Thursday, January 27, 2011

Analyn's SURPRISE unassisted birth!

I don't know if it had anything to do with it, but we went out for Indian food Saturday night. My doula friend made a comment that it would put me into labor and I told her I hoped not because I was still holding out for the better birth tub to get back!

I woke up with mild but more-than-BH contractions a little after 3am. I went back to sleep between them for a little more than an hour, with a prayer (more of a plea) that this wasn't it, I wanted that nicer tub! I never really bothered timing them, but they must have been about 10 minutes apart the way they were affecting my sleep. Around 4:30 I knew they weren't going away and I needed to fill the tub back up since I never filled it after the last empty. The tub takes about 2.5 water-heater-fulls so I knew we'd have to run some cold water in and boil pots of water. NOT the ideal way to do it, but we'd make it work. The sound of the water was enough to wake Craig and he got up and helped boil water.

I turned off the water to the tub when it started to run cold and texted the doula and the sitter that I was in labor but didn't need anyone yet. I was already having a lot of back pain with each contraction, so I put on the TENS unit and got back in bed hoping to get more rest. I was able to dose between contractions and my dearest husband kept filling big pots and bringing boiling water up every 20-30 minutes until the water was hot enough we figured we could add cold water to make it deep enough if I wanted to get in sooner than the water heater was hot again (if that makes sense...). Then Craig came back to bed until we heard the boys getting up. I texted my friend that the boys were getting up so if she could head over soon that would be helpful.

I stayed down stairs for a bit but decided I'd rather be in my room and went back. I realized I had no idea when the last time I had washed my hair had been, so I took a shower. I got a contraction ever time I leaned over to get something, but the water felt good when it hit my belly so I stood in the stream for a while until I wanted to sit down again. It was hard to get dried off and dressed when every movement gave me a contraction! I tried to lay down for a while, but I found that when I laid down the contractions were not as frequent but stronger and harder to deal with. So I got back up and moved between the ball and pacing. My plan was to call the doula when I couldn't get through contractions without moaning and call the midwife when I needed to get in the tub.

The end went really quickly. Before 11, I texted the doula and asked her to come and she got here about 11:20. Around noon I wanted to get in the tub. Craig got me some water and ice and called the midwife at 12:15. A few contractions later I started to think the pressure in my lower back was "push pressure", not just back labor. I told Craig and the doula that the midwife might not make it. Craig asked if that was ok with me or if I wanted him to call 911. I said it was fine. I tried not to push for a few contractions and just let the breathing do it, but then I HAD to push!!! I felt for her and realized that she was close and my water hadn't broken. A couple contractions later my water broke. Then it was just a few more contractions and her head was out. I sat back on Craig's lap and pushed out the rest of her while the doula helped catch.

I got her up out of the water and she was BRIGHT purple, but that's normal because waterbabies don't get any oxygen when their heads are born. She was looking around and looked like she wasn't sure if she should cry or not. We held her and talked to her and I offered her the breast a few times until she took it. The doula called the midwife and left her a message that the baby had been born. Then we just waited!

The midwife came 20 minutes later and her assistant was a few minutes behind her. She gave me a big hug and congratulated me on a job well-done. We talked for a bit about what happened, whether or not I had passed the placenta (I hadn't), and decided to get out to push out the placenta since it hadn't come yet. Her cord was really short so we decided to cut it before climbing out (it had LONG since stopped pulsing!) and Craig said I could cut it since he had cut both boys' cords. They helped me climb out and I pushed out the placenta.

Then I got to climb into my own bed and they checked me out, no tears, just one little nick, everything else was great. They sat down on the floor of the bathroom and checked out the placenta and then brought it back for me to check out. So cool! They checked out Analyn, decided she was perfect, cleaned up the bathroom, did the laundry, helped me go to the bathroom to try to pee, then left me in bed and went downstairs to do their charting. They came back up an hour or two later before leaving to see if I was awake and say goodbye.


After building a relationship with them, I'm sorry they couldn't be there, but it really was amazing and the most empowering thing I've every done!

She was 8lb 8oz and 21.75in long. Her head was 13.5" around. She didn't even lose 5% of her body weight! At 2 days she was 8lb 1.8oz. before nursing and 3.4 ounces after. At 3 days she was 8lb 6oz.

There aren't any pictures or video of the birth since there was no one to take them:( But are some from immediately after and then through checks and clean up.









With Big Brother Eli:


With Big Brother Jordan:

3 comments:

  1. So much fun to read Sarah. It would be interesting to read what I wrote about your birth now. It may be in you baby book.

    Love Ya, Dad

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  2. Probably makes many of us wonder what we wrote or thought "back when". Congrats to all!

    aa

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  3. Your friend Maria Starr sent me the link to this. Lovely! What an amazing job you and your husband did! I too have had a home birth (with my frist) and plan for hopefully many more. Congrats!

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