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| Where do I begin? This is the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. This was not my first homebirth, but it was the best birth out of all three. So many things were concerning me.... we weren't in our home, I am living with my mother and she and I have major "issues", and my baby seemed very happy in his breech position. In the end...simply none of it
mattered.
I had really planned to have a water birth this time. I had made arrangements to rent a birthing tub. I was supposed to pick it up March 8th. I was due March 13th. I gave birth to my other children on Friday June 13th, and Friday November 13th...so I was assuming this baby would also be born on the 13th!! Even if it was a Monday and not a Friday.
February 29th I began having some leakage that I thought might be my membranes....I didn't really think it was, but decided to have it checked out anyway. It wasn't my membranes....just "stuff" as my midwife described it. We went home. My husband was dissapointed...he really liked the idea of a leap-year baby.
Thursday March 2nd I went to the mall with the kids. Suddenly I felt soaked! I turned to a complete stranger with a baby and said..."I think my water broke!" I went to the bathroom and sitting in my panties was my mucous plug. Looked just like a jelly fish. EWWW!
I was at the mall to buy some baby clothes since I did not have one single item of newborn clothing. I left without buying anything.
Friday March 3rd, I woke up from a dream that someone kicked me in the crotch. In my dream my water had broken...I woke up and my water broke on the bed. :) My daughter's birth began with a dream also. I immediately began having contractions and with my history of precipitous labor, I felt like we needed to hurry and call people. We were NOT ready for this birth. We did not have all the birth supplies together, I didn't have my tub, no baby
clothes, no comfy place set up, etc.....It all just didn't bother me. I was going to have my baby, I didn't care about all the rest.
My contractions settled down and I was able to eat breakfast. I've never had time to eat while I was in labor. My midwife arrived and I was downstairs walking around....I could not stay still with this labor. I moved constantly...pacing, walking, squatting, doing deep-knee bends. Anything...I just had to keep moving. My doula and birth asst. arrived soon after that. I had asked my birth asst. to bring me a bag of hershey kisses....I craved
chocolate throughout the entire labor. My mother got out her photo album with HER homebirth pictures in it. And we all looked at 22 year old homebirth pictures. :)
My husband took pictures and posted on the computer...my doula, birth asst., and mother massaged my legs and back through each contraction. At one point I decided that I wanted to be in the shower. The downstairs bathroom is handicapped accesible (my mother cared for an elderly relative years ago and we remodeled the bathroom for her wheelchair) so the shower is HUGE with great handicapped bars bolted to the wall. This was a great place to labor.
I squatted and did knee bends while holding onto the bars and my doula used the shower massager on my back. Perfect. I decided I wanted to be checked at this point. I laid on the bed and my midwife examined me...I was 5cm. This was the only contraction that I had to lie down for and it was horrible!! I could barely stand it. I was back on my feet as soon as possible afterwards.
My new favorite position was holding on to the back of one my mother's big wicker chairs and sort of leaning over it. I would remain in this place for the rest of the labor. Things really started getting intense and I decided I needed my husband. Up until then, I had been completely happy with my all-women labor team :) I still didn't want to leave the chair though so my husband sat in the chair and faced backwards. I put my arms around his
neck had my head resting on his shoulder. Somewhere around this point, I started to panick. There was no more resting in between contx. and the pain was getting to be more than I could handle. I started to cry and said that I gave up and didn't want to go on blah blah blah....(we all know what that means :)
Suddenly I had an overwhelming urge to bear down. I wasn't pushing...it was just happening. I went down in a squat but my body was bearing down so hard that I lost my balance and fell back against my mother. I kept trying to get back up because I didn't want to be pushing my baby out lying on my back. I had my eyes tightly closed and I was extremely inward at this point...I was aware that I was sounding out very loudly and I could hear my
mother saying "look in the mirror! look in the mirror" I assumed from this that the baby had begun to crown. But I didn't want to look down and see a little patch of head...I wanted it to be OVER. Finally, my midwife said "JILL, open your eyes and give me your hands!!!" I opened my eyes and there on my stomach was my baby!! I was astonished! I couldn't believe he was out, I kept saying "I had a baby! I had a baby!" I had thought he was just
beginning to crown and in actuality his entire head had been born. My husband said he looked once and there was nothing and he looked back and there was the entire head! There was none of this "I see the head, push a little more etc...." His head just simply came out. I never even heard themidwife say that the cord was around his neck twice. She just looped it over...no big deal. My son came down stairs and we all sang Happy Birthday Baby!
I didn't want the sex of the baby announced. My entire labor team had been instructed to cover baby immediately and noone was to look. I wanted to be alone with my husband and baby when we discovered the sex. We both really, really wanted another son. Everyone went upstairs and my husband and I spent a few minutes just admiring our newborn. We unwrapped him and saw that he was indeed a boy!! My intuition was right!! My birth asst. came
downstairs a few minutes later. We filled up a coffe mug with Hershey kisses wrapped in blue foil and she carried them upstairs and handed them out. That was how we let everyone else know he was a boy :0)
This birth was everything I wanted it to be. I didn't get my birthing tub, but i honestly don't think I would even have wanted to get in. I needed to be constantly active and I don't think sitting would have appealed to me. My labor team was amazing. My husband has been incredible with taking care of me and the older babies. This was my last birth and my favorite birth. I hope you all have the same wonderful experience!!
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