I got my homebirth!! Story and photos enclosed!

Greta Chick

Happy mum of 3 :-)
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The first photo was 1 minute after delivery, the second 2 hours later, the third 2 hours after delivery and the 4th was when we went up to bed at 12.30am.

I've got a baby!!!!! :cloud9: :baby:

Well it's quite a quick story lol.

I was awake all saturday night/sunday morning with a stomach pain that wasn't coming and going, it was there all the time but I couldn't sleep so spent my time wishing it would either start into labour or go away.

Sunday morning I woke up after eventually nodding off for a couple of hours and no pains whatsoever.

At 1pm I got my first "hmmm, I wonder if this is something starting?" tightening. I then had 4 more, 20 minutes apart lasting approximately a minute or so. After that they went erratic to every half hour, every 20 minutes etc and I was rocking through them. By 5pm I was breathing slightly through them sat on my ball, breathing in my aromatherapy. Hubby was out at the tip with my dad so I got J and C's teas ready in between contractions. During one they brought me a packet of baby wipes and when I asked what they were for they said "to clean the baby up, we thought you were in labour." How incredibly sweet and gorgeous are my two :flower: :hugs:

Hubby came home with my dad and he asked me if it was ok if my dad stayed - for hubby's support as he was still anxious about us having a homebirth - too late mate lol! I'd ordered them both a take-away which came shortly after hubby put J and C to bed at 6.30pm (by which time I was breathing a bit heavier through the contractions and inhaling my aromatherapy oils whilst leaning over our new swivel armchair in the living room lol).

By about 7.10pm the contractions were every 5 minutes and lasting around a minute each so I rang the labour ward who said they'd ring the community midwife who would then ring me back. By the time she rang me back the contractions were every 3 minutes lasting a minute or so each so she said she was on her way.

The take-away and the midwives arrived at about 7.30pm so my dad took his upstairs to watch tv in our room in case J and C woke up needing settling (they didn't, they slept right through) and the midwives introduced themselves to hubby while I was in the middle of a contraction.

When I came out of the contraction she did my bp and baby's heartbeat etc and asked if I wanted her to examine me - I did. She examined me and asked how far along I thought I was, I said I'd better not be 3cm and she said I was a good 7cm at least and baby was so far down she could hardly feel it's head anymore. Excellent I thought! :thumbup:

I got on with contracting every 3 or 4 minutes, now listening to my natal hypnotherapy tracks and breathing my aromatherapy whilst stood rocking backwards and forwards with one leg in front of the other holding onto the armchair (now with the shower curtain and towels underneath me lol). Hubby was fantastic, I'd told him I'd like him to press the small of my back as my contractions were like a band all around me rather than just stomach pain which I had with C (it was all back pain with J, no stomach pain at all and this time it was both at the same time lol). He also made sure he and the midwives spoke really quietly and didn't try and talk to me while I was contracting as this is what I'd said I wanted.

At about 8.40pm I started feeling pressure in my bum and said so, so I changed position to being on my knees leaning over my birth ball. In between contractions I asked the midwives if they wanted another drink and hubby said he'd make it which he did. Just as the kettle boiled I felt a lot of pressure and groaned quite loudly. He brought the drinks through then knelt up next to me and I rested my left arm on the ball and held round his waist with my right, while holding onto his arm. My body started pushing but not as severely as with C so I felt I still had some control over it, plus I felt my aromas and hypno were helping massively to keep me calm and in control so I went with it. I pushed once and felt baby move right down then made the usual "I can't do it." comment to which hubby said quietly and calmly "yes you can, you've been fantasic, you're doing so well." The midwife said she could see baby's head so I thought there's no way I'm letting this bit drag on when I've stayed so calm during the rest of it and hubby's and her comments spurred me on.

I pushed again and it felt like baby was crowning so I stopped and waited for the midwife to tell me to pant but she didn't as baby wasn't actually crowning, so without a contraction I pushed again as hard as I could and her head was born. The midwife told me to wait for the next contraction but I wanted it over with as this was the really painful bit and I didn't want it dragging on so again without a contraction I pushed as hard as I could and baby's body started to come. The midwife told me to pant while her shoulders were born so I did then she said give me a little push which I did and baby's body was born! The midwife caught Skippy then moved baby underneath me so I brought baby up and onto my chest myself. She fed within a couple of minutes then we waited for the cord to stop pulsing before hubby cut it. I could feel the placenta moving down so I gave a little push and it came out fine. The mw checked it and gave hubby a biology lesson in it :winkwink: then I had a small 2nd degree tear so the mw stitched me up while hubby had some skin to skin with baby.

He made us all a drink and they cleaned up and completed my notes while I fed baby again. The mw asked if I was ready for baby to have the checks done and I said yes so she did those while hubby got my dad to come downstairs then they left us on our own a little while later :flower: :cloud9:

Our little girl who we've named I s a b e l L u c y J a y n e T........ was born at 8.45pm weighing a very tiny 7lb 8.5oz! She's smaller than both J and C and I can't get over that shock of how tiny she is, I expected her to be bigger than C but she's almost a full pound lighter.

J and C are thrilled with her and can't stop looking at her, talking to her, kissing her and stroking her.

I didn't tell anyone at school (where I work) that we'd had our baby as I wanted J and C to know first, so in the morning when they woke for school I got them to choose one of the photos we'd taken and I wrote the details on so they could feel special telling everyone.

To say hubby was amazed is an understatement :happydance: He has been telling everyone how fantastic it was, how quick it was, how calm I was and what a brilliant experience :happydance: Considering before the mws got to us he was still anxious and unsure about homebirth, he's now very happy with how it all went :flower:

The birth centre re-opened 10 hours after I gave birth, but I don't feel like I missed out on going there or having a waterbirth at all as I's labour and birth was such an amazing, calm, empowering and absolutely wonderful experience :flower: :baby: :cloud9: :hugs:

My milk has come in now but DD is a complete cuddle monster and hates being away from hubby or I which is hard during the night when she won't go in her basket. She starts rooting as soon as we put her down then calms down straight way when we pick her up.

Sorry it got so long but thank you for reading!

xx
 

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WOW that is fantasic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brilliantly told; I was there with you.

Well done mumma, what gorgeous pictures! thrilled for you!
XxX
 
congrats on the birth of little Isabel! She's beautiful.
What a wonderful birth it sounded like you had - well done!
Let me know the date she was born and I'll add her birth to the front page.
 
What a beautiful birth Greta!! I'm so happy it worked out so well for you as I know how much you were going back and forth because of the birth centre. Sounds like your hubby was amazing in supporting you! I'm just so happy for you! :hugs:
 
Congratulations! What a wonderfully positive home birth story :)
 
Fantastic!!! So pleased you got your happy home birth!! :cloud9: Well done! x
 
What a beautiful story! Congrats on the beautiful new babe :)
 
Gorgeous photos & amazing story. Your LO is beautiful, so teeny!!

Congrats to you & your family :hugs: xx
 
What a beautiful story, and a beautiful baby. Huge congratulations!

Gina. x
 
congratulations, what a beautiful birth story! The photos are lovely.
 
Awww congratulations!! Sounds like a fab labour/birth experience, well done to you and hubby :D
 
congratulations!!! what a wonderful story,name and pics! xxx
 
congrats on the birth of little Isabel! She's beautiful.
What a wonderful birth it sounded like you had - well done!
Let me know the date she was born and I'll add her birth to the front page.

Thank you! :flower: She was born on 23rd January. How do I add a "home birth achiever" or "my baby was born at home" type of thing to my signature at the bottom please?

xx
 

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