Best day of work ever

My very first day off orientation at Kaiser was with my dad and my two sisters. How exciting is that? It was a great night and what love and support I felt the whole time. 

Welcome to the World (part 2)

Time gets blurry for me after 8:00 when my midwife and her student show up. I was in some good labor at this point and I didn't have my cell phone to write things down. I do know that I was really concerned to not go poop in the tub (sorry for TMI, but this is my birth story). While it would really not have mattered to Rich if I did, he sort of freaked out a the thought of the fish net to scoop out poop if it did happen. Since I was concerned about this I noticed any time I felt like I had pressure. So, a couple times when I had pressure I would check myself to see if I could get up and use the bathroom. 

Student midwife Rose

My midwife Jen checking his heartbeat

The next time I checked myself I was 7cm. I think it was my sister Devyn on Facetime at that point who asked what I was doing. I laughed as I told her I was checking myself. Then I think someone in the room started laughing about how funny/strange/weird it is to have a patient who knows too much about themselves and labor. Some people who do homebirths, and even hospital births with my patients, decline to have vaginal exams, but that really wasn't me, I wanted to know what was going on. So after I checked myself I got up and went to the bathroom. By the time I got back to the bathroom I was feeling sort of nauseated, but never threw up. I also noticed after I got back that I stopped listening to my sisters on Facetime, and really stopped interacting with almost everyone unless it was to have them help me or to ask them to do something for me. 

During this time the girls were sent downstairs to watch TV. I had spent a lot of time preparing them for this birth. We talked a lot about it, we watched videos and I also reassured them a lot that that they didn't have to watch him be born if they were scared or afraid. Both girls said they wanted to be there and Rich told me later that during the last hour or so Cara had come upstairs at least 3 times to see if it was time for Baby Mac to be born yet. If you know my girls and TV you know it is a big deal for them to leave the TV for any reason, so when I started pushing I did have them come up to be there. 

I ended up checking myself one more time and I was 8cm and my water hadn't broken. Around 9:15 or so I started pushing on my own and I started to feel his head come down so I had my parents come back in the room. I also made sure Rich turned on the video camera- since my birth with Ryann we forgot to turn on the camera until she was born, and my birth with Cara got recorded over by her first bath- it was pretty important to me to have that recorded. I haven't watched the video yet, but it was on a tripod, so we will see how well it turned out. Once I get it uploaded to the computer I get to send it to my sister Ashley who wasn't able to be connected to us during the birth. :) And I guess any of my other siblings or in laws who want to see it (Pete???)

Once I started pushing I felt my water break. My midwife and I announced it at the same time. As I kept pushing I realized that he was a lot bigger than Cara. I was expecting maybe an 8lb baby because he felt bigger, but I had gained less weight than with Cara so I just felt that he wasn't a lot bigger, but some. My ultrasound the day before estimated 8lbs 7oz. When he wasn't coming out faster than Cara, as most 3rd babies do, I was starting to wonder just how much bigger he was. I tried pushing in a couple different positions. I pushed a couple times on my hands and knees, then in a more traditional way, and finally I was using my doula and Rich to help lift me and my mom was helping hold up my head to give me more force. 

Turns out his head was a lot bigger than Cara's. He was also coming down with his hand by his face which can also make pushing a lot harder. Once his head was about half way out I was able to look down and see that he had hair. It looked pretty light to me, but then again most of my patients are Hispanic and their babies have lots of black hair. (Turns out his hair is brown for now)

I finally was able to push out his head but his shoulders didn't slip out very easily. My midwife let me rest for a little while but then reminded me that I still needed to push out his shoulders. I wasn't having a contraction, so I didn't really want to push, but then when I did start pushing I didn't really feel like I was doing anything to get him out. 

Homebirth midwives are a lot more hands off than we typically are in the hospital. So part of us were just waiting for my body to do the rest of the work, but then I started to realize that I needed some help to get him out. If babies in the hospital have their heads out but the rest of the baby isn't out then we have a few maneuvers that we use to get the baby out. I knew this, was thinking about this, and requested my midwife to just "pull him out" a few more seconds and I just yelled for my dad. I will have to listen to the video of it, but I really think I just said, "Dad! Help!" 

My Dad isn't one to interfere or intervene without being asked, but as soon as I said that he was telling me what to do, he jumped in the birth tub and had Mac out within a matter of seconds. I know Mac would have come out fine without my dad there, but it was really nice that he was there and was able to intervene, because I was sooo done.

My midwife joked later that it was our secret plan to get my dad to do his very first waterbirth.  :)

Daniel Richard McCrary Hamilton  or "Mac" was born on July 10, 2013 at 9:30pm.

He weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 6oz (almost 2 pounds bigger than my last baby)

with a head measuring 14inches and a chest of 14.5 inches. 

21.5 inches long

3 days past his due date. 

He was born at home, a waterbirth, with a midwife in attendance. His daddy was there, grandparents were there, his 2 big sisters, a student midwife, 2 aunties electronically, a doula, and a wonderful friend. It was hard and chaotic and peaceful and amazing and wonderful all at the same time. 

Short Day

Wednesday is my short day at work. Right now I am working in the office 5-6 days a week so that I can get home at noon on wednesdays and by 3:30 every other day of the week. I know, it is crazy, but this is what works best for me right now to be able to spend the most amount of time possible with the girls.

In the past 24 hours I had attended 4 births and was pleasantly surprised when everyone delivered in time for me to rush home and play with these nuggets. 

I actually had a lot of errands to run, they just thought we were playing the whole time because I tried hard to make it fun.

 While getting our oil changed we walked to the local water and ice. Cara paid with her birthday money to get snow cones in "princess" flavor for her and Ryann. She also bought herself some candy. 

Then we headed over to costco to get the tires rotated. This costco has the busiest tire center so it took an hour and a half. We played for awhile in the tires. Then headed over to get every sample possible, then to shop for baby Mac, then we tried out all the bikes and chairs and found a place to color and basically we wore ourselves out.

But we had a good day. And no one is in labor so I might get some sleep tonight!  (might have just jinxed myself, but who cares, I said it anyway!)

Midwife Appointments

Most of you know the plan for this baby is to have him at home. It doesn't always work out that way but right now that is the plan. The best part of this plan is that my midwife comes to my house for my visits!

(I can also go to her office, but it is so much easier when she comes to me!)

Please excuse my extremely white belly, but seriously, when am I gonna tan this thing?

Ryann loves to be a part of the visits. She helps take my blood pressure, listen to the baby, and here she is trying to hear baby Mac with the fetoscope. 

 My wonderful midwife Jen and Ryann taking my blood pressure. 

It is really a neat experience to have Ryann so involved with this baby. Cara too, but she is just always so busy that she doesn't want to sit still.

Wake Up Call

I am often called away in the middle of the night for a birth. On the weekends Rich is really good to me and lets me sleep in when this happens.  

However, Cara is not as nice, she snuck in the bedroom, set up pretty pretty princess and when she woke me up to play it was too cute to not have Rich take a picture of us. I think she won, but I was too tired to tell if she was cheating or not.