As a forewarning to all who view this page: There are photos and videos of my sons birth included.....thus nude photos and videos of me and him.
The Story
This had been a frustrating pregnancy..... well at least a frustrating last trimester. I dropped at 32 weeks, and starting at 33 weeks I started having false labor about 4 or 5 nights a week. We have had a completely unassisted pregnancy and birth. My last menstrual period started on Oct. 30, 2012 but it was 3 days late and spotty... Due to that and the early onset of "end of pregnancy" type symptoms I honestly questioned if my dates were wrong, and if my last menstrual period was actually implantation bleeding. I had come to terms with the idea that the baby might come earlier then originally planned. There was more then one occasion when I questioned if it could be "the real thing" only to stall out time and time again. We had a completely unassisted birth and pregnancy so it was not like I had dating ultrasounds done..... heck we didn't even know the gender of the baby! lol. Although I will say I felt all along that I was having a boy.
The morning of July 26th (a Friday) the day started like any other, in bed cuddling with Mike (my husband) and 3 kids (Anthony - 9 yrs., Avianna - 6 yrs., and Aylah - 4 yrs.). Mike had the day off...actually a three day weekend. Over the last several weeks when I had false labor it was generally at night. I would have contractions during the day but they were random and never anywhere near time-able. A short while after waking up I had one contraction. It was strong but nothing stronger then my previous false labor contractions. It was strong enough to catch my attention though. (I'm gonna pause here and let you know that any time estimate (that includes time elapsed and time of day) that I give is all a guess on my part because we never did time anything. I chose not to because I feel that it just creates disappointment when compared to an artificial time table.) About oh, 15-20 minutes later I had another contraction. Again it wasn't any stronger then before, but something was different. It came with a sense of urgency. I had to nest... to prepare. I knew at that point that it was time. I told Mike so, although not with 100% certainty yet (to many stall outs had left me nervous about declaring it "real" yet). I then started handing out orders to Mike and the kids about what needed to be done. I went into the bathroom and started OCD scrubbing my Jacuzzi tub (I mean I had toothbrushes and Q-tips cleaning every nook and cranny of that tub and its sliding glass doors). This was about 9 am. So we set to work cleaning, all the while my contractions kept coming and eventually I did note that they were getting stronger. About 9:30 I called my friend Sharlah to see what her schedule was. She had wanted to be there for the birth and she was our backup for the person supposed to help with the kids during labor. (That job was given to my friend Casey who was set to fly in from out of state the following day). Sharlah did have to work but not till 5pm that night and she had no plans. I told her to just stay on alert. So I kept cleaning and the contractions keep coming. Stronger and stronger. At about 9:45 I told Mike that he needed to start filling the pool (I don't think he took me seriously until that moment. We only had one liner for the birthing pool and he knew Id never waste it on a "maybe". He actually did a double take and asked me if I was sure.) I stopped cleaning the bathtub long enough to help him put on the liner. Then we ran into the only snafu (sp?... is there a spelling... its not like that is really a word lol) in our plan. The hose didn't fit any of our inside faucets. So we connected the hose to the outside faucet and ran the hose through the window and filled the pool halfway with cold water from outside. Then Mike set every pot we had on the stove to boil water. I then went back to work on the bath tub. All this time my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. At about 10:15-10:30 I called Sharlah again and said she might wanna go ahead and start getting ready to come over. By that time I couldn't work through my contractions but would stop working and breath through each one. However I kept cleaning... I HAD to finish the tub haha. I cleaned until the tub was finished.. about 11:30 or so (I told you OCD), and at that point I looked around at the rest of the bathroom, which I had intended on cleaning, and all at once didn't care and had no desire to... I needed to get into my labor space....my bedroom, where Mike was still bringing in pot after pot of boiling water, amoung other chores that I had assigned
At some point I did move to my knees (on a pillow), leaning over the ball. After that things were really getting going. I could still talk in between contractions but I really needed to get in the water and it was taking FOREVER for it to get warm enough. I started to panic... I needed the water and I needed it NOW. Then at one point the tap ran out of hot water so we were back to just the boiling water.
At some point, maybe 12:45, Sharlah and her son showed up.. by this time my kids were off playing...I think they were playing Mindcraft on the Xbox. Her son joined my kids and she set to work helping Mike. By this time that water was almost warm enough...I think we stopped adding water probably 15 minutes after she got there. Contractions were strong and I was doing low tones and breathing through them but was able to talk to Sharlah and give her the low down on what I expected for the birth and after.
It was during this final faze before birth that my internal battle ensued. The contractions were BAD. I knew in my head that I always labor fast and that it was probably really close to being over but I second guessed myself, and wondered what IF I didn't go fast this time. I COULDN'T labor like this for more then a few minutes more. I just couldn't. We would have to call the whole thing off and not have a baby (cuz you know, THAT was an option lol). I swore I would never have kids again (just playing we want 2 more still.. but at that moment, yeah no I was DONE... never again!) and I did eventually vocalize to Mike that I couldn't do it anymore, that I was done. He smiled and said " Yeah... when you say that it normally means you are close to being done!"... I hated him for not taking me seriously! lol
Some notes about the following 11 days. (Today is day 11). On day two we weighted him again to see how much weight he had lost. He had only lost 6 oz.!, We weighted him again 7 days later (day 9) and he had gained 1 pound 6 oz! My milk came in full force on Day 3, thanks in large part I believe to the fact that I encapsulated the placenta and take the pills daily. I was up and around the day after he was born. I went to the airport to pick up Casey (who flew in for the birth....one day late lol) and we went out for sushi that night. I highly recommend every mother look into placenta encapsulation. It helps with milk supply, gives energy, and best of all balances those crazy hormones and wards off baby blues and postpartum depression. Both me and baby are doing great and I honestly cant believe how easy it all was (aside from the 15 minutes of transition... which I could immediately look back and laugh at myself about). This birth was my dream birth and except for the hose not fitting the sink and the fact that Squish came 1 day before Casey arrived I would not change a thing. I look forward to doing it all again with my next (and last....maybe) two kids. If you have questions please feel free to ask. Eventually Ill add a section explaining Why we did what we did and the logic behind it. But that will have to wait for another day! Below is the birth video...but again it was taken by my 9 yr old so its not the best of quality.
