Keiki's birth story

Saturday, October 24 - Miss N wakes up around 8 and I send her out to Brad so I can sleep in. Except that as usual, I couldn't get back to sleep. Boo! So I got up, took a shower, and then got dressed with the intention of going to a Christmas shopping event at a local church where a playgroup mommy friend of mine had a booth (she has some super-cute things for Christmas gifts and I wanted to pick some up!). But by the time I was dressed, I was exhausted and had no desire to go anywhere, so I didn't.

The details of the day are fuzzy, but I pretty much sat around and did nothing all day. Miss N and I went up to the playroom and I sat and watched her play. And I read a bunch of Frog and Toad with Miss N snuggled up on my lap. Such a precious time. We came downstairs and ate lunch and then took a nap.

The afternoon was more of the same - me with little energy to do anything, so I just sat around some more, messing around on the computer and what-not. Brad took Miss N with him to pick up his dry cleaning and to get the mail from our PO box. Then he came back and ran out again to pick up some ripe avocados to go with dinner. While they were gone I started making chicken tortilla soup. It was ready to eat around 6ish, so we sat down and ate. I didn't eat much, I wasn't feeling all that great (usually I have two servings!). Then Brad put Miss N to bed around 7 because she was acting VERY tired. But as usual, he fell asleep before her and so she spent the next hour singing songs to keep herself awake, and intermittently waking Brad up saying, "Daddy, don't sleep!" I managed to record her singing "Jesus Loves Me" and then saying, "Daddy, wake up!" And Brad responding, "I am awake." Too funny. At 8:45 I was so tired that I decided to take over, so I went to bed. I laid in bed holding Miss N's hand as usual, and 15-20 minutes later, she was asleep. I had a couple of minor contractions but they weren't any different than anything else I'd experienced in the last 2 weeks, so I didn't pay them any attention. And then BAM - there was one MAJOR contraction that was completely different and I just KNEW that we were going to be holding our precious son before morning. I looked at the clock, it was 9:44 pm. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I stood up, I felt a gush. I changed my clothes and then went into the living room to tell Brad, "I think I'm in labor." And then I called my doula and left her a message (her phone had died) and then called the midwife and told her, "As dumb as this sounds, I think I'm in labor." But I was able to talk through contractions ok so I didn't think she needed to come right away. I asked her what I should do now and she said, "Go back to bed and try to get some rest. You won't sleep through having your baby and you could be in for a long night, so sleeping would be a good thing." I figured that was good advice so I thought I'd take it. In the meantime, I got in touch with my doula (she was in the shower when I called) and asked her to come. And then five minutes later I wasn't able to talk through contractions any more so I called the midwife back and said, "Yeah, there's no way I'm going to be going back to sleep." She said she'd come and hang out until I needed her, said she'd just lay down on the couch and rest.

I had back labor like I'd had with Miss N and what felt best was to lean on the kitchen table for a while, then my legs got tired so I kneeled down on the carpet and draped my upper body over my exercise ball. I don't know how long I stayed like that. Brad called his step-mom to come and get our sound-asleep daughter...I had wanted to just let her sleep but he didn't want to have to manage her if she woke up so he insisted on calling Grandma. They were here 10 minutes later and Miss N was mostly asleep and out of it - she had no idea what was going on. He made the right decision to have her gone!

Before long I felt like I needed to get into the water - my upper body was starting to ache from supporting my hugely pregnant body and I knew the buoyancy of the water would feel great. I climbed in and then started listening to my Hypnobabies Easy First Stage track. It helped me stay relaxed and I would have liked to continue listening to it, but once the doula got there, I felt rude not talking to her so I turned it off.

The contractions were strong, long-lasting, and closely spaced. The midwife showed up shortly after the doula and I was glad to have them there. The doula and Brad worked with my body to help endure the back labor. I vocalized through contraction after contraction and everyone kept telling me I was doing a great job. When the midwife arrived, she listened to the baby's heart beat. I kept asking if he was ok. He was, of course! And I could feel him moving around inside of me. And then the midwife checked me and told me I was a 7 and then asked if I wanted her to mess with my cervix. Um, NO!!! I seem to be doing just fine on my own, but thanks. :-)

A little later she wanted to hear Baby's heart beat again so I had to get from all fours onto my back, and then a contraction came and I protested loudly, "I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THIS POSITION!!!!!!!!!" And fought to get back on my knees because it hurt too bad to stay on my back.

I started to feel pushy and then BAM - I definitely felt pushy. The midwife and doula helped me direct my vocalizations to the other end so I could get this baby OUT OF ME! And when his head came out, something didn't feel quite right and I shouted, "What was THAT?!" and then another contraction came and he was out. I pulled him up to me. His cord was a little longer than his sister's, but not much, and that sensation of it between my legs and rubbing was not a pleasant one. I moved from the water to the air mattress (UGGGGGGGGGGGH! Most annoying thing ever, more on that later) with the help of Brad, the midwife and the doula. I laid on my back and felt like total and utter crap. I was still having contractions and feeling generally yucky. And whining about it the whole time! The cord stopped pulsing and they clamped it and Brad cut it. And in a little while longer I delivered the placenta, which was apparently heart-shaped. Interesting! After getting that organ out of my body, I felt better. I drank a whole cup of unsweetened red raspberry leaf tea (yuck!), then a couple of glasses of apple juice, then another cup of tea, this time sweetened with some honey.

They told me I pushed for MAYBE 4 minutes. We called Miss N the freight train baby, being born in 5 hours...and have dubbed this one the Concorde jet, coming in 2 hours and 17 minutes. CRAZY! It's a good thing I give birth at home, otherwise he might have been born in the car on the side of the road...NO THANK YOU!!!

The rest of it is kind of a blur...the midwife wanted me to try and go to the bathroom and just walking the short distance down the hall made me dizzy, sitting on the toilet made me more dizzy, and I felt like I was seriously going to pass out on the way back to the air mattress.

Air mattresses are NOT GOOD after-birth beds! Any time anyone puts any pressure on it, you go bouncing around...NOT FUN! Oh, well...hindsight's 20/20, and if I EVER end up doing this again (please, Lord, no!) I will definitely NOT use an air mattress!

I nursed the sweet baby and he's a good nurser - great latch, no problems. And he lets go when he's done, very unlike his big sister!

It turns out that the answer to my "What was that?!" question as his head crowned was that he came out with one hand up by his face. OUCH! I knew that wasn't right. The miracle is that I only tore a tiny little bit and required no stitches, the midwife left the decision up to me but also said that she thought she'd cause more trauma than she'd fix by trying to stitch me, and if it were her she'd just let it be, that it was holding together really well. They were all impressed that I wasn't in worse shape with his hand coming out like that!

They weighed and measured him and then Brad diapered and dressed him and held him. Too sweet. The midwives and doula helped me get dressed and to the bedroom. Then they left, we made some phone calls and Facebook/other message board posts, and then went to sleep.

Around 5ish I got up and was able to go to the bathroom, which was a relief. We went back to sleep and woke up around 8:30 this morning. Brad made me scrambled eggs and diced a farmer's market fresh tomato for me, and then went out to pick up bagels.

Javan Paul made his very hasty entrance into the world on 10/25/09 at 12:02 am. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 20.25 inches long. He's beautiful, perfect, nursing like a champ, and sleeping like nobody's business. Guess I should go get some rest too before the sleepless nights and challenges of raising an almost-3 year old and a newborn set in. :-)