A lot has happened since last we talked!
For instance: I had another baby! Yes, on Friday, August 30, Puptoo joined our family.
It was quite an interesting event, because it ended up happening accidentally at home. Thursday afternoon, I started having some mild, regular cramping as we picked up Puplet from daycare, but it was nothing that was slowing me down, so we went about our evening as normal. I figured this kind of cramping could last for awhile, or stop and then restart, and while it was enough to be noticeable, it all was focused just directly under my Puptoo belly, where I would have had period cramps if that were what this was, and not through the whole uterus/belly area, so I figured it wasn't even real labor.
I fell asleep putting Puplet to bed that night at 8pm, and then woke up at 10:30pm thinking, "OW." The cramps had gotten noticeably painful, although they were still in the exact same place. Turns out that was where I felt ALL of my labor this time, focused directly in that area. I got up, thinking this was probably the real thing now, and went downstairs to start mentally preparing myself, as I was going to use hypnobirthing techniques again this time, since they worked so well last time. I had not done nearly as much practice this time, so I was really struggling to get into the groove, plus I just could not get comfortable, no matter what position I was in - lying down, sitting, kneeling, standing. Nothing. Last time I spent most of my labor lying down and it was great, but I HATED being made to sit on the toilet. This time, I actually felt "best" (and that's just relative to everything else) when I was sitting on the toilet.
We called our doula and texted a few designated people that things were gearing up, and started putting out calls to our list of Puplet-watchers to see if any of them would be ready for us to call them several hours later to come get him. I continued to struggle getting on top of the contractions - they felt more like I was told they would the first labor (slow build to a hard peak and then down again), but they were just really overwhelming. I thought it was the lack of practice, but it seems that my body was just doing twice as much work as last time. I had AHH call our doula, K, again telling her I needed her to be there to help me work through these, and then I asked him to call brynnmck because we still hadn't heard back from our other Puplet caretakers, and I was starting to get nervous about that. Thankfully, even though she'd had a crap month at work and was exhausted, she left immediately for our house. <3 This turned out to be REALLY IMPORTANT. Hee.
Our doula showed up about midnight and I was starting to get really panicky because labor was really painful and I felt like I couldn't do ANYTHING about it this time. Contractions felt really long and close together, and I just couldn't IMAGINE having to do that for hours more. What helped the most were taking lots of really focused breaths and on the exhale saying out loud, "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this" and then on inhale thinking, "you are calm and in control" (which I very much was NOT *g*). Brynn showed up a little bit after that and that was when our doula started saying, "we need to get going to the birth center." Then our other Puplet caretaker showed up and by the time AHH got back from talking to her, the doula apparently was saying, "um, we're not going anywhere."
I don't remember the details of the midnight-1:15am period, honestly. I spent all of it on all fours on the couch. K is going to write up the whole experience, which will be neat to read, but from my perspective it happened like this:
- midnight (I'm told), K shows up; I'm really struggling with contractions but still holding on
- Brynn shows up (I think? I don't know the order everybody arrived); I'm totally starting to freak out during contractions and thinking "I can't do this!" (TOTAL normal transition phase reaction, but I had NO IDEA I was in transition!)
- I start feeling like I might want to push but that can't be right, can it? I feel like crying with every contraction.
- I am REALLY feeling like I want to push and K is telling me I can't and that SUCKS and I start vocally freaking out about it. How the hell am I going to make it 25 minutes to the birth center?
- Look, lady, I NEED TO PUSH. SCREW YOU. STOP TELLING ME TO BREATHE TO STOP IT. Even though I did slow and focus my breathing when she asked.
- Put my butt up in the air? Are you KIDDING ME? This is the WORST. (As a note: K knew we'd never make it by this point, but our midwife had not arrived either and she was desperately trying to slow down Puptoo's entrance by making me fight gravity while pushing. It didn't work very well. *g*)
- Fuck it, I'm pushing, and I'm doing it my way. BEST FEELING EVER, honestly. Once we all jumped on-board the "push it" train, everything got super, super easy.
- I pushed a couple of times, my water broke, and out came Puptoo. K had a home birth kit with her and so we even managed to avoid ruining our couch because she got all the pads and protection down in time. \o/
The whole active labor part lasted from 10:30pm to 1:13am Friday morning when Puptoo was born. The midwife still was not there, but she was on the phone with K and AHH, and so I heard K talking about Puptoo's state: cord was good (nothing around the neck), color was good, Puptoo let out a few solid cries, so they had me turn over and sit back and brought Puptoo up to my chest to get warmed up and cuddled. The midwife showed up about five minutes later and I was basically euphoric at that point. Then two student midwives also showed up, Brynn came downstairs, and the post-labor discussion and checking of the baby (and mom) honestly felt like a party. It was super, super awesome. That hour or two we spent all together (6 women, 1 baby, and AHH) was a really special experience.
It was very overwhelming to go through, but it actually turned out to be a great result. Puplet slept through the whole thing and woke up in the morning to excitedly discover his baby sister had arrived. :) Puptoo and I have been downstairs in the same room for three days to rest (thank goodness for AHH and my mom!), and had our first follow-up visit from our midwife today (checked out as healthy!). We're heading upstairs tonight! More pictures and parenting thoughts later; I need some sleep.
Oh and stats: 7lb 12oz; 20" long; pretty full head of dark hair. Delightful. :)
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)
It was quite an interesting event, because it ended up happening accidentally at home. Thursday afternoon, I started having some mild, regular cramping as we picked up Puplet from daycare, but it was nothing that was slowing me down, so we went about our evening as normal. I figured this kind of cramping could last for awhile, or stop and then restart, and while it was enough to be noticeable, it all was focused just directly under my Puptoo belly, where I would have had period cramps if that were what this was, and not through the whole uterus/belly area, so I figured it wasn't even real labor.
I fell asleep putting Puplet to bed that night at 8pm, and then woke up at 10:30pm thinking, "OW." The cramps had gotten noticeably painful, although they were still in the exact same place. Turns out that was where I felt ALL of my labor this time, focused directly in that area. I got up, thinking this was probably the real thing now, and went downstairs to start mentally preparing myself, as I was going to use hypnobirthing techniques again this time, since they worked so well last time. I had not done nearly as much practice this time, so I was really struggling to get into the groove, plus I just could not get comfortable, no matter what position I was in - lying down, sitting, kneeling, standing. Nothing. Last time I spent most of my labor lying down and it was great, but I HATED being made to sit on the toilet. This time, I actually felt "best" (and that's just relative to everything else) when I was sitting on the toilet.
We called our doula and texted a few designated people that things were gearing up, and started putting out calls to our list of Puplet-watchers to see if any of them would be ready for us to call them several hours later to come get him. I continued to struggle getting on top of the contractions - they felt more like I was told they would the first labor (slow build to a hard peak and then down again), but they were just really overwhelming. I thought it was the lack of practice, but it seems that my body was just doing twice as much work as last time. I had AHH call our doula, K, again telling her I needed her to be there to help me work through these, and then I asked him to call brynnmck because we still hadn't heard back from our other Puplet caretakers, and I was starting to get nervous about that. Thankfully, even though she'd had a crap month at work and was exhausted, she left immediately for our house. <3 This turned out to be REALLY IMPORTANT. Hee.
Our doula showed up about midnight and I was starting to get really panicky because labor was really painful and I felt like I couldn't do ANYTHING about it this time. Contractions felt really long and close together, and I just couldn't IMAGINE having to do that for hours more. What helped the most were taking lots of really focused breaths and on the exhale saying out loud, "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this" and then on inhale thinking, "you are calm and in control" (which I very much was NOT *g*). Brynn showed up a little bit after that and that was when our doula started saying, "we need to get going to the birth center." Then our other Puplet caretaker showed up and by the time AHH got back from talking to her, the doula apparently was saying, "um, we're not going anywhere."
I don't remember the details of the midnight-1:15am period, honestly. I spent all of it on all fours on the couch. K is going to write up the whole experience, which will be neat to read, but from my perspective it happened like this:
- midnight (I'm told), K shows up; I'm really struggling with contractions but still holding on
- Brynn shows up (I think? I don't know the order everybody arrived); I'm totally starting to freak out during contractions and thinking "I can't do this!" (TOTAL normal transition phase reaction, but I had NO IDEA I was in transition!)
- I start feeling like I might want to push but that can't be right, can it? I feel like crying with every contraction.
- I am REALLY feeling like I want to push and K is telling me I can't and that SUCKS and I start vocally freaking out about it. How the hell am I going to make it 25 minutes to the birth center?
- Look, lady, I NEED TO PUSH. SCREW YOU. STOP TELLING ME TO BREATHE TO STOP IT. Even though I did slow and focus my breathing when she asked.
- Put my butt up in the air? Are you KIDDING ME? This is the WORST. (As a note: K knew we'd never make it by this point, but our midwife had not arrived either and she was desperately trying to slow down Puptoo's entrance by making me fight gravity while pushing. It didn't work very well. *g*)
- Fuck it, I'm pushing, and I'm doing it my way. BEST FEELING EVER, honestly. Once we all jumped on-board the "push it" train, everything got super, super easy.
- I pushed a couple of times, my water broke, and out came Puptoo. K had a home birth kit with her and so we even managed to avoid ruining our couch because she got all the pads and protection down in time. \o/
The whole active labor part lasted from 10:30pm to 1:13am Friday morning when Puptoo was born. The midwife still was not there, but she was on the phone with K and AHH, and so I heard K talking about Puptoo's state: cord was good (nothing around the neck), color was good, Puptoo let out a few solid cries, so they had me turn over and sit back and brought Puptoo up to my chest to get warmed up and cuddled. The midwife showed up about five minutes later and I was basically euphoric at that point. Then two student midwives also showed up, Brynn came downstairs, and the post-labor discussion and checking of the baby (and mom) honestly felt like a party. It was super, super awesome. That hour or two we spent all together (6 women, 1 baby, and AHH) was a really special experience.
It was very overwhelming to go through, but it actually turned out to be a great result. Puplet slept through the whole thing and woke up in the morning to excitedly discover his baby sister had arrived. :) Puptoo and I have been downstairs in the same room for three days to rest (thank goodness for AHH and my mom!), and had our first follow-up visit from our midwife today (checked out as healthy!). We're heading upstairs tonight! More pictures and parenting thoughts later; I need some sleep.
Oh and stats: 7lb 12oz; 20" long; pretty full head of dark hair. Delightful. :)
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)