I posted a few months ago about wanting a home birth vs hospital birth. Everyone on this group was so supportive and we decided to do a home birth. I am so glad that we did.
I thought I was going to be “overdue” but I figured that, like my first child, it would only be a few days. Umm..nope, I was 13 days “overdue”. At 41 w 4 d my midwife wanted me to go to the hospital and get an non-stress test. Everything looked was great except for a couple of jabs from the on call doc about my homebirth so I went home. At 41 w 6 d I went back for another one. Ugh. I was really stressed at this point because my midwife couldn’t continue my care after 42 weeks. Everything looked amazing again.
I got home around 3:00 and took 4 T of castor oil. It wasn’t bad since I mixed it up in a root beer float 🙂 Nothing happened…and by nothing I mean none of the side effects that you hear castor oil giving you. I figured it was worthless. My mom and I walked to the store to get some stuff for dinner and we rented a movie. The boys got home from hiking and we started the movie around 8. I don’t think I made it even5 minutes into it. I was sitting on the exercise ball and pressure waves started coming every minute and a half. I started panicking thinking that this is not right, these are way too fast. My husband Brian gave me a blessing and I got in the shower. Brian called the midwife, Kathy. She said she would be about an hour. I got out when the hot water ran out and they had spaced out to about 5 minutes apart. These were easy to handle, every time one would come I would just drop to my knees and lean on my exercise ball in front of the fan. Kathy got there and got set up and took vitals and everything. I was a little worried labor was going to stop. Finally at two am I asked Kathy to check me and she called it a generous three….I was a little discouraged. Right after her check things got intense fast. Brian was totally AMAZING. I really don’t know what I would do without him. I got in the tub which felt great. After an hour Kathy wanted me to get out and walk around some.
I started feeling the urge to push so she checked me and I had a little lip left but said I could push if I wanted. I labored on the toilet for a little bit and then got back in the tub. I didn’t have that overwhelming urge to push with Claire but boy….I couldn’t have stopped pushing if I wanted to. My midwife was so laid back. She just sat in the rocking chair and every 5-10 minutes (I think) came and checked the heart rate which was always great. I loved being by myself to push. I could reach and feel the head coming down. BOP It was really hard to slow down when he started crowning and I did let out a scream when his head came out…I totally felt a little tear…yuck. END He was born in his amniotic sac which was so cool. I tested negative for GBS but was positive for my first pregnancy so I visualized my water not breaking. Yay!
Kathy just came over and guided him up to the surface and unwrapped the cord which was around his neck and body. I sat back and brought him up to me. It was amazing. He just looked around at everyone and didn’t cry at all. He had some stuff in his throat but Kathy said it wasn’t bad and he could work it out. No rough suctioning!! We sat in the water for a long time. I think it was over ten minutes before his cord stopped pulsating. No crying…just relaxed. Finally Brian cut the cord and took Jack…my feet were falling asleep. I couldn’t stretch out in the tub because I was a little too short to reach the other side without Jack getting too low to the water.
He was born at 6:18 am on 6/18 so I went from a 3 to delivered in 4 hours. He had 9/9 apgar scores. I think I nursed him in the tub and then when I got out. kathy examined the placenta which I delivered when I was in the tub. After an hour maybe? she did the newborn exam. Nothing was rushed…everything was done at the end of my bed. My baby was never taken way. I had one tear up but it wasn’t worth stitching and hasn’t hurt. Amazing considering Jack is over two lbs heavier than my first at 8 lbs 15 oz! In fact, my bleeding has been so much less compared to Claire’s birth. Pain too…I took someIbuprofen but not much and not all the time. Recovery is going so good this time. He is three weeks old and we have moved from Washington to Utah. I loved my homebirth and my husband, who was TOTALLY against homebirth when we were first married, loved it too. He talks about it all the time. Once again, Hypnobabies was amazing. I kept repeating phrases over and over. It was intense but awesome.