Alaya's Birth
My mom had flown in from Detroit to be here for the birth on Wednesday night. The babies gender was a surprise at this point and we had intended to keep it that way but I had gone to a midwifery celebration picnic the day before and they had ultrasounds set up just for fun. So I decided to take a little peak since we would be finding out in a few days anyway, they said about 70% girl and since they were a teaching facility they asked me if I could come back during the week so a student could look at the baby for free, since they rarely had full term pregnancies for the students to see. So I called and set an appointment for Thursday morning so my mom could find out the gender as a mother's day gift. We confirmed it was a girl and decided to just keep it to ourselves so it would still be a surprise for friends and family.
Alaya's Story started with a few days of prodromal labor. I was having practice waves every 30 minutes for days and days. On May 8th, I noticed they were getting closer together about 20 minutes, so I called my midwife, Stephanie, to give her a heads up that things were starting to change. My labor with my daughter was only 7 hours so we all thought the baby would fly out of me. These waves were just tightenings, nothing to write home about so I didn't get my hopes up, I just wanted to be prepared if things took off. I went about the day like usual and we went to bed. The next day things were pretty erratic. I was having waves that were 5 minutes apart for a few hours, some that were 15 minutes apart, and some 20 minutes it was driving me crazy keeping track of them so I stopped.
At about 5 or 6 pm I noticed that they were starting to feel different. I could feel a tightening in my cervix and lower pelvis that radiated around my hips. I was also having some loose stools and was feeling very odd. They were coming about 7 minutes apart so I texted my doula, Jennifer, and Stephanie for a heads up. My husband Larry put our daughter to bed and went out to get us some food. We ate and Larry complained that his stomach was hurting so he went to take a nap. An hour later I decided to join him. I set up his laptop next to my bed so I could keep timing the waves on contractionmaster.com. And I put on my Hypnobabies birthing day affirmations cd and tried to rest. Larry kept getting in and out of bed but I was so tuned in I had no idea what he was doing. I finally decided to stop trying to sleep through them at midnight since they were now 5 minutes apart and moved to my rocking chair. I switched to my easy first stage cd and stayed in hypnosis.
I was getting through the waves very well but I wanted to get things moving so I started some nipple stimulation and that made them more powerful for about two hours. In the meantime I noticed my husband was hurling in the bathroom. When he came back, I asked him if he was ok, and he said he had been throwing up all night. He suggested that I call my doula because he was too sick to help me, but I was handling things well alone. It was about 2 am at this point. The waves started to space out some more so I tried nipple stimulation again but it didn't really work. They went back to being about 15 minutes apart and by 3 am I had had enough and decided to try to go back to sleep. I was still having waves all while I was sleeping. I even remember having dreams that I was having one on top of the other. It was weird, I was sleep, but still conscience enough to know that things were still happening.
I finally got up at around 7 and checked myself. I was still about 1-2 cm much more effaced than I had been, but the baby was engaged and it was harder for me to reach my cervix so I knew things were working. My daughter woke up shortly after that. Larry was still in bed though, not feeling well at all. The morning was rough, my mom was sick with pharyingitis, my husband had food poisoning and I had to deal with my daughter while I was in labor. I had really needed my mom to help with my daughter, but they hadn't really gotten a connection yet so she was having a hard time helping out with her. Larry need some ginger ale and Gatorade so he went to the store and took my daughter with him so I could have a break, even though he was sick himself. Hes so awesome. When they got back it was nap time for Avia so I put her to bed and headed to my room with my husband. I ran a bath and decided to deal with the labor in the tub for a while. My waves had been a consistent 10 minutes apart for a while and I wanted to see if the water would bring them faster like they did with my first. They stayed the same so I got out after about an hour and laid with Larry in bed.
At some point I called my friend and asked her to get my daughter because no body could take care of her right now. She came and got her shortly after 3 and I felt so much better being able to labor without wondering about her. I called Jennifer and asked if she could come by to help get things moving. I was ready to have the baby now and tired of being in labor. Since it was Mother's Day, she had some plans so I told her to call me when she was done. I finally talked to her and she suggested we did castor oil or black and blue cohosh. I never in a million years thought I would need to take castor oil considering my 7 hour labor with my first child but I conceded and she said she would be here in an hour. I texted Stephanie to say I was going to take the castor oil and she told me to please wait. I said ok, what would you like me to do and she said that she would call me, she was at another birth and the mom was pushing, phew I thought. I was wondering if she didn't think I was in labor or something because I certainly was.
Larry was starting to feel better and started being able to attend to me, bringing me water and things. I had established a labor pattern now. I was up walking around or laying on the bed resting between waves and during them I would lean over a tower of pillows that I had on my bed and moaned and swayed my hips. They were still 10 minutes apart though. Jennifer got there at 5 and I told her that Stephanie needed me to wait on the castor oil until she called. So Jennifer suggested that I take the homeopathic forms of black and blue cohosh in the meantime and I agreed. She also got the doppler out and did a quick check on the babies heart tones. Stephanie called me about 10 minutes after I took the homeopaths and said that she just didn't want to miss my birth because she was at another one. But that client had had her baby and if I needed to take it to go ahead. So Jennifer mixed an OJ and castor oil cocktail for me at 5:20 and we waited it out with me leaning over my birth ball. I got the second dose an hour later and went back to laboring on my pillows and waited for things to pick up.
I talked to my friend Ayshah that had my daughter and she said she was on her way back and that Avia had eaten dinner. She got here at about 7:15 just in time for Avia to go to bed for the night. I came out of my room to kiss my daughter good night and went back to my room to continue laboring over my pillows. Larry put her to sleep and I was completely oblivious to time after this so I don't know what time anything else happened.
The castor oil just started to kick in and I was feeling nauseous and like I needed to poop. I sat on the toilet and nothing came out but I stayed there until the next wave to see if it would start coming out. Nothing happened but that wave hit me hard, I couldn't get on top of it so I told Jennifer I would not be laboring on the toilet. I have no idea how people thought that felt good. I got off the john and went back to my special place. Two waves later I felt like going again so I went back to the bathroom and the castor oil started working finally.
I went back and forth from the bed to the toilet for a while. Jennifer was giving me water and wiping my face with a cool rag that had peppermint oil on it and she was telling me to open and that I was doing good. I was not handling the potty trips well. I was feeling nauseous and I kept telling my doula that this was disgusting, that I felt gross with all this crap coming out of me, and I hated how it was making me feel. Any time I had a wave on the toilet I just about freaked out, I couldn't get on top of them well. On one trip to the bathroom I had wiped and something flung on to Larry's hand, he freaked out and flung whatever it was to the floor. We turned on the lights and it was my mucous plug! I joked with him that something radioactive had come out of me and that his skin was melting away. We all had a good laugh because he looked truly mortified! I started getting excited because it meant that things were really happening. So I asked Jennifer to fill the tub for me. While the tub was filling I had another trip to the toilet and was throwing up at the same time, that was just lovely. I got off the toilet brushed my teeth and hopped in the tub.
It took me a few waves to find my rhythm in the tub but I settled on sitting Indian style and leaning over the side during waves. The waves felt better in the tub but only mildly better. I started to get slightly grunty after only a few minutes in the tub. Jennifer had set a fan in front of me and my mom had brought in some ice water for her and she was wiping me down with a cool washcloth. I had to get out of the tub to use the bathroom one more time and I was bearing down on the toilet. I got back in the tub and told them that they should call Stephanie. My doula said, "yeah I was just going to do that, you know what that grunting means the baby will be here soon." In my mind I was excited but my body was losing it. I asked Larry to turn on the pushing hypnobabies cd so I could focus on breathing the baby out. I concluded that I am not a silent birther and I needed to get guttural and moan and groan my babies out. So that's what I did I just let my voice out and let things go. At one point I could not find a good position at all and I was moving all over the tub. I started doula-ing myself and said to myself when no position is comfortable the baby is about to be born. So I just stayed leaning over the tub and reached out for Larry and Jennifer's hands during waves so I could get my bearings and push.
Stephanie showed up shortly after we called, it seemed like only 15 minutes to me she was there very fast and she just stood in the doorway. Jennifer asked if she wanted heart tones and Stephanie said yes, so Jennifer quickly got heart tones on the baby while I was leaning over in the water. I had another wave that was stronger than the ones before and my body completely took over and was pushing hard. I was squeezing Jen and Larry's hands just like my last birth, as it was so overwhelming and powerful. When the wave was over I could feel the babies head in the birth canal. And I thought this was it, wow there really is a baby coming out like right now! I rested and breathed between because I could tell this was almost over. I looked at my midwife and she asked if I needed anything, I said, "How is Larry going to catch the baby with me laying like this?" My bottom was towards the back of the tub and she just said he will do it. Stephanie asked Larry if he could feel the head and he reached in and said he could and that the baby had hair. I told them that I didn't think my water had broken yet and Stephanie said, "well maybe she will be born in the caul!" My mom was taking pictures and I wish I would have showed her how to record because I wanted video of the birth, oh well. On the next wave my body took off again and at the end of it her head was out. I told everyone that her head was out and then I looked up and said that it felt weird. With my daughter I didn't have to pause for another wave, her body came out right after her head. So just resting with the babies head out of me while my body was still full of baby felt really odd. My midwife thought this was funny and so did I in retrospect, I have seen so many babies with their heads out waiting for the next wave to be born it was just a different feeling to experience for me and I was a little shocked. Larry said "the baby is opening its mouth that's looks funny because its underwater". The next wave came and her body slid out of me and I yelled "she's out!" Larry pulled her right up but was pulling too far we all said stop because she was still attached to me, lol. Stephanie told me I had to roll over and watch the cord so I did and Larry handed me our baby girl! She was so tiny, but she was calm and content and only let out the tiniest little cry after I rubbed her back for a second. We double check that she was a girl and I kept saying how tiny she was. But she was beautiful and I checked her out for the dimple in her chin. At first I didn't think she had it but when she cried I saw it. I stayed in the tub for 5 or 10 more minutes, tried to nurse but she wasn't ready. So we got out to deliver the placenta.
We moved to the bed and I finally got the baby to latch on for a while. Stephanie asked if I was ready to push the placenta out and I didn't feel like I needed to yet. My mom clamped and cut the babies cord she was happy to do it since Larry did our last babies. I never really got the urge to push the placenta out so she asked me to cough to see if it was ready. It finally came out but some of the amnion was still attached so she had to twist it a bit. I finally found the time of birth was 9:52 pm. My doula took the placenta to make a smoothie for me and we finally did the newborn exam. She was 5lbs 7oz, 19in long. Really tiny, smaller than her sister. Her apgars were 10 and 10 so she was absolutely perfect. She didn't come out in the caul so we assumed my waters must have broken sometime while I was in the tub.
Her birth was absolutely perfect. Reflecting on it now there was not a single thing that I would change except maybe needing to take the castor oil, but it worked so I don't regret it, and if I had been in a hospital that would have been pitocin. It is so hard to put into words how wonderful it is to be in your own space, with only people you love and that love you, not being compromised or tied down to someone else's rules.
Alaya's Story started with a few days of prodromal labor. I was having practice waves every 30 minutes for days and days. On May 8th, I noticed they were getting closer together about 20 minutes, so I called my midwife, Stephanie, to give her a heads up that things were starting to change. My labor with my daughter was only 7 hours so we all thought the baby would fly out of me. These waves were just tightenings, nothing to write home about so I didn't get my hopes up, I just wanted to be prepared if things took off. I went about the day like usual and we went to bed. The next day things were pretty erratic. I was having waves that were 5 minutes apart for a few hours, some that were 15 minutes apart, and some 20 minutes it was driving me crazy keeping track of them so I stopped.
At about 5 or 6 pm I noticed that they were starting to feel different. I could feel a tightening in my cervix and lower pelvis that radiated around my hips. I was also having some loose stools and was feeling very odd. They were coming about 7 minutes apart so I texted my doula, Jennifer, and Stephanie for a heads up. My husband Larry put our daughter to bed and went out to get us some food. We ate and Larry complained that his stomach was hurting so he went to take a nap. An hour later I decided to join him. I set up his laptop next to my bed so I could keep timing the waves on contractionmaster.com. And I put on my Hypnobabies birthing day affirmations cd and tried to rest. Larry kept getting in and out of bed but I was so tuned in I had no idea what he was doing. I finally decided to stop trying to sleep through them at midnight since they were now 5 minutes apart and moved to my rocking chair. I switched to my easy first stage cd and stayed in hypnosis.
I was getting through the waves very well but I wanted to get things moving so I started some nipple stimulation and that made them more powerful for about two hours. In the meantime I noticed my husband was hurling in the bathroom. When he came back, I asked him if he was ok, and he said he had been throwing up all night. He suggested that I call my doula because he was too sick to help me, but I was handling things well alone. It was about 2 am at this point. The waves started to space out some more so I tried nipple stimulation again but it didn't really work. They went back to being about 15 minutes apart and by 3 am I had had enough and decided to try to go back to sleep. I was still having waves all while I was sleeping. I even remember having dreams that I was having one on top of the other. It was weird, I was sleep, but still conscience enough to know that things were still happening.
I finally got up at around 7 and checked myself. I was still about 1-2 cm much more effaced than I had been, but the baby was engaged and it was harder for me to reach my cervix so I knew things were working. My daughter woke up shortly after that. Larry was still in bed though, not feeling well at all. The morning was rough, my mom was sick with pharyingitis, my husband had food poisoning and I had to deal with my daughter while I was in labor. I had really needed my mom to help with my daughter, but they hadn't really gotten a connection yet so she was having a hard time helping out with her. Larry need some ginger ale and Gatorade so he went to the store and took my daughter with him so I could have a break, even though he was sick himself. Hes so awesome. When they got back it was nap time for Avia so I put her to bed and headed to my room with my husband. I ran a bath and decided to deal with the labor in the tub for a while. My waves had been a consistent 10 minutes apart for a while and I wanted to see if the water would bring them faster like they did with my first. They stayed the same so I got out after about an hour and laid with Larry in bed.
At some point I called my friend and asked her to get my daughter because no body could take care of her right now. She came and got her shortly after 3 and I felt so much better being able to labor without wondering about her. I called Jennifer and asked if she could come by to help get things moving. I was ready to have the baby now and tired of being in labor. Since it was Mother's Day, she had some plans so I told her to call me when she was done. I finally talked to her and she suggested we did castor oil or black and blue cohosh. I never in a million years thought I would need to take castor oil considering my 7 hour labor with my first child but I conceded and she said she would be here in an hour. I texted Stephanie to say I was going to take the castor oil and she told me to please wait. I said ok, what would you like me to do and she said that she would call me, she was at another birth and the mom was pushing, phew I thought. I was wondering if she didn't think I was in labor or something because I certainly was.
Larry was starting to feel better and started being able to attend to me, bringing me water and things. I had established a labor pattern now. I was up walking around or laying on the bed resting between waves and during them I would lean over a tower of pillows that I had on my bed and moaned and swayed my hips. They were still 10 minutes apart though. Jennifer got there at 5 and I told her that Stephanie needed me to wait on the castor oil until she called. So Jennifer suggested that I take the homeopathic forms of black and blue cohosh in the meantime and I agreed. She also got the doppler out and did a quick check on the babies heart tones. Stephanie called me about 10 minutes after I took the homeopaths and said that she just didn't want to miss my birth because she was at another one. But that client had had her baby and if I needed to take it to go ahead. So Jennifer mixed an OJ and castor oil cocktail for me at 5:20 and we waited it out with me leaning over my birth ball. I got the second dose an hour later and went back to laboring on my pillows and waited for things to pick up.
I talked to my friend Ayshah that had my daughter and she said she was on her way back and that Avia had eaten dinner. She got here at about 7:15 just in time for Avia to go to bed for the night. I came out of my room to kiss my daughter good night and went back to my room to continue laboring over my pillows. Larry put her to sleep and I was completely oblivious to time after this so I don't know what time anything else happened.
The castor oil just started to kick in and I was feeling nauseous and like I needed to poop. I sat on the toilet and nothing came out but I stayed there until the next wave to see if it would start coming out. Nothing happened but that wave hit me hard, I couldn't get on top of it so I told Jennifer I would not be laboring on the toilet. I have no idea how people thought that felt good. I got off the john and went back to my special place. Two waves later I felt like going again so I went back to the bathroom and the castor oil started working finally.
I went back and forth from the bed to the toilet for a while. Jennifer was giving me water and wiping my face with a cool rag that had peppermint oil on it and she was telling me to open and that I was doing good. I was not handling the potty trips well. I was feeling nauseous and I kept telling my doula that this was disgusting, that I felt gross with all this crap coming out of me, and I hated how it was making me feel. Any time I had a wave on the toilet I just about freaked out, I couldn't get on top of them well. On one trip to the bathroom I had wiped and something flung on to Larry's hand, he freaked out and flung whatever it was to the floor. We turned on the lights and it was my mucous plug! I joked with him that something radioactive had come out of me and that his skin was melting away. We all had a good laugh because he looked truly mortified! I started getting excited because it meant that things were really happening. So I asked Jennifer to fill the tub for me. While the tub was filling I had another trip to the toilet and was throwing up at the same time, that was just lovely. I got off the toilet brushed my teeth and hopped in the tub.
It took me a few waves to find my rhythm in the tub but I settled on sitting Indian style and leaning over the side during waves. The waves felt better in the tub but only mildly better. I started to get slightly grunty after only a few minutes in the tub. Jennifer had set a fan in front of me and my mom had brought in some ice water for her and she was wiping me down with a cool washcloth. I had to get out of the tub to use the bathroom one more time and I was bearing down on the toilet. I got back in the tub and told them that they should call Stephanie. My doula said, "yeah I was just going to do that, you know what that grunting means the baby will be here soon." In my mind I was excited but my body was losing it. I asked Larry to turn on the pushing hypnobabies cd so I could focus on breathing the baby out. I concluded that I am not a silent birther and I needed to get guttural and moan and groan my babies out. So that's what I did I just let my voice out and let things go. At one point I could not find a good position at all and I was moving all over the tub. I started doula-ing myself and said to myself when no position is comfortable the baby is about to be born. So I just stayed leaning over the tub and reached out for Larry and Jennifer's hands during waves so I could get my bearings and push.
Stephanie showed up shortly after we called, it seemed like only 15 minutes to me she was there very fast and she just stood in the doorway. Jennifer asked if she wanted heart tones and Stephanie said yes, so Jennifer quickly got heart tones on the baby while I was leaning over in the water. I had another wave that was stronger than the ones before and my body completely took over and was pushing hard. I was squeezing Jen and Larry's hands just like my last birth, as it was so overwhelming and powerful. When the wave was over I could feel the babies head in the birth canal. And I thought this was it, wow there really is a baby coming out like right now! I rested and breathed between because I could tell this was almost over. I looked at my midwife and she asked if I needed anything, I said, "How is Larry going to catch the baby with me laying like this?" My bottom was towards the back of the tub and she just said he will do it. Stephanie asked Larry if he could feel the head and he reached in and said he could and that the baby had hair. I told them that I didn't think my water had broken yet and Stephanie said, "well maybe she will be born in the caul!" My mom was taking pictures and I wish I would have showed her how to record because I wanted video of the birth, oh well. On the next wave my body took off again and at the end of it her head was out. I told everyone that her head was out and then I looked up and said that it felt weird. With my daughter I didn't have to pause for another wave, her body came out right after her head. So just resting with the babies head out of me while my body was still full of baby felt really odd. My midwife thought this was funny and so did I in retrospect, I have seen so many babies with their heads out waiting for the next wave to be born it was just a different feeling to experience for me and I was a little shocked. Larry said "the baby is opening its mouth that's looks funny because its underwater". The next wave came and her body slid out of me and I yelled "she's out!" Larry pulled her right up but was pulling too far we all said stop because she was still attached to me, lol. Stephanie told me I had to roll over and watch the cord so I did and Larry handed me our baby girl! She was so tiny, but she was calm and content and only let out the tiniest little cry after I rubbed her back for a second. We double check that she was a girl and I kept saying how tiny she was. But she was beautiful and I checked her out for the dimple in her chin. At first I didn't think she had it but when she cried I saw it. I stayed in the tub for 5 or 10 more minutes, tried to nurse but she wasn't ready. So we got out to deliver the placenta.
We moved to the bed and I finally got the baby to latch on for a while. Stephanie asked if I was ready to push the placenta out and I didn't feel like I needed to yet. My mom clamped and cut the babies cord she was happy to do it since Larry did our last babies. I never really got the urge to push the placenta out so she asked me to cough to see if it was ready. It finally came out but some of the amnion was still attached so she had to twist it a bit. I finally found the time of birth was 9:52 pm. My doula took the placenta to make a smoothie for me and we finally did the newborn exam. She was 5lbs 7oz, 19in long. Really tiny, smaller than her sister. Her apgars were 10 and 10 so she was absolutely perfect. She didn't come out in the caul so we assumed my waters must have broken sometime while I was in the tub.
Her birth was absolutely perfect. Reflecting on it now there was not a single thing that I would change except maybe needing to take the castor oil, but it worked so I don't regret it, and if I had been in a hospital that would have been pitocin. It is so hard to put into words how wonderful it is to be in your own space, with only people you love and that love you, not being compromised or tied down to someone else's rules.
posted by Iana @ 11:27 AM
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