Our Second Homebirth

This is the last of the birth stories for now. Some of you will be glad to see them go.  As I'm becoming more active in blogging, I'm trying to convey our whole lifestyle rather than just the homesteading portion because that was the original intent of the blog way back when I first started it.

On Sunday, May 29th I texted my midwife and let her know that it hurt to stand, sit, or walk so I’d be lying down for the rest of the day. I also had bloody show a lot that day. By that evening, I had MrLivingOurWay call the other midwife asking if I should go ahead and sit and walk to make progress since the contractions were coming 7-9 minutes apart of if I should lie down and space my contractions to 20 minutes apart to rest. The midwife instructed me to go ahead and rest. We could always have a baby tomorrow so that’s what I did.

I woke up on Monday, May 30th at 5:30 am with contractions about 7-9 minutes apart and now it didn’t matter whether I stood or slept. They were still coming. I had MrLivingOurWay call the midwives around 6:30 or 7:00 am. I called my mom and let her know that we were having a baby today so it’d be a good idea to go ahead and leave. The midwife informed him that she was in her car and would be on her way as soon as she stopped by the office. She arrived around 8:30 am. By 9:30 the apprentice had shown up as well. She asked me what I had for breakfast…uh oh…I had forgotten so MrLivingOurWay fixed bacon and a dutch baby for us. I remember during breakfast telling MrLivingOurWay to hurry up as I was certain in an hour it would be so bad I wouldn’t be able to eat. It turns out there was nothing to worry about.

My contractions all but stopped. The midwives entertained themselves. We went on a walk. The contractions continued to be light and sporadic. This was frustrating and I started to feel really bad for calling the midwives for what looked like nothing. Around 11:30 am they said they were going for lunch and would be back. I had soup for lunch and then went to rest. During the time they were gone the contractions became regular at 4-6 minutes apart and there was a lot more bloody show. When they came back, my contractions spaced back out. My mom arrived at 1:30 and they all but disappeared and I was getting frustrated. I really felt I was wasting every one’s time.

I had been very specific about no internal exams, but I finally asked for one around 4:00 pm or so. I was only at 4 cm, 90 % effaced. We began to talk about some options for picking labor back up. They also informed me that I needed to stop worring about everyone being there and that if necessary, they could leave the house and entertain themselves for a few hours. I picked cotton root bark. They gave me the tincture every 15 minutes for an hour while DH and I rested in our bed. With every dose, the contractions began to pick up a little. After a while, I put on the labor gown I’d purchased for modesty because my jeans were getting uncomfortable. I went out to the dining room where my mom had dinner fixed and had some potatoes and green beans. I finished them standing up. The midwives soon after suggested that I use the birth pool for pain relief. I expressed my concern that it would not do any good during transition if I got in too soon. They told me that nothing was going to help during transition so I should go ahead enjoy the pain relief while I could. I changed and got into the birth tub where the contractions were soon right on top of each other. I was informed this was 3 minutes apart and was a little discouraged as I remembered heading to the hospital at that point with my oldest and having her hours later. The water did help though as I found it calming to look at as I was having contractions. Around this time, the other midwife arrived and I was grateful when MrLivingOurWay announced her arrival (the more knowledgeable people on hand, the better right?).  Pretty soon I felt the contractions spacing out and then change…I was pretty sure I was supposed to push through that but my midwives refused to say. I finally just said “This would be more productive if I knew if I could push”. So the midwife checked and said there was no cervix. I stood and leaned on MrLivingOurWay and a few contractions later my water broke all over him. This was painful and I spent the next 15 minutes letting everyone know it in a variety of different ways. Eventually my legs felt like they were going to collapse so I turned to lean over the bed and pushed him out a few contractions later. Unfortunately, as they helped me set the baby on the bed, I failed to step forward with the baby and broke the cord. The midwives were great though and one grabbed the half still connected to the baby and another grabbed the end connected to me. Everything was clamped quickly. Even before the placenta was delivered I received 3 stitches for a 2nd degree tear. BabyFindingOurWay was 8 lbs 12 oz. the biggest of our kids by far.

Looking back, I had 15 hours of labor, 1 hour and 7 minutes of it was active and 15 minutes was pushing.