A Clucky is Born

Dear Diary,

Somewhere I have saved the long, written-out story of Lovie's birth. But since we just moved, and a little bit because my idea of organization would make even the most cluttered person cringe, I will probably never find it and instead will re-create it here.

Before I start, I want to share with you a little back story. Rather than me writing it all out, I put together a video montage a few years ago that discusses my first two deliveries via c-section and how they have impacted me. You can watch that video here: Little Miss and Junior's Birth Stories

 
It was a beautiful, fast, accidentally unassisted homebirth. I was 42 weeks 2 days pregnant (that's 16 days past my due date) when I gave birth. I woke up at 4 am and attempted to roll my giant belly out of bed, looking more like a poor, pathetic beached whale than a glowing, expectant mother. After a series of groans, I finally made it vertical and began my stumble down the hallway toward the bathroom. Despite my groggy stupor, I somehow became acutely aware that each step (ok, fine, tromp) elicited a little gush of fluid. That woke me up pretty quickly! I ran waddled the rest of the way to the bathroom and squealed with glee at the discovery that I was, in fact, leaking amniotic fluid (and not just pee like last time)! After my happy dance in the bathroom I tiptoed (ha!) back to our bedroom and tried to wake Daddy up. He mumbled some half-coherent gibberish and I let him drift back to sleep- I mean, he might as well get rest now because his ass is gonna be "IN IT with me until this baby comes". I sat there, smiling to myself, for several minutes before the first contraction hit. Right off the bat those suckers were strong! The contractions were pretty regular and coming about every 7-8 minutes. By 4:30 I decided it was the real deal, woke Daddy up, and called the midwives. They told me to wait until I was "good and active" to call back because "I still had a while to go".... ha! I can see how after my 2 c-section deliveries of Little Miss and Junior (24 and 13 hours respectively) they assumed it was going to take me a while to get Lovie out. But.... they should have taken into consideration that I was 16 days overdue, that this was my 3rd delivery, and that I was much more calm and relaxed in the peace of my own home than I ever was in the stuffy hospital. Also, I had been seeing a chiropractor during Lovie's pregnancy, which helped TREMENDOUSLY to get her in a good position.

 Wow this is getting long already. I'll skip some of the details that probably no one really cares about except me.

So, the contractions were getting more and more intense and closer together. After only an hour and a half they were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting a full minute. At that point I decided I couldn't handle them on my own anymore and decided that I needed my aquadural.... that's right bitches, I said it.... Aquadural: noun, the pain relief experienced from submersion of a laboring, pregnant woman's belly into a tub of warm water. (not bad for a made-up definition, right?). So I got into the giant birth tub around 5:30am and finally got a little relief. The contractions slowed to about 7-8 minute intervals and the intensity let up quite a bit. However, Lovie had decided 296 days inside me was enough and she wanted OUT.... N O W! After a short respite, the contractions picked up again, back to 2-3 minute intervals and intensity level: shocking. This is when the moaning started. And not in the good way. It physically felt better to moan and to fiercely rub my palms on my hamstrings as I squatted through the contractions. Before long, the moans turned to grunts. And then to growls. And eventually to full on screams! Daddy had tried calling the midwives several times over the course of those few hours, but either didn't get ahold of them, or when he did, they said they would be there shortly. And all the while they were still in denial that I could be progressing that quickly. By 9am, transition was in full-swing. The contractions were one on top of another and I could hardly catch my breath. I was lightheaded from all the grunting, growling (and cursing), and was starting to get pissed that I didn't have my midwives there to tell me what the hell kind of tricks they had up their sleeves for making this easier. Daddy kept calling them (to no avail) and I kept screaming "where the FUCK are they??" At some point during this, Daddy also texted our birth photographer and told her to come in an hour.

So it's 9:30am, I'm experiencing one long contraction with no breaks in between, and I start to feel Lovie's head moving down. WHOA what a feeling! I was both scared and excited at the same time! Both of my previous labors had ended in c-section so this was thrilling to KNOW that this time my baby was coming out of the right hole. Plus it meant this shit would be over soon! At the same time, I knew this was going to effing hurt.

My body started involuntarily pushing. I realized this when the end of my grunts turned into poop-making push noises. Very weird. I didn't know whether to try to hold back or to go with it and full-on push. I held back for one or two of those and decided there was no way in hell to stop Lovie the freight train from getting out of dodge. It was happening! I looked at Daddy (now kneeling behind me in the birth tub applying counter pressure) and said "They're not going to make it in time. We're going to have to do this ourselves." He had that deer in headlights look in his eyes for half a second, and then smiled and said "ok. We can do this." God I love that man!! Seeing his reaction gave me the confidence I needed to get through the rest of this.

I continued pushing (and screaming bloody effing murder) and with my hand I could feel her head as she inched further and further out. It was the most intense, mind-numbing feeling, and all of a sudden she was out. There was no thinking. There was no contrived plan to reach down and lift her up. I just did. Without losing a beat I reached down, scooped up my sweet, purple baby, and brought her to my chest. I was in complete shock and just stared at her for a second. Then it occurred to me that we should suction out her nose and mouth. I looked up to tell Daddy to grab the bulb syringe but he was already out of the tub and grabbing it. This turned out to be an unnecessary step because he didn't get anything out and she was already breathing on her own anyway. No crying yet, just calmly nuzzling her soft head into my neck. She let out a few cries, which really helped her color, and then went back to nuzzling.

                                               Photo courtesy of Crystal Turner

At that time (just about 3 minutes after her 9:42am arrival) Daddy and I heard the front door of the house open and heard one of the birth assistants, Gretchen, and our birth photographer, Crystal, call out "hello?". Daddy's voice spoke out next to me in a quiet confidence and said, "we have a baby". (#heartmeltingalloveragain) They dropped their bags and quickly ran into our bedroom where they found the three of us floating in the birth tub in our first family snuggle. Crystal got to snapping photos immediately while Gretchen began taking Lovie's pulse and counting respirations. She called the midwives on the phone (and got them right away, surprisingly...) and announced that we had delivered Lovie on our own. They couldn't believe it. I heard the midwife on the other end of the phone ask "Is it a boy or a girl?". Gretchen looked at me in question, and I looked at Daddy. "We don't know". We hadn't even thought to look yet- we were just SO in-the-moment. I lifted Lovie's top leg and sobbed "it's a girl!" Daddy wrapped his arms around me and we both tearfully celebrated the birth of our sweet baby girl! (which happened in 5 hours and 42 minutes start to finish. WOW!)

The rest of this story is mild in comparison and is best experienced through seeing the BEAUTIFUL photos that our birth photographer Crystal put together in a video montage. The Video can be seen here:  Lovie's Home Waterbirth Story.  And you can contact Crystal through her website HERE or through her Facebook page HERE.

                                              Photo courtesy of Crystal Turner

What do you think of our birth story? Have you had a homebirth, VBAC, waterbirth, or unassisted birth? I'd love to hear about it!

Love and Blessings,
The Clucky Housewife