birth story: Judah James -- part two

Disclaimer: This is a birth story.  Graphic details and all.  Proceed with caution.
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We spent more than an hour there, labouring down by the river on a gorgeous fall day.  Between contractions we also picked some high-bush cranberries we found growing wild - mostly because the longer we were there, the more sparse contractions became.  Eventually we headed back "home" to my Aunt's house, where she had made us delicious Reuben sandwiches for lunch.

By the time we finished lunch the contractions had mostly stopped altogether.  We spoke with Sarah, our midwife, on the phone, and she suspected I had a "irritable uterus", meaning that it was easy to get contractions going, but they just were slowing down and stopping whenever I sat or lay down.  Her solution: keep active, keep vertical.  She wanted me to spend 20 minutes climbing the stairs to get things going again.  I was exhausted, so since they had already stopped coming, I had a nap after lunch.  I woke up after a while to a contraction.  While laying down!

We decided to skip climbing the stairs since contractions were coming again.  Instead we headed out to Target to get some errands done and stay up and moving.  Stewart and I spent two hours in Target, wandering aisles, getting stuff we needed, but also just killing time.  It actually worked well - whenever a contraction came, I would just scoot my cart into a quiet aisle and labour there, leaning on the cart for support.  The most awkward part was when Stewart was doing the double-hip squeeze (basically pushing on my bum) during contractions...I just kept hoping no one would notice!  :-)

By about 5pm, contractions were coming closer together and more intense, and I was ready to go back to the house where we could have a little more privacy to labour.  And besides that, it was supper time and I was hungry!  I really don't get nauseous in labour, and I really enjoy eating in labour (okay, maybe I just enjoy eating all the time!).  My Aunt knew this and so had stayed home all day so she could help us out with things, and especially make us delicious food.  She made fettucine alfredo with chicken and veggies, caesar salad and garlic bread for supper.  We ate upstairs in our room while I laboured.  Yum.

As we ate, contractions slowed almost to a stop.  We called Sarah, and she came around 8pm to sweep my membranes again.  Shortly after she left contractions picked up in a big way - stronger and closer together.  We decided to go for a walk around the block, but only about two houses down I stopped for an intense contraction and noticed a neighbor watching me from his porch...and decided that was enough walking!  It was as we slowly made our way back to the house that I lost it: Stewart is awesome labour support, but I just wanted my Mom!  We called her and she was so encouraging.

After our very brief walk, I got in the shower and stayed there until it ran cold (and then some).  Sometime around then Sarah came and stayed until after the birth.  She checked me when she arrived, and I desperately was hoping to be dilated at least 7cm.  I was only 6cm and I cried.  I was exhausted from all the early labour and not sure that I could do it this time.  Sarah reiterated that if I wanted things to keep progressing well I would need to stay vertical even though I desperately wanted to rest.  I think I kept crying for a while.  Long enough that the water was hot again and I could get back in the shower.  It was around 11pm.

This is where things really get fuzzy in my memory.  Labour was getting harder, and I got out of and into the shower whenever the water ran cold and then heated up again.  Eventually, sometime vaguely around 2am, I began to feel "pushy".  Sarah noticed the purple line, indicating that I was fully dilated, and gave me the okay to push.  After a few minutes, she decided to actually do an exam, and discovered a cervical lip, and so I ended up panting through a few contractions before really having an urge to push. 

At this point my water was still intact, even though I had asked Sarah a couple times about the possibility of having her break it.  I didn't actually want her to break my waters, but I knew from Jackson's birth that things progressed much more quickly after they broke it, so it was appealing in that sense.  I moved from the shower to the toilet, and did some pushing there.  The baby was still quite high, and had a long ways to descend, so the pushing phase took longer than I had anticipated.  (I pushed for only about 5 minutes with Jackson.)

My water broke just before he was born.  Once he descended enough to really start pushing his head out, I scooted off the toilet, and into a squat.  I felt his head and slowly pushed and panted it out.  The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, so the midwife slipped it off while I continued to catch him myself.  It was so amazing to be the first one to hold him, and not just have him handed to me.  I snuggled him for a minute, before Stewart prompted me to check the gender.  It was a BOY!  Then after another minute, he prompted me to announce his name.  Judah James.  (Judah means "I will praise the LORD!", and James is my brother's middle name, plus the name of two of Stew's good friends).  He was born at 2:44am on Sept 29th, the day after his due date.

We moved to the bedroom to rest, snuggle Judah skin-to-skin, and deliver the placenta, etc.  I had only a couple small skin-level tears, and needed no stitching!  That was a big deal to me, and has made recovery so much nicer.  The second midwife arrived right around when I got off the toilet to start pushing, and was gone less than an hour later.

 
I have a history of delayed postpartum hemorrhage, so Sarah stayed longer than usual, kept a close eye on my vitals, and made sure I was healthy and confident when she left 4.5 hours later.  And this time around, I did not hemorrhage!

I feel so blessed to have been able to give birth at "home", catch him myself, not tear, and not bleed.  And of course, to have a beautiful, healthy baby boy to boot!  I am so blessed!