Harrison Daniel Brown's Birth Story
December 14, 2014
4:40AM : 8lbs 4oz : 20"
**
Just a little disclaimer that if you're a guy, get grossed out easily or are eating your lunch, you may not want to read this post because pretty much anything labor related is gross. You've been warned! :)
In the weeks leading up to Harrison being born, I kept imaging what I thought it would be like and honestly, how I was
sure it was going to go. Ha! Most women will tell you that labor is anything but predictable. Considering Selah had been born 5 weeks early and gave me a run for my money with a barely-made-it-into-the-hospital 2 hour labor, I was sure that I'd have another similar experience with Harrison. Since I was delivering him at home, I started prepping for his arrival kinda early on. In the state of Colorado, you have to be between 37-42 weeks pregnant in order to deliver at home with a midwife so 37 weeks was my personal goal and that date fell on Thanksgiving. I had his first outfit all ready, the birth kit was set aside in the back of the closet, my labor playlist on my phone and the food and drink I'd be having while in labor was ready to go in the fridge. Almost like clockwork, I started having contractions on Thanksgiving night around 2AM. They weren't anything major but enough to wake me up and right when I got to the point where I was going to start timing them, they stopped completely. A little frustrating to say the least. So for the next 2 weeks, I continued on with this middle of the night '
is it or isn't it' false labor game. It was driving me insane! This was nothing like what I'd experienced with Selah where that labor came out of nowhere with no contractions before the day I had her. It even got to the point where I was getting constant text and Facebook
questions asking if I'd had him yet when in reality, I hadn't even hit
my due date yet! I don't think many people, myself included, thought
I'd actually get to my due date so a lot of people ended up thinking I
was over my due date.
The morning of December 9th, I was getting Selah and myself ready for lunch when I made my thirtieth trip to the bathroom and discovered that awesomely appetizing mucus plug. I'd never seen it with Selah and sure as heck wasn't about to Google what one looked like but trust me, you know what one is when you see it. Kinda ruined the thought of eating the sandwich I had waiting for me on the table. I texted my midwife to let her know what was going on and that I also was getting a little crampy. Now for someone who was equally torn between the feelings of '
heck yeah, it's almost time!' and '
I'm not ready!', seeing your mucus plug can be a little defeating because it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going into labor soon. It can be hours, days or even (gulp)...weeks. I told Dan that it may not be a good idea to go to his appointment that evening on the complete opposite side of town because again, I was sure something was going down that night, and I did not want to be delivering this kid alone while he was stuck in downtown traffic. Suffice to say, a big fat nothing happened. Not even any contractions. So I continued on my uncomfortable merry way and had my 39 week appointment with my midwife 2 days later. I may have done some whining that I was done and equally done with the people asking if I'd had the baby yet.
Yes I had him but I haven't told anyone because he's not cute was the sarcastic response I wanted to say each time I got asked. We talked about the possibility of stripping my membranes to try and get things going if he hadn't come in a week or 2 and scheduled my 40 week appointment for the next week.
Another couple days went by and still losing bits of my mucus plug and we all went out on Saturday morning to try and let one of our crazy dogs run some energy off at a nearby school field. For some reason that I now know why, my hormones took some wacky nose dive and I turned into uber crank (that's putting it mildly) and was not being exactly nice to Dan. For literally no reason. I then had a complete hormonal snot nosed sob fest after we got home about the fear of having 2 kids, not being able to handle it, not ready for the sucky painful part that is labor and on and on. In the back of my mind, I wondered if this meant something was finally going to happen but finally pulled myself together. Around noon, I had this insane need to make some chocolate chip cookies like
NOW and started having mild contractions. I started timing them and they were only about 30 seconds long and about 6-7 minutes apart. I texted my midwife about what was going on and she told me that she would head over once they were 5 minutes apart, lasting a minute for an hour. In the meantime, Dan had to run some paperwork over to someone's house and was unsure if he should leave. The contractions weren't getting stronger or closer together yet so I told him to go and that I'd call him if things changed since he wasn't going to be that far away. I put some Curious George on for Selah so I could stay relaxed and over the next couple hours, the contractions were kind of all over the place in terms of duration and spacing. However, once 4PM rolled around, it seemed kinda clear that things were picking up a little bit and they weren't going away.
The whole time I was pregnant, one of my major concerns was what would we do with Selah when labor rolled around. She's a really sensitive little kid and I knew that I did not want her to be around while I was in full on active labor. She'd be asking me what was wrong and if I was okay a million times and eventually getting upset. We'd made plans with our friends to take her if I went into active labor during the daylight hours and if things happened once she was in bed, we'd just let her stay in bed and sleep through things. I was anxiously counting down the hours to 7:30 when she'd get into bed and the last couple hours before her bedtime had me leaning onto the big chair in our bedroom, timing away and trying to keep a lighthearted attitude for her to keep her happy. In the meantime, I texted my birth photographer to let her know that more than likely I was in labor and that I'd keep her posted. It was around 8:30PM when it was clear that Little Man was coming that night and my midwife let me know that she was getting her things together and would be there within an hour. With Selah in bed and asleep and The Office playing in the background to keep my mind off the ever increasing contractions, I could now get down to business.
I'd been on the floor, leaning into the chair during contractions when I started having aches in my back which I thought were because of the position I had taken on the floor. Turns out, I was in the beginning stages of back labor. I've heard women talk of their experiences with back labor and lemme tell ya, none of them are good. And I completely agree. As if having the contractions in front weren't bad enough, I was now dealing with what felt like hot knives all over my lower back. Back labor is a weird, different kind of pain I'd never felt before; definitely a hot kind of pain. Coupled with the intense period cramp pain you get with the 'traditional' contractions in front, it really kinda sucks. Bet that makes you want to run out and get pregnant so you can experience it, doesn't it? ;)
Right around 9:30, my midwife arrived and started getting her things set up. She offered to check me during my next contraction and I was pumped because at that point, I was sure I was pretty far along based off how I was feeling. I was at a 5, which wasn't awful but not the
almostthere I was expecting. When you have a 2 hour labor with your first child, it kinda skews your expectations a little bit for the next kid. Soon thereafter, her assisting midwife and the birth photographer both showed up and I was left to labor on my own. One of the many things I loved about having a home birth was the fact that I was left alone. I wasn't hooked up to monitors or IV's and constantly bothered to check progress. Nope. I could labor in the quiet of my own bedroom and they only checked me maybe once an hour or so.
When you're in labor, you kinda lose all track of time so I have no idea what time it was when my body decided it was time to start getting rid of everything. I had a serious evacuation of the bowels, if you will, which while not fun at the time more than likely meant that I wouldn't any pooping issues when it came time to push. Yes, a stupid thing to be concerned with hey, I didn't really want to be dealing with that. And just like when I was in labor with Selah, I started throwing up pretty heavily. That is my body's way of dealing with a lot of pain. I've had it happen when I broke my wrist and I certainly had it happen with Selah and let me say that the frequent vomiting while you're already dealing with painful contractions doesn't make for a pretty picnic. But to class it up for you, I was using a 5 gallon Home Depot contractors bucket to puke in :) My midwife was concerned with me getting dehydrated and was pushing the coconut water to get electrolytes back into my system. I can honestly say that I will probably never have another pineapple flavored coconut water in my life. While I may have forgotten what labor feels like, one whiff of that drink will probably have me dry heaving. At some point, I had gotten onto our bed and was laying on my side through contractions. I was trying my best to relax through them because if I didn't, it made the pain worse and I'd then throw up. During one contraction, I was laying away from where my trusty bucket was and before I could ask Dan to grab it for me, I puked all over the bed. That's where having the extra set of sheets over the waterproof mattress cover came in handy. Bless his heart, Dan cleaned up my mess and attempts at getting me to change out of my vomit stained shirt failed. Hey, when you're in transition labor, you really could care less that you're laying in a pukey wet shirt. Labor's glamorous folks!
Around the time I hit 7 centimeters dilated, my midwife broached the subject of breaking my water to help move things along. The bag was in front of his head and was keeping me from really dilating further. This is the semi embarrassing part. I hemmed and hawed and said I wanted to see if getting in the tub would help my water break or move things along further. My reason for pushing off the breaking of my waters? I was already in serious amounts of pain and I didn't think I could handle anything more painful. Yeah, your way of thinking during labor, and especially transition, is not exactly the best and brightest. The midwives agreed to let me get in the tub and started filling it up. I'll be honest; when I naively pictured my labor and delivery with Little Man, I just
knew that it would happen in the tub and that I'd pull my beautiful, peaceful baby up out of the water and it would make for some awesome pics. It didn't exactly happen that way. I spent maybe 10 minutes max in the tub and had to get out. I could not get comfortable and couldn't get warm. I was already having the shakes from labor and being in water that wasn't scalding hot like I normally like it wasn't helping. So I had them help me out and back onto the bed I got to lay on my side and continue on my labor quest.
Who knows how much time had gone by before the midwife came back up to check on me and suggested again breaking the bag of waters. I'd been laboring hard for a long time and it was time to give me a break and get Little Man here. Despite my ridiculously irrational fear of it getting more painful, I agreed and they started getting ready. It was a weird feeling to say the least and while it wasn't more painful, the pressure kicked up tenfold. Ask me where I thought I was actually deliver my baby and on my bed was the last place I envisioned. Laying down was so painful when I delivered Selah and I was certain that I would not go that route again. I started pushing on my right side and was then told to flip over to my left side because Harrison was getting hung up on the right side of my pelvis. Turning over at 9 months pregnant when you're not in labor is hard enough. Throw in some actual labor and it seemed like the most ridiculously difficult task ever. In the end, I probably only pushed for 10-15 minutes max before he came out and I helped pull him up to my chest. I was expecting him to have a head of thick, dark hair like Selah had so I was a little shocked when he just had little wisps of blond hair. Completely different pregnancy...completely different babies too! They cleaned him up a little while I was holding him and I delivered the placenta with no issues shortly thereafter.
One thing I did not get to do with Selah that I was bound and determined to do with Harrison was to have delayed cord clamping. The standard practice in hospitals is an almost immediate clamping and cutting of the cord but delayed cord clamping is when the umbilical cord has stopped pulsing and the benefits from delayed clamping are pretty awesome. It significantly improves their iron and hemoglobin levels, not to mention gives them 30-40% of their blood and helps fill their lungs. Kinda hard to argue with those facts. Once the placenta was delivered, clamped and cut, it was wrapped up and kept on ice until it was to be picked up by the woman making it into pills for me. For more info on placenta encapsulation, you can read my post
here.
The midwives got me all cleaned up and back into our freshly made bed while I watched them do Harrison's newborn exam. Based off how he looked, I took a guess at his weight being 7 pounds 5 ounces. I was completely shocked when they said he was 8 pounds 4 ounces! Almost 3 whole pounds heavier than Selah had been! Once they finished his exam, they handed him back to me where he went right to feeding and cleaned up any traces of evidence that a baby had just been born there. 2 hours after he'd been born, they left us to relax and spend time with the little guy.
I usually get one of 2 looks when I tell people that I had him at home: '
that's so awesome!' and '
you are freaking nuts'. Having a natural delivery in a hospital is one thing...having a natural delivery at home is another that definitely isn't for everyone I realize. You definitely have to have not only confidence in your midwife but also in yourself that you can do this. Would I have a homebirth again? Absolutely!. The care I received during my pregnancy, during my labor and after he was born were so much better than what I got in a hospital. I was relaxed, happy and not stressed and those 3 things can certainly help with recovery. Despite Harrison being so much bigger than Selah was, I found that I actually recovered a lot quicker this time and didn't feel as banged up. The things that bothered me the most were my sore stomach muscles from so much throwing up and the after contractions for the next couple days. Yikes...those do not feel good and are way worse with your 2nd (and 3rd/4th/etc) kid.
A big thanks to my midwife,
Perfect Gift Midwifery, and birth photographer,
Another Look Photography, for some great images that I included a few of below. Don't worry, nothing too graphic and consider yourself lucky that I'm showing you how rough I look ;)
