Carter's Birth Story

Well as you all are VERY well aware, this pregnancy was far from a good pregnancy, so of course the labor/delivery followed suit as far as being completely unexpected and not what I thought would happen! lol Lots of positive and of course a few negatives.

First of all, my entire experience from first contraction to birth was 11 hours, resulting in a beautiful laid back baby boy, Carter Reid 9lb 8oz, 22" long - birthed at our home.

I woke up at 2am with my first contraction. Being i've had many wake up nights over the past weeks with similar pain, I got up and watched Drop Dead Diva while waiting to see if these were going to be consistant ones or not. For the next hour and a half I had them consistantly every 5 minutes. Woohoo right? Baby was definetly coming! At this point (3:30) I called the midwives and they were just finishing up at a birth so they would be over as soon as they could. They came over at 5:00am to check me and hook up my IV. I was 4-5cm dilated and having contractions about 4 mins apart on avg.

The IV process itself was horrific! They blew through 2 veins (the first one hurting reeeally badly) before getting one. I poured out blood, all over my bed too, but it came out no problem. lol I was very forgiving surprisingly - I am not sure why it didn't really bother me too badly! They left about 6am and I was able to go and lay down/sleep till about 7:30am when Logan woke up.

My mom arrived around 7:30am to be able to take Logan for the day. At about 9:00am two of the midwives came back and they sent me out for a walk as they set up all their equipment and such, so off we went for our first of two walks. We got back and I got Logan's stuff together for the day and sent him and my mom off around 10am, and then Michael and I went for another walk. At this time my contractions were about 2-3 mins apart (but the contractions though uncomfy were definetly not unbareable). When we got back to the house around 11:00am the midwives asked if I would like to be checked, and asked if I wanted my water broken if I was 8+cm. They assured me it didn't hurt so I agreed. Sure enough I was about 8cms so they broke my water, which didn't hurt, it was just the discomfort of an internal test that bothered me so that was not to bad.

At this point what I did NOT expect was the water breaking to basically push me right into transition. So by this time it was 11:30 and transition started and HOLY COW - OW! It was waaay worse than Logan. It took me about 45 mins to get the hang of how to 'push properly' (I know that sounds weird, but those who have had natural births definetly understand what i'm talking about there) and then it was about 45 minutes of actual pushing him out. I couldn't even believe how much more this labor hurt than Logan's - not sure that the extra pound on Carter's birth weight really made that much of a difference or not? Anyways, all I know is that if Logan had been as painful I would have planned on some sort of drug medicaton for this time around - that's how I know it was worse and not just me thinking it was lol. But I made it through drug free and voila! Baby Carter was born. (He came out really swollen and bruised on the face and he was also tongue tied which we had snipped at his appointment the next morning - the brusing and swelling is healing just fine).

Now, just to touch on the midwifery care: I loved the midwife care that I recieved! There was three (as they have two typically present, and right now they have a student with them), so having three women surrounding me and my husband, all of whom were talking calmy and supportively, but firmly when necessary. I was able to comfortbly move from my bed, to waking, to the toilet, to my bed with assistance of a women who was just dressed in comfortable clothes herself, not all 'sterile' feeling like nurses have to be when at hospital (of course they were clean lol but i hope you know what i mean by that last sentence). Anyways, I LOVED being able to be home during all the contractions and transition and not have to worry about knowing when to head to the hospital and being sent home if it's too soon, etc, etc.

The other nice thing about midwife care is you consulted about EVERYthing. Like for example in hospital after baby comes out, they take baby and they give it a Vitamin K shot, and put on an eye oinment on the baby, and give you a shot of oxytocin - typically without asking consent.. the midwives pre discuss with you the pros and cons of each of these and you then have the option to yes/no each detail. I really enjoyed that, because not that I had a specific preference either way, but I like learning things and knowing what they're doing.

The things I did -not- love about a home birth: 1. Having to supply everything that would have been taken care of at a hospital (linens, towels, etc), 2. Though they cleaned up everything and whatnot and started laundry, we had to finish the loads of laundry as they don't sit and wait for cycles to finish, etc 3. After labor bleeding - after the midwives had left and I went to the bathroom for the first time I gushed blood so badly all over my bed and the floor and of course between Michael and I we had to clean it up - definetly not a problem at the hospital. 4. Not having that magic 'call the nurse' button in the middle of the night. I did not need it that first night, but I liked having it there. 5. I really like hospital food, call me weird but I do! ...and that being said, my mom cleaned my house up for me (regular tidying/cleaned my bathroom/kitchen), and if she hadn't I would have been stressed about that.

So stuff like that (the after labor/delivery stuff) is what I had a harder time with. Idealy I think I would in a future pregnancy choose to deliver in hospital WITH midwifery care... but we'll see what the future holds :)

Okay, what else... there was something else I wanted to touch on, but i'm drawing a blank. Oh ya! The things I wasn't anticipating after birth. The utertine contractions afterwards have been really painful! I know I had the contractions after Logan as that's just normal for a women's uterus to get back down to size, etc, but they have been much more painful this time which I also read is normal. Also my back has been in agony! I am trying to set up some Bowen treatments but things just take time to get done. I was also not expecting to HEAL so quickly! I konw that sounds weird, but I swear it's because of this stuff called "Callendula" that the midwives gave me. It's a homepathic tincture that you put in your spray bottle for 'down there' (it's also something you use on the umbillical cord) but less than 48 hours later I can painfree wipe after going to the bathroom. Sorry if that's too much info lol (PS. I did not tear despite the size of this baby - I was super shocked!) Anyways, Callendula - I highly recommend it, and may even start getting it for people as their gift from me!

I'm sure there's something I missed so if you have questions don't hesitate to ask, otherwise, that's the jist of our story.

Thought of something! Michael's experience: He said he absolutely loved the midwife care and would absolutely do it again. For him it was great because he was able to be present, but not have to talk and comfort me with words and 'inspiration' as these women did it for him - but that was something discussed with me before, the kind of involvment Michael wanted in the delivery process - and they were good to get him involved and tell him what to do, which was perfect for him because he is not a go-getter type. He felt much more comfortable as far as the spouse position of labor goes this time around.

Last comment: Logan came out looking like a cute newborn baby, and Carter is definetly cute but he isn't that 'wow he is SO cute' picture perfect baby that some newborns are lol, that was an adjustment for me - but he's getting cuter and cuter every day and I am SO in love with him! We all are - Logan's a happy big brother, and Michael has claimed his as 'his baby' because Logan was so hard on him lol.