Thanks to Ginny for sharing her 2010 Kentucky home birth of Jaime. This birth took place in Upton, KY.
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42w5d had me a very cranky woman… bedtime couldn’t come fast enough, but before climbing in bed I had this tiny little gush – So to top off my day I’m loosing control of my bladder. Last few days I’d had quite a bit of mucous, and more noticeable contractions at night, so I put a pad on to keep more underwear changing accidents at bay.
My youngest wasn’t very tired and spent over an hour messing around on my bed before crashing which kept me awake. Followed by more intense contractions that kept me dozing until 2:00am. I timed some with my phone, but they weren’t a minute long even and not regular. By 2:00 I decided to get up and see if being on my birth ball would help them pick up since sleep wasn’t really happening. Before 3:00, I decided they were intense enough to wake my midwife, if nothing else to complain 😉 They still weren’t more than 50sec and 7ish min apart. I told her I’d call her again when they got intense enough to make me make noise.
My eldest woke up, having been sleeping next to me, so I moved the 2yr old so we could put the plastic tablecloth and old sheet on the bed, then got in the shower to relax a little bit. By 5:30, all 4 kids were up and I called my midwife back to head over. She arrived at a little after 7:00. The contractions picked up a lot in intensity but they were still only about 50sec long.
By 9:00am I was in major agony. I was not happy to be in labor having spent most of the pregnancy upset about it. I really really wanted drugs. I’d gotten out of the shower again probably at 8:30 and during each contraction had the midwife do counter pressure on my lower back. The contractions were *so* sharp in my back and down my butt into my thighs as well as in my pelvis. I kept changing positions, but nothing helped. I told my midwife to check me and then lie about where I was. She said I had a bit to go, which I took correctly to mean that I was about 6cm at about 9:15… Which amusingly ticked me off, so I got up and got back in the shower.
The contractions instantly changed. I stopped getting the intensely sharpness, but felt the need to bear down some. I wasn’t almost screaming anymore. They seemed to mellow out and slow down. My midwife had stayed in the bedroom, so I beared down some as my body made me. I could feel the lip of the cervix and the head with my fingers. I told it to melt away and give me my baby.
The head was out within a couple pushes. The midwife came in just then saying she was right out there if I needed her and went back out. I was still ticked and didn’t feel like mentioning that the baby was on the way out. Had a mental conversation that I was going to do it my own damn self.
The next couple pushes brought out his body. I’d been kneeling in the shower with a towel folded under my knees, so I eased his head down as his body came out and then picked him up. His squawk brought the midwife in asking in a laugh, “Are you kidding me?” She got me a towel to cover him and turned off the shower before helping me back to my bed.
I’d kicked all the kids out earlier to go watch a movie that I’d hidden away for the occasion and new Wii game, so they all came in then because my 5yr old was in charge of letting us know if it was a boy or girl.
He was born at 9:27am at 42w6d, weighing 7lb 5oz which was only 3oz more than my last.