another contraction at 1024. I push a little and say, "that one felt different". So I check my cervix and I am only 7centimeters open and my cervix is still thick. I am super bummed that I am. Not ready to push when my body made me feel like it was ready, so I decided to just get out of the tub and go to the bathroom.
While in the bathroom I start to have another contraction and I can't help it but I start pushing. I think I yelled, "I'm pushing" as I feel my water break and the head start to come. My midwife must have done some crazy maneuvering and rich jumped out of the way (he was helping me get from the tub to the bathroom) and I hear my midwife remind me to stand up and reach down and grab my baby.
I reach down and pull the baby out. That is when I was able to check out who this baby was. A sweet red headed girl who surprised me by coming so quickly.
I think it was my sister who then excitedly told everyone that it was 1030.
I believe we were all a little shocked by how quickly it went, so as I am holding my sweet baby girl in my arms my midwife asks me to walk back to the bed. As I pass the birthing tub I ask her if I can get back in there instead- she laughs at me and encourages me to get into the bed instead.
Around 30 minutes later I deliver my placenta and when the cord stops pulsing we cut the cord. This time around I wasn't surprised to see the 9lb 2 ounce baby scale after I finished feeding her.
I had a little more bleeding than expected (approx 500cc) so the midwife did give me a shot of pitocin, and it quickly slowed down.
I believe we were all a little shocked by how quickly it went, so as I am holding my sweet baby girl in my arms my midwife asks me to walk back to the bed. As I pass the birthing tub I ask her if I can get back in there instead- she laughs at me and encourages me to get into the bed instead.
Around 30 minutes later I deliver my placenta and when the cord stops pulsing we cut the cord. This time around I wasn't surprised to see the 9lb 2 ounce baby scale after I finished feeding her.
I had a little more bleeding than expected (approx 500cc) so the midwife did give me a shot of pitocin, and it quickly slowed down.
It was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget.
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