Things went quite smoothly and fast.
Early Friday I tried the caster oil. The bottle said to take it on
an empty stomach so I took it first thing in the morning, which was
probably a mistake but it definitely started to cleaned me out
within about 3 hours after I took the dang stuff. It made me really
sick to my stomach as well so I just concentrated on a liquid diet
after that. I didn't throw up but was nauseous and I just napped on
the couch throughout the day.
I kept DH up to date throughout the day but by days end we thought
that nothing would come of the caster oil other than me being
cleaned out. Blech! I was still about 7½cm and 90% effaced. But lo
and behold we were a little wrong on the nothing happening part.
My water borke at about 1:25am while dh and I were watching "What
Not to Wear", LOL.
Hard contractions didn't come on for about another hour or more. I
posted on a board or two about my water breaking when the computer
allowed me to, as this dang worm keeps us on our toes.
After my water had broken my husband started running around
gathering all of the birth supplies and took great care of me by
doing just about everything I asked of him.
The best part about having your water break in the middle of the
night when doing a planned home birth is that the kids are asleep
and out of the way, LOL.
After I was done with getting kicked offline several times I decided
to do a few small things as the contractions were starting to get
stronger. I had a lot of back labor which made me fear a posterior
baby and a long L&D. I kept on top of urination and kept kind of
waiting for the BM urge but figured that the caster oil probably
took care of that problem earlier in the morning, LOL.
After several hard contractions I had dh check the position and the
station of the baby's head and to make sure I was complete, which I
was, and to also do a quick doppler scan of the baby's heart beat.
The baby's head dropped significantly as well. I had him start
filling the tub up while I labored on the toilet which was at the
time the most comfortable position. (I think I need a birthing
stool)
Once the tub was filled I got in and just let the water do it's job
of being my pain med. While in the tub and laboring I was also
making the decision on where to actually birth. The last time I
birthed UC I was in our bath tub but I found that later I kind of
regretted birthing in the tub for the fact that it was too small and
the physical manuvering I had to do to allow my husband to 1 catch
properly and 2 so my tailborn didn't HURT was more pain
than I was willing to go through again. I remember coming out of
that birth feeling like I was in a car accident.
Every muscle had hurt in my body. I needed a chiropractor to
seriously readjust me from my contorionist act from that birth, I
was just that out of alignment.
Anyways, I decided to birth out in the livingroom even though I knew
that the water would feel better as far as pain management during
the birth. I had Joe keep all of the birthing supplies out in the
livingroom and had him set up the plastic sheets and as many clean
towels as possible.
When I felt like the labor had progressed to it's maximum and that
birth would be soon, I decided to move from the bathroom to the
livingroom, even though I really wanted to labor more in the tub.
**The odd thing about most of this labor is that I wished I had at
least one more person there with us. Last time I had my best friend
Sue Ellen by my side and oddly enough because she was there with me
last time she kept the conversation going and through talking it
helped lessen a lot of the pain and made labor go by quicker. It
gave my mind something else to think about which was nice. Joe and
I, alone this time had a lot of silence
between contractions. Men aren't great conversationalist to begin
with and I am sure he was more focused on making sure everything was
set up for the birth and that my pain was being managed well, and I
am sure he wasn't trying to think of other things to talk to me
about, like life and general news, LOL. So I kind of missed having a
friend (besides my husband) by my side this time around. Almost for
an instant made me want to wake
one of the kids just for the distraction. Yikes, imagine that,
roflol!**
So anyways, I felt like the birth would be soon and decided to move
myself to the livingroom. With the assistance of Joe, I waddled my
way out there and just knelt in front of the couch and labored a bit
with the urge to push coming sporatically with each contraction.
Silly enough I held onto a reserved fear of having a BM while
pushing which kept me from full heartedly pushing. I also kept
remembering the pain associated with pushing and knowing that this
birth was going to be a bit more painful being a land birth.
Still keeping a clam and clear mind I moaned and pushed as best I
could to get through the contractions Joe was on top of each surge
and rubbed my back in all the right places and kept up with the
confidence talk telling me I could do this and that it would soon be
over and such. I kept listening to my body and spirit as I made
decisions that I wouldn't have normally made.
I decided to turn around and labor somewhat on my back, proped up on
the base of the couch. We placed this "deflated" bean bag chair
behind my back which was perfect for putting me in an about 90°
angle.
With each contraction pain swept over me and instinctively my
husband helped to counter each pain with some sort or rub and
reminders. Again trying to keep my cool (yeah right, by this time I
was losing control which I knew at the same time was a good thing) I
grasped at anything I could to transfer the pain. I ended up with a
hair brush in my left hand and a bunch of towels in the right as I
squeezed them with each contraction, hoping to transfer as much pain
to them and not to my "bottom".
I kept reminding myself in the back of my head that it was close and
that I needed to "open up" and "let go" of my fears. I reminded
myself over and over that I was going to have a BM no matter what
and I had to remind myself that I was pretty much cleaned out from
earlier and that it was only my DH so I shouldn't be embarassed and
such. Somehow this all worked out and I started to push more with
each contraction and at the same time I started to "lose control".
My legs were shaking constantly and Joe was right there massaging
them and comforting me.
Now I wasn't really out of control but the body and mind do and say
things you don't really mean and the more controlled part of me was
more surpressed and not active (does this make sense?). I started
vocalizing louder and soon started spouting things off like, "It
hurts too much, I can't do this anymore" and as soon as I started to
say these things the little switch in my head said hey I'm almost
done! Woo Hoo! and I started to push harder
with each contraction not caring if I had any BM and such.
Soon I felt his little head starting to come out from under the
pubic bone and starting to emerge. That ring of fire was but a brief
moment and hardly noticed. Joe was right there letting me know
everything that was happening. When I could I would squeak out some
reminder instructions between pushing and
contracting. I reminded him to guide the head out and ease my skin
over the head. This sounds more staright forward than what it really
was, roflol, btw. Joe reached down and helped but he too was trying
to remind me to slow down with the pushing and to try to breath
through some contractions while he check for a cord, but I wasn't as
good of a listener. In my mind I did this but my body and "second"
mind did other things. I panted maybe twice before pushing again not
giving Joe enough time to check for the cord but there wasn't one
there anyways luckily. I soon felt the shoulder pop out and he slid
right out into daddy's hands, and I quickly said "Oh that feels much
better!"
Joe held the baby and was wiping it down and getting a towel to put
on me so he could put the baby onto me. The cord was fairly short
and oddly enough we still hadn't looked to see what the baby was
yet. Joe got the baby onto my chest quickly and we started to
rub "it" down and coax "it" to cry some once it let out a squeak or
two I asked if it was a girl and to both of our surprise there was a
little penis inbetween this baby's legs. Shocked and
stunned and thrilled all at the same time I was ecstatic of having a
baby boy in my arms.
I kept saying "I knew it!" My dreams kept telling me it was a boy
but I wouldn't listen. After several minutes of looking the baby
over I asked what time it was and we both looked over at the clock
and read 4:14am and we knew that he had been out for several
minutes, as we decided on the time he was really born 2 minutes had
passed and we decided to half it and made the birth time of 4:08am.
We knew I hadn't birthed prior to 4am because we had both looked
over at the clock before he was born and it was past 4 at those
times.
At about 4:20ish we woke the girls up to meet their new brother. We
didn't plan on waking Mason up but he woke up anyways, LOL. He came
out and was just in love with the baby. Pointing at him and
saying "baby" over and over. Each sibling gave the baby hugs and
kisses and while we hadn't "cleaned up much" they kept asking
questions about the "mess" and making little amusing comments
like "Mommy your belly is empty now" and "No more baby in your
tummy."
With the cord being short and all I just sat there and mused along
with the kids over this new addition to our family. We kept
correcting the girls when they used the wrong pronoun and we had
difficulty in deciding on a name (still don't have one) we kept
saying brother and baby and boy. Rachel called him "little fellow"
which is quite funny coming out of a 3½yo mouth, LOL.
We all baby mooned over him and Joe started to clean up some of the
mess. We waited for the cord to stop pulsing and then we waited for
it to go as white as possible before we clamped and cut the cord
which was around 5:30am-ish.
Finally free I handed the baby boy off to daddy so I could birth the
placenta. I kept having hard painful contractions. I took the
placenta bowl into the bathroom with me and squatted over it and
pushed with each painful contraction, which seemed just as painful
as the birth ones. With there not being much progress with the
couple of contractions, I decided to give the cord some traction, so
I pulled and pushed at the same time and soon out came the placenta
and the amount of relief I felt was so . . .well. . ."ahhhhh" I felt
a lot better. Later I checked myself out and I have one little skid
mark and tore only slightly. It wasn't painful to use tha bathroom
so we are letting it heal naturally.
I notified Joe that the placenta was out and that I was hopping into
the shower. He had all 4 kids out in the living room ooing and
ahhing. I got all cleaned up and headed back out into the living
room to be with my brood. Joe had gotten the baby a little more
cleaned up. The baby was still wrapped in the blankets and towels.
I settled into the couch and had the girls fetch me an outfit for
the baby and a hat. I reached over and grabbed a cloth diaper
(Nanipoo's Red Farm print, so adorable and soft! www.nanipoo.com )
and we dressed the baby for the first time together. The baby and I
had our first nursing session and Joe went in and checked the
placenta out to make sure it was all intact and it was. I later
placed it into a ziplock bag so we can plant it later in my sisters
garden.
All "night" (it was really morning by now) long we kept trying to
come up with names but nothing seems to fit him yet. We sent the
kids back to bed about 6am and Joe and I sat in the cleaned up
living room with our new "surprise" addition. Joe held the baby and
fell asleep, and I logged back online and notified a couple board of
our baby's arrival. I was pumped with adrenaline and couldn't sleep.
