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!  

Welcome to the world

Ethan was born this morning weighing 5 lbs 3 oz and 18.25" long!

The Birth Story

Friday morning I went in to my OB exam hoping I would be told I was dilated more and couldn't be sent home.  I was told I was 4cm.  It was kinda heartbreaking at that point.  My doctor went on ahead and stripped my membranes for me.  I was sent home with a 50% of having a baby within 24 hours.  We got home around 9:15am.

Josh had class so off he went to the U.  At 11 I started having contractions that were actually painful.  For the last month I've had contractions every day, but they weren't painful.  Josh left class and we got to the hospital at 12:15.

When I first got there I was 7cm already.  FINALLY!  I was moved back to a LDR.  My doctor came in and offered to break my water at that point.  I decided to wait a little longer and see what was going to happen.  At that point I wasn't talking through contractions but I was able to breathe through them just fine.  After an hour they checked me again and found out I was still a 7.  At that point I gave up my plans for a natural birth.  I was still breathing through contractions but I was starting to get really tired.  Then comes the epidural.

So the epidural worked on one side of me really well, the other side it made my leg go to sleep, but I could feel the pressure from the hips up.  Once my legs were asleep they checked me again and I was at a 9.  My doctor went ahead and broke my water since it wasn't looking like it would break on its own.  I still felt the pressure in my leg despite trying to move or increase the dosage of the epidural.  After twenty minutes the pressure wasn't going away and I knew it was time to push.  The doctor came in and I started pushing.  I pushed 3 times during one contraction and out came a cute little girl!


Now came the interesting part.  With Michael I had a bad placenta.  I don't know what exactly was wrong with it but it just sucked.  It was constantly trying to come out, which was why I bled through pregnancy.  I had the opposite problem with this placenta, it wouldn't come out!  After twenty minutes the doctor finally had to put her whole hand up there and rip the placenta out.  It sounds painful right?  Well it is!!  It hurt worse than labor.  Labor was a joy compared to this.  Thankfully it was done in a couple of minutes.

Overall my labor was short and sweet, minus the afterbirth.  Josh and I were joking that we will need to move next to a hospital before we have any more children!

About one day old

My favorite people in the world!

Anger or Sadness?

I've had a few friends having babies lately and they are all the same, a cute bundle of joy that they get to hold and cuddle with.  I'm happy for them, I really am, but something eats at me.  I know it stems back to when Michael was born.  For those of you who don't remember, Michael wasn't breathing when he was born.  He wasn't blue and his heart rate was great, but he wasn't breathing for a few minutes.  On top of that he had blood sugar issues, an infection (strep-F....ya I thought there was only A and B), and later Acid Reflux that made his breathing issues worse when he was eating.  Needless to say I didn't hold my baby after he was born.  I didn't hold him for 3 hours after he was born, and even then I was urged to go away.

I've carried a lot of anger (or maybe sadness that has made me bitter) with me because of all of this.  I wasn't ready to push, so why was I told to?  Why wasn't there a doctor in the hospital when I was told to start pushing?  Why wasn't there a doctor in the hospital when I gave birth?  Why couldn't I at least see my son when he was born?  Why was I left in the recovery room for 2 hours and not told anything about him?  Why would the mother-baby unit nurses not let me go see my son when it was obvious that I could walk just fine?  More importantly, why did I decide to deliver in Logan? I hated my doctor from the beginning, but I had little choice in the matter (there aren't enough doctors in Logan).  I knew I wouldn't be happy giving birth there, but I did anyways.

All I can do is hope things are better this time around.  I'm going to scream if I have to; I'm going to get what I want!  I'm going to have a decent doctor who understands that if I can't have my baby with me (which I can guarantee I won't because I will always have small babies with blood sugar issues) I need to go to my baby right away.

A part of me feels like I need to examine these feelings a little more so I can let them go, but I also know I don't want to think about them.  I don't want to remember how it felt at the time and how it still feels.  It's hard to avoid when all of the babies I've seen lately are perfectly healthy and with their moms.  O well.