Owen's Birth Story

February 24th- 7:30 pm my water broke.

I was watching american idol.

The kids were still up.

I ran to the bathroom just in time- before the big gush.

I called Kart who was still at work, called my in-laws to come get my kids,

called my midwife, and my parents.

Midwife said to call her when the contractions were 3 mins apart.

Called her back 15 mins later.

Kart came home.

I had him pack up the kids' things and get them ready.

My mother in-law and sister in-law showed up to get the kids.

They kept them for the next 3 days.

That was a biiig help!

After the kids left I had Kart clean the house.

I needed it to be clean so I didn't feel distracted by messes.

One of the Midwife's 2 assistants showed up and set up my bed with painters plastic, old bed sheets and Chux pads. Then she checked me and the baby.

Midwife showed up by around 8:30.

She checked me and the baby too.

2nd assistant showed up.

(her assistants are midwives in training)

2nd assistant did some relaxation techniques on me.

For the first half of labor I felt good.

I ate. I walked. I breathed through contractions without much pain.

Contractions started as soon as my water broke and progressed slowly.

I remember thinking if my contractions stayed like this, that labor wouldn't be bad at all.

They didn't stay like that.

They got harder.

Kart was great at getting me to stay relaxed.

He stroked my back (light touch massage felt really good), pushed on my knees, and on my lower back/tailbone area.

Eventually it wasn't enough though.

They got the tub ready.

It had what looked like a big tea bag of herbs floating in it.

It made the water yellow.

I felt like I was in a giant cup of tea.

It smelled good and felt great...at first.

The warm water felt good, but it didn't do enough to help ease the pain of the contractions.

Kart tried pushing on my knees while I was in the tub, but that was awkward.

The tub was too small for him to get in too, and for me to find a position that felt comfortable.

I suddenly felt like the baby was really low. I could feel him moving around and it didn't feel good.

I felt like pushing.

They had me get out to push, but when they checked my dialation I actually wasn't progressed far enough yet to push.

So we waited.

But with every contraction when I'd breathe out I'd feel that urge to push again. I had to change my breathing to fight the urge. That feeling is hard to explain if you've never felt it before.

It's guttural. Uncontrollable. Your body almost makes you start pushing.

Blowing out my air like you blow out a candle helped me not feel that urge.

Finally she felt like I'd progressed enough and had me push.

I pushed. And pushed.

It wasn't doing much.

What was wrong with me?

I'd done this before- and very successfully!

Pushing with emma was much easier for some reason.

This time I felt like my effort wasn't doing much to move the baby.

Though out the night they kept asking me if I wanted juice.

No.

Kart asked if I wanted music.

No.

I didn't mean it. I was just so completely focused on getting through the end of labor that I

couldn't think about anything else. I just wanted to stop feeling the pain.

This is where things weren't going like I'd hoped they would.

I think I was too focused on the pain I was feeling.

I could no longer relax like I wanted.

I was breathing through the contractions, but it wasn't enough.

I wanted it to be over...NOW!

It was the middle of the night by this time.

I was done.

We started pushing on the birthing stool,

(it's a u-shaped seat with legs that's not very tall)

but my leg kept cramping up really bad.

Not okay.

We decided to try a different position.

In between changing positions my midwife checked the baby's heart rate and felt like it was distressed, so they put me on oxygen and that helped bring it's heart rate back to normal.

With the midwife's assistants sitting in chairs facing each other and me in between them, I put one knee on each of their laps while kart held me up from behind under my arms.

(this is all going on in our kitchen with plastic covering the floor)

This position worked.

Finally my pushes were productive and after what felt like forever, but I'm sure was only about 20 minutes, he was in my arms!

With Kart sitting behind me and his arms wrapped around me, we sat there on the kitchen floor holding our new baby together and soaking in the moment.

I felt so much joy and relief!

I'd done it....again!

And I couldn't have done it with out my amazing husband;

both his physical and emotional support.

Suddenly I realized I didn't know if it was a boy or girl yet.

I checked and was happy to see I was right...it's a boy!

This was, by FAR, my hardest delivery yet.

Surprise! I thought this would be my easiest.

The beginning was easy, but the last half was so challenging compared to my other births.

It just goes to show, every baby, and birth, is so different.

It wasn't a super long delivery though- for me at least.

It was about 6 hours long.

That's my shortest so far.

So am I glad I did it at home?

Yes.

It may have been hard, but it was still wonderful to be in control.

I loved being in the comfort of my own home.

After getting cleaned up we all got cozy on my bed to check Owens stats.

One of the assistants made me a grilled ham and cheese sandwich while the other weighed and measured Owen and checked him for all sorts of things.

Then cozy in bed with Kart, I nursed him while the midwife and her assistants packed up their things to go home.

I don't think we got a lot of sleep that night, but I got to make up for it all the next day. Because our other two kids were at grandmas we both got to sleep when ever owen slept.

We're enjoying having Owen in our family.

I'm grateful there were no complications and that we were able to do it at home.