This baby was purposely conceived in great love on Christmas Eve. I think I ovulated a couple of days later and so technically it could have been sperm from another day, but it was on Christmas Eve that my husband Matt told me that he felt led to give me a "very small present." I knew what he meant as we had recently had a miscarriage, and I had told him I wanted more kids. I only had a couple of menstrual cycles after the miscarriage, but up until Christmas Eve, he had been choosing to use condoms.
I then began to take my morning temperature so I would know when I ovulated, and about two days later, my temperature went up and stayed up! A pregnancy test a couple of weeks later confirmed it, and I calculated my due date, based on suspected ovulation date, to be Sept. 19. We immediately realized this to be when we take our annual roadtrip halfway across the country and camp at a large music festival. Matt practices all year and competes in the guitar contest, the National Flatpick Championship.
I planned to not hire a midwife for either prenatal care or the birth. I felt very comfortable doing my own prenatal care, and after our last birth, an unassisted due to fast labor, we were so spoiled by the experience that we didn't want anyone there for any future births. I wanted to wait as long as possible to tell most people. I hadn't told anyone I was pregnant when I had the miscarriage and was so glad I didn't have to go back and tell everyone the bad news. I wanted to get past the first trimester at least before telling others.
I eventually got a blood pressure machine, a fetoscope for listening to the heartbeat, and some urinalysis strips. The first trimester was just waiting, which would have been the case whether I had a midwife or not. I don't get ultrasounds, and early ultrasounds are not typically used by homebirth midwives anyway. I own a doppler, which I never used due to my reading that they can be damaging to the baby like ultrasounds can. (All my previous babies had their heartbeat checked by doppler.) I just patiently waited until I could feel my fundus (top of my uterus) above my pubic bone. This occurs by the twelfth week, but I felt mine at ten weeks. Multiple pregnancies can cause the uterus to grow faster at first. This was very reassuring that baby was alive and growing.
Next, I waited for movement. I felt the first movement at about 14.5 weeks, and a few weeks or so later, baby movement was constant and unmistakably baby. I rarely used the fetoscope as baby movement and uterine growth assured me all was well. I have been blessed with healthy pregnancies with no prior complications, so I felt very safe not having a midwife. I was basically doing everything for myself that the midwife would do anyway, since I don't get most of the things that are routine under OB care. I trust my body to be perfectly capable of growing and birthing babies, and I loved that this baby was growing undisturbed.
I studied some midwifery books so we would know what to do what to in case of complication or emergency. I mostly studied Polly's Birth Book: Obstetrics for the Home by Polly Block, Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, and Emergency Childbirth by Gregory White, MD. I've read much about pregnancy, labor, and birth as a hobby for about the past ten years, but I wanted to make sure I had memorized how to deal with potential problems. I didn't expect to have any, but wanted to be prepared just in case. I don't agree with everything in their books, but overall, they have much excellent information. Block's book does have horrendous instructions to retract an intact boy's foreskin to clean, which is extremely damaging. Please see http://www.drmomma.org/2009/09/only-clean-what-is-seen-reversing.html for more. I had many supplies in my birth kit as well that I didn't expect to use, but wanted them in the minuscule chance we did encounter any problems.
Everything went well throughout, and I busily tried to get some home repair projects done before the baby came. I even did another big bathroom remodel project, but I started it six weeks before our due date, as I did not want another labor and birth with no toilet in the house! Our last baby came a week early and was born on a bucket, our temporary toilet, since I had just begun a big repair of our bathroom floor and had taken out the toilet. I wanted a working bathroom this time!
Everything was up in the air though because of our trip. We were both comfortable with birthing on the trip and planned to go whether the baby was here yet or not. Our parents however were very upset by this. They already were really worried by our plans to birth alone, and the idea of a roadside baby was just too much. They were really pressuring us to get a midwife for the birth and of course to stay home if the baby hadn't come yet. We were just playing everything by ear and didn't know how everything would play out. I definitely did not want anyone but us there for the birth, and I didn't want Matt to miss the contest either.
On a Friday night ten days before the due date, we were talking about how maybe the upcoming full moon would trigger an early labor. The moon was to be full on Monday, and on Wednesday, we were planning to leave for our trip. I fell asleep late, around 2am (after sex!), and feeling a little twinge in my back every time I had a braxton-hicks contraction, which seemed to be occurring with a regular frequency. Hmmmm... I wondered if it was the beginning of labor. I thought of going outside, but decided that if it was labor, I better try to sleep.
The next morning I woke up and had bloody show! I figured labor would happen sometime within the next few days. With my first and second babies, I had bloody show a few days prior to birth, but with the last baby, I had no bloody show at all, which I think is one reason I didn't realize I was in labor until shortly before he was born.
Matt had taken our two older boys squirrel hunting and our youngest was still asleep. I played various songs on You Tube and danced. I was very excited to think I would soon labor, birth and have our new baby here. When everyone returned, I told Matt about the bloody show. We were so glad it looked like the baby would come early and we could go on our trip without causing our parents major worry. Matt left to go cut grass (we have a lawn care business), but he called home two or three times to check on me and see if he needed to head home early.
I decided if we were going to have our baby soon then the most important thing for me to do was to clean the house. A clean house is always desirable to a woman in labor! I spent the day cleaning and had contractions all day, but not painful. It wasn't until later that day, somewhere between 4 and 5pm, that I started to think this baby might come today. The contractions had been growing steadily stronger and closer together as the day wore on.
I had managed to clean the bathroom, kitchen, and living room, and decided to get a shower. I still needed to clean my bedroom, but by this time was doing triage on what was most important. I wanted a shower more than a clean bedroom, and I knew my time on getting anything done was getting shorter. I took a shower, then ran a bath and sat in the water for some time with a glass of water to drink. Our two (almost three) year old, Christopher, was with me a lot and even brought me bananas, which I wolfed down. He also brought me my book of acupressure points for labor, which I hadn't asked for but had been wanting.
I used acupressure during my last labor and had very little pain, so of course I used acupressure this time, but contractions were still painful. I think it may have made them shorter, but who knows since I never timed anything. I used the same points on my back that I had used before, along with some others at times. I even held small combs in my hands squeezing on them to stimulate points during each contraction, while also using my thumbs and fingers at the same time to stimulate other points. Always multitasking! I don't know when I got in the tub, but I think I got out about 5:30.
I decided I wanted to try and clean my bedroom and knew I could always get back in the tub if I wanted. In between contractions, I folded the huge pile of laundry on our bed, made the bed which didn't even have sheets on it since I had washed them, cleaned up everything off the floor, swept the floor, and whatever else needed doing. I had an inflatable kiddie pool, but never could blow it up since our bedroom was too messy. By the time I got the bedroom cleaned, I was too far along to care about the pool. Oh well.
I couldn't have set it up in the living room as our nine year old son Joshua, who had been saying for months he hated homebirth, was in there on the computer oblivious to the labor going on in the house. I think his distaste for homebirth is perhaps due to anything having to do with his mother's vagina being repulsive. He is a nine year old boy after all, so I suppose his attitude is understandable. We asked him once what he would do if his hypothetical future wife was having a baby, and he said he'd go to the "Men's Club!" We don't know where he got that idea, but hopefully he'll come around! Daniel, our five year old, had already fallen asleep due to getting up so early to go hunting. Christopher was either around me or his brother.
I spent a lot of contractions bent over the bed or a five gallon bucket, reminding myself at one point to think of the contractions as waves to ride. Once, I went outside and had a contraction under the almost full moon. I've never felt compelled to bend forward during each contraction in labor before, but it's what felt best. I would often move up and down, and rotate and move my hips as well. Joshua did see me bent over once and asked me why. I said something about it felt better or I just wanted to, and he never suspected anything. Matt came home from work at 8:10pm and saw me bent over the bed. He asked me how was it going and I said, "It's a going." I was glad he was home so he could tend to Christopher, who was being very needy. He kept wanting me to carry him and I kept trying to tell him there was no way I could carry him now.
Matt told Joshua that I was in labor. I wouldn't have told him, and he wasn't happy about it. I was in either our bedroom or the bathroom. I felt tired and laid down on my bed on my side for several contractions. I remember looking at my clock, and it was 9:33. It was around this time when Matt informed me that the contractions were coming every two minutes, which really didn't matter to me. I could tell of course that they were intense and frequent. I also thought of how I'd read that some women planning homebirths wind up transferring to the hospital for pain medication. While I certainly had no desire to go anywhere, especially a hospital, these were all clues that I was in transition, but at the time, I was thinking of Matt's prediction that morning. He said he thought the baby would be born the next day, and I was hoping I didn't have hours more labor ahead.
I decided to get back off the bed to resume my bent forward position for contractions. I also decided to make low moans hoping to get my cervix to open quicker, and I visualized it opening. I've always been a quiet laborer just breathing through contractions, but I had learned that low vocals help to dilate the cervix. I learned this from my childbirth instructor friend, Sarah, who I had hired to teach my friend Marsha, when pregnant with her first, and I sat in on the fantastic class.
I thought I had to throw up and went to the bathroom, but wound up only salivating a bunch in the toilet. Matt wiped my face with a cold washcloth that felt great. I went back to our bedroom, and I did make sure I peed every time I went in the bathroom. I had read in one of my midwifery books about reminding the mom to pee, and for some reason that stuck with me, so I kept peeing!
I always throw up right before my kids are born, so I was definitely getting closer! I had more contractions in the bedroom, then had to vomit again. I went back to the toilet, and this time, I puked! I then brushed my teeth, which I also always manage to do after puking. I thought that I'd have one more contraction and then the baby would be born. I had peed again and this time left my pants off and now ripped my shirt off. Matt told me later he knew I was about to birth when I got naked! I was just hot!
I got down in the floor on my conveniently red colored, rubber backed bathmat that Matt had bought for me the previous Christmas. What a romantic guy, huh? He also gave me new matching towels and a shower curtain. Anyway..., I was on my hands and knees and had another contraction, and then, the baby was right there! Unlike my second and third births in which I felt the babies move down the birth canal for two contractions, and then they were born during the third contraction, I never felt this baby move down.
A little bit of fluid came out as my water broke, and then the head came out. I heard Matt say something, but I don't remember what, but I thought maybe I should push, so I gave a little push and the rest of the body came out with the rest of the fluid gushing out. The baby was coming out regardless of whether I pushed or not though, as I was still in the midst of the contraction when the head was born. All my babies came out in one contraction with no break after the head like happens with some women.
This birth was different from my previous two in which I had fetal ejection reflex, and the babies came down and out on their own with zero effort in any way on my part. During that one contraction in which this baby came out, apart from my one little intentional push after the head was out, the whole thing was very intense as I was very loud, grunting I think, and of course saying Jesus over and over like I always do when babies are exiting my body! It felt different than the others, and as I think about it now, I wonder if it was the extra pressure from still having most of the fluid inside. My water had always broke before they entered the birth canal. It all happens so quick and is all so intense, that it can be hard to correctly remember all the details and feelings. But it seemed as if my body was working hard to get the baby out during that contraction.
The baby came out crying and it took me a little bit to get my leg over the cord so I could sit down. When I did, Matt handed me our new son! Yes, another boy! We like boys and weren't at all hung up on having a girl, so we were happy with another son. I asked Matt a couple of times to check the time, and he was born at 10:07pm. Our previous son was born so fast when we weren't expecting it that we don't know the exact time of his birth, but had to make a general guess for his birth certificate.
I noticed right away that he had hypospadias, in which part of the foreskin is missing. I couldn't remember the name at the time, but had read about it and how it's ironic that some parents circumcise sons, causing the penis to resemble what is an actual birth defect.
I sat on the mat holding him for maybe a half hour while Matt made phone calls to our parents. My mom wanted to come over, but I told Matt to tell her to wait until the morning as I hadn't even birthed the placenta yet and was sitting naked covered in blood, fluid, and poop and pee from the baby, who went while sitting in my lap. I was quite a mess!
Although I didn't plan to birth on the bathmat, but just so happened to want to get down in the floor, and happened to be in the bathroom where a mat was, I must mention how easy clean up was. Everything was totally contained on the mat! I just threw it all in the washing machine. Easiest birth clean up ever! So, not only did my most amazing husband give me the sperm to make the baby on Christmas, he also gave me the mat to birth him on!
We kept asking Joshua if he wanted to see the baby. It took him a while to come in, but once he did, he's been in love with him since. Daniel missed all the excitement, and his eyes about popped out when he woke up to a new brother! Christopher had watched the birth and told us right after that I pooped out a baby! All the boys love him dearly.
When I raised up a little after having been sitting on the mat, the placenta came out, my smallest one ever. I never examined my first placenta, but my other two were much bigger than this one. I don't know why, but it served the purpose. I had been considering a lotus birth, and also planned to encapsulate the placenta into pills to eat, which is supposed to be great for many things. I had a cooler to keep the placenta in to do both if I chose.
I got in the shower for a quick wash, then put the still attached to baby placenta in a ziploc bag, and had Joshua hold the bag so I could rinse the baby's poo covered butt off under the faucet. I put the baby back down on a clean towel, and set about to do his blood typing. I'm Rh negative, and Matt is positive. All our boys are positive, so I've always had Rhogam. I only needed four drops of blood, but couldn't get it from the white, nearly bloodless cord, so I got some from the fetal side of the placenta, and this baby was also positive.
A couple of hours after the birth, I went ahead and decided to cut the cord and weigh him. Matt wasn't too keen on waiting until the cord fell off on it's own and having to carry around the placenta. While he would have gone along with a lotus birth, there was nothing left in the cord, so I figured it was ok to cut. Matt cut it as he had all the other boys' cords, and we tied it with hemp twine. I had bought a cord band for that purpose, but didn't know how it worked and messed it up trying, but hemp twine worked fine. A small amount of blood did come out when he cut it, which is why we tied it tightly with the twine. Just like the others, it fell off on the fourth day.
I used a fish scale I had bought just for weighing the baby, and he was 7 pounds, 3 ounces, after subtracting the weight of the blanket we hung him from the fish scale in. He was 20 1/2 inches long, making him our smallest baby both in height and weight.
He latched on great, and nurses like a pro. I'm so very thankful I've never had breastfeeding problems. I spent much of that first night awake, just watching him as he lay sleeping beside me.
I felt fantastic as soon as he popped out, and had no tearing at all and not even any discomfort. A couple of days later, I had Angy, my midwife for my other homebirths, come over to give me Rhogam, and do the state required newborn bloodwork, and check the baby out. I was really only concerned about the hypospadias. His is minor, and an online friend directed me to a very reassuring article at http://www.drmomma.org/2010/04/hypospadias-surgery-and-circumcision.html. He is still fully functional, but just looks a little different.
He was nine days early, and we were glad, as now we could take our annual vacation in peace. Everyone was very relieved when he arrived early, and we took off on our trip as planned when he was four days old. Due to massive rainstorms and having a newborn, we did get a hotel instead of camp.
Matt wanted to name him Noel, which means Christmas child. I liked the meaning, but not the name, so finally after much debate and discussion, when he was four weeks old, we put a name on the birth certificate, Isaac Noel. Matt and I and the boys are always cuddling and snuggling and kissing him. He is so precious, and we all love him so much.
I am so very thankful for my beloved husband. He is truly my soulmate, best friend, life partner, and lover. He always knew just what to do during my labors and births. I feel very blessed and grateful to have been able to birth our last three children into his hands.
I then began to take my morning temperature so I would know when I ovulated, and about two days later, my temperature went up and stayed up! A pregnancy test a couple of weeks later confirmed it, and I calculated my due date, based on suspected ovulation date, to be Sept. 19. We immediately realized this to be when we take our annual roadtrip halfway across the country and camp at a large music festival. Matt practices all year and competes in the guitar contest, the National Flatpick Championship.
I planned to not hire a midwife for either prenatal care or the birth. I felt very comfortable doing my own prenatal care, and after our last birth, an unassisted due to fast labor, we were so spoiled by the experience that we didn't want anyone there for any future births. I wanted to wait as long as possible to tell most people. I hadn't told anyone I was pregnant when I had the miscarriage and was so glad I didn't have to go back and tell everyone the bad news. I wanted to get past the first trimester at least before telling others.
I eventually got a blood pressure machine, a fetoscope for listening to the heartbeat, and some urinalysis strips. The first trimester was just waiting, which would have been the case whether I had a midwife or not. I don't get ultrasounds, and early ultrasounds are not typically used by homebirth midwives anyway. I own a doppler, which I never used due to my reading that they can be damaging to the baby like ultrasounds can. (All my previous babies had their heartbeat checked by doppler.) I just patiently waited until I could feel my fundus (top of my uterus) above my pubic bone. This occurs by the twelfth week, but I felt mine at ten weeks. Multiple pregnancies can cause the uterus to grow faster at first. This was very reassuring that baby was alive and growing.
Next, I waited for movement. I felt the first movement at about 14.5 weeks, and a few weeks or so later, baby movement was constant and unmistakably baby. I rarely used the fetoscope as baby movement and uterine growth assured me all was well. I have been blessed with healthy pregnancies with no prior complications, so I felt very safe not having a midwife. I was basically doing everything for myself that the midwife would do anyway, since I don't get most of the things that are routine under OB care. I trust my body to be perfectly capable of growing and birthing babies, and I loved that this baby was growing undisturbed.
I studied some midwifery books so we would know what to do what to in case of complication or emergency. I mostly studied Polly's Birth Book: Obstetrics for the Home by Polly Block, Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, and Emergency Childbirth by Gregory White, MD. I've read much about pregnancy, labor, and birth as a hobby for about the past ten years, but I wanted to make sure I had memorized how to deal with potential problems. I didn't expect to have any, but wanted to be prepared just in case. I don't agree with everything in their books, but overall, they have much excellent information. Block's book does have horrendous instructions to retract an intact boy's foreskin to clean, which is extremely damaging. Please see http://www.drmomma.org/2009/09/only-clean-what-is-seen-reversing.html for more. I had many supplies in my birth kit as well that I didn't expect to use, but wanted them in the minuscule chance we did encounter any problems.
Everything went well throughout, and I busily tried to get some home repair projects done before the baby came. I even did another big bathroom remodel project, but I started it six weeks before our due date, as I did not want another labor and birth with no toilet in the house! Our last baby came a week early and was born on a bucket, our temporary toilet, since I had just begun a big repair of our bathroom floor and had taken out the toilet. I wanted a working bathroom this time!
Everything was up in the air though because of our trip. We were both comfortable with birthing on the trip and planned to go whether the baby was here yet or not. Our parents however were very upset by this. They already were really worried by our plans to birth alone, and the idea of a roadside baby was just too much. They were really pressuring us to get a midwife for the birth and of course to stay home if the baby hadn't come yet. We were just playing everything by ear and didn't know how everything would play out. I definitely did not want anyone but us there for the birth, and I didn't want Matt to miss the contest either.
On a Friday night ten days before the due date, we were talking about how maybe the upcoming full moon would trigger an early labor. The moon was to be full on Monday, and on Wednesday, we were planning to leave for our trip. I fell asleep late, around 2am (after sex!), and feeling a little twinge in my back every time I had a braxton-hicks contraction, which seemed to be occurring with a regular frequency. Hmmmm... I wondered if it was the beginning of labor. I thought of going outside, but decided that if it was labor, I better try to sleep.
The next morning I woke up and had bloody show! I figured labor would happen sometime within the next few days. With my first and second babies, I had bloody show a few days prior to birth, but with the last baby, I had no bloody show at all, which I think is one reason I didn't realize I was in labor until shortly before he was born.
Matt had taken our two older boys squirrel hunting and our youngest was still asleep. I played various songs on You Tube and danced. I was very excited to think I would soon labor, birth and have our new baby here. When everyone returned, I told Matt about the bloody show. We were so glad it looked like the baby would come early and we could go on our trip without causing our parents major worry. Matt left to go cut grass (we have a lawn care business), but he called home two or three times to check on me and see if he needed to head home early.
I decided if we were going to have our baby soon then the most important thing for me to do was to clean the house. A clean house is always desirable to a woman in labor! I spent the day cleaning and had contractions all day, but not painful. It wasn't until later that day, somewhere between 4 and 5pm, that I started to think this baby might come today. The contractions had been growing steadily stronger and closer together as the day wore on.
I had managed to clean the bathroom, kitchen, and living room, and decided to get a shower. I still needed to clean my bedroom, but by this time was doing triage on what was most important. I wanted a shower more than a clean bedroom, and I knew my time on getting anything done was getting shorter. I took a shower, then ran a bath and sat in the water for some time with a glass of water to drink. Our two (almost three) year old, Christopher, was with me a lot and even brought me bananas, which I wolfed down. He also brought me my book of acupressure points for labor, which I hadn't asked for but had been wanting.
I used acupressure during my last labor and had very little pain, so of course I used acupressure this time, but contractions were still painful. I think it may have made them shorter, but who knows since I never timed anything. I used the same points on my back that I had used before, along with some others at times. I even held small combs in my hands squeezing on them to stimulate points during each contraction, while also using my thumbs and fingers at the same time to stimulate other points. Always multitasking! I don't know when I got in the tub, but I think I got out about 5:30.
I decided I wanted to try and clean my bedroom and knew I could always get back in the tub if I wanted. In between contractions, I folded the huge pile of laundry on our bed, made the bed which didn't even have sheets on it since I had washed them, cleaned up everything off the floor, swept the floor, and whatever else needed doing. I had an inflatable kiddie pool, but never could blow it up since our bedroom was too messy. By the time I got the bedroom cleaned, I was too far along to care about the pool. Oh well.
I couldn't have set it up in the living room as our nine year old son Joshua, who had been saying for months he hated homebirth, was in there on the computer oblivious to the labor going on in the house. I think his distaste for homebirth is perhaps due to anything having to do with his mother's vagina being repulsive. He is a nine year old boy after all, so I suppose his attitude is understandable. We asked him once what he would do if his hypothetical future wife was having a baby, and he said he'd go to the "Men's Club!" We don't know where he got that idea, but hopefully he'll come around! Daniel, our five year old, had already fallen asleep due to getting up so early to go hunting. Christopher was either around me or his brother.
I spent a lot of contractions bent over the bed or a five gallon bucket, reminding myself at one point to think of the contractions as waves to ride. Once, I went outside and had a contraction under the almost full moon. I've never felt compelled to bend forward during each contraction in labor before, but it's what felt best. I would often move up and down, and rotate and move my hips as well. Joshua did see me bent over once and asked me why. I said something about it felt better or I just wanted to, and he never suspected anything. Matt came home from work at 8:10pm and saw me bent over the bed. He asked me how was it going and I said, "It's a going." I was glad he was home so he could tend to Christopher, who was being very needy. He kept wanting me to carry him and I kept trying to tell him there was no way I could carry him now.
Matt told Joshua that I was in labor. I wouldn't have told him, and he wasn't happy about it. I was in either our bedroom or the bathroom. I felt tired and laid down on my bed on my side for several contractions. I remember looking at my clock, and it was 9:33. It was around this time when Matt informed me that the contractions were coming every two minutes, which really didn't matter to me. I could tell of course that they were intense and frequent. I also thought of how I'd read that some women planning homebirths wind up transferring to the hospital for pain medication. While I certainly had no desire to go anywhere, especially a hospital, these were all clues that I was in transition, but at the time, I was thinking of Matt's prediction that morning. He said he thought the baby would be born the next day, and I was hoping I didn't have hours more labor ahead.
I decided to get back off the bed to resume my bent forward position for contractions. I also decided to make low moans hoping to get my cervix to open quicker, and I visualized it opening. I've always been a quiet laborer just breathing through contractions, but I had learned that low vocals help to dilate the cervix. I learned this from my childbirth instructor friend, Sarah, who I had hired to teach my friend Marsha, when pregnant with her first, and I sat in on the fantastic class.
I thought I had to throw up and went to the bathroom, but wound up only salivating a bunch in the toilet. Matt wiped my face with a cold washcloth that felt great. I went back to our bedroom, and I did make sure I peed every time I went in the bathroom. I had read in one of my midwifery books about reminding the mom to pee, and for some reason that stuck with me, so I kept peeing!
I always throw up right before my kids are born, so I was definitely getting closer! I had more contractions in the bedroom, then had to vomit again. I went back to the toilet, and this time, I puked! I then brushed my teeth, which I also always manage to do after puking. I thought that I'd have one more contraction and then the baby would be born. I had peed again and this time left my pants off and now ripped my shirt off. Matt told me later he knew I was about to birth when I got naked! I was just hot!
I got down in the floor on my conveniently red colored, rubber backed bathmat that Matt had bought for me the previous Christmas. What a romantic guy, huh? He also gave me new matching towels and a shower curtain. Anyway..., I was on my hands and knees and had another contraction, and then, the baby was right there! Unlike my second and third births in which I felt the babies move down the birth canal for two contractions, and then they were born during the third contraction, I never felt this baby move down.
A little bit of fluid came out as my water broke, and then the head came out. I heard Matt say something, but I don't remember what, but I thought maybe I should push, so I gave a little push and the rest of the body came out with the rest of the fluid gushing out. The baby was coming out regardless of whether I pushed or not though, as I was still in the midst of the contraction when the head was born. All my babies came out in one contraction with no break after the head like happens with some women.
This birth was different from my previous two in which I had fetal ejection reflex, and the babies came down and out on their own with zero effort in any way on my part. During that one contraction in which this baby came out, apart from my one little intentional push after the head was out, the whole thing was very intense as I was very loud, grunting I think, and of course saying Jesus over and over like I always do when babies are exiting my body! It felt different than the others, and as I think about it now, I wonder if it was the extra pressure from still having most of the fluid inside. My water had always broke before they entered the birth canal. It all happens so quick and is all so intense, that it can be hard to correctly remember all the details and feelings. But it seemed as if my body was working hard to get the baby out during that contraction.
The baby came out crying and it took me a little bit to get my leg over the cord so I could sit down. When I did, Matt handed me our new son! Yes, another boy! We like boys and weren't at all hung up on having a girl, so we were happy with another son. I asked Matt a couple of times to check the time, and he was born at 10:07pm. Our previous son was born so fast when we weren't expecting it that we don't know the exact time of his birth, but had to make a general guess for his birth certificate.
I noticed right away that he had hypospadias, in which part of the foreskin is missing. I couldn't remember the name at the time, but had read about it and how it's ironic that some parents circumcise sons, causing the penis to resemble what is an actual birth defect.
I sat on the mat holding him for maybe a half hour while Matt made phone calls to our parents. My mom wanted to come over, but I told Matt to tell her to wait until the morning as I hadn't even birthed the placenta yet and was sitting naked covered in blood, fluid, and poop and pee from the baby, who went while sitting in my lap. I was quite a mess!
Although I didn't plan to birth on the bathmat, but just so happened to want to get down in the floor, and happened to be in the bathroom where a mat was, I must mention how easy clean up was. Everything was totally contained on the mat! I just threw it all in the washing machine. Easiest birth clean up ever! So, not only did my most amazing husband give me the sperm to make the baby on Christmas, he also gave me the mat to birth him on!
We kept asking Joshua if he wanted to see the baby. It took him a while to come in, but once he did, he's been in love with him since. Daniel missed all the excitement, and his eyes about popped out when he woke up to a new brother! Christopher had watched the birth and told us right after that I pooped out a baby! All the boys love him dearly.
When I raised up a little after having been sitting on the mat, the placenta came out, my smallest one ever. I never examined my first placenta, but my other two were much bigger than this one. I don't know why, but it served the purpose. I had been considering a lotus birth, and also planned to encapsulate the placenta into pills to eat, which is supposed to be great for many things. I had a cooler to keep the placenta in to do both if I chose.
I got in the shower for a quick wash, then put the still attached to baby placenta in a ziploc bag, and had Joshua hold the bag so I could rinse the baby's poo covered butt off under the faucet. I put the baby back down on a clean towel, and set about to do his blood typing. I'm Rh negative, and Matt is positive. All our boys are positive, so I've always had Rhogam. I only needed four drops of blood, but couldn't get it from the white, nearly bloodless cord, so I got some from the fetal side of the placenta, and this baby was also positive.
A couple of hours after the birth, I went ahead and decided to cut the cord and weigh him. Matt wasn't too keen on waiting until the cord fell off on it's own and having to carry around the placenta. While he would have gone along with a lotus birth, there was nothing left in the cord, so I figured it was ok to cut. Matt cut it as he had all the other boys' cords, and we tied it with hemp twine. I had bought a cord band for that purpose, but didn't know how it worked and messed it up trying, but hemp twine worked fine. A small amount of blood did come out when he cut it, which is why we tied it tightly with the twine. Just like the others, it fell off on the fourth day.
I used a fish scale I had bought just for weighing the baby, and he was 7 pounds, 3 ounces, after subtracting the weight of the blanket we hung him from the fish scale in. He was 20 1/2 inches long, making him our smallest baby both in height and weight.
He latched on great, and nurses like a pro. I'm so very thankful I've never had breastfeeding problems. I spent much of that first night awake, just watching him as he lay sleeping beside me.
I felt fantastic as soon as he popped out, and had no tearing at all and not even any discomfort. A couple of days later, I had Angy, my midwife for my other homebirths, come over to give me Rhogam, and do the state required newborn bloodwork, and check the baby out. I was really only concerned about the hypospadias. His is minor, and an online friend directed me to a very reassuring article at http://www.drmomma.org/2010/04/hypospadias-surgery-and-circumcision.html. He is still fully functional, but just looks a little different.
He was nine days early, and we were glad, as now we could take our annual vacation in peace. Everyone was very relieved when he arrived early, and we took off on our trip as planned when he was four days old. Due to massive rainstorms and having a newborn, we did get a hotel instead of camp.
Matt wanted to name him Noel, which means Christmas child. I liked the meaning, but not the name, so finally after much debate and discussion, when he was four weeks old, we put a name on the birth certificate, Isaac Noel. Matt and I and the boys are always cuddling and snuggling and kissing him. He is so precious, and we all love him so much.
I am so very thankful for my beloved husband. He is truly my soulmate, best friend, life partner, and lover. He always knew just what to do during my labors and births. I feel very blessed and grateful to have been able to birth our last three children into his hands.
