The Birth Story

By far Ethan's birth has been the most relaxing birth I've had.  A big part of that is due to having a home birth.  Another part is that this is the first baby I've had during the night, so I slept through part of labor, which makes everything go so much faster.

Well Friday night was the same as every other night.  Luckily my midwife came over earlier that day and dropped off all of the birth stuff.  I didn't eat anything special or go running, even though I told Josh I was going to run if the baby didn't get here soon.  We stayed up late watching TV and headed to bed at 11.  I was having contractions, but I've been having them for 2 months.

I tried to sleep for a few hours but found myself waking up to have a contraction and then falling back asleep.  After this happened a few times I finally got up and got in the bath.  A couple more contractions later I knew I needed Josh to start timing them.  I called his name for a good 5 minutes, even though he was sleeping twenty feet away.  He very clumsily came into the bathroom and asked if I had been calling for him and told me it was 3am.  He timed my contractions for about twenty minutes and called my midwife.

When I first got into the tub I was having contractions about two minutes apart.  When Josh started timing them they had spread to roughly 5 minutes apart, then went back to three minutes apart.  While Josh talked to my midwife the actual contraction went from 30 to 60-90 seconds long.  My midwife had us time contractions for another ten minutes and call her back.  My contractions were now only two minutes apart.  When Josh called her back she could hear me in the background and knew I was in labor without a doubt.

Josh started blowing up the tub and I attempted to put my contacts back in.  I ended up sitting on the bathroom floor for a good half hour waiting for the tub to be blown up and filled with water.  Josh had me time my own contractions and they were a minute apart and at least a minute long.  At some point during this we had to sit down and decide what we were going to name this baby if it was a boy.  We had a girls name, but hadn't decided on a boys name.

My midwife showed up when the tub was almost full of water.  She checked me really fast and said I was already 8cm dilated.  I got in the tub and started to really want this baby out!  My midwife told me to try and break my water, which was a really cool, but weird experience.  I tried but could not break it, she tried and couldn't, so we ended up using a little hook that got it right out.

During the next few contractions I would take a breath and then push, and I repeated that throughout the whole contraction.  I had a lot of back pressure and knew I was almost done.  After about ten minutes of this there was a baby head out.  Josh describes this as the really weird part.  The baby head was out and he moved it around a little.  After thirty seconds my midwife told me baby had turned its body and I could push the rest out.  One little push and I had a baby.

At this point we still didn't know if we had a little girl or boy.  My midwife grabbed the baby and put it in my arms.  Baby had made a couple of small noises but wasn't breathing that great.  After five minutes and a few puffs of oxygen everything was just fine, and we found out we had a little boy!

The rest is what normally happens.  A placenta, cutting the cord, breastfeeding, both of us getting checked out, a shower, a diaper, and getting peed on.  You know you have a little boy when you get peed on.

Everything has been great so far!  We're doing okay with little sleep for now.  Poor Josh started his new job today and hasn't had much sleep.  We've worried a little bit about him (Ethan, not Josh) eating enough and pooping enough, but things are working themselves out almost perfectly.  If we're not functioning well for a few weeks you know why!