Saint Patrick's Day Daughter

G’s birth story really starts many years before I found out I was pregnant with her. When I was pregnant with V, I remember talking to a lady I worked with who had a niece who was pregnant and was planning a homebirth. I remember thinking she was crazy. Fast forward 4 years, 1 c/s and 1 hospital VBAC later and I found myself planning a homebirth!

Since we found out we were expecting our third baby by surprise and my cycles are pretty irregular when I’m nursing I was never really sure of my “due date.” I figured it was probably between March 13, 2011 and March 21, 2011 so when I told H, he said he thought we would have a St. Patrick’s Day baby. Since I went into labor with M at 39 weeks 1 day, I figured I would go “early” with this baby too and told H there was no way I would still be pregnant on St. Patrick’s Day. Little did I know Daddy knew from the start…

I started having contractions at the end of February. Every night the contractions would start shortly after the kids went to bed and they would continue until 2-4 am and then stop. This went on for a few weeks and I started thinking that I might never go into labor. I was exhausted from all the sleepless nights filled with contractions and baby was putting a lot of pressure in really uncomfortable places. I was ready to have my baby in my arms.

Thursday, March 17th, some girlfriends and I took the kids to a Bug Fest and then to the park for lunch and to play. There was another obviously pregnant woman at the park and she asked me when I was due. I told her “now” and asked about her. She said she was 38 weeks, but “scheduled for next week.” I bit my tongue and told her congrats. As she was walking out, I told my girlfriends that she looked so much better than me and it was probably because she knew she wouldn’t be pregnant anymore after next week. I found myself a little jealous. After the park I took the kids to Target to get a few things before heading home for dinner.

After we put the kids to bed, H left to go back to work as he has been for weeks, just in case the baby came soon so he would be able to stay home with us for a couple of weeks. At 8:15 my mom called and we talked for about 5 minutes. At the end of our conversation, I had a pretty strong contraction that I didn’t think much of because I had been contracting for so long. It felt a little different though and I had some bloody show, so I called H and told him I might need him to come home at some point, but not yet. I then called my VBAC buddy from M’s birth), and during our conversation I had to stop and really focus through contractions. She told me she thought I was in labor and I told her I wasn’t sure yet. She said I sounded the same as I did with M and I should call h and the midwives. I told her I wanted to wait until contractions were steady for an hour. Then V came in the room during a contraction and when it didn’t stop, I knew it was real so called H and told him to start heading home and I called the midwives and told them that I didn’t need them yet, but I wanted them to have a heads up. That was 8:30. After I hung up the phone, I hung my VBAC butterfly over the knob on my dresser where I could see it when I was on my hands and knees. Then I started feeling by body pushing. I started getting a little scared and a few minutes later, H walked in. He wanted to take a shower and I told him to hurry because I needed to push. He called the midwives and told them to come. I labored on my hands and knees on the floor by the foot of my bed. My body was pushing and I kept fighting it. The midwives came in at some point and I told them I was scared to push (looking back I think I was scared because it was so fast).

Pushing hurt. I have never really had any pain during labor or pushing before but this time it HURT! I kept changing positions, but always seemed to end up on my hands and knees. Finally, the urge to push was so powerful I just had to work with it and I pushed. I pushed hard and we heard a pop. My water broke and one of the midwives said “there is some meconium.” That made me a little nervous, but there wasn’t much we could do at that point. I pushed again and felt a burning that I have never felt before. Finally, I felt the baby’s head come out, but I didn’t feel the relief I felt after Meredith’s head came out. I pushed some more and A said the baby had a hand across her face. She saw her elbow tear me, but I pushed through it and had my baby in my arms!

I said “I did it! I did it! I can’t believe I did it! I have my baby!” A asked what kind of baby I had and I looked and told her we had a girl! She was born at 10:37pm, just 2 hours and 17 minutes after my first contration that night!

She didn’t cry or breathe right away which didn’t worry me terribly since she was still attached to me by her cord. A suctioned her and we turned her over on her belly and rubbed her back and she started to cry. We cuddled her a bit and then I tried to push out the placenta. I couldn’t get it right so I cut the cord (yes, I cut my baby’s cord!) and stood up to push out the placenta. It came right out and I hopped in the shower real quick to wash the meconium (she pooped on the way out and I was pretty much sitting in it) and blood off. Then I climbed into my bed and got to cuddle and nurse my sweet girl.

After a few minutes, the midwifes wanted to check my tear and said it looked like I was cut my a scalpel it was so straight. They asked if I wanted stitches or not and after some discussion, I decided I did. Well, the gave me one numbing shot and that was the end of that. I decided laying flat on my back with my legs closed for 3 days was way better than 3 more shots!

H went to check on V and he was awake so he brought him in to meet his sister, but he really didn’t care. He just kept saying he was so tired, so he went back to bed.

We talked about names for a bit, but couldn’t pick the right one and then the midwives weighed and measured our daughter. 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long!

They made sure we were all settled and cleaned up everything and left us for the night to bond with our baby. It was fabulous!

When our daughter was about 17 hours old, we finally settled on a name for her. Gwyneth Cecilia. She is beautiful and perfect and we can’t imagine life without her in it!

Now, for my VBAC friends especially, I want to add that even though G’s birth was fast, it was so intense I don’t know that I would want to do it again. This recovery has also been a lot harder than after M’s birth. I am really sore and tired, but it is still a breeze compared to my recovery after the c-section with V.

I am so glad that we had our baby at home. It was amazing and intimate and empowering and if we were to have anymore babies, I would most definitely do it at home!