Isaacs Birth

Okay, after writing an essay I realise there needs to be short version... so here it is...

Short version:

I woke at 2:30am on Friday morning needing to deal with labour. I started feeling transitional around 6am, actual second stage started around 8:40am and little man was born at 8:51am.

He was almost born in his membranes!

Weight: 3.02kg / 6lb 10.5oz (my heaviest baby yet!)




Long version (for the birth junkies like me):


Hmm... where to begin...

Well I made my due date to be 22nd February 2011... It should have been a little later I guess, but I liked the idea of the baby having the same "date" as me and Eve, since we were both born on the 22nd... but different months... lol.

I felt ready for labour for weeks beforehand. I could feel all the changes working and things getting ready to go. I felt really positive about things happening in their own time... right up until I hit my due date. Ha. It was a Tuesday night, and I felt utterly miserable. Nick took the girlies up to bed (what a man) and I'd normally have a student, but obviously my lessons had been cancelled up until April to give us some space. I realised I was free to go do whatever... so I went out and treated myself to a nice tub of Ben and Jerrys Half Baked. For those of you who don't know me well... this is very unlike me. Both to volunteer to go out on a night, especially shopping, rather than begging Nick to do it... and to really want something like icecream. I do not have a particularly sweet tooth. I do not generally eat for emotional comfort.

Anyway, so I guzzled that, and a kebab too... just to keep Nick company of course... haha. I was even more miserable because I was too sore to walk the 5min across town to the kebab shop from Tescos and ended up driving round to the High Street so I was only a 20sec walk away. Again. Not like me.

Next day... Wednesday... nothing... BUT... when we lay down that night for bed I felt it! The first tightening! I lay awake again for a while because actually I'd had one or two passable feelings in previous nights... but only the one and then nothing more. But they kept coming ! And they felt good! Positive! I was certain that this was the beginning and that by tea time on Thursday night I'd be holding my baby. I told Nick I didn't think he'd be going to work the next day.

The tightenings continued into the morning and got quite strong. I had to get up and deal with them with some relaxing breaths. They were about 3min apart but always very short. I managed to stay in bed and sleep most of the night though, which was great.

Thursday morning came, and my girls greeted us at silly o'clock in the morning. I called my friend Carolyn to let her know thing were moving so she could be around if I needed her.

Carolyn arrived at around 10am (I think). Nick had taken the girls out for a walk and some time at nannies house so we had the house to ourselves. Suddenly everything stopped. Just like that. We went out for a walk... the sun was shining for a change. Nothing. I put a film on to watch and we did some knitting and chattering. I went and hid upstairs for a while and cried. I felt like more than anything else I'd wasted one of Nicks holiday days. Precious days.

I had a little nap and felt a little better. I knew things were moving because I'd had pinky/bloody mucous and that has always been the sign of the start of labour for me. I just had to wait for things to start up again. Patience. Yes. Clearly my best quality.

The tightenings were weak and irregular the rest of the night. I think I had a bath and made like a hippo on my tummy trying to make sure the baby was well positioned (I had a feeling he was posterior) to see if getting him into a "better" position would help move things on.

Around 2:30am on Friday morning everything kicked back into gear. Good strong regular tightenings. I actually had to sit up in bed to deal with them. I listened to Nicks steady breathing as he slept and it felt relaxing. I felt good. At some point I needed to stand up to breath through the tightenings... I made deep breaths and let them flow through me. There was still a lot of pressure on my public bones and bladder. The sensations would start in my backbone, come through between my legs to my public bones, intensify and then tail off. I came downstairs so I could walk around a bit. Things were really going. I felt amazing. Like a birthing goddess. The tightenings made me feel strong and powerful (that's what I was telling myself, and it worked) I reminded myself that angels would be attending us.

At about 5am I decided I needed to be in the water. I really wished I'd had a birth pool. But I didn't. I hadn't really wanted to wake anyone since I was fine by myself and at least if I was going to be completely exhausted everyone else could have a clear head. At this point I knew it wouldn't be long before the girls were awake anyway, so I went up and made a nice warm bath for myself with Lavender and Rosemary essential oils. mmmmmm!

I started making a little more noise as the tightenings got more intense. Eventually the little ladies trotted in to see what was going on. All smiles. Eve of course jumped on the toilet and left me with a lovely smell. I called for Nick and he managed to drag himself out of bed eventually to retrieve small children who wished to join me in my heavenly bath.

Nick asked if I wanted to call Carolyn. Honestly I wasn't sure. I was doing great by myself, and it had always been my plan to do this alone if I could. I wasn't sure what had stopped things last time, and although I was sure it wasn't Carolyn herself, I didn't want to risk everything stopping again. Not when I was so close!!

The tightenings changed again. The noises I made were different. I knew I was nearly dilated. I felt like I might want to push. But it didn't feel productive to do so.

I can't remember what changed my mind, but Nick asked and he told him to get Carolyn to come. By the time she arrived the pushing feeling was serious. I needed help to deal with them. I must have been 6am by the time she arrived (?) I had been on all fours so far, the way I did with Willow at this stage, but it wasn't working. I stood up in the bath and pushed against the wall while Carolyn rubbed my back for a while. I didn't know what I wanted. Eventually we worked out that me leaning over her in a cuddle was something that worked. Inbetween some of the tightenings we could joke and try to laugh. I think I started to feel more and more miserable about it all though at this point.

I was exhausted. Things didn't feel like they were moving on, and I wanted to sleep. In retrospect this was a really really really long transition period. Carolyn helped me move from the bath so I could lean over my bed and pillows and hopefully feel more relaxed. I didn't know what I wanted. It felt really good. I guess the waddle from the bathroom to the bedroom helped. Carolyn set up a bunch of dark towels that I pointed out, and grabbed all our pillows for me to prop up on. I know I had a few more tightenings here...

But that's where it all goes a little fuzzy in terms of details and such for me.

At some point I felt a pop, as if baby had finally gotten past my cervix and into my vagina. yay! Small amount of relief and excitement. Then I saw blood dripping out of me and I totally panicked. I've never experienced dripping blood from myself like that. I never got that far with Eve and I was in the water with Willow, so it all just flowed together... but the sound and the sight of it freaked me out. I was sure there was something wrong and this baby was stuck... phone calls were made to the hospital and I spoke to a particularly unhelpful midwife who asked me how far apart the contractions were (???I have no idea!!???) and told me they would see me when I got in and then hung up on me in my terror (hello -- dripping blood!!) I screamed for someone to call an ambulance. NOW. So they did. Carolyn tells me that at this point she'd worked out what was going on, but clearly my decisions were to be honoured (despite the fact that I was acting like a completely loony)

It all blurs into one, but then the backwards vomitting sensations started, and due to already being in a state of utter panic -- bloood!! -- I didn't recognise what they were... baby making a swift exit/extrance (maybe he'd heard the plan to go into the hospital!) I think it was probably 2 or 3 very strong pushes, completely involuntary and he was at my perenium. At this point I'd realised what was happening I think...This was even with my butt in the air and my head on the floor thinking AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH (yeah, I was probably screaming it too judging by how sore my throat is right now!)

Carolyn, again the saviour of my lady-bits, reminded me to pant and take this bit easy. SOOOOOOO DIFFICULT. I felt his head, I tried to stop myself doing it... and obviously eventually failed (but that's okay lol) His head popped out. And strangely enough stayed there... next little push and he was out. Willow popped out all in one go, so that was interesting for me :)

Control freak that I am, I turned and grabbed him, despite Carolyn trying to clear his face and move his cord as per instruction from the dude on the phone (remember we had called the ambulance!) I knew as soon as I saw him I needed to hold him. I saw TESTICLES AND A PENIS -- WOOOOOOO -- and a little ear sticking out from his head at a right angle (apparently I commented, and this may have been the very first thing he heard me say earthside :s)-- and very short time later the paramedics tromped up the stairs. GAH!

He had cried a good cry, he was pinking up, I had him skin to skin. I can't remember what we were doing but I was squatting talking to Carolyn and one of the paramedic ladies, and plop! "There it goes" I said. "There what goes??!!" said the paramedic... "the placenta" said I. looks of shock.

Then the trouble really started for them. hee hee. I was helped to the edge of the bed. stripped off my bloodcovered nightie... cuddled the babe in to try for some milk. Nick brought up a bowl to put the placenta in... or did we wrap it in a towel? It was a shortish cord, so a bit of a pain. Baby got covered with a blanket fairly early on, but I was cooking, so stripped off completely. Lead paramedic wanted to take baby off me and rub him down on the bed next to me.... NOOOoooooOOOOooo!!! was the reply... but but but.... NO. He's my baby and he's fine. Carolyn diplomatically explaining that the baby had had his airways cleared, there was no mec, and that he was pinking up nicely. but but but.... NO. Next she wanted to get the cord cut and clamped. NOOOOOoooooOOOOooo!!! We're not doing that!! but... but... but... so in a desperate attempt to do something useful they took the babys temperature.

Poor deflated lead paramedic went to sit on the stairs aparently while her partner sat and chatted with us. They decided a hat was necessary. Urgh. Sent someone to find one. Midwife arrived. 3 professionals, Nick, Carolyn, me and the baby all in my tiny bedroom (aka warehouse) and then a second midwife. LOL.

At this point I should say that they were all TOTALLY fantastic. Wonderful and lovely. Had there been anything ACTUALLY wrong with us we would have been in the best hands possible. But we weren't in any kind of medical need. And that clearly threw them off a little.

The lead midwife obviously had to give me the little talk about birthing purposefully at home without "help" and how silly I'd been (yes, you silly 29 year old child, you couldn't possibly make good choices for yourself!!) but apart from that I have no issues. She was totally desperate to find something wrong with me though... but could only find a teeny tiny tear fairly high up in my vagina... which apparently was going to sting A LOT... but hasn't at all. in fact, I feel better than when I had a minor graze when Willow was born.


Oh. I do have a confession to make for all my birth junky friends. I didn't wear the beads when I was in labour "proper". I'd worn them the day before and they'd started irritating me (this is why I don't wear a wedding ring, or jewelry of any kind for every day), including my necklace, so I took them all off... they never got put back on. I did however think about all the affirmations you sent me. Especially through the night. Maybe I wouldn't have panicked or felt quite so hopeless during transition if I'd remembered to put them back on. I am looking forward to using them as necklaces individually, or maybe I'll put them all on a leather strip and wear them properly as a bracelet for special ocassions. They are all ever so special to me and I love to look at them and remember each of you.

I don't have any photos of the birth or afterwards because things were just so hectic. I'm a bit upset about that, but I guess that's just the way it is!