Elliott's Birth Story

I was terrible at keeping up with the blog before he was born and now I expect I will be even worse now that he is here but I can at least tell you of his birth. The morning of his birthday I was feeling miserable which was very frustrating because it was my first week of maternity leave and I was hoping to get a lot accomplished with the nursery and the house in preparation for his birth. My to do list included hanging art work, washing cloth diapers, touching up paint, and cleaning the house top to bottom. I was sitting around the house moping around with the stomach flu while Eric taken the day off to make sure I was ok. My symptoms were diarrhea and vomiting which was really just horrible being 9 months pregnant. Being concerned about dehydration we called the midwife to let her know I was ill and see if we should do anything in particular. She said the baby would be fine despite me feeling like death and I should just continue drinking fluids as much as possible and rest. I napped until about 3 in the afternoon when my stomach was really hurting and jokingly Eric pulled out his contraction timer app and began "timing" my diarrhea pains. I thought it was so funny that he wanted to try it and remember thinking how excited I would be when we would REALLY use the timer, because after all these weren't contractions... right?
After timing a few of the "pains" he stopped because nothing was really consistent like our birthing book mentioned they would be and I just continued to lay on the couch and watch tv. At one point I pulled out the exercise ball (which I had planned on using when I was in "actual labor") and just laid across it and felt some relief. I think trying to stay balanced on the ball was a really good distraction. At 6:30 I wasn't feeling any better although I hadn't had any more symptoms, in fact suddenly my stomach pains were sharper and came and went rather than being more of a constant dull pain so we decided to time the pains again. I really wanted to get showered since I hadn't done that all day and once I got upstairs to the bathroom I decided a bath would be more relaxing. I threw my hair up deciding not to shampoo and deal with blow drying it and got in the tub with some of my lavender bubble bath. After sitting in the tub for about 15 mins I suddenly felt horribly nauseous, and of course threw up.
At this moment I really felt like this was more than just a stomach flu but didn't give "labor" any more thought because all I could think was "This SUCKED"! I was able to get myself dried off and that was all I had the energy for. Again when I was in labor I had planned on wearing my black sports bra and black shorts but in the moment, screw clothes, and screw modesty! I was lying on the floor between our bathroom and bed in nothing but my birthday suit and didn't even care. Eric helped me get to the bed where the comforter and I played a game of "now you're too hot, now you're too cold", while Eric called the midwife. She wanted to listen to me while I had a contraction. I thought she was crazy, she wanted me to talk while I felt like a knife was being twisted around inside me, VERY funny Karen (that's the midwifes name, by the way, I didn't mention that before). When she realized I couldn't talk during the pains she was more convinced I was in labor and told Eric to call her by 10 if they got closer together. So Eric pulled out the timer and by 10 o'clock the contractions were 2-3 mins apart and I was yelling at him to call Karen and to call my mom. Karen told Eric she was on her way and to start getting things set up. You see, when you have a home birth there are precautions you take to protect your bedding and carpeting and generally you are able to do this in advance. But I was already in the bed and didn't feel like going anywhere so Eric was able to wedge some towels under me and then pulled out the "What to do if your midwife doesn't make it" list. This list includes things like turning up the temperature in the house to 80 degrees so baby is nice and warm and getting towels warmed in the dryer. Talk about freaking out, Eric was running around like a crazy person, poor guy. He was terrified HE would have to deliver our baby!
When the midwife and my mom showed up at 1, Karen the midwife, took a few minuets to set up her things and checked me to see how many centimeters I was. SURPRISE! I was already at 9 centimeters.... holy crap, this was happening! The midwife offered that if I was uncomfortable on my back that changing position to hands and knees might be more comfortable and I figured why not. I had only been on my hands and knees a moment or so when I felt a gush like I wet my pants. I was terrified, thinking the midwife or someone saw what happened I waited and when no one said anything I asked if I was OK. They all reassured me I was fine, but I said no, I felt something and the midwife exclaims, "Oh wow, your water broke"!
The second midwife arrived shortly after and the apprentice midwife showed up shortly after that. My contractions continued to get stronger. I decided to lay back down as the hands and knees wasn't comfortable anymore. The midwives were able to get the absorbent medical pads and plastic under me to protect the mattress at this time. My saving grace was Eric kneeling by the bed with cool rags for my forehead and ice water to drink, they were a great distraction when the contractions hit. What is amazing to me looking back, is that while I was pretty uncomfortable during contractions, in the time between my body took over and made me rest, preparing for the next contraction. During the resting points I was perfectly calm, kept my eyes closed and just focused on my breathing. Everyone was busy around me, doing what exactly, I have no recollection. Around midnight, Karen did another check and said I was fully dilated and that if I wanted to give a push to see how it feels, I could. So I did. It was such a strange feeling. Relief, progression, and anticipation are all how I would describe getting to push in labor. Knowing that each push would lead you closer to baby is so comforting and the excitement drives you forward. I thank all the hours I spent reading about labor and delivery, our birthing classes and the knowledge our midwife passed to us for how prepared and calm I felt at this moment. Now the moment that I struggled with was crowning, aka the "Ring of Fire". I started to panic and doubt myself big time. I was tired, exhausted, and this HURT, how could I keep going! Karen saw me struggling, took my hand looked me in the eye and essentially told me I could do this, I had come this far and did amazing and that I ultimately had no choice. This was the exact push I needed to push this baby out. When I had the next urge to push I listened to Karen's coaching on when and how hard to push. Then she told me I could reach down and feel his head, SO CRAZY! I looked over at Eric and he was getting choked up. Within the next few pushes we were being told to look down and see our babies head and at 12:55am he was out and in my arms. He was so precious. His cord was short so he only went as far as my stomach and since we were delaying his cord clamping that is as far as he went until I delivered the placenta. Within 20 minuets I delivered the placenta and Eric got to hold his son. Eric cut his cord after it stopped pulsating 15 minuets later. I got really emotional at this time. He was now out and ready to experience the world, no longer safe inside me and I just couldn't believe it.

It's funny to me, as I try to write an ending to this blog post, it is hard because its not the end, it is just the beginning :)