Story of My Homebirth

I know it's LONG overdue, but I figured I'd write out my birth story for those who are interested. ;) I haven't written it all out yet! I won't spare any details so don't read on if you have a weak stomach, LOL.

So I was due on December 7th. I was ready to get the baby out!! I wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl, although I was pretty sure it was a boy. :)

I waited and waited and waited. After my due date I tried all the wonderful labor starters. Hubby got lots and lots of lovin', the sidewalks got lots of walkin', but nothing seemed to be happening!

So December 18th rolled around, and I had had it. I finally decided to use my LAST RESORT option. CASTOR OIL. I had taken it with my first child, with no success. I figured it couldn't hurt though. I took some that afternoon. I go the whole rest of the day, and nothing. The castor oil wasn't even doing what it was MADE to do! I finally ended up in the bathroom ONCE sometime after midnight, but it wasn't that bad.

I woke up the next morning, and was feeling the normal braxton hicks contractions. But then I soon noticed they were regular, and not going away. I actually had a midwife appointment that afternoon, and they decided to finally check to see how dilated I was. The newer midwife checked, and said she didn't feel anything. I was about to cry! All that work for NOTHING! The older more experienced midwife decided to check me too. She said, "She didn't feel anything because you're dilated to a five, and we'll stretch it to a seven!" OOOO YAY!!!!! I was very happy!

So after some discussion, we decide that the midwife would meet me at home to give me some herbal stuff to keep my contractions going and make them stronger. We ate some dinner, and headed home.

Starting at about 7 pm, I was alternating between drinking some really gross tea, and taking little homeopathic things (I forgot exactly what it was, LOL) I was uncomfortable at this point, but still manageable. The midwife kept checking my dilation, and I was progressing. I got hungry, and told Chris to make me a grilled cheese. He burnt it, because he loves to cook everything on high heat... so the midwife went and made me one.

At about 10 or 11 pm, things were getting more difficult. I was dilated to an 8, without stretching. Contractions were getting harder to handle. Every time one would come I'd try to hold things in because I thought I might pee in the floor! (Which later I found out I just should have been PUSHING, but oh well!) I had a cervical lip though, which the baby's head kept pushing down on. She told me if we didn't do something about it I could be laying around for the next 8 hours like that! (Midwives, NEVER tell a laboring mother that, PLEASE!!!!) The midwife wanted to stretch it out around the baby's head so I could fully dilate.

So um yeah, we tried that. After me screaming at her to get her hand out of me, I tried the bathtub. I think it was around 12 am. I wasn't feeling too happy. I was sitting on my feet in the bath, and thought I felt a POP, so I told the midwife my water broke! Chris called my parents to come because it was going to be soon. The midwife wanted me to lean forward so the baby could get around the cervical lip. Being the bad patient I am, I kept trying to lean back and float around... hahaha. So I ended up getting out of the tub to get in a better position.

At this point the head midwife showed up. The two midwives determined the best position for me to get this baby out would be on my back. I layed down on my bed, but they said the bed was too squishy, and couldn't get the baby out easily. So to the floor I went.

I was still at an 8 with the cervical lip. The head midwife said if I felt like pushing, I could just try and push around it. So that's what I did! WHEW I was worn out by that time. I was pushing and pushing and pushing and then POW! OOOOPS. My water didn't break in the tub. It broke all over the mean midwife who earlier tried to stretch out my cervical lip. I actually giggled in the middle of pushing a baby out. :)

So a few more pushes (which I didn't want to do because it was hard to push!!), and the baby was crowning. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!! Sure it hurt, but not like I thought. I always had heard it talked up to be like the worst thing on the planet. So maybe that was a good thing for me. They get the baby out, handed the baby to me, and I yell, "It's a GIRL! A GIRL??" Haha yes it was a girl. Born at 2:07 a.m. Dec. 20th.

And the biggest relief ever was felt when that baby was out.

But it was not over.

The less-experienced midwife had the umbilical cord in her hand, waiting for the placenta to be delivered. I could feel her kind of pulling on it, (nooooo) and then SNAP. The cord detached!! My eyes were wide as I didn't know what they would have to do!! Well um, they had to get the placenta out. So with about a bazillion paper towels, she had to go up in there and "swipe" it out. Because of this I had excess bleeding (not sure if they officially labeled it hemorraging or not). They asked Chris to take the baby from me. The other midwife grabbed a syringe and WHAM! stuck a shot of pitocin in my thigh. This whole 'swiping' process hurt way more than the actual birth. One midwife was trying to get the placenta out, the other had her hand on my stomach pressing down, and I was yelling and trying to get the lady's hand off my stomach!! It was like a crazy scene from E.R.

I looked up at Chris, and he had the strangest look on his face. Like he was actually scared I might die. I never ever worry about anything, but the face he had actually worried me for a bit!

I think the one good thing about pitocin is that it helps get the placenta out quickly and easily! (Which may be why I never had any problems with my other pitocin-induced births??)

They finally got all of it out, and told me to not get out of bed until the morning. No shower or anything. Ew. But I complied, and layed in bed while they measured my baby girl and did all that newborn stuff they're supposed to do.

I had a bit more of a recovery this time because of that last bit, but everything healed up just fine. At least I got a sweet little baby out of it. :)

It was nice to be at home, nice to not have nurses bugging me, and felt like a great accomplishment to not use any drugs... but I can't really say if I'd do it again at home.

I do know I never want to see that look on Chris's face EVER again.