Archive for November 2008
Jack’s Birth Story
Friday night around 8PM I started having more painful contractions than the ones I had been experiencing for the last several weeks. We were all sitting around watching a rented movie, eating pizza and pop like every other Friday night. Brent and I had already decided that Friday night would be the best night to have the baby, so that he could take off the entire weekend and not miss out on any work hours. The contractions kept coming about every 6 minutes and I finally started thinking that this may be it. At 10PM, I called the midwife and told her that something may be happening but I wasn’t 100% sure. She told me that she’d call me back at 11 and see where I was at. After the hour was up, the contractions were still only 6 minutes apart and they weren’t getting stronger or longer. The midwife said she would again call back in an hour. By midnight, the contractions had spaced apart to 10 minutes or so and I was really starting to believe that they were going to fade away. I told my midwife that we should all just go to sleep and forget about it for tonight. Everyone at my house went to bed and slept just fine–except for me. I took a few Tylenol and slept fitfully for maybe 2 hours max before the contractions woke me up. They hurt like hell, but were completely sporadic with no pattern or rhythm to them whatsoever. Some of them were 6 minutes apart, some were 20. In between the contractions, I was having wrenching menstrual like cramping that was absolutely miserable. All I wanted to do was sleep, but the contractions worsened if I sat down or laid down. I spent most of that night standing or walking. By morning, I was completely exhausted and frustrated and I called my midwife to ask her if she would check my cervix for dilation. This is something that I hadn’t planned on doing at all, but I felt like it would be a good idea to see where I was starting at, in case I had several more days of these inconsistent labor pains. I knew that at some point, I’d need to hear proof that I was progressing. I was already beginning to get ideas in my head of wanting the hospital, a whiff of Pitocin and a strong IV narcotic so I could get some rest. I met the midwife at the clinic at 1:30PM. She checked me and I was at 4cm. She suggested sweeping my membranes to see if we could get the contractions to ramp up. I decided to go ahead with that. After she swept them, she said I immediately opened to 5-6 centimeters. On the way home, I started getting contractions 6 minutes apart again. We got home and after about an hour, I called the midwife and asked her to just come on over and start my IV antibiotics. We made a decision that if I hadn’t delivered by 8PM, she would just break my water to ensure that the baby would be born that night. (She was positive that breaking my water would bring forth a baby within an hour or less.) After I got off the phone with her, I told Brent to fill the birth pool. With my last birth, I waited too long and didn’t make it into the pool in time. This time, I wanted to be in the water as much as possible! He filled the pool and I got right in. It was awesome and completely took away the pain of the contractions. Unfortunately, it relaxed me TOO much and my contractions stopped. I got out of the pool and started walking laps, climbing stairs, squatting and rocking. By the time the midwife got there, the contractions were completely sporadic and wimpy. She gave me my IV, which took about 5 minutes and then she did another exam. I was 7cm dilated with a bulging bag and she swept the membranes once again. This worked well and they started right back up at 6 minutes apart. My parents had arrived, two of my boys were home and the midwife and her assistant were all hanging out. We spent the next couple of hours hanging out, eating and socializing. I was getting really frustrated that the contractions weren’t getting closer together or getting stronger. I was also willing my water to break on its own so I could just go ahead and have the baby. At about 5:30, the contractions started getting to be about 4 minutes apart and I decided to go ahead and try the birth pool again. I got in and it felt so great! The midwife and her assistant sat with me in the bedroom and we gossipped and talked for almost another hour. Every once in awhile, I would check myself to feel how the baby’s head was descending and to see if I could feel the bulging bag of waters. Brent was in and out of the room, but was bored and restless so he was cooking and doing chores here and there. My parents hung out in the living room and took care of my 3 year old. At one point, Brent came in and asked me if I wanted music. I said yes. He went downstairs to grab the CD player and while he was gone, I got a contraction that completely overwhelmed me. It just kept going and going and towards the tail end of it, I felt a popping sensation. It didn’t feel like my water breaking and I didn’t feel a gush, but the midwife figured it had been my bag of water. Brent walked into the room as the next contraction was beginning. He asked me if I wanted to listen to Dido or Sarah McLachlan. Little did he know what was coming, because I said “DON’T TALK TO ME” and then started screaming. I had been semi squatting in the pool when I felt the baby’s head barrel down and start to crown. I sat down and leaned against the side of the pool and heard my midwife say, “Oh Rachael I can see his head!” She called for everyone to come in and they all flooded into the doorway, with my 3 year old front and center. I remember looking straight at him and worrying that he was going to be scared or traumatized and I was telling myself to be quiet and calm for his sake. I tried hard to gain control as the baby’s head crowned. I was holding my hand on top of his head as it came out, just trying to make sure that he came out slowly. I didn’t have to push at this point at all. It was like he was pushing himself out with his own strength and I was just doing my best to slow him down. I could feel him kicking me as he descended. His head emerged and there was “ooohs” and “aaahs” from everyone in the room. My three year old’s commentary was hilarious and can be heard on the video saying, “Babies come out of of mommy’s vaginas!” and “Woah look at that baby! That baby is GROSS!” After Jack’s head was out, I had to wait for another contraction to come in order to push out his shoulders. That felt like it was taking forever, and no matter how many waterbirths I’ve seen, I was still worried that he was going to drown. When the next contraction started, I pushed and felt his shoulder pop out. The midwife reminded me to get him out of the water, and as soon as the rest of his body flopped out, I grabbed him out of the water. He pinked right up and cried a little and I held him floating in the warm water while he fell asleep until I could feel that my end of the cord had stopped pulsating and asked my midwife to cut the cord before I delivered the placenta. He scored 10/10 on his Apgars, nursed right away and was 9lbs.,10oz AFTER pooping twice. In fact, he pooped 13 times within the first 24 hours! I had the same small tear that I always seem to get, and asked the midwife to put in two stitches to ensure that I’d heal well. This labor was by far my hardest and longest, but was of course, worth every moment of it for the healthy baby and the experience of birthing him myself and into water in our own bedroom. 🙂
6 comments November 26, 2008
He’s here!
Jack Finley Reese was waterbirthed at home into my own hands on November 22, 2008 at 6:35PM. Labor was a grueling 22 hours long. He weighed 9lbs.,10oz (after pooping twice) and is 21.5 inches long. Pictures and birth story to follow.
3 comments November 23, 2008
Last night
my contractions were so incredibly painful that we started boiling stockpots of water on the stove in case we needed them to warm up the birth pool. The kids were promptly put to bed, since the mere sound of their voices was making my pain levels increase rapidly. The house was tidied up, a nice soothing fire was built and then….they stopped.
Oh well. Better luck next time.
3 comments November 21, 2008
39 week appointment
So I saw the midwife appointment for what will hopefully be my last appointment. My blood pressure is still good and there’s nothing funny in my pee. No clue what the weight gain is at this point, but I’m assuming it’s around 60lbs. She felt the baby externally to confirm the position and it appears as if he is truly head down and engaged. He’s just hanging out on my right side, which isn’t perfect, but will work. (The left side is optimal). She doesn’t do cervical checks (and I don’t want one), so we have NO clue if three weeks of contractions has done anything to my cervix. Her guess is that I am probably doing exactly what I did with Rylan, which was to slowly dilate over the course of several weeks and get most of the work out of the way in spurts and starts. We anticipate another quick labor when it finally gets down to the nitty gritty. I’m measuring 40 weeks and Sunday is my due date. It will be soon!!! The one thing that is absolutely fantastic is that I am my midwife’s last November client. All four (!!!) other women who were due in November have already delivered. This is a huge weight off my back, considering there was some concern that she may miss my birth or that I might have to deliver at her birth center if I were to go into labor at the same time as someone else. That is no longer an issue. Yeah!!!
I woke up feeling insanely nervous about birth, which is weird, considering that Rylan’s birth was fast and easy and smooth sailing. I guess I just know too much now. I know that if birth is anything, it is unpredictable. And I know that somewhere along the line, it will hurt. It will hurt BADLY. I’ve just had these ridiculous feelings of “Oh my God, I changed my mind!!! I don’t want to do this anymore!!!” Funny, I know. But probably normal. I just hope any fear and anxiety I have doesn’t keep my body from laboring. I would like to see my little boy soon.
Anyway, I’m feeling crampy and awful and nauseated again this evening. I would get excited and say that it may be early labor, but it’s probably just the 3 pounds of Boy Scout caramel popcorn that I’ve ingested in the last few days.
Add a comment November 21, 2008
6 more days until my due date!
Wow, yesterday was hard! I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, just writhng around in pain from severe cramping and back pain and pelvic pressure and contractions that I could feel in my THIGHS (which was weird.) This went on for about half of the day, and once it backed off, I was exhausted and cranky and really could hardly leave the couch for the remainder of the day. Thank God Brent was home to put up with me. Had I of been on my own with all three kids, I would have killed somebody. Contractions picked up around dinnertime and proceeded to continue all the way through Desperate Housewives and beyond. As usual, they were sporadic, ranging anywhere from 6 to 12 minutes apart. But INTENSE. Super, super intense. When my exhaustion finally gave way to sleep, they must have calmed because I woke up this morning feeling semi-normal. No matter how annoying this has been (now that it has gone on for 3 weeks), I have been lucky to have just one bad day that is usually followed by 2 good or “okay” days. One night of no sleep is rewarded with two nights of hard, out-like-a-light sleep.
I have, at times, wondered if baby’s positioning is completely askew, since I still feel him making huge movements and can feel his bum located in completely different areas from time to time throughout the day. If he were lined up perfectly, perhaps labor would have started and he would have been born by now. I see the midwife this Wednesday and have her look closely at positioning.
It’s more likely, however, that this is all completely normal for me and I am simply just starting and stopping labor and spreading the work out over the course of a few weeks instead of having to endure a long and exhausting labor all at once. I have also considered the very real possibility that once active labor hits, I will have very little time before baby arrives and the chances of me delivering him myself are pretty good. I think I have fully prepared myself for this possibility.
Anyway…off to go kill more time. I’ll update as I’m able.
Add a comment November 17, 2008
39 weeks
I decided to take one last picture.
Now I gotta go. I feel awful.
Add a comment November 16, 2008
Hormones & Hysteria
I had the worst day yesterday. The WORST. I think my morning just got off to a horrible start. All three kids were having all three of their own problems and here I am, 9 months pregnant and exhausted and trying to solve them all while keeping all the plates spinning and all the balls juggling. My kids are wearing me down. Aidan hates everything about his new school and complains about it constantly and will go to any lengths to find a way back into public school. He is argumentative and disrespectful and talks back incessantly and is generally a miserable person to be around 24/7. Tristan’s ADD is never ending and I am literally spoon feeding him every action he must take in life. “Sit up. Stand up. Go pee. Get dressed. Eat. Brush teeth. Put coat on. Pick up backpack. Walk to bus stop.” (These simple commands taking up an entire hour of every morning, where between each command he becomes distracted and I find him daydreaming in a random section of the house.) The school calls me. He is constantly messing around. His entire life is spent with someone reminding him what he should be doing, because the necessary actions of life (sleep, eat, hygiene) take him so long to accomplish that he has no room for the luxuries. It has gotten so bad, so taxing and exhausting and so beyond my control that very soon, I will succumb to medication that I swore I never would. And Rylan, after nearly 3 years of complete bliss and sweetness and compliance, has become defiant and dangerous and angry. I do not even know this child anymore. He is aggressive and mean and runs from me at every opportunity. He throws temper tantrums and lashes out and he uses the words he hears his older brothers say. I feel like it does not matter how well I parent the babies. The older boys have been so completely screwed up that they are passing it down, like a disease. To top it all off, Brent is so very unhappy in his job (and rightfully so.) It’s been over three years now in construction, with little to no time off. No sick pay. No vacation pay. Constant physical work that has made him prematurely age and feel tired all of the time. It’s not a job he enjoys. It’s a job he endures each day so that we can have food on the table. On a good day, he will get home in just enough time to spend maybe two hours with his children. Often, he doesn’t see them at all. Even his precious weekends are spent completing tasks around the house that I am not able to do. It’s no wonder he struggles with cigarettes and alcohol. I would too. In fact, I feel like struggling with it now. How easy it would be to slip right in and kick back a few cocktails each day to take the screaming edge off of everything.
It all just came crashing down on me yesterday and I spent nearly four hours in hysterical, racking sobs. There has to be more to life than this. THERE HAS TO BE. I cannot imagine living this way until the end. This is not a life. This is normal, yes. This is the American lifestyle, sure. But it is not life. It is not what I want for myself, for my family, for my children. I called Brent at work and he was so worried that I had suddenly become a danger to myself that he immediately came home from work. (Something he has NEVER done before and will surely be punished for by his superiors.) Dramatic change has to happen in our life, we both agree. I am not emotionally able to keep this up, and certainly not with a newborn added to the mix. Brent is not willing to be so absent from his children’s lives, especially when the only purpose has been to provide us with enough square footage, a new vehicle, electronics and a pile of debt.
…..
On the pregnancy front, the full moon has officially begun and I am feeling its pull. Nine more days until my due date. We are approaching the Point of No Return.
3 comments November 14, 2008
Storm Warning
I’m feeling quite ripe today. My back and hips are achy, my uterus is crampy, I’m dealing with sleep deprivation due to pregnancy insomnia and I’m grumpy. Yesterday was my original due date, according to my last menstrual period. Still 11 more days until the ultrasound’s estimated due date.
Apparently my little island will soon be hit by one of the first wind/rain storms of the season. During the Fall and Winter, we frequently lose power. Often, for days at a time. I thought I’d blog before this event occurs, so you all don’t panic and think I’ve had a baby without telling you. It actually would be just my luck that I would go into labor when we have no lights, no heat, no hot water and no way to cook a hot meal. Wanna take bets?
1 comment November 12, 2008
38 weeks
Random Info:
Two more weeks until my due date.
Within the next four weeks, my baby will be born.
I went into labor with Rylan at 39 weeks.
I have never passed 40 weeks, so it may only be fitting that I do so this time around.
Neither Brent nor I feel ready, but the fact that we will likely *never* feel ready has begun to sink in.
Here I am at 38 weeks with Rylan:
Woah.
I am doing my best not to complain, because pregnant women who excessively complain and obsess are on my list of Pet Peeves. But let us note that my lower back has been screaming (SCREAMING) at me and my hips are no longer fond of any type of side lying whatsoever. My body is nearing its end point.
That’s all for today. 🙂 You may send me labor vibes now.
1 comment November 9, 2008
My Natural Pregnancy 