My Birth Story

 Tomorrow is my baby's 2 month birthday. I can't even believe it! As I'm writing this she is sitting in her swing, looking around the room, chomping on her fist. Adorable.

Everest can hold her head steady almost all of the time now, she just gets floppy when she's tired. She is so content by herself for about an hour at a time through most of the day, just needing me for feeding or putting her down for a nap. She also sleeps for at least a 5 hour stretch in the beginning of the night, eats for maybe 30 minutes and sleeps for another 2-5 hours. *Such a blessing* Everest is great at grabbing things, especially for comfort. She'll hold my finger or my shirt or my earbud cord. She likes to hold on to whatever blanket is on her or will clasp her hands together if nothing is near. I need to get some toys that she can hold and play with. Her smiles are the most precious things EVER! I melt every time she smiles. Everest really enjoys her voice. I don't know if the sounds she makes are entirely purposeful, they probably aren't, but she talks most of the day even when she's by herself. Grunts, oohs, ahhs, ga ga's, and giggles fill my house and it's splendid.

Anyways, as a way of celebrating my baby's arrival to this earth I wanted to share how she got here. 

First, my husband and I chose a birth center, a midwife, and to go as natural as circumstances would allow. 

This little girl was so comfortable inside me she was born 13 days past her due date. During those 13 days I was doing the miles circuit and spinning babies course, taking evening primrose oil orally and internally, drinking raspberry leaf tea, bouncing and swaying on an exercise ball, walking (so much walking), I even tried castor oil, tinctures, and homeopathics with my midwife's instruction. I was anxious for baby to be here. 

February 15th 9am-ish my midwife came to my house. She stripped my membranes, checked my cervix (dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced) and told me to walk a lot. So I did.

About 4pm we went down to the birth center to meet with her again. She checked my cervix again, which was now dilated to 4.5 and about 80% effaced. She gave me some tinctures and homeopathics and asked me to eat a good meal and do lots of walking. So my husband and I walked around Ikea which was nearby, picked up some things from his office, and ate some delicious pho at a local Vietnamese restaurant. I was having contractions that would progress by getting longer and closer together but would randomly stop after an hour or so for the past 3 days. That day had the same pattern but with more intense contractions. 

About 8pm we went back to the birth center. Midwife checked my cervix again because we were trying to decide whether to stay there or go home (30 minute drive away with a forecast of snow). I was still dilated at 4.5 and 80% effaced. We went home, midwife stayed at the birth center because she lived an hour away. 

9-ish we get home. We go to bed trying to get as much sleep as possible. At 4:30 am I wake up with contractions. Stephen kicks me out of bed saying, " Don't come back until you have this baby." When I try to get back in he blocks me. Douche move that I don't think I'll ever forget. So I bounce on the exercise ball, eat a snack, make sure all the things we want are packed and the bag is by the door, and I have a bath. At 6:30 I get this distinct feeling that something is different, we needed to go to the birth center. I get out of the bath, wake Stephen, call the midwife. 

7am. We're on the road. There's a terrible snowstorm. It's just dawning. I feel fine, I'm comfortable. But about 7:30, 15 minutes away from the birth center, I get this wrenching pain in my back that doesn't go away but ebbs and flows with my contractions which are now about 3 minutes apart and last a minute or more. It's excruciating. I'm sweating from the exertion and my massive coat which I totally didn't need. I'm writhing in the car chair, bowing my back and holding myself up off the seat with my arms, doing anything I can to ease some of the pressure and pain. Nothing works. Cars are horrible places to labor. 

7:45am. We finally make it to the birth center. The sensations are so intense I don't think it could get any worse (I was so wrong). I'm pacing, squatting, pulling my back muscles with a hand rail. Oh, and we beat the midwife (she went home later that night) there so we're locked out. Eventually we got the door code from her though, I change into a sports bra, we start filling the massive tub but there is NO HOT WATER! It's freezing. The shower is freezing, the sink is even cold! I was planning on using warm water for my pain relief. This is where I started getting anxious. 

8-ish. My midwife gets to the birth center. She's doing some counterpressure on my hips during the worst part of the contractions and setting everything else up in between. She was running around frantically getting things together. She calls the center owner asking about the hot water and some other ladies to come help out. 

About 9am. Some more people show up to help and this is where my memory starts to blur out. Birth Center owner comes, talks to the owner of the shop next door who agrees to run a hose from his shop to the tub so we could get hot water. But this take a very long time and doesn't happen until shortly before baby is born. In the mean time I'm screaming. People are helping with counterpressure and instructing me to keep moving, swaying, changing positions, breath deeply, make deep noises rather than high ones, etc. I said 'ow' a lot. That mouth movement or sound or something about it felt good. I tried to stretch that into a deep-toned 'out' as a mantra but really I was just screaming it. 

I got to the point where I was just panicking. I didn't know how long this was going to take, I thought I was going to die every contraction, it felt like like a semi-truck was running over and breaking my back every 2 minutes. Yikes. How wonderful it is that I can't physically remember that feeling, just the mental work and panic. It's a blessing. My wonderful, attentive husband could see the pain and panic and really advocated for the use of laughing gas. I was all for it, midwife and co were hesitant. But Stephen pushed them, kinda bullied them into making that happen for me. At first they got me this mask that covered my mouth and nose but that made me so claustrophobic that my panic just increased. It was horrible. But, they had another attachment that was like a scuba diving oxygen tank breather thing. I was able to hold that in my mouth by biting on it a little. I'd take a big inhale through my mouth then moan to exhale. It was magical. It took the edge off and helped slow my racing thoughts so I was able to control my panic and be present and focus on my body.

Eventually the tub was all filled up with lovely warm water, I got in, the pain lessened even more! And it was glorious! 

The urge to push a baby out is a really interesting feeling. For me, the sensation was in my back and wrapped around to my front while going down and my mind really visualized that pattern of sensation. My midwife checked to see how baby was progressing and found her head, she helped me to feel her head, too. I looked up and asked, "That's a head?!" Thinking about that still makes me laugh. I pushed for a few minutes, self directed, but then my midwife couldn't find baby's heartbeat! So they asked me to stop using the laughing gas and  directed me to push as hard and fast as I could. I think this was the only time I cried throughout the process. The ring of fire is a real thing.

Baby was born! She came out with lots of meconium. So much meconium. But midwife caught her quickly and cleaned her mouth, nose, and face so baby didn't breath any in. I was pulled out of the bath and sat on a birthing stool and propped up on the bed. They handed me the baby. I seriously thought I was going to drop her. About 5 minutes later the placenta just plops out and splashes blood and stuff everywhere. I told them, "I'm sorry." Which is also kind of funny. They put the placenta in a bag and helped me to get into the bed. I rested and breastfed baby for a long while. It was nice, a perfect break. 

After a while I was stitched up and baby was checked over. And eventually my family came to say hello and meet the baby. Around 6:30 we went home. It was still snowing. We just slept on the couch the rest of the night we were all so exhausted. 

And that's how my baby came into the world. I'm so beyond happy to have her here!