Well, here it is 2010 already and I haven't updated anything since Halloween (which was actually the day before I gave birth!) That's right, I had my beautiful baby boy on November 1, 2009. Halloween Day was a pretty typical day, although my low back was really aching, as I recall. I ran several errands at three stores, got the kids ready for Halloween, and made a good dinner. I was doing some frenzied cleaning for some reason...must have been that good old "nesting" mode kicking into high gear!
Jason took the girls trick or treating, but Maegan and I stayed home to answer the door for trick or treaters. Not many people came, which was perfect because it gave me the chance to keep on cleaning! We went to bed that night, and I had fallen asleep for a short time while Jason was reading and watching TV. Once he was ready to go to sleep himself, I shut off my light and got re-adjusted to a more comfortable position. As I was rolling over in bed to do so, I felt a pretty big "gush". I knew that my water had broken. Luckily earlier in the week I'd had the foresight to put down an absorbent pad, because I had a feeling my water would be breaking in my bed!! Its a good thing, too, because it was a ton of water.
I told Jason that my water had just broken and he reacted with, "NO WAY!!!" He had to do a visual to believe me. I went to the toilet so more water could come out and we called the midwife. At that point I wasn't contracting too much, so we didn't see the need for her to come over right away. Within minutes of our first call, more contractions came so we called her back. She came by about midnight or so.
I still wasn't contracting regularly and wasn't in terrible pain, so both Jason and Liz decided to get some rest so they'd have energy for later on. It was great to have a guest bed to put Liz into! During the time they were resting, I was just piddling around the house (quite literally since my water kept on breaking---I am now a firm believer in the use of adult diapers during labor!!) This time was spent on Facebook, pacing the floors and I took a shower so I'd feel as fresh as I could.
Around 3:00 am, my contractions began to come every three minutes or so, and were much more intense. I began to get vocal. What a comfort it was, to be in my own home and feel like I could make as much noise as I wanted to! It was never something I felt comfortable doing when I was giving birth to the girls at the hospital. Being able to make primal noises to ease me through the contractions helped a great deal. Both Jason and Liz heard these noises and came to my rescue.
I don't recall how dilated I was at that point...memory says it was somewhere between 4-5 cm. We called in all my support team at that point. My rule was that no one could attend my home birth unless they themselves had gone through it. Thus, we had no mothers or mothers in law attending this birth, even though they had attended the births of the girls in the hospital. So...we called in three of my awesome friends: Sally Gierisch, Jennifer Morgan and Amanda Hansen. Sally and Jennifer had actually both had home births with the same midwife, and Amanda had had her home birth the year before with an associate midwife who also assisted in my birth. Each of them had a specific role to support me. Sally acted as doula; Jennifer was my massage therapist; and Amanda captured my entire birth as photographer! I LOVED having each of these women with me, in addition to Jason and the midwives. Each of them fit like a piece to my home birth puzzle. If any of them were missing it would have been incomplete.
My intention was to try to have a water birth, or at least to labor in my birth pool that I had ordered. Jason started filling the pool from our hot water tank, and we quickly saw sediment coming out and mucking up the water. Because my water had already broken and we didn't want to risk infection, and also because the baby's heartrate was decelling a bit with contractions, I couldn't use the pool and ended up on the living room floor against the couch instead.
This wasn't my most favorite position to be in, but I trusted Liz that it was the best position to get the baby out quickly and safely. My labor progressed quite rapidly, at least by my standards. It didn't seem that long before I was actually pushing the baby out, which only took a couple of minutes and pushes.
Wyatt James Griffith came into the world at 5:36 am on November 1, 2009. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 18 1/2 inches in length. A perfect BEAUTIFUL little boy, with a head full of dark hair. He was welcomed by his parents, all three of his big sisters, in addition to the midwives and my dear friends who came to support me. It hadn't exactly been our intention to the the girls attend the birth at all, but since it worked out that way, I am actually glad they all had that experience. Emily was so happy to call out the time of his birth and was the one to make the phone calls to our family and friends.
Having had my first ever home (natural) birth, I can honestly say that it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Of course it was intense pain, but in my mind I had something completely different imagined. It was probably the single most empowering experience of my entire life and is something I will never regret doing. In fact, if I could go back in time and re-do my other three births, I would have chosen to have them at home too.
Wyatt has brought so much happiness and joy into our home and family in the short two months that he's been with us! I am thrilled to be able to nurse him exclusively, since I didn't know if I could at all since I had a breast reduction surgery in 2006. We truly have been blessed and know that he was always supposed to come to our family.
