A regular old birth. In water. At home :)
Having been surprised by Espen arriving 2 days before his EDD I was convinced we were having this baby between 38 to 40 weeks. Once we hit 40+6 however, I was over it and decided to get Mat to help me try some induction pressure points. I also tried to express some colostrum to have on hand if needed after baby was born. Perhaps one of those worked because the next day, at 41 weeks, labour began.
The day started as normal, I was up having breakfast with Espen and Mat had gone to work. At 8am I started to have my show, very watery blood, so I SMSed Helen (my primary midwife) and Mat to let them know something was happening. Helen soon called back and asked about the show and whether I was having any pains. No pains so we discussed Helen keeping her morning appointment and I’d see her at 12pm for our previously booked antenatal appointment. Soon after I noticed I did get a mild crampy pain that came and went so I wrote the time down and then tracked a few more about every 12 to 15 mins. I called Helen back around 9am to let her know and I’d keep her updated. I also talked to Mat and we decided he would come and work from home after a 9.45am meeting as I figured if I was going to start getting painful contractions it would get to a point where I would need to focus on them and wouldn’t be able to look after Espen. Remembering that Nicola (my secondary midwife) had said to eat a big bowl of pasta for energy when I thought I was in prelabour, and feeling a bit peckish, I put some on to cook. Nicola then rang up to let me know she would be around when needed, and I told her I was cooking up a big bowl of 9.30am pasta! She also reconfirmed with me that I was happy with her bringing a student she was currently mentoring along to the birth.
I was feeling happy and excited and caught myself thinking “You’re on your way Felix! I can’t wait to meet you”. We didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl but I had often called our baby Felix… I had tried and tried to come up with other boys names too but as soon as I let my subconscious go baby was Felix again.
At about 10am I found the pains stronger so timed them again and they were about 7 mins apart. Mat called then after his meeting and was heading home. I felt comfortable knowing Mat and Helen would be there by 12pm and I put on the TV for Espen and relaxed on the couch. I started leaning over the side of the couch and sometimes make a bit of noise during contractions and Espen would come and put his arm around my neck during them.
About 11.30am Helen called to see how I was and cancelled our 12pm appointment as there was clearly no need for an antenatal appointment and she would be heading back to see me sometime very soon once labour was more established. Soon after, Mat arrived home and I moved into the birth room and started to get stronger contractions.
I was trying to get comfortable and find a position to work through the hours of contractions as I had with Espen but they were changing all the time and were often quite intense. I panicked a bit at this point and started to fear the labour ahead- I didn’t want to do this again! Why hadn’t I booked in for a caesar?? I asked Mat to look in my homeopathic birth kit as I knew I had something to help overcome this feeling and he helped me take some of the pillules.
I felt like I could feel myself dilate with the intensity of some of the contractions and I imagined my body opening up as I relaxed and softened myself. Occasionally they made me feel nauseous as they cramped up my stomach and I dry retched a few times but managed to avoid throwing up.
At 1pm I was still conscious of trying not to call it too early but I suddenly knew I needed to make sure everything was in place so I told Mat I thought he should start filling the birth pool and call Helen. Helen arrived at 1.30pm and Nicola soon after at 2pm. Nicola suggested I hop into the pool. Being aware that it can slow or stall early labour I said “It’s not too soon?“ and was surprised to hear Nicola say with a bit of a laugh “No, it’s not too soon”. As I was leaning over the back of the couch with my head mashed against the wall I thought maybe I was being too dramatic through my contractions if I had everyone thinking labour was that progressed? I had laboured for hours like this with Espen. I figured we had a long way to go! Mat had got the pool as full as possible on one tank of hot water and so I hopped in expecting we would fill it more in about ½ an hour. Ohhh what bliss!! The hot water was sensational for easing the pain which I felt radiating around my hips, groin and lower back.
Mat said the labour changed once I was in the pool- I was much calmer and I felt like sleeping most the time. My tone went down and I was able to groan through the contractions. I spent most of my time kneeling on all fours and the water was just the right depth- any deeper and I would have needed a snorkel! I was very happy with the decision to go with a wooden pool and I loved pushing my feet against the sides during contractions. This was so comfy I managed to back myself in against a corner and zoned out working through contractions. Then Helen asked me if I could move to another position as there was no room for the baby to come out where I was.
Me: Nope. Comfy where I am thanks very much.
Helen: No really, the baby will have nowhere to go.
Me: The baby is ages away though- they’re not coming yet!
Helen and Nicola then said the baby wasn’t actually that far away. Really?? I had another strong contraction that finished with a grunt and involuntary push. Oh! Really!! I moved across the pool and got comfy with my legs floating behind me (actually it was more comfy than the corner) and warned them I’d be cursing them for getting my hopes up in 3 hours time however!
Meanwhile, Espen had gone to bed for his daytime nap and Mat contacted my Aunty Jen to make her way over to help look after him when he woke up. Poor Mat tried to explain this to me, in detail with Espen’s expected wake up time, Jen’s ETA… I cut him off “Why are you telling me all this? I’m not going to time the baby’s arrival!” I also noticed the student midwife occasionally in the room. I was comfortable with her there but couldn’t remember her name. It started to bother me that someone nameless was in the room so I asked her name, Carly, and went back to the job at hand.
Sprawling across the length of the pool I found I quite liked floating my body up during contractions, putting all my weight on my hands and pushing my feet against the wall of the pool. My hands and arms started to go numb and hurt however so I talked to Mat about getting into the pool to support me. He asked if I would like that and I wasn’t sure without trying it so I gave a non-committal mutter and continued on. After a while my hands were even more sore and I snapped at Mat asking if he was going to get ready to hop in the pool soon?! He quickly hopped in and it was bliss again… I was now able to lean my upper body on him and my hands stopped hurting. It was lovely to have Mat there to cuddle too and I felt comfy dozing on him between contractions. By this stage I was pushing with each contraction, or rather, my body was. The contractions were intense waves radiating down from the top of my belly. After awhile it was looking like I was in for another long second stage as I could feel the membranes slowly bulging and we hadn’t even got to the head yet! I remember thinking “well, at least I’m not on the clock this time” but then I realised I wasn’t as happy to say “I could do this for another 5 hours” like I did with Espen- I wanted this over sooner! Probably because these contractions were much stronger than I had had with Espen. By the time I was pushing with him I was low on energy but this time I was being offered food all the time to keep my energy up and the labour strong. I was actually frequently frustrated by the offer of food and generally declined- only accepting icy pole pieces to appease everyone… and enjoying them when I had them! In the hopes of getting me to eat, Mat offered me a marshmallow at one stage and I was so cranky. A marshmallow??? Was he insane?! Another thing I didn’t really like this time were the occasional Doppler checks. I was in so much pain everywhere that I found the Doppler pressing on me hurt and one time I refused it all together.
I heard Espen wake up and I asked where he was and if anyone was getting him up. Helen had gone in to see him and he stayed in bed happily chatting to himself for a while. Once he was up Carly was able to hold him and he joined us in the room for a bit, but then he mostly played with play dough by himself in the kitchen.
Helen and Nicola were checking baby’s progress with a mirror and torch in the water and I asked a few times if they could see the baby’s head coming after another strong push and some more poo coming out- but still no sign. I declared it was a lot of work for a bit of poo! They could see the membranes bulging and I was finding it frustrating that just the membranes seemed to be so much work to push out. Nicola reminded me that everything was going so perfectly slowly and I was stretching beautifully so that reassured me as I had wanted a slow, gentle stretch.
Eventually the membranes ruptured and baby’s head made its way down. I was trying to avoid tearing this time so I was relaxing and breathing in between contractions, keeping it slow and calm. I got very tired of the head not actually coming out though and declared “No more babies!” at one stage. Before labour I had thought I might like to listen to Deep Blue Day by Brian Eno and at this point I wanted to but it was too hard to ask for and I didn’t want Mat to be distracted or go anywhere so I hummed it to myself in my head and found it very relaxing.
Helen asked if I wanted to catch my baby, or if I wanted to let Mat move so he could. I tried putting my hand down but was too comfy leaning on Mat so we decided Helen would catch him behind me and pass him back through my legs under the water.
My contractions changed- I started pulling upright and roaring my baby out. Helen encouraged me to “use your power” and I felt strong and ready. A gentle hand on my bum reminded me to keep it underwater as baby’s head came out. Then the crowning started!! I was thrilled baby was actually coming out!! But then the contraction ended and the head stayed there, part of the way out. Oh gee! The burning ring of fire was intense but I think the water did ease it a bit. I breathed and tried to relax while waiting for the next contraction- I was determined this baby was coming out slowly. Next contraction, another push and STILL the head was only part way out. Nicola told me she could see baby’s eyebrows. EYEBROWS?? Chin would have been more satisfactory. One more contraction and the head emerged. Oh the relief!! I was so happy and felt like I was all done now the hard part was over. I completely relaxed on Mat and almost dozed right off… then I felt the strangest sensation and felt like my body was taking off towards the other end of the pool. I startled and Helen and Nicola said it was the baby kicking trying to stimulate contractions. It happened again and I realised it was baby kicking inside me- a very strange sensation! At least one of us hadn’t forgotten there was still a job to do. I switched myself back on and another contraction came and I pushed out part of the shoulders, gave another push and the rest of the shoulders and body came out. Helen flipped baby around to unwrap the cord around the neck then quickly passed him through and I grabbed him up out of the water.
Oh! It’s a baby! It’s a baby! I was elated and stunned our baby was actually here. I was grinning at Mat like a Cheshire cat- it’s a baby! Then I wanted to know if we had a boy or girl so I asked Mat to look. Is it a boy? Yes! Oh, it’s Felix. He’s here. Espen came into the room and Mat and I showed him baby Felix then he left to play by himself again for a little while.
Pretty soon I wanted to get out of the pool. I was sore and really over kneeling now Felix was born. So I made my way onto the couch and laid down, putting Felix near my breasts if he wanted to suck. He had a little go which I knew should help the placenta come out so tried to encourage him some more. Then the back pain started- ow!! Carly brought me a hot water bottle which was great on my back and Helen told me to push with the back pain- this was third stage contractions. After a while of intense back pain and no placenta in sight we decided to move to the toilet to see if that would help. First push there and the placenta was birthed, 30 minutes after Felix was born.
Now the placenta was in the loo, and the cord wasn’t pulsating, we abandoned plans to leave it attached so cut the cord. Neither Mat or I wanted to do it so Helen had the rare pleasure of cutting the cord. I wanted to know how much Felix weighed so handed him over to Mat so I could clean up myself a little and get ready to snuggle in bed. He was weighed- 4735gm, 10lbs 4ozs! Yay- I cracked 10lbs!!
I then hopped into bed and Helen had a quick look at my tear- a second degree tear on my perineum even with all that breathing! Maybe it could have been worse if I’d pushed liked a mad woman again. I was feeling very tender and sore so we abandoned having a good check and I decided not to get stitched.
I cuddled Felix and he started to feed… and feed and feed! He fed for about 2 hours while everyone else busied themselves in the house and popped in to check on me every now and then. I was brought dinner, cups of tea and treats and had occasional blood pressure & pulse checks. Jen, Ben and Sam turned up after being stuck in traffic, so they missed the birth (which had been quicker than we expected!) but got to pop in and see baby Felix.
Espen started to get upset, trying to skulk in the room and see what was happening but not liking so many people around. We asked everyone to start leaving then we settled in to the quiet. I made a couple of quick phone calls, SMS’s and facebook status updates to let everyone know of Felix’s arrival while Mat tucked Espen into bed, did some laundry, made me more food, emptied the birth pool then we snuggled in for our first night sleep with our new little baby boy.
Felix Blaze was born at 4.20pm after 3hours 20mins of labour on November 25th 2010.
Weight: 4735gm, 10lbs 4ozs
Length: 55.5cms
Head Circumference: 38cms
