A birth story

May 24

I knew I would have the baby today or tomorrow. I just felt like it. I was having mucus, more than ever almost like I would be starting to loose my mucus plug.
I
Luke and went to get smoothies and we dropped one by Ben's work. He wanted us to come inside and see his work. It was a good time, he had been preparing to take time off and had been handing off projects so he wasn't too busy. We had never toured his work before. Even though I hadn't showered and didn't really feel like meeting a bunch of people I decided that we might as well. We walked his building and a bunch of other ones. I was having contractions.

That night Ben came home, we ate dinner and walked to a near by park. I wanted to walk a little to try and have the baby. I had contractions but nothing huge, nothing like labor. Then I got crazy. I wanted to go to the store at almost 10 to get some food then when we got back I cleaned the kitchen and finished laundry. I freaked out about the house being messy and my husband and son started cleaning the floors. We did that until Luke wanted to nurse down for bed. Looking back we stayed up too late. It was about midnight when we all got settled in bed.

May 25

3am- I woke up, Luke wanted to nurse. I was having noticable contractions. I knew i would be in labor by morning. But I went to the bathroom and then went back to bed to rest.

6:30- I woke up to a contraction I think. I went to the bathroom. Bloody show. This was it. Then another contraction. I woke Ben up telling him I was in labor. At first he just went back to sleep but then I woke him up a few minutes later saying the contractions were labor ones. He got up and got things ready.

I had been timing each contraction. They were about 5 minutes apart. Some of them were getting pretty uncomfortable.
We decided to call the midwife around 8:30 so she knew she would be coming to my house instead of driving to her office. I told Ben to tell her not to hurry. She asked to talk to me and I remember her asking if I could talk through contractions, I said not really. Then she asked if I felt like pushing. I said no. She was making sure she didn't need to hurry.
In between 6:30 and the time Ben called my midwife I think i got in and out of the shower twice. The heat felt really good on my back. It just helped a lot early on. I did the shower on and off for a while. The contractions were very uncomfortable at this point.

Luke woke up at about 9:30. Ben was trying to get the birthing pool ready so we distracted him with the big pool that was all the sudden in our room so that he wouldn't nurse and make contractions come harder.  They worked on setting up the pool while I labored.  I wanted that pool set up so bad.  I watched in between each contraction Ben and Luke going in and out of the room.  They had the pool blown up but the connector that connected the hose to the faucet broke.  Ben said he needed to go to the hardware store.

The midwife arrived at 10ish.  Ben and Luke decided to leave to go to the hardware store and burgerville to get breakfast for themselves.  I was fine with that since my midwife was there.  I also had Ben call his parents to come so they could help with Luke.  I asked them to bring saltines and cottonelles.
Before they left she asked if I wanted to be checked just to see where I was at in labor.  I decided to.  5cm!  I was happy to hear that... I was expecting that I wasn't too far along since my labor was so long with Luke.

While they were gone I went from shower to bed, shower to bed and toilet.  I can't remember what time it started at, but I had bad diahrrea all morning (my body clearing out to have the baby).  I didn't remember having diahrrea that bad with Luke.  My midwife prepared everything for the baby to come out in the dinning room so I was by myself for about half hour.  I was ok with that until the last 10 minutes or so that they were gone, I really wanted Ben there. 

Ben and Luke got back with the shower connector and they started filling up the birthing pool.  I laid in bed until the pool got filled up.  The contractions were really strong at this point.  I was really looking forward to being in the pool.  Luke watched a movie (Kipper) on the computer when I got into the pool.  For the next three hours I sat in the pool.  The contractions were all intense while in the pool.  Ben applied counter pressure for all of them, except if he left the room the nurse that came with the midwife did it.
At some point I was checked again which always hurts like crazy but I wanted to know.  I was 6-7.  Almost there.

After that it was painful.  I kept reminding myself to breathe through each one.  Then just really rest in between.  I got to the point where my body was producing that hormone where you get REALLY sleepy in between.  I would just about fall asleep then the contraction would start again.

Then I got to the point where I thought I couldn't do it.  It hurt so bad, I breathed in and out and whimpered 'no, no, no'.   To the 'no, no, no' my midwife would say, you want this it's going to help your baby come.  I wanted to tell her to stop staying that but I didn't have the energy lol.  (it's funny thinking back on it, I love my midwife, but at the time I just hated that she thought the pain was 'good') They kept checking the baby's heart rate every now and then during the contractions but during these ones I batted the nurse's hand away because I just didn't want anyone touching me.  I thought just that little extra feeling on my stomach would just put me over.

Contractions got really strong.  The only reason I hung in there was because, well, I didn't have a choice, but also that I read somewhere when you can't take it anymore, you are almost there.  I was struggling through them now... just trying to breath and doing my best to relax.

At this point my midwife suggested that I get out of the pool.  I was thinking 'WHAT?!?'.  She said I was right there and if I went into a squatting position I could probably have the baby pretty soon.  So after stalling for a few more contractions I got out.  Ben sat in a chair and I sat on his lap.  Then when the contraction came I would stand in a squatting position leaning on one of the nurses with Ben holding me and providing counter pressure from behind.  My gosh, it hurt so bad to squat like that but I could tell it was working.  I tried to stick it out for a few more.  I think I made it though about 10 when I told my midwife I needed to rest.  She actually reached up to see where the baby was.  It was incredible painful.  She said there was a little small section of my cervix right in the way.
So I got on my hands and knees, then rested with my arms, head and chest on the bed with my knees on the ground.  I did that for a few more contractions and my midwife wanted me to squat again.  I said no.  I must have said it pretty sternly because she keeps laughing about how I told her no.  I stayed there.  She told me that if she could just push the cervix out of the way during a contraction that I would feel the need to push.  I said ok.  But once the contraction came I didn't want her near me.  She did it anyway.  It worked!  The baby was right there.  I think she asked me if I wanted to squat again, to which I said no again.  So I pushed there.  I could feel the baby in my lower pelvis.  It felt like a huge poop putting a lot of pressure there, but like 1000 times more.  It felt like a bowling ball was there.  I pushed again, then head came out and I could feel it.  Then it went back up again.  It hurt so bad to push, but it hurt so bad in between contractions I knew I had to really focus on the next one to push.  The next one came, her head came out.  My midwife said push again.  I gutted up, pushed again and birthed my baby.  At 4:32pm Taryn was born.  9lbs, 4oz.  21inches long. The relief was so great I can't even describe how it all goes away in an instant.

The baby came out, my midwife caught her and gave her right to me.  It was beautiful.  I felt the rush of emotions that I didn't feel when I had an epidural.  Had I not been as tired I think I would have cried.  It was so emotional.  I held her until it was time to cut the cord.   It took about five minutes for the cord to stop pulsing.  Then Ben cut it.  The midwife wiped the baby off and I laid in bed and held her.  I waited and nursed her when she started rooting.  She latched on and we nursed until she got tired and fell asleep.  My husband was out of the room at this time telling his parents and Luke that the baby was born.  Once the baby fell asleep Ben came back in and they weighed her and did all that stuff they do while I showered.  Then I got out of my shower and got back into my bed.  Once I was in bed Ben came back in, took the baby and Luke came in.  I held Luke and we showed him his new little sister.  He took it all in.

My midwife or a nurse brought me some almond butter, and apple, a lara bar, and something else.  I polished it all off.  Then my inlaws brought me a double cheese burger.  I ate that very easily and was still hungry.  Birthing takes a lot of energy.  I can't remember what else we had.

My in laws came in and held the baby and talked to me.  Have I mentioned that it was so nice to be in my own space?  Well, it was.

My midwife and the nurses cleaned up everything, washed all the sheets, threw everything away, and put away the pool during my shower.  My room looked cleaner than it did the night before.

Then everyone left.  We were alone, just Ben, Luke, Taryn and I.  We just hung out the rest of the evening and went to bed.

I loved birthing at home.  It was painful, but it was worth it.  I kept asking myself if I'd do it again at home.  I would.

Car Seat and Baby Rash

We got convertible car seat for our new baby.  The Britax advocate.  It says 5lb-65.  We didn't really like to leave Luke in the car seat once we heard that it could be bad for them to sit in it for long periods of time.  So we would always take him out then sling him at stores.  Oh, and the fact he hated the car seat. 

This time I wondered if they only made infant seats just purely for the fact that they are easily removable?  And that you could carry them from the car to the house in the seat?  I can see the advantage of that, especially with two kids, especially if the baby is sleeping.  But, since we rarely left Luke in that seat, we decided we wouldn't do it with our new baby. 

We bought the big car seat that can be used in the early days, and then converted into a front facing seat, that stays in the car.  The one disadvantage is that the seat is so bulky, I can't reach around to hand her anything while I'm driving (at a stop light of course).  So I questioned the decision.  So much so that my husband and I went to target last night and bought an infant seat, thinking it would magically be better.  We put it into the car, same thing, we couldn't reach around it too, it's just too far back there.  I couldn't tell it was any different as far as me being able to reach.  After all that, my husband taking the old seat out and putting it into the trunk, opening the new one and putting that into the car, we took it out and took it back inside and got our money back.  Should have just gone with my original idea.  Plus, those nice (expensive) convertible seats are lot better quality than the infant ones.

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I noticed Taryn barely had any baby acne.  Luke had quite a bit more. 

I figured it out.  My midwife gave us those papers after the baby was born on care for mother and baby.  I noticed that those papers mentioned a lot more natural remedies than the ones we were given with Luke.  One that really stuck out was that we shouldn't use any commercial wipes for our newborn.  We should only be using water with cloth.  We were planning on doing that anyway (maybe adding some almond oil) but only because we got cloth wipes to go along with our cloth diapers that we're going to have to wash anyway.  I read on, it said don't use commercial soap or lotion or oil.  So we've really only used a wet cloth when we need to wipe something off of her.  We haven't even given her a bath *GASP*.  And I never even planned to after we stopped using any harsh soaps or shampoo on Luke too.  In fact we really only use soap on Luke's hands.  I sometimes put some natural soap on him, but very rarely.
I wondered today, was it the soaps, lotions and oils causing babies to get a lot of baby acne?   I looked it up and even baby center said that it could cause more rashes. 
Then I thought about what they gave us for Luke in the hospital.  They used Johnson and Johnson on him when he was a day old.  Then they gave us the bottle.  Then someone else bought us that soap too.  So we used it.  We had no idea.  Luke's wasn't that bad either... we didn't bath him that regularly as a baby either.
Isn't that wrong?  Everyone recommends not using soap, lotion or oil.  Then why does the hospital use it?  Why does everyone give it?  Ugg, advertising...

Wordless Wednesday- Watch my garden grow

Between my husband (before baby), his dad (during the time I was in labor and they were here watching Luke), and my dad (doing most of it while he was here helping me postpartum) my garden was planted

Raspberries and Blueberries.  We took the two middle ones out because the dog ruined them and we're trying to revive them in the garden.

Berries from my old house.  There's going to be a lot of blueberries from these.

Waste not and a little postpartum help

I've had my parents up at my house for the last week and a half when Ben went back to work to help with things.  It so happened that I ended up taking care of the kids and they did everything else.  They made dinner every night, even making the meals primal.  They did laundry.  They folded diapers.  They put stuff away.  They mopped floors.  My dad did about 70% of my garden so now every thing is planted.

I'm getting a little off track.  While my parents were here there were two things I really liked.  They always made enough dinner for leftovers for lunch the next day.  I hate making lunch so this was genius to me.  So now, when planning meals, I am planning to buy and make enough for lunch the next day.  That's one less thing to do the next day.

But there's always the leftovers, you know, that one person serving left over.  Ben and I always have that one bit left over, just enough for one of us, but not enough for another meal for all of us.  My step mom was saying that when she was a kid her mom would save the one serving leftovers in foil then in a freezer bag.  Then when they had enough one servings for everyone they would heat them all in the oven and have a left over day.  That is so smart to me.  So, I started doing that over the week (with the help of my parents and husband) and we have several single serving meals.  Even if we don't have left over days, we could always heat it up for lunch instead.  If we can get in the habit of this we will waste so much less food.

What do you do to not waste food?  Left over days?  Freezer meals?





By the way, I'm working on typing my birth story so that will be coming soon.  I've really had my hands full with both kids :)

Wordless Wednesday- My kids love milk :)

nap time

milk coma Taryn

milk coma Luke

Baby Taryn is here

Taryn was born on May 25th at 4:32pm, at home, and she weighed 9lb 4oz and was 21 inches long.

right after birth

She was born on my dad's birthday.  It was pretty special since my dad and I are so close... and I almost had Luke on my dad's birthday (his is May 23rd).  He was just so excited.

This is my favorite picture.  The first time he asked to hold her.  

Taryn looks almost identical to Luke when he was a baby.  Sometimes my husband and I accidentally call her Luke especially in the middle of the night when we're tired. 

I loved my birth.  I'll have to write it down soon before I forget.  I'm really happy I choose to deliver at home.  It was a nice transition.  And, I feel way  better after this labor/delivery then I did with Luke.  I just feel like I'm recovering quicker. 

I suppose I could have blogged sooner but my husband has taken two weeks off work (tomorrow is his last day) and I just didn't want to spend much time on the actual computer.  I've just been using my iphone and I really think this is the second time I've been on it.   Oh, and we've had our hands full with two little ones I just haven't had much time.  I just wanted to write a quick one saying that she's here and we're one big happy (sleep deprived) family of four (and six if you count the cat and dog).