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I will start our birth
story 2 days before the actual birth. We had to drive 2 1/2
hours to see our midwife. She worked out of Dallas, TX. We
went there on Thursday the 3rd of Sept. We were also going
to pick up my mom later that day from the airport. We had
our midwife do a vaginal check because I was now 41 weeks
and we were debating having to strip my membranes to get things
going. I was about 3 cm but baby was still pretty high and
my cervix was pretty thick yet. We prayed about our decisions
and decided to come back tomorrow before leaving Dallas. The
baby’s heart rate was great and there was lots of fluid
still in there.
The next morning we went to the Ft Worth zoo. It was fun.
Lots of walking. Then we went to see our midwife again. I
told her I was not at peace with stripping the membranes and
she agreed. She did the greatest non-stress test. She used
her watch, hands and fetascope. Erick and I had decided against
any ultrasounds during this pregnancy including doptone.
She said the baby sounded and moved wonderful
and she felt in no rush to push anything. She checked me again
and the baby had dropped and I was 4 cm dilated and my cervix
had thinned considerably. I had also had some bloody discharge
that afternoon. So she opened up some evening primrose and
inserted into my vagina. We prayed again for a beautiful homebirth
and healthy baby.
We ate and left Dallas. I had some blood and
some cramping from the exam and oil but nothing serious.
Friday night I had some minor contractions at
night. I actually wasn’t even sure if they were contractions
or just a belly ache. I had trouble sleeping but eventually
fell asleep and would awake with the contractions. I guessed
they were like 45 minutes apart and maybe 30 seconds. The
next morning we ran errands. We went and got our mail on base,
got groceries. My mom and I even got massages at the mall.
We kept teasing that we were having a baby either today or
tomorrow. The contractions started to get to the point of
not being able to walk through them. I would just stop and
lean on the grocery cart. We got home around 2.30 and decided
to call our midwife Sarah. She said we should try and time
them. She lived 2 hours away. We timed them for a couple of
minutes but they were really irregular. We decided to take
Luke to the pool. We timed them a little bit at the pool.
They were still very light and not regular. Sarah decided
she was going to head here anyway. We left the pool at around
4:30. Sarah told us to walk and I told Erick I didn’t
think I could anymore. I was actually having to concentrate
on relaxing. So we headed up into our apartment. We put Luke
down and my mom and Erick went to work putting the bedroom
together. We had a red ant infestation the night before and
nothing was put back together for the birth. At about 5:15
pm they had the bed put together and I told Erick that I needed
him now. All of a sudden there were absolutely no breaks in
my contractions. I thought someone had snuck me some pitocin.
Erick called the birth assistant, who, praise the Lord, lived
in our town. He told her we needed her right away. Then I
got the shakes and started to feel like I was going to throw
up. I was like, oh no I am in transition and my midwife is
still 1 hour away. Then I felt the urge to push at the peak
of the contraction. I told Erick that Kasie needs to be here
now. It was around 5:45 at this point. We called Sarah and
she unfortunately had to start speeding.
Kasey arrived at 6pm and by that time
I was on my knees trying not to push. My uterus was pushing
on its own but I was not helping. We were trying really hard
to avoid a tear with this birth since I had a previous 4th
degree tear. Kasey began putting the ginger compresses on
my perineum and just gently encouraged me not to push. Sarah
arrived in about 30 minutes after that, which seemed like
an eternity for not pushing but it helped to prevent a tear.
When Sarah arrived she had me get on the bed and get into
the side-lying position for pushing. She applied counter pressure
with the compresses and also put coconut oil on my vagina.
The compresses felt really good. My uterus did most of the
pushing during my contractions. Sarah was really firm with
me when I could push and how to push. It was really hard to
not push fast but I really did not want to tear so I listened
to her cues. Even with pushing slowly our little girl, which
was a surprise, came out in 23 minutes with just a small little
tear that did not even need one stitch. She was born at 6:53.
It was beautiful. Everything that we had prayed for was answered
including a fast birth but that our midwife would arrive on
time. Sarah let the cord pulse as we bonded. Just such a different
experience then my hospital birth. The placenta came out in
about 30 minutes. Then my baby and me took a wonderful herbal
bath together, then I climbed into my own bed. Then they did
the newborn exam. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches
long. She nursed wonderfully and we all had a very peaceful
sleep that night.
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