Talon River's homebirth
My due date was 11/1. All along both Brian and I felt Halloween would be the day.
We were wrong. 10/28/07 I woke up at midnight when Brian came to bed. Then I woke up again at 12:55am when my water broke. The first words out of my mouth were "Ugh! Are you KIDDING me?!" because I thought I peed myself. Then a huge gush came. I woke Brian and told him my water broke, I climbed out of bed and soaked the floor. Thankfully I had a towel laying right by the bed. I told Brian to get as much sleep as he could, so he helped me change the sheets then went back to sleep.
I went downstairs and called the midwife and told her my water broke. She and I both agreed I would go back to bed and rest for as long as possible, and we would check in by 8:30 if not before. Back upstairs I go lay in bed and start contracting. Nothing super regular, but they are getting more intense as time goes on.
Finally at 3am I decide I can't do this in bed anymore and I get up and go to the bathroom. The last contraction I had in bed was much more intense than the others and when I wiped, I had the beginnings of bloody show.
I go downstairs and sit on the couch. Ember wakes at 3:15 and joins me downstairs. Contractions are really tolerable, enough that I'm playing solitaire on my palm pilot! Ember finally goes back to sleep on the couch at 4:45am.
At 5:15am I go upstairs and wake Brian. I'm starting to need some help relaxing around the contractions. We get back downstairs and realize when standing the contractions are coming about every 30 seconds. At 6 we make the decision to call the midwife back and have her start heading our direction.
She arrives shortly after 7am and starts getting her things set up. At 8 we decide she should go ahead and check me to get a status report ready for the assisting midwife. She checks me and I'm at 7 cm already. She calls the assisting midwife and has her start coming our direction.
I call my mom and tell her I won't be over after all because I'm in labor and will call them later. I have to put my mom on hold to have a super intense contraction. When I get off the phone and look at the floor, there's bright red blood on my carpet. I ask the midwife if it's normal and she said yes, it's the cervix really getting ready.
This is when things really became intense. I felt like I was losing complete control of myself. I didn't think I could do this any more. I started feeling the need to push a little bit with some contractions. At 8:20, Ember woke up and came downstairs. She was concerned, but we told her what was going on. At 8:25 my brain went into panic mode and I called my mom back. All I said was "Come get Ember." And hung up. I was able to change positions and places in the living room and we went over to the couch. Brian sat on the couch and I was in between his legs, holding myself up on his legs. Deep in my brain, I knew I was in transition.
My parents finally showed up at 8:45, my dad got Ember ready and everything. By that point I knew someone was there to watch her, so I told them they could stay, and that I wanted her to stay too.
Then I started pushing with each contraction. Baby's head started crowning and 2 pushes later, I had a baby on my chest. 8:54am.
I did it! I couldn't believe that I did it! He looked so tiny to me. And I got the confirmation that he was indeed a boy. Mother's intuition was right about something.
He started to turn a little blue so the midwives were working on him while he was on my chest. He scored a 6 and a 7 on his Apgar's, because of his blue-ness. Just as they went to get the oxygen to spruce him up a bit, he started to turn pink. None of us were worried. He was breathing on his own and not struggling.. his lungs were just a little wet.
I couldn't handle sitting on the floor any longer, so we started the long process of getting me moved onto the couch. Ember came over and met him right after he was born, but when I sat on the couch, she came up and sat next to me. I started nursing him and took off his hat so she could see his hair.
He nursed from both sides, I passed him off to Brian for some additional skin to skin contact.
We eventually made our way upstairs so that I could get checked out and we could do the newborn exam. While I was being checked for tears, etc, Ember held Talon for the first time.
The newborn exam went great. He passed everything with flying colors though he didn't like being naked. Daddy bonding is always good for grumpy babies.
I got myself settled and into a comfortable position for the newborn exam. When it came time to weigh him, I was thoroughly shocked. I was thinking another 7 pound baby. When the midwife announced "8 pounds 10 ounces!" My reaction was "WHAT?!"
Everyone started to clear out and go home. Brian's dad came over later that night and snapped a family picture.
Recovery has been amazingly easy. Deceivingly so, actually. I feel SO good, it's hard to just sit and let others bring things to me. I'm going stir crazy and already want to leave the house. the only thing stopping me is I'm not quite ready to climb into the Trooper. Pelvic floor muscles are still a bit tender but I'm feeling amazing.
He likes to snuggle into my lap after a nursing.
He's just completely perfect and has completed our family. I told Brian he got to pick his name. We were completely set on Talon Cole until about 2 weeks ago when Brian decided he might like Talon River better. So we kept the names floating around our brains to see which suited him better. Without a doubt, Talon River suited him best, so that's what we went with. Not to mention the fact that within minutes of being on my chest, he peed on me!
Talon River
10/28/07
8:54 am
8 lbs 10 oz, 19 3/4" long, 14 1/4" head
Completely and utterly perfect.
We were wrong. 10/28/07 I woke up at midnight when Brian came to bed. Then I woke up again at 12:55am when my water broke. The first words out of my mouth were "Ugh! Are you KIDDING me?!" because I thought I peed myself. Then a huge gush came. I woke Brian and told him my water broke, I climbed out of bed and soaked the floor. Thankfully I had a towel laying right by the bed. I told Brian to get as much sleep as he could, so he helped me change the sheets then went back to sleep.
I went downstairs and called the midwife and told her my water broke. She and I both agreed I would go back to bed and rest for as long as possible, and we would check in by 8:30 if not before. Back upstairs I go lay in bed and start contracting. Nothing super regular, but they are getting more intense as time goes on.
Finally at 3am I decide I can't do this in bed anymore and I get up and go to the bathroom. The last contraction I had in bed was much more intense than the others and when I wiped, I had the beginnings of bloody show.
I go downstairs and sit on the couch. Ember wakes at 3:15 and joins me downstairs. Contractions are really tolerable, enough that I'm playing solitaire on my palm pilot! Ember finally goes back to sleep on the couch at 4:45am.
At 5:15am I go upstairs and wake Brian. I'm starting to need some help relaxing around the contractions. We get back downstairs and realize when standing the contractions are coming about every 30 seconds. At 6 we make the decision to call the midwife back and have her start heading our direction.
She arrives shortly after 7am and starts getting her things set up. At 8 we decide she should go ahead and check me to get a status report ready for the assisting midwife. She checks me and I'm at 7 cm already. She calls the assisting midwife and has her start coming our direction.
I call my mom and tell her I won't be over after all because I'm in labor and will call them later. I have to put my mom on hold to have a super intense contraction. When I get off the phone and look at the floor, there's bright red blood on my carpet. I ask the midwife if it's normal and she said yes, it's the cervix really getting ready.
This is when things really became intense. I felt like I was losing complete control of myself. I didn't think I could do this any more. I started feeling the need to push a little bit with some contractions. At 8:20, Ember woke up and came downstairs. She was concerned, but we told her what was going on. At 8:25 my brain went into panic mode and I called my mom back. All I said was "Come get Ember." And hung up. I was able to change positions and places in the living room and we went over to the couch. Brian sat on the couch and I was in between his legs, holding myself up on his legs. Deep in my brain, I knew I was in transition.
My parents finally showed up at 8:45, my dad got Ember ready and everything. By that point I knew someone was there to watch her, so I told them they could stay, and that I wanted her to stay too.
Then I started pushing with each contraction. Baby's head started crowning and 2 pushes later, I had a baby on my chest. 8:54am.
I did it! I couldn't believe that I did it! He looked so tiny to me. And I got the confirmation that he was indeed a boy. Mother's intuition was right about something.
He started to turn a little blue so the midwives were working on him while he was on my chest. He scored a 6 and a 7 on his Apgar's, because of his blue-ness. Just as they went to get the oxygen to spruce him up a bit, he started to turn pink. None of us were worried. He was breathing on his own and not struggling.. his lungs were just a little wet.
I couldn't handle sitting on the floor any longer, so we started the long process of getting me moved onto the couch. Ember came over and met him right after he was born, but when I sat on the couch, she came up and sat next to me. I started nursing him and took off his hat so she could see his hair.
He nursed from both sides, I passed him off to Brian for some additional skin to skin contact.
We eventually made our way upstairs so that I could get checked out and we could do the newborn exam. While I was being checked for tears, etc, Ember held Talon for the first time.
The newborn exam went great. He passed everything with flying colors though he didn't like being naked. Daddy bonding is always good for grumpy babies.
I got myself settled and into a comfortable position for the newborn exam. When it came time to weigh him, I was thoroughly shocked. I was thinking another 7 pound baby. When the midwife announced "8 pounds 10 ounces!" My reaction was "WHAT?!"
Everyone started to clear out and go home. Brian's dad came over later that night and snapped a family picture.
Recovery has been amazingly easy. Deceivingly so, actually. I feel SO good, it's hard to just sit and let others bring things to me. I'm going stir crazy and already want to leave the house. the only thing stopping me is I'm not quite ready to climb into the Trooper. Pelvic floor muscles are still a bit tender but I'm feeling amazing.
He likes to snuggle into my lap after a nursing.
He's just completely perfect and has completed our family. I told Brian he got to pick his name. We were completely set on Talon Cole until about 2 weeks ago when Brian decided he might like Talon River better. So we kept the names floating around our brains to see which suited him better. Without a doubt, Talon River suited him best, so that's what we went with. Not to mention the fact that within minutes of being on my chest, he peed on me!
Talon River
10/28/07
8:54 am
8 lbs 10 oz, 19 3/4" long, 14 1/4" head
Completely and utterly perfect.