Birth Story of Baby Boy!

Birth Story of Baby boy

Preparation for 9 Month:

·        Personal Trainer twice per week

·        Bootcamp 3 times per week

·        Running

·        Yoga (prenatal)

·        Pilates for flexibility

·        Hypno-Birthing classes

·        Birthing Prepatory Course by the Midwife

·        Eating healthy

June 19^th

I woke up at 11:30PM on June 18^th to go to the bathroom (#2).  This was unusual for me as I usually do this in the morning.  Within the next 30 Minutes I had to go to the bathroom often.   I had a lot of mucus come out; that could only be my mucus plug coming out and then my water broke. After that I tried to go back to bed and sleep but couldn’t anymore.  So I walked around and tried to relax.  At around 1:15AM I decided to wake up () and we started keeping track of my contractions at 1:39AM. They started out at three minutes apart, lasting 45 Seconds to one minute and then progressed to between two to three minutes apart by 2:15AM.  Quickly Rich and I decided that I should take a bath and sit out the contractions in warm water, which felt much better.  After about an hour of counting contractions () decided it was time to call our Midwife (Gelena Hinkley), our Doula (), and wake up my mom who was staying at our house.  After that the contractions came even quicker and were only about two minutes apart.  During this time () wanted to print out sweet, encouraging words from our friends but I did not want him to leave me, as he was very helpful with all the contractions. I would just hold on to him and he would press on my back.  Between contradictions, he hurriedly printed the words.  Then, he wanted to show them to me, but I was having contractions too regularly for me to look at them.

We waited for what felt like hours for Gelena to come.  At one point, I told () that I could not handle this pain for 20 hours and that we might have to go to the hospital.  He said if I wanted to go, we would go.  I decided to wait a little long, and just then Gelena arrived at our house.  It was 3:28AM.   After Gelena arrived Mom went next door to get (), who was sleeping at our neighbor’s guest house.

Once Gelena showed up she quickly checked me.  She was surprised I was already dilated 9 cm and had started pushing already. (My body had two pushing urges before she came and one right when she arrived.)  She told me that it would last only one or two more hours to push little boy out.  My mom asked her if she could set up her birthing tub as it is more comfortable than the bathtub in our bathroom, and she replied, “I don’t have time to set it up.  This baby is coming now.”  Gelena helped me with the pushing urges by reminding me to breathe in-between contractions.  () helped me by holding me and pressing on my back.  The pushing urges really felt like pushing out a big #2.  Slowly his head moved further and further down.  Soon I could feel the top of boy’s head with my hand.  During one very strong urge to push I lifted my behind out of the water and Gelena made it pretty clear to me that I needed to choose to either be in the water or out; I couldn’t have it both ways.  Eventually the crown of his head (with lots of hair) was out.  I remember this felt like a burning sensation.  Gelena told me that I now need to push his full head out. That took one other large push.  She then quickly checked his neck for the cord; when she felt that everything was fine she told me to push the body out as well.  Getting the body out was very easy after the head was out and I think it only took one or maybe two more pushes. 

As soon as boy’s body came out at 4:27 AM (() kept track of the exact time) Gelena lifted him out of the water and onto my stomach. That happened really fast and he cried immediately.  Our baby was completely healthy and I was totally exhausted but extremely happy.  () told me later that he didn’t think he could fall in love with a little creature so fast, but he instantly fell in love with boy.  Little boy rested on my stomach (his cord wasn’t long enough to make it to my chest) and we stayed in the water for another few minutes.  As the water was a bit dirty, my mom suggested that we should come out of the bath, so Gelena, her assistant Sandy (who came to our house about three Minutes after he was born), and () helped me out of the water.  I then laid down right in front of our bath-tub on some cushions.  Little boy still on my stomach, we waited for the placenta to come out. While we were waiting all females took some of the Vernix from boy’s skin and put it under our eyes as the perfect eye cream (a trick Gelena taught us).  In fact, on the pictures you can see me with the Vernix underneath my eyes. 

The contractions to get the placenta out weren’t very intense and it was a very interesting and relieving feeling when the placenta came out.  Before the placenta came out Gelena suggested to cut the cord as it stopped pulsating after 10 Minutes or so.  Sandy prepared everything and () cut the cord.  Then, I could bring boy up to my chest.  While waiting for the placenta to come out I could definitely feel a strong burning sensation (must have been due to some ripping of my skin) and some contractions as my uterus was getting smaller. Finally, the placenta came out at 4:55 AM (() again keeping track).  It took about 25 Minutes.  Sandy used the blood in the placenta to collect little boy’s stem cells.  Once that was all done, everyone helped me into our bedroom and bed.  Little boy then was again back on my chest.  Gelena and Sandy inspected my private parts. Apparently I ripped in two places; not too badly, but it did require stitches.  Gelena and Sandy spent about one hour stitching me up while I was holding boy and () was reading the encouraging words from our friends.  This was a very nice family bonding time, and it did distract me from the discomfort of the stitching. Gelena tried hard to be gentle but I could feel some of them.  () (our Doula) did arrive at our house until 30 minutes after little boy was born. (Everyone thought our birth would take a bit longer than it actually did.  J)  () and Sandy gave me breastfeeding advice and little boy was feeding just a few hours after birth.  Gelena wanted me to eat and drink a lot after the birth since I lost quite a bit of blood and had a bit of a temperature.  She gave me coconut water, tea with honey, and a fruit and a protein smoothie (which included a piece of my raw placenta). All of this helped me recover and feel better.  At around 9:30 AM Gelena, Sandy and () left our family to do more bonding.  They each received a large bag of Swiss chocolate before leaving.  (I believe all of them enjoyed some of it on their drive home.  J)

Both () and I are so happy that we chose to go the home birth route.  We would highly recommend a home birth to any of our friends that are having a healthy pregnancy.

So that is the story of what truly was the most amazing days in our lives so far. 

 

Post Story

My milk came in on June 21 in the late afternoon.  That was a rather painful experience and also came with a hormonal imbalance.. Gelena then brought over the placenta pills on June 23, and they definitely helped.  I stopped randomly crying by June 22.

As for boy, three days after birth he was seven pounds two ounces (six ounces lighter than his birth weight).  He was back up to his birth weight by six days after his birth.  We measured his length on June 30 and he was already 21 inches. 

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