alexis is my beautiful friend and former neighbor. she has had both of her children at home and is so kind to let me share her most recent birth story on this blog. i can thank alexis for opening my mind to the possibility of a home birth. thank you for sharing alexis!
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So, as most of you know we were long anticipating our sweet Rosaline to come near the date of Dec. 3rd. I pretty much tried everything to go into labor once I was a week over. I had decided to do a home birth pretty late in the game and my midwife that delivered Olivia was willing to be the midwife again. (We love her. She is filled with so much wisdom and knowledge. We are so grateful for her.) I was a little worried that I wasn't going to go into labor...I think that is always a fear that pregnant women go through. But, as you all know, she came. My husband is in Law school at BYU and had his last scheduled final on Wed. Dec. 16 at 1pm. We thought that maybe Rosaline was waiting for him to be done with his final so he could focus, but she came the morning of!! My midwife was planning on stripping more of my membranes that night had I not gone into labor.
That night Chad went to bed early so he could be well rested for his final and I got this sudden burst of "nesting." I wanted to clean my kitchen and get everything ready.,. I had some super mild cramping, which i thought very well could have been diarrhea. So, around ten I decided to just go to sleep. I woke up around midnight because my cramping woke me up! I waited for a few more to come and then I woke my husband up. I was a little nervous because it very well could be a false alarm! Dianne, our midwife, wanted us to call her at any sign because she was assuming from the last birth, that things would go fast! So we waited til I had one more and we called her. All these women showed up(3 assistants and my midwife) and I called my friend Staci to come and help me too. I did not realize that there were going to be so many people there, but my midwife wanted me to have all the support that I needed. Staci and Chad were my doulas! Chad played with my hair during each contraction and Staci rubbed my feet. We turned on Hypnobirthing CD and I layed in the Bradley Method position so my whole body could be relaxed for each contraction. And I breathed through them with the yoga breath. The contractions were pretty manageable up until about 4am. The assistant, Lisa, came in and checked me and the baby and I was at a 3.5 I was wondering why it was so much easier to handle compared to Liv's birth and I was asking when is this going to get so intense that I could not handle it and would need to labor in the tub of water. Of course no one knew. With Liv once I hit a 3 I was dying and I was doing yoga pushups to keep my mind off the pain!! Nothing but water was soothing to me. This time, because I could be and was so relaxed it was a lot easier to handle.
The contractions started to get a little more intense, to where I could not really talk in between because I needed to focus. I remember Chad talking about having a baby in our arms soon, but I mentally could not go there because I just needed to focus on one contraction at a time. I couldn't think about the birth yet!
By 4:15 the assistants came in and I asked for some extra help because i just couldn't find relief. My contractions were really strong, but then a dull cramp persisted in between each contraction and I could not get the rest I needed. They didn't have any suggestions, so I asked to get in the water to see if that would help. She checked me and I was at a 4.5. She went out and discussed it with everyone and they thought that water would slow the labor down. But in my mind I did not care if it went slower just as long as I could rest in between! They started filling up the tub and I got up to go pee. (I had been drinking apple juice and had to get up multiple times to pee during labor! super annoying) Well, All the sudden a really big contraction started coming and Staci came in just in the nick of time. I held on to her to be able to relax my body as much as I could. Then I had 2 more after that all on the toilet! I think this is where Roz decided to descend a lot. I then got up and said I wanted to get in the water. As soon as I got in I felt that relief that I had needed! And then I started to moan and feel a lot more pain. I had no where to brace my legs because they were floating in the water and my body was trying to PUSH!! Everyone said, "She is pushing." and I was grateful because I was sort of in denial because it seemed too soon to be pushing. I was at a 4.5 just a half an hour earlier. So the assistants said to Dianne, " Should we get her out?" and Dianne said, 'No, let her push for a while." I am sure assuming that I would push for a bit before anything happened and then everyone started screaming, "There is the head! Get her out!!" So 4 ladies and my husband picked me up out of the water and sat me on the birthing stool!! And I thought to myself, "I am going to take it easy and not be so crazy about the pushing like last time", but then I felt the burning and pushed super hard and she was out. So, from the time I got in to the tub and the pushed her out lasted approximately 2 min. Are you kidding me? I could not believe it was over so soon. They put this sweet crying baby in my arms and I double checked to see if she was really a girl! And then the emotions hit!
I lost a lot of blood after so I was helped to the bed where they could start helping my uterus clamp down and stop bleeding. I was also ordered to drink liquid chlorophyll to replenish my blood. That worked wonders because even by the next day there was a huge difference in me, my energy and color.
Overall it was such a wonderful experience. I could never have delivered in a hospital with this birth. If I were going to deliver at the hospital I was going to wait until I was at a five before I headed and i would have been one of those car delivery stories/nightmares you hear about!!
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alexis's birth is a wonderful example of how our bodies know what they are doing...this sweetheart went almost 3 weeks past her "due date" and is a reminder to me that nature will take it's course, even if it is not on our timetable!
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