A couple of notes about the birth stories:
- Grab a cup of coffee and settle in. They are long.
- They contain stuff that some people may consider TMI. Mucus plugs, bloody show, tearing "down there," etc. The Baby's birth story includes pictures from the birth that show small glimpses of my bare bottom, The Baby nursing, etc. You have been warned.
- They were all written within days of the respective births. That means that they are a good indication of my perspective and mindset at the time of the birth. In some cases (especially regarding Littles' birth), my perspective/mindset has changed with time.
- Hypnobabies users: You may want to use your BOP. All birth stories contain standard terminology (no "birthing time" or "pressure waves" here...) Littles' mentions p**n a few times; Noob's and Q's do not.
Still want to read? OK. Here goes...
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(All pictures except the first one were photographed by Sarah Sweetman Photography. The "PG version" of the slide show is here. The "non PG version" is here. Warning: The "non PG" version includes pictures of The Baby emerging, full color placenta shots, lots of nursing pictures, etc... so if you choose to click, be prepared!)
As I woke up on the morning of Thursday, April 2, two thoughts immediately crossed my mind: 1) Darn. I'm still pregnant. (My due date was two days earlier.) And 2) Darn. It's raining. That means a soggy bike ride to school.
Luckily, by the time we left for school, the second problem had resolved itself: The rain had stopped and it was turning out to be a beautiful spring day. The kids and I enjoyed our normal ride to school.
(Okay, so this was actually our ride to school two days earlier, on my due date... but, close enough.)
I got home around 9 AM and got ready to walk to work. This was something I started doing when I was training for a half marathon a few months earlier, since it was an easy way to get in some decent mileage on a busy weekday. Back then, I could run (well, jog slowly) both to and from work. Around 30 weeks, I cut back to just jogging on the way to work (getting home via bus/shuttle instead), and around 35 weeks, to walking.
Walking to work was good exercise in general, and on this particular morning, I was especially eager to do it, to see if it got anything started labor-wise. But I was feeling a little "off," and took longer than usual to get out the door. I was finally getting ready to leave around 9:30 AM when I felt some cramping in my abdomen. It immediately crossed my mind that it could be a contraction. Then I felt similar cramping about 5 minutes later.
Perhaps the first problem was resolving itself, too?
I considered staying home to see how things progressed, but decided to start walking instead. I figured by the time I covered the 2.5 miles to my office, I'd have a pretty good idea as to whether or not this was indeed the start of labor.
I started RunTheMap on my phone to record my workout. I have it set up to announce the time and distance every 5 minutes, to help me with pacing when I use it for serious running. On this day, I was using it to time contractions instead. I had one around the 5 minute mark, another a little after 10 minutes, the next coming a little before 20 minutes.
I stopped at a building on the north side of my company's main campus to empty my bladder (another learning from my half marathon training: A full bladder can cause abdominal cramping, too) and download the Contraction Calculator app for my phone. Around that time, I also had to join my team's daily standup meeting, via Lync. So I was juggling between Lync, RunTheMap, and Contraction Calculator, and chuckling to myself that this was a rather unusual combination of apps to run simultaneously :)
Normally, I would have continued down the trail another mile or so to my office, but by this point, I knew I wasn't going to work that day. I had my husband's laptop in my backpack (he had forgotten it that morning and asked me to bring it to campus), so I headed over to his office instead. I walked in and said, "Here's your laptop. But, I'm going home. I think I'm having contractions."
He jumped up immediately and said, "Well, I'm going home, too!" He had to wrap up a few things, so I went out of the building and called for a shuttle to take me to a satellite campus that's about a quarter mile from our house, so I could walk home from there. Then I called my midwives' answering service and left a message saying I thought I was in labor.
One of my midwives called me back while I was in the shuttle... with the driver and two other passengers. "What's going on?" she asked. I didn't really want to announce to the entire car that I was in labor, so I said, "Umm, not a whole lot. Can you call me back in about 10 minutes?" I knew she probably thought I was insane, but there would be time to explain later.
The contractions stopped during the shuttle ride, started again when I got out of the shuttle, and stopped again when I sat down in the lobby at the office. It had crossed my mind that perhaps all the walking was entirely responsible for the contractions, and that they might go away if I sat down and rested for a bit. So I decided to give everyone a heads-up, but hold off on asking them to come until I had the chance to get home and rest and see where I was at. That is what I relayed to my midwife when she called back, as well as to my birth photographer.
My husband had made it home by then (I guess I should have just waited for him, rather than taking a shuttle), so he swung by the office to pick me up. I had a contraction while sitting in the car. We went to Littles' school to get her as well. She came out with a big smile on her face. The kids had been waiting not-so-patiently for this day, and it was finally here.
We got home around 11 AM. Our cleaning service was there. I immediately noted one of my emotional signposts: I normally love our cleaning service, but on that day, when I saw their car in our driveway, I instinctively wanted them gone. I knew I needed to be alone. Luckily, they were almost done anyway. And it was nice to have the house as clean as it gets :)
One of our doulas greeted us when we walked in the door. I laid down on the sofa and chatted with her for a little while, and had a couple more contractions. Clearly, this wasn't going to stop.
My husband called the midwives and birth photographer, and went to pick up Noob and Q from their school. Our doula texted her partner, too, and she headed over as well. Meanwhile, I took advantage of this less-intense part of labor to eat a snack, grab a bottle of water, and shower.
Everyone had assembled at our house by about 12 or 12:30.
I breathed a sigh of relief. This was the part I had worried about for the entire pregnancy, because my previous labor had gone so fast, mostly because I didn't acknowledge the signs of early labor and therefore didn't notify my birth team until it was almost too late. This time around, I had done my first job for the day, by alerting everyone in time. Now it was on to job #2: Have a baby.
I puttered around for an hour or two, moving between the bedroom...
...and the living room, where the kids mostly were.
They made cookies with our doula.
They ordered pizza for lunch.
They watched Frozen. ("Let It Go" has a whole new meaning for me now.)
They made me a "bed" with pillows and blankets on the living room floor (a la Welcome With Love, a fabulous home birth book).
Around 2pm, I started feeling like I was a little too relaxed when I was with the kids, and I needed to get this show on the road. So I retreated into the bedroom, put on my Hypnobabies first stage track, and started concentrating on contractions.
They were coming regularly now, and as I've done with my last two births, I handled them mostly on my hands and knees, resting on my side in between. Working through them was tiring, and a little boring :) I mostly just felt them as a lot of pressure. I kept feeling like I had to pee and poop, but after multiple trips to the bathroom, I knew I didn't actually have to go. It was annoying, but I knew it was a good sign. My husband and doula were giving me awesome back rubs, and I could feel the baby moving down.
The midwives checked in every so often. I heard my doula's quiet updates to them: Contractions were getting closer.
I realized that the midwives were doing heartbeat checks with the Doppler more and more frequently.
Eventually, everyone started crowding into the bedroom.
My contractions turned "pushier." It wasn't quite what I remember from my last two births, where I was going along and then suddenly had a single contraction where I was clearly pushing, but over the course of maybe 5 or 6 contractions, I started pushing more and more.
The baby got the hiccups somewhere in there. It was hilarious to listen to on the Doppler.
Q was down for a nap by this point, but Littles and Noob were awake and we called them to come in: "The baby is coming soon!"
They lasted a few minutes and then Noob started asking impatiently, "When is the baby coming?" They soon decided that their movie in the living room was more interesting than waiting on Mom to push out a baby :) So off they went.
Much like with Noob's labor, pushing didn't feel particularly good. I tried to relax and let my body push on its own, as it had done so well with Q, but my body seemed to want me to push consciously, and I wanted baby OUT.
My water finally broke after a couple of pushes -- apparently with some force, as my midwives sounded a bit surprised and my husband said later that they got splattered a bit :) It was lightly stained with meconium, but the midwives weren't concerned. They were encouraging me and saying I was pushing well and applying counterpressure to my perineum as I pushed, which felt really good.
Littles and Noob went through the "baby's coming soon/not soon enough/back to our movie" cycle two or three times before the baby was really coming. I was pushing on my hands and knees, and had suggested earlier that they might want to sit up by my head to watch, but when the moment came, they exclaimed, "I want to see!" and parked themselves right down by my butt.
I felt the baby crowning, and then with a few more pushes, I pushed out the head, and then the body. It was 3:56pm.
I heard my husband say, "It's a girl!" And I looked down in shock to see that it was, indeed, a girl! Throughout my pregnancy, I had felt maybe 75% certain that it was a boy. My suspicions had been right with the other three kids, so I just figured I was right this time, too. But this little girl threw me for a loop!
Littles and Noob looked at her in awe.
Then Noob said, "Awww. I wanted a brother."
Too bad, because she definitely wasn't going back in! Haha. (He was actually saying late in my pregnancy that he hoped it was a girl, because he wanted to be the only boy, so he's come around pretty quickly to the idea of having three sisters.)
It took me a minute or two to figure out how to get down off my hands and knees and pick her up, but eventually I did.
She was just perfect. And poopy :) But mostly, perfect.
Q appeared, too -- not sure if she woke up on her own or if someone woke her up, but I was glad she was there. She was immediately enthralled with her new baby sister and spent much of the afternoon parked right next to me, admiring her, asking questions, and giving her a "checkup" with her toy doctor kit. Including multiple "shots" right in the soft spot on her head. Nice.
The usual post-home birth festivities commenced. My husband cut the cord and I delivered the placenta. ("Is it a healthy placenta?" Noob asked, echoing a line from Welcome With Love. That gave our midwives a good chuckle.) The midwives inspected my bottom: Even though The Baby came out with a nuchal hand (that is, one of her hands was by her head), I had only a tiny tear, no stitches needed. The Baby started rooting around looking to nurse, so I got her latched on and she did great.
When she was done, I handed her over to my husband, so I could hop in the shower to get cleaned up.
Then it was time for the newborn exam. My husband had been practically begging to weigh her ever since the moment soon after her arrival when our midwife said, "This is not a small baby." He was hoping to catch her weight before she pooped out a bunch of it. Well, two or three massive poops later (oops), it was finally time… and she weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz.
Women in my family grow 'em big -- at "only" 8 lbs 11 oz, Noob remains the sole sub-9 pounder born in three generations -- but The Baby is officially the biggest, taking over from my mom (9 lbs 9 oz). She was 22" long and had a 14" head circumference. Perfect in every way.
Afterwards, everyone packed up, and we started life together with our newest addition.
