Now Birthing.... Daughters!

Well, I may have to change the name of this blog, because..... It's a girl!

We are so proud to be the parents of 5 children now, and even more excited to welcome our first girl. She is a beautiful baby and looks so much like our oldest boy when he was born. The funny part is that she has red hair, so my previous post, where I'm ranting about "not over doing it with the pink clothes" probably needs to be disregarded. Red heads look great in pink! That will teach me...!

I have a lot to say about the whole home birth/unassisted experience, but for now, I just want to share the actual birth story. Its not a messy or unusual birth story, pretty typical thankfully.

After my last post on Thursday, my husband and I sat down for our nightly ritual - watching a few episodes of "Highlander". I sort of timed contractions, but after nodding off during the 2nd episode and having contractions wake me up, decided I should go to bed. It was about 1 am and I felt that we would probably have a baby soon, maybe even before morning, so we set about getting things ready. We put water and washcloths in a crock pot and put it on low heat (by the way, this was too hot! If you are going to use this setting, put it on the warm setting so your attendant doesn't burn their hands when getting washcloths out. Thankfully, my husband works with very hot water every day and has hands made of Kevlar!) I prepared a small tea pot of the herb Shepherd's Purse, just to have it on hand in case of hemorrhaging. We got out some towels for catching the baby, set our umbilical scissors in an alcohol solution by the bed and got the bag of homeopathic remedies out. And then we went to bed. Or rather, he went to bed and I tried.

After laying down for about 10 minutes, it was clear that the contractions were NOT going to go away and that laying down was actually making them MORE uncomfortable. I decided to sit up in my rocking chair (sitting on a puddle pad) and try to watch a movie. These contractions were strong, but nothing I couldn't work through. Over the next hour, they moved from 10 minutes apart to 6 minutes and finally, I got to a point that I just couldn't count the passing seconds or relax through the contractions anymore. I had to get up and evacuate my bladder 2 times with the last 2 contractions and as I got up for the third time, I decided that I just couldn't go through anymore contractions without my husband! I needed my back rubbed and some help focusing through the difficult parts, so I woke him up. As I was sitting on the toilet, I started to feel that familiar feeling of pushing, making its way toward me. I knew that I had to get off the toilet, but I really wanted to ease the pressure on my bladder and was waiting for my water to break and give me some relief. It must have broke while I was there, but I couldn't tell. My husband helped (read: MADE me get off the toilet) me get out of the bathroom and I made it to the bed and stood at the foot. We realized it was almost time.

While he busily gathered supplies, I focused through the next contraction. The need to push started to take over. Part of my preparations for this birth was realizing that I didn't want to push when my body wasn't ready or push too fast and end up with a tear. I really tried to let my body do the work. Just as I needed to bear down, my husband was there and ready to catch. I started to push and still felt like there should have been a rush of water and maybe the bag was in the way, so I asked my husband to check if the head was coming down and if he could feel a bag. He said that there was no bag, just a head. My husband applied a hot washcloth to my perineum and I pushed with the next contraction. The head was completely out and with the last contraction, our little girl was born at 2:55 am!

After a few hours of sleep, we woke up our boys and let them all come visit their new little sis. Our toddler was probably the most excited. He couldn't stop laughing and saying "baby!" It was so nice to have them be the first people to see their sister and have that peace of being at home. It was very special.

We made an appointment that morning with our family doctor so we could both get checked out. I had no major tears, just one small "stretch" that is a little tender, but did not need stitches. Our little girl checked out beautifully. She wasn't covered in vernix, just a little left in the creases of her legs and arms, so we know she was born right on time! She had great color and vigor from the start and has been nursing like a champ! Really, the whole process could not have gone better and I feel so blessed to have come through pregnancy and delivery healthy and with a healthy baby.

If you have any questions about the birth or anything else that I've written about, please feel free to ask. I'm hoping I can cover a lot of those in my next post. Take care :)