Happy birthday to Lana!

Here is my birth story with my youngest, Lana:

I woke up Sunday at around 7:15 with a few little back pains, but I
figured they would go away. We had Mexican food Saturday night to
celebrate Kevin's birthday, so I figured it would go away when I
finally passed some gas (I had been having a lot of "contractions"
that ended up being from needing to fart, so I tried not to get my
hopes up.) I went to the bathroom and they didn't stop after I'd
farted, and I had really bad bloody show (like I was getting ready to
start my period), so I told dh and he was timing the contractions for
me. I got into the shower but he didn't stay there, and in my 15
minute shower I had 4 really powerful contractions (all in my back.)
I got out, got dressed and went downstairs. We figured they were
about 5 minutes apart, so I called the midwife who said she'd have to
call me back. My MIL and mom were here, so they were getting ready
for the day, and when they had finished getting ready before I got a
call back from the midwife, we decided to go ahead and go to the
birth center. We made Emily some french toast sticks and bagged some
cereal and headed out the door. I called again and talked to Kel, my
regular midwife, who said to come on in and get checked. We got there
at about 8 am and waited for awhile, another family was there, and we
talked to them in the waiting room. Their mama had the baby at 7:15,
but she needed stitches, so Kel was finishing up on those.

We realized they didn't see us come in, so my mom went out and rang
the doorbell to let them know we were here, and the birth assistant
came out, telling me Kel was finishing up, so we went to an exam room
and waited. She came out and checked me, saying that she wasn't sure
I was in labor because I was only 3-4 cm dilated and 90% effaced
(thank you EPO!) so she said I should go to the back labor room and
hang out for an hour or two, that she'd come to check on me and see
how things were going. I decided to have Emily snuggle and nurse to
make sure things kept going, and to have our last moments of her as
an only child before labor got really intense. She came back in about
an hour and said I was at 4-5 cm, still 90% effaced, but that there
was definitely something going on so she was going to admit us (which
at the Birth Center basically means we get to stay, lol. No paperwork
or anything.) When I got to 5 cm, I decided to try out the birthing
tub because the contractions were all in my back (even though baby
wasn't posterior) and Kevin tried sacral (sp?) pushes to counteract
the pressure, which helped a lot. Emily was in the room up to that
point, she had been nursing to jump start labor (while we were there
for the first hour, before we were admitted) and she had been doing
the breathing with me, she'd say, "Mama!" and then blow, blow, blow.
It was pretty cute. While I was waiting for the tub to fill up I was
sitting on the toilet in the bathroom and she would dip her hands in
the water and run over to put them on my belly. I was amazed at how
perceptive she was. My MIL and mom went off in search of swim
diapers, just in case, but Emily ended up leaving the room before I
got into the tub and didn't come back until the baby was born.

I labored in the tub for about an hour when I decided to try getting
out and doing other positions. We tried the dance position (leaning
against dh with arms around his neck) and I didn't really like that,
then we tried laying in bed on my side, on the birth ball while
rotating my hips, on hands and knees, butt in the air, every little
position I could think of, I tried it, and quickly discarded it after
each contraction. We refilled the tub with warm water and I got back
in like a woman on a mission (my midwife laughed at how fast I walked
back to the tub.) I progressed fairly quickly in the tub, my midwife
told me to try to butterfly my legs to make my pelvis bigger, so with
each contraction I did that and leaned forward while dh did some
symmetrical hand movements on my back. We did this position where I
leaned over the edge of tub, while still in it, my arm pits were
against the top of the edge of the tub, and I was holding myself up
with my knees, spread wide apart to get gravity into things. I felt
the need to push, but my midwife said I was only 8 cm and had a
little lip of cervix left, so I could do little baby pushes. The baby
pushes were not what my body was telling me to do, so she told me I
wasn't allowed to push anymore (bad mama, not listening!) so she told
me to do these little breaths where you pretend like you're blowing a
feather up, that it keeps you from pushing. She checked me again and
said I was at 9 cm, a little cervix left, but that there was a bag of
water in the way, so I laid back and she broke my water for me, which
came out clear. I got back into position at the end of the tub, and
got ready to push (she told me that if I felt like I needed to push
that I could.) With the next contraction I started pushing, and it
burned pretty bad, but I felt her head coming down the birth canal,
and the midwife said she was crowning. I couldn't get her out with
that contraction, and I felt pretty frustrated when I felt her head
go back in, but with the next contraction I tried to push the entire
time. Kel said that the head was out and she needed to do something
with the cord (I think move it so that she could have better access
at the baby) and then gave me the go to finish pushing and she was
out! I asked dh what time it was and he said 12:12 pm. We drained the
tub and I held baby while we waited for the placenta to be delivered
and for the cord to stop pulsing. While we were waiting, Lana decided
it was time to poop, and pooped for about 5 minutes straight (the
midwife and birth assistant were laughing because she just kept
pooping!) Kel checked me and said that I had two really small tears
that didn't need stitches (not bleeding, they were overlapping
themselves already so they would heal quickly) and that I looked
perfect. Lana has some bruising on her face, but other than that,
she's perfect. She just squeaked by needing a blood sugar test,
weighing in at 9 lbs 13 oz. She doesn't fit any of the newborn sized
cloth diapers I made and we had to loosen the straps on her car seat,
we were totally not prepared for a baby her size.

There were times during the labor that I thought I couldn't do it, in
fact I told my midwife and Kevin that I couldn't, but they just kept
telling me I could. I think I was 7 cm when I told them I wanted
drugs (to which my midwife said, "We don't have any drugs." which
they didn't, and I'm eternally grateful for because I was probably an
hour away from delivering her and would have kicked myself forever
after that!) I told Kevin he has to go get me a medal now, lol.

10/21/07 - 12:12 pm - 9 lbs 13 oz - 22 inches