fionar
Mama to 2 boys
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2011
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First, the vital stats - 9lb, 9.5 oz, 20.5" long, 14.5" head circumference. Born on his due date, which was a thing I didn't think ever happened.
Sorry for the long story... I started typing and just couldn't stop!
I spent all of the day before my due date feeling icky. Just... off. Nauseated, with occasional waves of dizziness and weakness, but I wasn't feeling frequent contractions like I had with previous false starts. Annoying, but since it wasnt quite my due date, I decided to let it go and not stress out about it. Since I was feeling cruddy, I had a friend on deck to get my son from daycare just in case, but when the time came around I felt up to it, so I went to get him.
He and I got home and decided to head to the park, which is a few blocks from our house. We spent a good while playing, watching some Ultimate Frisbee teams practice, and then bounced on the see saw. I jokingly posted a picture of us to Facebook and said bouncing the baby right outta there.
My husband met us on the walk home from the park after he got home from work, and we got home, had dinner and put our kiddo to bed. Around 9pm I was just knackered, so I headed to bed figuring I was in for another night of crappy sleep, if the previous several nights were any indication.
Around 2am I woke up with some cramping, but brushed it off as more nonsense false labor and went back to sleep. Woke up again around a quarter to 3, went back to sleep, and when I woke up again about half an hour later, the cramping hurt so bad I decided to get up and have a shower. I woke up my husband and told him where I was going so he wouldnt worry when he woke up and I wasnt in bed but I assured him it was probably nothing and told him he didnt need to get up yet.
After the shower, though, I was pretty danged uncomfortable and told my husband it maybe wouldnt be bad for him to get up. We headed downstairs (quietly, to keep the 3 year old asleep!), he made coffee, and paged the midwife and called my parents (my mom is a doula, and my dad is a photographer). The midwife called back around 4am, and after talking with me for a while, decided shed head over. My parents arrived about 4:15, and the midwives arrived around 5. I spent the time between contractions sitting down on the birth ball and every time I had a contraction I got up and paced around the house, pushing on my hips with my fists and breathing. I could NOT sit through contractions. I spent a couple on the birth ball, leaning in to my husband and holding on around his neck, but I was much more comfortable standing/swaying/rocking/walking through them.
One of the midwives suggested a shower a while later (maybe 6:30?), so I headed up to shower. My mom came with and sat on the steps outside the bathroom door just in case I needed anything. The water didnt feel anywhere near as wonderful as I wanted it to, but at least I got my hair washed and felt less icky. After the shower, I decided there was no way in hell I was going back downstairs, so I climbed in to bed (which my dad and husband had gotten ready right when my parents arrived) and spent some time on my hands and knees draped over a balled up pillow.
Our son woke up around 7 and stopped in to see what was going on, hung out for a while, and my dad took him downstairs for breakfast to wait for his auntie (my best friend since early teenagehood) to get there.
Stuff started to suck then. Just, contractions got stronger and faster and closer together and I had little to no time to recover in between. Went back and forth between hands and knees and lying on my side. Rolling over from one side to the other was the worst I cannot imagine how women labor on their backs, because that was the most awful position I ever hit, even when it was just for a couple seconds.
A little after 8 I started feeling like I was pushing, and got a little bit of time between contractions to rest and gear up for the next one I worried about this, because it felt like everything stopped after having such regular strong contractions for so long, getting even the minute I was in between felt like FOREVER!
My waters hadnt broken yet, and they started to see a little bit of head during contractions I reached down and felt the water bag and by god if it wasnt the weirdest thing Ive ever felt. After one or two more pushes, the water bag broke, and then another push and he (ITS A BOY!) was out! Id been helped in to a partially sitting/curled up position by my rock star doula mom, and I was able to grab him from my husband (who did the initial catching) right away and pull him up to my chest and get skin to skin immediately. My husband came up to be by my head and we just kinda sat there staring at him for a while.
While we were babygazing, my dad went to get my son from downstairs, and he came up and checked everything out (although hed planned to cut the cord, he declined when actually presented with the opportunity) and we snuggled and hung out while I delivered the placenta and the cord got clamped and cut and all that.
I had some pretty bad tearing, but I had a traumatic recovery with my son, and the midwife guessed that the scar tissue left from some reparative surgery was just not stretchy enough and so the tearing was a bit worse this time. Getting stitched up was really the worst part of the whole process.
So, we have two boys now! I cant believe it. Arthur is a great little nurser, weve spent much of the last 48 hours doing skin to skin and resting and nursing and resting and nursing and resting its been pretty blissful. Were all in love!
Sorry for the long story... I started typing and just couldn't stop!
I spent all of the day before my due date feeling icky. Just... off. Nauseated, with occasional waves of dizziness and weakness, but I wasn't feeling frequent contractions like I had with previous false starts. Annoying, but since it wasnt quite my due date, I decided to let it go and not stress out about it. Since I was feeling cruddy, I had a friend on deck to get my son from daycare just in case, but when the time came around I felt up to it, so I went to get him.
He and I got home and decided to head to the park, which is a few blocks from our house. We spent a good while playing, watching some Ultimate Frisbee teams practice, and then bounced on the see saw. I jokingly posted a picture of us to Facebook and said bouncing the baby right outta there.
My husband met us on the walk home from the park after he got home from work, and we got home, had dinner and put our kiddo to bed. Around 9pm I was just knackered, so I headed to bed figuring I was in for another night of crappy sleep, if the previous several nights were any indication.
Around 2am I woke up with some cramping, but brushed it off as more nonsense false labor and went back to sleep. Woke up again around a quarter to 3, went back to sleep, and when I woke up again about half an hour later, the cramping hurt so bad I decided to get up and have a shower. I woke up my husband and told him where I was going so he wouldnt worry when he woke up and I wasnt in bed but I assured him it was probably nothing and told him he didnt need to get up yet.
After the shower, though, I was pretty danged uncomfortable and told my husband it maybe wouldnt be bad for him to get up. We headed downstairs (quietly, to keep the 3 year old asleep!), he made coffee, and paged the midwife and called my parents (my mom is a doula, and my dad is a photographer). The midwife called back around 4am, and after talking with me for a while, decided shed head over. My parents arrived about 4:15, and the midwives arrived around 5. I spent the time between contractions sitting down on the birth ball and every time I had a contraction I got up and paced around the house, pushing on my hips with my fists and breathing. I could NOT sit through contractions. I spent a couple on the birth ball, leaning in to my husband and holding on around his neck, but I was much more comfortable standing/swaying/rocking/walking through them.
One of the midwives suggested a shower a while later (maybe 6:30?), so I headed up to shower. My mom came with and sat on the steps outside the bathroom door just in case I needed anything. The water didnt feel anywhere near as wonderful as I wanted it to, but at least I got my hair washed and felt less icky. After the shower, I decided there was no way in hell I was going back downstairs, so I climbed in to bed (which my dad and husband had gotten ready right when my parents arrived) and spent some time on my hands and knees draped over a balled up pillow.
Our son woke up around 7 and stopped in to see what was going on, hung out for a while, and my dad took him downstairs for breakfast to wait for his auntie (my best friend since early teenagehood) to get there.
Stuff started to suck then. Just, contractions got stronger and faster and closer together and I had little to no time to recover in between. Went back and forth between hands and knees and lying on my side. Rolling over from one side to the other was the worst I cannot imagine how women labor on their backs, because that was the most awful position I ever hit, even when it was just for a couple seconds.
A little after 8 I started feeling like I was pushing, and got a little bit of time between contractions to rest and gear up for the next one I worried about this, because it felt like everything stopped after having such regular strong contractions for so long, getting even the minute I was in between felt like FOREVER!
My waters hadnt broken yet, and they started to see a little bit of head during contractions I reached down and felt the water bag and by god if it wasnt the weirdest thing Ive ever felt. After one or two more pushes, the water bag broke, and then another push and he (ITS A BOY!) was out! Id been helped in to a partially sitting/curled up position by my rock star doula mom, and I was able to grab him from my husband (who did the initial catching) right away and pull him up to my chest and get skin to skin immediately. My husband came up to be by my head and we just kinda sat there staring at him for a while.
While we were babygazing, my dad went to get my son from downstairs, and he came up and checked everything out (although hed planned to cut the cord, he declined when actually presented with the opportunity) and we snuggled and hung out while I delivered the placenta and the cord got clamped and cut and all that.
I had some pretty bad tearing, but I had a traumatic recovery with my son, and the midwife guessed that the scar tissue left from some reparative surgery was just not stretchy enough and so the tearing was a bit worse this time. Getting stitched up was really the worst part of the whole process.
So, we have two boys now! I cant believe it. Arthur is a great little nurser, weve spent much of the last 48 hours doing skin to skin and resting and nursing and resting and nursing and resting its been pretty blissful. Were all in love!
