Audrey's Waterbirth @ Home
Our second child was born at home and there was no question we would have our others at home as well. We were excited to find out that our third child would be arriving in spring of 2006. We told our family, who was very excited and I dashed off an excited email to my G, the midwife who attended Jeremy's birth. This pregnancy was much different than the first two. I had terrible morning sickness accompanied by motion sickness. With the first two babies, I threw up once or twice and had some nausea but this time I threw up more often and just felt so much sicker. Thankfully, the morning sickness and motion sickness was completely gone around 16 weeks.
We had the mid-pregnancy ultrasound with our first two pregnancies, but decided to forego both the ultrasound and the chance to find out baby's gender, our first surprise! The rest of the pregnancy progressed with only small annoyances like for heartburn, sciatic pain and mild pubic symphysis dysfunction. My blood pressure likes to try to go higher during pregnancy, but this was easily taken care of with daily doses of aged garlic extract (Kyolic), food based calcium and flax seed oil. A few weeks before my due date, baby spun posterior but I tried the tricks recommended at spinningbabies.com and after a visit to the chiropractor to fix my misaligned hips, baby turned anterior again. Because I had never made it to a due date, I really didn't expect to get to my due date of May 10 still pregnant. The prodromal labor started around 36 weeks but I was more prepared this time after having all the prodromal labor with my second pregnancy. I decided not to ask for any internals, as I knew that knowing how dialated I was would get my hopes up unnecessarily.
May 10 came and went and I was still pregnant. It was a rough day and I wish in retrospect that I would have booked the whole week to keep myself busy so I wouldn't have time to wallow in my disappointment at seeing my due date come and go with no baby in my arms. Mother's Day (May 14) rolled around and I was very reluctant to go to church, but dh talked me into it so we went. I'm glad we did. I cried on my pastor's lapels, the congregation prayed over me and I left church feeling much better about things. My parents treated us to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and I enjoyed a delicious steak dinner.
The next day (40w5d), G came for my prenatal and my blood pressure had gone up a bit more (it was a little higher than usual at my previous prenatal, despite the fact that I was still taking my supplements). :( She checked my cervix and found it favorable, 3cm and easily stretched to 7cm… we decided she would sweep my membranes and see if that would get labor started. After she left, I returned a few phone calls and dh came home from work. We decided that he should go ahead and go to band practice to jam with the guys and just put the cell phone on vibrate so I could call if anything changed. He picked up a pizza from Papa John's and we ate a quick dinner before he left for the evening. When he got home, I was having some contractions but they were very similar to the prodromal labor I'd been having for so long.
We watched some Andy Griffith Show (dh is collecting the complete seasons on DVD) and went to bed shortly before 11pm. I got up awhile later for a potty break and laid on the couch since I couldn't get comfortable in the bed any longer… the contractions seemed to pick up quite a bit so I got up to put in my contacts and called G, my midwife, and my mom to alert them- the time was 1:45am. The contractions were picking up quite a bit when my mom arrived about half an hour later… dh was filling up the birth pool at that point. Dh couldn't reach his mom on the phone, so he ended up running over to her house three blocks away to wake her up (she's in her 70's and wasn't hearing her phone). The midwife's two apprentices arrived shortly after my mom did and started setting up. B, the senior apprentice, checked my cervix at 2:50am and found me at 8cm… I had a contraction right as she finished and they helped me up really fast because I about died just thinking about having a contraction while lying down.G arrived about the same time as dh got back home with MIL. At that time the pool was full enough for me to get in so I did. Things get a bit hazy now… I remember talking about something in between contractions, but not what it was. The contractions were *very* intense and although baby was anterior, I was having back labor. I remember one really bad contraction I gasped for dh to push on my back so he started poking the small of my back like it had little buttons on it. Uh, not helpful! Thankfully G told dh to apply constant counter-pressure and that was much better! At 3:25, I felt the need to poop so got out right after a contraction, the pizza dinner was not sitting well at that point. Yuck. I had a contraction while still on the toilet and I did NOT like it. I jumped right back into the pool and had another contraction or two.
At 3:40 I had my first pushing contraction and my water broke- the first time in three births that my water broke spontaneously. The contractions were soooo very intense at this point. For the first time in three births, I pooped while pushing. Not fun, but it couldn't be helped! At 3:43am, baby crowned and at 3:44am baby was born… she shot out like a torpedo so I didn't really catch her, I had to lift her up off the floor of the pool- thankfully it has the air chambers in the bottom too, so it was cushioned. It took two separate contractions to get baby out this time after the head crowned- we suspect a nuchal hand or fist. It took a little more effort to push baby out and I remember it felt much different than pushing with my first two babies. When I think about it, it does seem like the way it felt may have been an arm somewhere up where it didn't belong! We know from palpitations during pg and how she sleeps now outside the womb that she likes her hand(s) by her face. Now all through the pregnancy, dh and I had been convinced we were having a boy.
I was gasping from the adrenaline rush of the birth when someone reminded me to look to see what sex we had… imagine my surprise when I reached down and felt vulva! Wow… so I had to see it to believe it- no boy parts in sight. It's a Girl! The cord quit pulsing at 3:50 so we cut it since it was so short, that way I could more easily cuddle with the baby. At 3:54 the placenta came and after a brief attempt at nursing we got out of the pool to go sit and cuddle on the couch. My mom had woken Elana just in time for her to witness the birth and she was happy to join us on the couch and meet her baby sister. Dh went to work emptying the birth pool while I nursed the baby. Jeremy awoke a few minutes later and sleepily met his new little sister.
Shortly after that, we did the newborn exam right there on the couch next to me. When I laid Audrey on the couch so B could do the newborn exam, I said something to someone in the room and Audrey twisted her head way to the side to look my way when she heard my voice. I thought I was going to cry just from the sheer joy of it. A little while later, G, B and M packed up and headed home after G told me that I should just have babies all the time since I did it so well. ;) My dad stopped by and brought over breakfast sandwiches from Hardee's and after eating we all curled up and caught up on some zzzz's. I didn't tear, despite the fact that she was harder to get out… healing from giving birth at home has once again been easy. I had some residual back pain for a few days, but it was resolved by a followup visit to the chiropractor. Poor Audrey was quite out of alignment too, and a gentle adjustment fixed her spitting up/puking issues. Once again, we had a lovely birth at home and were well cared for by our fabulous midwife and her assistants. The transition seems to be so much easier for the older siblings, one minute we were a family of four and the next minute a family of five without leaving the house. We love homebirthing! ;)
Audrey Lynne Sanders
7lb 6oz and 19 ½ in long
Apgars of 9/9
Waterbirthed at home
May 16, 2006 (40w6d) at 3:45am
Audrey's middle name Lynne is in memory of Bill's only sister, Sherry Lynne who left us much too soon. I remember your laugh Sherry, see you on the other side.
