My Baby is 1!

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Oh no is it really the 11th already?! Oh my little baby Buggie is a whole year old already! How is it that they grow SO very fast?!

1 year ago last night, my parents had just left for their home 6 hours away. They'd spent the weekend helping us get moved into our first house. So we said goodbyes and then my hubby and I had supper, put Chicklet to bed, and collapsed exhausted onto the couch to watch a movie. And then the contractions started. Leave it to Bug to need attention when I'm EXHAUSTED! Lol! And lets mention he was due the PREVIOUS day, the 9th! Fashionably late... ;)
So around 7:30 on the evening of the 10th, I was sitting on the couch and it started. I didn't want to get hubby all excited if it was another false alarm so I casually meandered into the kitchen and stood at my butcher block/island with a notebook, timing the contractions. Now, I never got "regular" contractions with my daughter. They were not even really regular when I was pushing. I'm just not a regular contraction kinda gal. So timing them with Bug was not something I was counting on to tell me if this was "it." I was just curious and thought it might help. Well it did sorta. While my contractions were all over the place in length-between and duration, overall as an average they started getting a hair bit closer and a hair bit longer and a hair bit stronger over the course of half an hour. By the time that time had passed though I just had a knowing that this was it. I don't know why, I couldn't tell you how I knew. I had had contractions this long, this strong, and this far apart before with both kids and it was not the real deal. But this time I just knew somehow. So when my husband came into the kitchen to ask if I was okay and why wasn't I sitting down with him after our long tiring day, I told him that I was about to have a long tiring night too... Lol! Then I called the midwife's after hours number and told her that this is a courtesy call to let them know somebody is going to get woken up in the middle of the night to deliver a baby. I thought it might be nice for them to know before bed rather than SURPRISE at 3am... Lol! They seemed to appreciate the warning. Then I called hubby's grandma who would be babysitting for us.
My husband went to bed but I'm a night owl so by the time my body was ready for sleep, I was in too much pain to sleep. I Did try, but between the excitement and the pain I just laid there awake. So I gave up and went to play on the computer. I waited as long as I could but the contractions got really strong and hurt so bad! I think it was around 3am I woke my husband to tell him we should go. Then I called the midwife and Grandma while he carried sleeping Chicklet to the car. Unfortunately she did not stay asleep. She started asking why are we bye-bye when the sunshine is sleeping. Lol! Love the perspective of a 23 month old... So I told her that we have to get up early to get a baby brother. We had been talking about babies all the time to prepare her, so now I asked if she thought today was a good day to get a baby brother. She seemed pleased at the idea.
It's 45 minutes to the birthing center in the middle of the night when there is no traffic, if we go straight there. Which we didn't: We dropped Chicklet off with hubby's grandma on the way. The first word out of her mouth when she saw Great Grandma was "chocolate." Hmmm... Grandma has some 'splaining to do!
I got to the birthing center somewhere around 4am ish. Maybe 4:30 but I think it was closer to 4:00am. Then I got checked out by the daughter midwife who was the only one there (*more on this in a minute). I think I was dialated to a 3 or 3.5. Before we left home I had been sure we'd barely make it the way the contractions were coming, but for some totally Twilight Zone reason, both times I've been in labor being in the car totally relaxed me. So when I arrived at the birthing center the pain and strength and timing of my contractions had regressed to where I'd been several hours before. Of course I apologized to the daughter midwife and she said it happens alot so don't be sorry, don't worry about it.
I give birth in a birthing center that is run by a mother and daughter who are certified nurse-midwives. It's actually a little house which they have remodeled so the living room is their reception desk and the bedrooms have had a jacuzzi added to each one and are now birthing rooms. It's so nice and homey compared to a hospital. There are no doctors there but it is 5 minutes from the hospital. They have a birthing class instructor, secretary, and they have midwives in training and doulas who vollunteer there to get their hours in to be able to graduate and get certified. I will refer to the mother midwife as "midwife M" and the daughter midwife as "midwife D" from here on out.
I paced the empty birthing center for a few hours but I was so tired! I would go out of the bedroom, walk around the reception area, back down the hall past the bedroom, into the kitchen, around the kitchen and back into the hall to the bedroom where I'd smile painedly at hubby and repeat the loop. Finally I quit pacing and collapsed onto the bed. I laid there for a minute, nearly asleep, until another contraction hit. Then again with the pacing through the contraction, then again I collapsed on the bed for a minute until the next one hit. Finally I was too tired to even get up during contractions. It hurt so bad I wanted to pace to help with the pain but I was too tired. Midwife D told me that I was obviously exhausted and needed to sleep during the lull between contractions if I could. So for a while I lay there, with my dear husband curled up against my back, drifting between contractions. Then it got to where I couldn't stay still anymore and I certainly couldn't sleep. I began pacing again, breathing deeply. Midwife D filled the jacuzzi for me and I when I sat in it it was amazing the pain relief! Midwife D checked me when I got in the tub. I was at about an 8 and my water was bulging with each contraction. The pain relief didn't last for long though. I was all too soon in agony again. I was paralyzed by the pain. I wanted to move but I could do nothing but lay in the jacuzzi and stare out the window at the breaking dawn, gasping and moaning. I felt suddenly too hot. I was so hot. I was on fire. Midwife D brought a pail of cold water and some cloths, which my wonderful hubby spent the next interminable amount of time constantly replacing on my head and chest. Midwife D opened the window and the cool morning air came in. I heard midwife D call her mom and ask, "Are you coming soon? She's almost ready to push." Not too long later I told midwife D I felt like it was time. She called her mom again to tell her we're starting, but her dad answered and said he thought midwife M had left and was on her way. (In case you're wondering, Midwife D has 3 kids of her own so she's more than capeable of delivering a baby on her own, it's just for legal reasons they like to have at least 2 people there.)
I wanted a water birth. I had wanted to try a water birth with Chicklet but it didn't happen, so I was going to try for one with Bug. Well I started trying to push and I just could not do it. Midwife D is leaning over me telling me I can push and I'm trying and I just can't do it laying down. I had no strength. I tried to push and nothing happened except AGONY. So much pain! SO diffent from Chicklet. With her all the really unbearable pain was gone when I was pushing, but with Bug it just hurt so much no matter what, especially when I was trying to push. In walked Midwife M and I screamed, "I can't do it! I can't push laying down, I need OUT!! I want the birthing stool!!" These two tiny women picked me up out of the tub by my arms and carried me to the birthing stool. I was too weak to sit up so I had my poor husband stand behind me to hold me up. I know he was dissappointed he didn't get to see the birth but the midwives had to be front and center and there was nobody else to hold me up. With Chicklet I had hemmorhaged. With Chicklet I had torn forward. The midwives were focused on making sure we were doing our best to avoid those problems and be prepared in case.
So I pushed. I pushed with every last drop of strength I had. Which wasn't much by then, lemme tell ya! Midwife D was telling me to push and I was saying, "I AM pushing!" I pushed and pushed and I felt like nothing was happening! He wasn't coming out. I pushed and pushed some more. I was so tired. He moved down a bit next time I pushed. I stopped and felt him slipping back. This upset me to lose the small bit of ground I'd gained. I kept pushing and it felt like it took forever for him to crown. Stopping pushing between contrax with him mid-crown was so painful! Finally after what seemed like a trillion years of pushing, his head came out. I was so relieved I think I started crying. But unlike Chicklet who just fell the rest of the way out after her head came out, Bug was still stuck but good. I had to push 3 or 4 more times before his body came out and then he wouldn't breathe. It was bout 7:30am. Midwife M put him on a heating pad and rubbed him and suctioned his mouth and got him breathing, while midwife D convinced me I needed to get the afterbirth out before I collapsed into sleep. Lol! I stopped having contractions though. I tried nursing Bug to get the contractions going again but he didn't want to nurse, and started turning blue again. After a bit I was able to get the contractions going again and deliver the placenta. Then I was finally able to go to bed! WOoohoo!
Buggie started turning blue I think a total of 5 times that morning. His face was bruised and swollen. When he tried to open his bloodshot eyes he could barely open them because of the swelling. He was 8 pounds 8 ounces. Too big for me! His skin was peeling and his fingernails were long. The midwives were cooing over him and joked to him, "Well you're a bit overbaked there aren't you little one?"
Finally got him nursing and tried to sleep. The vollunteers arrived for the day and I could hear their chattering in the kitchen. Then someone started vacuuming. Ugh! How rude! I just wanted to go home. Home to my own bed.
My husband left to get some food and bring Chicklet. He asked her when he picked her up if she would like to go pick out a baby brother to keep. Lol! So they brought me food and I sat Chicklet on the bed and handed her her new baby brother and asked her if she liked him. She was so excited she wouldn't stop grinning. I asked her, "So what do you think? He's a good one, right? We should keep him!" She agreed and has loved being a big sissy ever since. :)
After I ate, we put our kids in the car and went home, stopping back at grandma's to show off the baby on our way and thank her for babysitting Chicklet.


Stats
Days off from due date: 2 days late
Start of labor to birth: 12 hours
Birth to departing for home: 5 hours
Baby's weight: 8 pounds 8 ounces
Difference in weight from Chicket: 12 ounces bigger
Result: One bruised but healthy mini-man, one proud sissy and proud Daddy, and one TIRED and sore but proud Mama. ;)


And then I blinked and here it is a year later.