Surprise Birth

I’m calling this a surprise birth, only because it wasn’t one of my “personal” clients.  It was more of a friend taking me up on an offer I made.  An offer I was honored to do, in fact; I’m the one who received the blessings from this offer.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart A for the honor of attending your birth!  The pleasure was ALL mine.

So, around 10:30 in the morning I received a phone call from mom saying she was in the hospital being induced.  Her doc had been successful at an external version turning her baby from breach to head down.  It was a pretty intense procedure and finally after the 5^th try, baby decided to cooperate.  Thank you BABY!

She said she was dilated to 5 cm, and didn’t need me yet, but she would really like for me to come to the hospital in a couple of hours to help her with labor and have a successful un-medicated vaginal birth.

I arrived at the hospital around 1:30 and she was already dilated 7 cm.  This was great progress.  Contractions were getting much stronger and intense, so dad and I immediately offered counter pressure on her knees and low back.  Mom was AMAZING!  You have to understand; when you are induced and have pitocin to augment labor, contractions are VERY intense!  Even the little contractions feel like transition contractions.  It is VERY, VERY difficult to do this kind of labor without any pain relief medication.  This mom was very smart to realize she needed another support person to help her have the kind of birth she wanted.

Not much progress was made in the next couple of hours.  Mom couldn’t pee, and a full bladder will hold up a baby, literally, the baby can’t drop into the birth canal when there is a bladder, blown up like a balloon holding it up.  We were able to talk her into a catheter just long enough to relieve her bladder.  900 cc’s later (that’s a lot of pee) baby came right down into position and soon mom felt an uncontrollable urge to push.  Thinking she was still not complete (10 cm) the nurse wanted her to breathe through the contractions.  After just a few minutes, I could see this was not going to work any longer.  Mom was pushing without pushing; she couldn’t help her body’s natural pushes.  I quietly encouraged her to go with what her body wanted to do, and it would be okay.  The nurse came in and checked her one last time and she was complete.  Now she could REALLY push.

It was still a long process.  There was one point where mom just didn’t think she could do it any more.  Yep… I’ve heard that before, and believe it or not, those are good words to hear, because I know the end is near.

I usually say a prayer about this time, and this was not different.  I asked that mom be given the strength she needed to finish her race, and this baby would be guided through the birth canal and help his mom on the final lap.

Just as quick as I finished my silent prayer, I looked at mom and she was smiling.  She said, “I can do this, I'm going to hold my baby in my arms soon”.  I agreed and affirmed this newfound strength she had.  It was as if she could hear her very own angelic cheering team, and received a BIG energy boost.

With each contraction, in the spirit of hospital births, dad and I helped her grab her knees and helped her curl up chin to chest, and push to the count of 10 three times through each contraction.  It wasn’t much longer, of course mom might disagree with me, as it probably seemed like eternity to her, we could finally see baby’s head.  Doc’s aren’t so good at letting baby’s head come slow to stretch the perineum, so just as baby first started to crown he cut an episiotomy.  I personally would rather tear, it hurts a lot less, but a cut is much easier to suture.  None the less, it sometimes bring a baby here a little quicker and I don’t think this mom was arguing that point, she was happy to have her baby here sooner than later.  Every push seems like just one too many, and she was ready to have her baby in her arms!

Mom and dad welcomed their second son into their family at 7:06 PM.  CONGRATUTLATIONS mom and dad, and THANK YOU baby for showing your mom and dad just how strong and amazing she is!

A Play Day

I took a day off yesterday and went to the  Fretless Fiddlers house.  We had such a great day.  

We made the most amazing COCOA cherry preserves!  One word... YUMMMMY!

AND... for lunch Anna made her

World's Best Tomato Sandwich

Toasted bread

Miracle Whip (one needs the "tangy zip")

Fresh Ground Sea Salt

Fresh Basil Leaves

One inch thick slice of Beefsteak Tomato

Assemble and enjoy!

Thanx Anna for such a wonderful play day!

TWO Births in 1 Day!

TWO births in one day… This is the second one.  I got home from “You Are My Sunshine” birth just in time to take my sister out to dinner, I’m feeling a little guilty for her traveling so far to come see me and I’m out all day for a couple of days.  We enjoyed a nice dinner at Chilies, and afterwards headed to Marshalls to shop.  We weren’t at Marshalls very long when my phone rang.   Mom has been to Tucson shopping for the day with her family, and had a few contractions.  Now she is about 40 minutes from home and calls to say her contractions are getting a bit stronger, and she’s a little anxious because she really isn’t due for 3-4 weeks.  She says contractions are about 20 minutes apart but, “I don’t feel very well, I feel like I need to poop, pee, and throw-up”.  This is exactly what she said the last birth and I barely made it.  I walked in the door, she headed to the bathroom, and when she came out, she squatted down and pushed her baby out, I didn’t even have time to dawn my gloves, and my assistant didn’t have time to get there for the birth.  This memory is going through my head very quickly as she is speaking.  

She is my assistants client, she tried to get a hold of her, but she was still at the birth from earlier in the day, so I said I would try and track her down, and call her right back.  She ended up going to my assistant’s house right near where she was, it wasn’t very likely she would make it all the way home, and if she did, I sure wouldn’t have made it.  I drove VERY QUICKLY to my assistant’s house, about 35-40 minutes away from me.  However, it only took me 25 minutes to get there.  Thank you ANGELS!   My assistant phones me to say there is an accident on the interstate, and I should take the back roads to get to her house.  Thank goodness for cell phones!

As I walked in it was a déjà vu moment, she got up to go to the bathroom and came back in feeling the urge to push, and her water breaks.  I quickly set thing up with the help of my assistants 2 daughters, and my phone rings, it’s my assistant again to say she is stuck in traffic on the interstate.  Fortunately she called another assistant to come help and she took the back roads as I did and arrived a few minutes later.

Mom is up to the bathroom one more time, movement really helps baby come down, and now she is having some serious pushing urges.  Just then, primary midwife arrives (the one that was stuck in traffic), I’m so relieved we have our whole birth team here, now we can have a baby, and that we do!  At 9:35 PM mom and dad welcome another daughter to their family.  It wasn’t plan “A”, things were a little backwards for this mom and babe, but all is well!  Mom probably only had 10 contractions by the time her water broke, and 1 hour of labor total, only the last 20 minutes of that was intense.  All our ANGELS were working overtime and double duty on this day.  What a great day it has been.

You Are My Sunshine

One baby due this week, and a house full of company, but no worries, usually first time moms go over their estimated due date…. Key word.. USUALLY!  Not this one, it is her due day- her Birth Day!  5:00 AM I get a call, mom’s water has broken, she has been having contractions all night, and they are getting a little stronger now with a gush of water.  I head on over (1 ½ hour drive) to find mom supported by her husband, her mom and her two sisters.  They are serving her in such a loving supportive way.  Contractions are fairly strong, however I know they are going to get stronger.  There are 3 in our birth team with this birth, along with her family support.

Mid morning we can see mom is getting pretty tired, after being up all night with contractions, she is in need of some rest.  She gets in the tub hoping to find some relief, and she was right.  She was able to rest a little bit in between contractions, laying her head back on dads lap (he was sitting in a chair just outside the tub).  In this position, mom was able to completely let go and relax during and in between these contractions, which were getting increasingly stronger and lasting longer. This feeling of calm didn’t last very long, mom was getting very anxious, and feeling like she couldn’t do this any longer, so we suggested going to the bathroom.

Every hour or so we like mom to go to the bathroom to empty her bladder, this does a couple of things, it makes more room for baby to descend into the birth canal as well as gets mom moving to help baby find the best position to move down through the birth canal. The toilet is another fairly comfortable position to be in during labor.  It is a place where you normally let your body relax and open up, and as you sit there is an open space as to not put pressure on your bottom, so this was a place mom would spend another 20-30 minutes. 

We decided to check for dilation to give us an idea of what was going on.  Mom felt a little pushing pressure, and so just to make sure she was fully dilated she wanted to be checked.  She was 9 cm, but when she gave a little push she closed down to 6 cm.  This tells us, she’s not quite ready to push yet.  I felt like there was some emotional thing going on subconsciously, maybe some fear? 

We have wonderful tools in our birth bag to help with things that come up in labor.  One of these is homeopathics.  These work on an emotional level, and are very powerful.  Like for instance, in early pregnancy we might suggest Ipecacaunha, this is actually a VERY, VERY, VERY small amount of what you might be more familiar with - ipecac.  Ipecac is used to induce vomiting and the homeopathic remedy of ipecac actually prevents nausea and vomiting.  Anyway, so we gave her a homeopathic remedy for fear, as well as one for energy.  With in SECONDS, we noticed a difference.

Mom went back to the birth tub and was able to let go once again and completely relax.  We gave her this remedy again about 45 minutes later because the same scenario was repeating itself.  Up to the bathroom, 20-30 minutes of contractions there, then back to the tub. 

We like to plan or have an idea of where baby is going to be born, but in the end flexibility is the key.  Mom planned on the birthing tub, but in the end it felt best to be in a supported squat in her bedroom, so that’s where we ended up.  We checked for dilation one more time to be sure of her progress, this time it was good news.  No closing down, baby was already under the pubic bone and close to crowning.  Heart rate sounds wonderful, grandma and one sister are supporting mom in a squat, other sister is taking pictures, and dad is receiving his baby!  It could not have been a more perfect picture.  This was a family affair, and our birth team was just there to support this family in their first baby, first grandbaby, and first niece!  Born at 2:13 PM.  Mom holds her baby up close, next to her breast singing, “You Are My Sunshine”.

Happy Birthday JOE

Joe, you are the first of my BIRTHDAY BLOGS!  So here goes... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!  I am so grateful you are a part of our family.  You are an amazing father and I truly could not ask for a better husband for Ashley.  You have added so much to our family since you joined it 4 years ago????  You are going to make a GREAT school teacher the kids will love you.   No doubt you will be their favorite teacher!  I love you!  °Ü°

A FULL HOUSE

This week was another one of those CRAZY weeks that I LOVE!  My amazing sister came to visit me from UT with 4 of her children and my niece, ages 11 months, 3, 5, 9 and 11 years.  Plus Ashley, Joe, Kaytlyn, Jamie and Preston all came for the weekend through Monday. We had a FULL HOUSE!  We swam every day, well, THEY swam every day, I had prenatals on Wednesday, 2 births on Thursday, (that post will come next), and prenatals in Tucson all day on Friday.  When you come visit me there is no guarantee I’ll be here the whole time, but we had tons of fun and quality time!  Thanx Jeannene for a wonderful visit.  I don’t see you often enough, and I love you so much, you are such a great mom.  I’m just glad I’m almost finished raising my children.  You have more patience than I ever had.  You are a beautiful sister with a heart of GOLD!  I love you!  °Ü°