It's been 2 weeks and 2 days since George was born. That Saturday morning, my husband started taking apart his sister's Jeep to do some repairs. His sister, Sarah, Paul and I walked across the street to buy some cleaning supplies: a new broom, spray bottles, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, etc. Sarah offer to clean our house in exchange for Rob working on her Jeep. On the way home we were ready to cross the street and a strong contraction came on... I started writing down the contractions how long they lasted in the time in between at 10:30 a.m. they were 10 minutes apart and about a minute long. At 11:30 the time between them shortened to 7-5 minutes, so I contacted our midwife (although I would highly recommend her, personally, I don't want to put her name out here publicly on the internet) and she said she would be at our house about 1:30 p.m. I also called my mom and my sister and was in tears because I didn't feel prepared. Paul was giving me a hard time, he just was very clingy, he had a runny nose and I didn't feel like I could give my attention to birthing a baby and being a mother to a three year old at the same time. My heart. My mom came over and took Paul to her house. Hannah and Olivia both went to work, Hannah at Trader Joe's and Olivia at Red Balloon.
I filled the bath with warm water and asked Rob to clean up from fixing the Jeep and take a break to help me out. When our midwife arrived, I got out of the bathtub having gone through an hour or two of contractions in there and feeling better, the warm water was very soothing and relaxing, but I needed to move. When Paul was born we had an inflatable birthing tub that we borrowed from the midwife we bought a new liner for it and I labored in there for several hours, but didn't feel like it was worth setting that up and feeling it again when the bathtub would suffice. Paul was born as I leaned over our bed. I thought he would be born in the water, but he wasn't. I tried a lot of different things, sitting on the birthing ball and our midwife had a birthing stool, my water "broke" while I sat on it. This was the first time I've ever actually felt my water break! It was like a water balloon burst!
I was most comfortable laying on our bed (my husband put a tarp over our Pendleton wool blanket. In retrospect, I can't believe that we left that blanket on our bed because it's mostly cream-colored. Thankfully, it wasn't soiled! I feel like my belly was so heavy that gravity made it hurt even more, the water from the bathtub made me feel lighter, too. Anyhow, I used the birthing ball between my knees and laid on my side so that my stomach could rest on our bed. I felt the urge to push about 5 p.m. and at that time my mom and Paul got back home. He wanted to see mama, and was sweet, but I needed to push...my mom took him for a walk. During this time, my sister-in-law Sarah was cleaning the house on her hands and knees, the floor was cleaned, couches, the kitchen. God bless her! She didn't intend to be here while I was in labor, but her car was not back together and fixed so she endured my laboring and patiently cleaned. She told us later that she was worried because she had never experienced a home birth before. I ended up pushing for about an hour every time I had a contraction coming on trying to use all of my strength and it just felt like the baby was not descending in the birth canal. the midwife told me that I was dilated 10 centimeters and ready to go, she and Rob took turns holding my hand (and letting me squeeze) as I pushed. A spoonful of honey to give me a boost! Finally the head appeared, I felt like the whole head must be out, but it was only to the baby's ear and cheek, after the birth I noticed there was a little bit of bruising there on baby George. With the next contraction I was able to push the baby's head out and then the next contraction the baby's body came out my husband told me that the midwife had to assist one of the shoulders and arm. They told me that we had a another boy! I didn't have any ultrasounds during the pregnancy and didn't really feel very strongly about the baby being a boy or a girl, but secretly hoped that we would have another boy so that Paul would have someone to share his trucks with...
Hannah and Olivia hoped that they would have a little sister, but now I think they're completely happy with the way things turned out. We accept whatever gift God gives.
He arrived Sat. evening at 6:10 p.m. Olivia got home a little after 7 p.m. and Hannah's (Rob sent her a message) manager at Trader Joe's told her she could leave early so she left early. It was really nice for our family of 6 to be together, plus my mom and Rob sister, Sarah, and our midwife...so much love and photos taken as I held our new baby George. I was concerned about bringing him up to my breast because I wasn't sure how long the umbilical cord was, but my midwife assured me it was long enough. He latched on like a little bird.
I felt like I was ready to push out the placenta and it came out in one beautiful piece (I don't remember seeing the placenta after Hannah and Olivia were born, both in the hospital, and after Paul was born the placenta was in pieces) our midwife explained everything, and opened up the sac.
After about an hour the umbilical cord stop pulsating and Rob cut it. It's currently in a ziplock bag in our freezer and we plan to plant it in the backyard under a tree in the spring. As George nursed, I could feel my uterus contracting, it was a strange sensation that I hadn't really noticed ever before. It's really a wonderful thing to be completely aware of what's going on with your body no medications or pain relievers to interfere with the nature of it all.
I'm concerned about George having a lip tie and feel like he is doing just fine nursing, my breasts aren't painful, but it seems like he's sucking in a lot of air.
Life is pretty good. Sending out some birth announcements, doubled as holiday, Christmas, New Year greetings. We're so glad to have a new little person in our lives!
