Tuesday's Baby!

I attended one of the most amazing birth's on Tuesday. The mom carried her baby to exactly 42 weeks. We did a lot of talking the last week, but we finally had a breakthrough the night before labor began.

I got funny text from her that morning around 7:30am. She called me after that to let me know that she was having these "cramps" that sort of "come and go" every 5 minutes or so. She then added that she'd had some bloody show about an hour before that when the cramps started.

We talked again around 11:30am. Things her picking up, but not much.

We talked again around 1:20pm. I could tell she was in active labor at that point. She seemed much less like talking, and a bit "weepy" and "complain-y". They said they didn't need me yet.

At 3:15pm came the next call. "We'd like you to come now". So I headed out - it's a long drive. I arrived at about 4:20/4:30pm. She looked panicked, but had her friend and husband helping her work through a contraction. I told her I was going to warm up my hands and she insisted that I don't, and put my cold hands on her belly.

At the next contractions, I could tell she needed some focus. I wrapped her arms around her husbands neck. He stroked her face and I helped him breathe with her, while I rubbed her back. After that, she seemed much more in control. She had a purpose during a contraction, a plan.

After a little while of standing and swaying through contractions, she went and laid down on her side on her bed. We worked through contractions, focusing on slow, deep breathing, relaxing her neck and face and hands.

Later, she went to the bathroom and then we stood and leaned against a wall. She started to enjoy it when we squeezed her hips, so we did that, and encouraged her to breathe.

She laid back on the bed a while later, and I massaged her feet and calves, which were really bothering her. Contractions seemed to become quite intense at that point. I pushed on her hip during each contraction. She started to completely sleep in-between contractions. I looked at her husband and whispered that we ought to be getting ready soon. It was a 30min (minimum) drive to the birth place.

Around 6:30pm, I managed to get everyone in the car. She was feeling pressure at this point, but not needing to push.

We arrive!

So now, we're trying to make everyone aware of the plan. They check her - she's 10cm/+1. They call the doctor.

They start bringing delivery stuff into this TINY, maybe 8x8 Triage room.... the baby warmer, the delivery cart. The doctor comes in, checks her, and then asks if they are going to move her to a room... he looked slightly perplexed. The nurses say no, and he walks out, I think a little annoyed.

At that point we only have one nurse, the nurse assigned to her there. She is wonderful. She listens and hears. We get the monitors off, and we turn her over on hands and knees over the back of the bed.

They decide to move her to her room, since she's still not pushing yet. We cover her with a sheet and wheel her down the hall to her room.

Once we get there, the nurse starts asking what the preferences are. Basically they want nothing done to them or the baby. So, she calls the doctor back in, so they can talk. He agrees to everything, including that the husband gets to help catch the baby. YAY!

So, she starts pushing around 8:10pm, on her hands and knees. She does this, well, for about 30min. We start seeing the baby's head sometimes, so the nurse calls the Dr in, and he gets ready, but after a while there is still no baby, so he leaves again. They monitored her twice during pushing, and baby was wonderful.

She starts to ask why it's taking so long, and I tell her and the nurse tells her that it isn't taking long and she's doing great. I ask if she wants to try a different position, and she does, so we put the squat bar up and break down the bed and get her squatting. We set up a mirror so she can see. Within minutes the baby's head is clearly visible. The doctor is called back.

With another few pushes he is out. Mom and Dad cry and cry and cry with joy! She sits back and dad picks up his new baby and holds him up like an offering to the mom. It was beautiful. Her friend managed to get the most amazing shot of this moment. I will never forget it. He places him on her chest and they love him and cry over him and it is amazing.

The doctor calmly watches... doing nothing. The baby nurse doesn't touch the baby, she only looks in-between them to try and gauge his APGARS.

Baby was 8lbs 8oz and the dad guessed his weight exactly.

It was AMAZING!!!

A Birth Story

I attended this birth as their doula on Monday. It was a wonderful experience with a room full of love.

Welcome Baby!

My client due 7/20 had her baby this morning. I'm so glad I got to attend this birth!

She was great. Very calm, very in control. She called me yesterday afternoon to check in after her OB appt and let me know that she was 3cm/100%/btw 0 & +1. WOW! She told me her back was hurting her a lot. I had a nervous feeling, but told her to try some pelvic rocks and hands & knees.

She called me back a few hours later around 6:30pm to ask if she was having contractions. From her description, I confirmed that she was probably in early labor and told her to go rest, take a bath, relax and to call me back in 2 hours to let me know if things had changed.

She called again at about 7pm, to say she was bleeding. She felt like it was a lot of bright red blood, so I told her to call her doctor and ask what he thought she should do. He wanted her to come and get it check out, just to make sure there wasn't a problem. She has a 45min drive to the hospital. I told her I would meet her at there.

I arrived at about 8pm. She was checked at 8:15pm and was 4cm/100%/0. The blood was just bloody show, although a lot of it. She was admitted and we were in a room around 9pm and her antibiotics were started (GBS+).

Around 10pm, her contractions were about 3 minutes apart, and long (double peaking). I got her in the tub and it spaced her contractions out a bit and they weren't as long, and she said she felt a lot better there. After about 30 minutes, she got out and back to the bed to lay down.

At 12am on 7/7, she was checked again and was 5cm, her contractions were long again (90+ seconds) and about 2 minutes apart. Around 2am she went to the bathroom and said she heard a pop and thought her water had broken. She laid back down on the bed and was immediately shaking and showing signs of transition. After saying she was feeling some pressure and grunting, she was checked and was 8cm.

The nurse left us alone (again) and we talked her out of giving up. Several times I looked up at the door wondering why no one was in here checking in. After several contractions of uncontrollable pushing during contractions, I paged the nurse to come. A different nurse comes in and I tell her that she is pushing a lot with each contraction. It's been about 20 minutes since she was last checked. She tells me she will tell her nurse, but not to push (as if I can hold her baby in or stop her). We work to get her to breathe out and that works a lot to keep her from pushing. Finally (at 3am) the nurse comes in and I give her a look... you know the she is ready to have a baby look, and she checks her (she's complete, duh!) and she calls the doctor, and tells her not to push (hah!). I tell her to blow out again, but I don't try and stop her from pushing. She's complete and whether he makes it or not, wasn't that important.

OB comes in and asks how things are going. Watches her push a couple times and leaves. (This doc is kind of funny, he's sort of a interventionist, but he tries to be hands off) At about 3:30pm, she has moved the baby down to almost crowning and doc comes back in. The baby is born at 3:41am.

He is a cutie! Congratulations to the new mom and dad!

My Birth Story, Cole Henry

My 2nd Birth...

I woke up around 5am on 2/19/08 with easy contractions, but they were different than the previous weeks. I basically continued on with my day as normal. Contractions were all over the place (which happened with me last time).

My mom came over and cleaned my house (way cool). Around 12pm I got irritated about being in the house and we went and ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday.

When we got home, I cleaned some more and wandered around. Around 4pm I was getting really irritated about where I was in labor, and that I was bored in the house. So, I got everyone together and we took a quick (2 min) trip to my doctor's office to get a "progress report". Once I got there, my contractions started getting worse. He checked me and I was 6cm and 90% effaced. Told me to head on over to the hospital.

We ran home for a few last minute things and went in. My doctor called over to L&D and got me THE BEST nurse there. She has actually looked into opening her own birthing center (but the interest still isn't here). She did all doppler monitoring like I wanted and when they wanted one strip she just held the monitor on me herself for 20 minutes.

Anyway, about 8:45pm I started feeling a lot of pressure all of a sudden and made my husband go get the nurse (she had stepped out for a minute). There was a lot of scurrying about trying to find a doctor. Mine wasn't there yet and the on-call was heading into c-section. My nurse was trying to find a midwife from downstairs while putting on gloves to possibly catch the baby. The on-call walked in (because apparently someone thought I was only at 30 weeks gestation), but stayed anyway to catch.

Pushing was QUICK! His shoulders got stuck for a second or two, but pulling my legs/knees back was enough to free them, no biggie. I felt a big pop when his shoulders came out. Baby was born at 9:06pm. He was 8lbs 5oz and 21inches long (HUGE, more than a pound bigger than my last, who was 6 days past her edd). I had a tiny tiny tear that wasn't really on my perineum and didn't need any attention.

I had a lot of bleeding (again) with this birth AND my water never broke and they had to tear it off the baby.

This was such an easy birth!

A great birth!

I attended a wonderful birth this weekend! It is so refreshing to see a normal labor lead to a normal birth! How exciting!

I feel so excited and it makes me want to have tons of babies, just so that I can experience the euphoria that comes right after giving birth!

Some recent births...

I recently attended a clients birth that was just wonderful. It was quick and easy (although she doesn't think easy is the right word!).

I also recently attended a birth that was hard, but the mom did such a wonderful job. Her baby is so cute and she is so in love.

All is right in the world!