I thought I'd better write out Gabriel's birth story before I forget more details! Warning: this will be long.
We planned to have a home birth from the beginning (the reasons why would take a whole other post so if you're interested you can contact me and I'd be glad to share) and were lucky to find an amazing midwife. Not once did I have to set foot in a hospital or doctor's office and still haven't to this day. Lori, our midwife, came to our home for all prenatal appointments. That was lovely and made me feel so comfortable with her as we had time to chat and get to know each other.
Gabriel's "due date" was Wednesday, November 21st, the day before Thanksgiving. November 21st came and went without any signs of labor. As did the next day, and the next, and so on. My parents had plans to come up for as much as two weeks but couldn't come until Friday due to my mom's work schedule. So at first I was worried that he would come before they got here. Then, when Friday came and went with no baby, I was worried that I was wasting their time off waiting around to go into labor! Finally, Monday morning, which also happened to be my father's birthday, I started to feel contractions. Most of the day they were consistently about 8 minutes apart. They weren't that painful, but I decided I just wanted to hang out at home all day and see what happened. That evening, Lori came by for a quick visit to see how things were progressing. Before she came I thought the contractions were getting closer together, but by the time she got there, it was almost as if they stopped! I was so frustrated! But, almost as soon as she left with orders to call if they returned less than 5 minutes apart or my water broke, they returned and seemed to be stronger. I can't remember exactly but this may have been around 7 or 8 o'clock. She had suggested that I try and get some sleep but I wasn't sleepy so I opted to rest on the couch watching TV for a little while. Finally I decided I'd better go lie down, but knew there was no way I was actually going to go to sleep with the contractions going on! At this point they were still manageable, but painful enough to keep me awake. Brian went to sleep beside me and I tried various things to manage the contractions that were starting to get closer together and more intense. Finally around 2 or 3 maybe, I decided I should give Lori a call.
Lori came about an hour later and after checking on me, she went down stairs to rest until I really needed her. At some point the contractions became very strong and painful. At some point I got in the tub to see if that would help with the pain, but honestly it really didn't. (However, that brief time I spent in the tub must have been when my water broke because I never knew when it happened.) I guess when Lori heard my moans of pain, she came up to help me from that point on. One thing I knew could happen but wasn't expecting was that during transition I threw up! I remember thinking how unfair it was that I had to deal with that on top of everything else. But after that, I think my body got a bit of a break, but not for long.
This is the part of the story that it gets a little more foggy for me - the pushing. This started around 5:30 Tuesday morning. This was by far the most frustrating and difficult part for me. I think I had expected it to be much faster and easier than it was. Throughout my pregnancy, Lori had told me how my body was "built" for child birth. In addition, when she checked me during her initial visit the night before, she commented on how low he was already and that some women push for an hour to get to that point. So needless to say, I was expecting things to be very quick at this point. I think we all were. I don't know exactly what the deal was, but I just couldn't get the pushing thing down. I tried various positions but nothing. I remember her saying several times that with one good push he would surely be out and then nothing. I was exhausted but I never remember feeling afraid. Lori was so calm and confident that I never felt fear. I did at one point think that he was just going to stay in there forever! Because I was so tired, my contractions were weakening which did not help the situation. They gave me spoonfuls of honey which helped surprisingly well to strengthen them. Finally, I returned to the squatting position with Brian behind me holding me up. I finally learned how to channel my energy to the right place and at 10:40 am Tuesday morning, Gabriel made his appearance.
Poor little guy had quite the cone head from being stuck in there so long, but other than that he was beautiful, healthy, and perfect. I remember one of the first things Brian said when he saw him was, "He has my eyes!". And he really does. They handed him to me right away and helped me back up into our bed to snuggle with him on my chest. It was incredible. We stayed there for quite awhile as Lori and her assistants went about cleaning up. My poor mother, who had been so worried, came up and got to meet her grandson for the first time. After a little while, Lori helped me to start nursing him. They left him with me for quite awhile before they took him to check him out and even then he was only and arm's length away. He was 8 lbs even and 21 inches long! They prepared a bath for us with some healing herbs which was lovely. After that, we all just hung out in the bed for a long time. Brian took a nap, but even though my body was so exhausted, I couldn't sleep. I laid Gabriel on my chest while he napped.
I have been asked many times if I would do a natural home birth again. Anyone who knows me well knows how squeamish I am about all things bloodly and painful. But the answer is a big YES. Honestly, labor was miserable, painful, and exhausting. However, I am convinced that had I been in a hospital I would have ended up with a c-section and I obviously didn't need one. I just needed someone with Lori's experience and skills and to be allowed time to let my body do it's thing. It was so wonderful to be able to be in my own home and my own bed and never have Gabriel leave my sight for a second.
I am sure there are things I forgot or left out, but I wanted to record the event for myself more than anything and for anyone else that had expressed interest in knowing my birth story.
And here is my big boy just about a week ago. Can't believe he is now almost 7 weeks old.
