Completely OT: had the baby

Tara

New member
#5 was born Saturday evening, around 7:30, we're estimating.
Safely born at home, in our tub, just us present. We went for unassisted this time. We've had all 4 of our others at home, 2 of which my midwife didn't make it in time, arrived either moments, or minutes after. So, we just decided to go completely solo this round.
It was a quick uneventful birth. If anyone's interested in more *details* let me know and I can post the birth story. Just wasn't sure of the interest for such over here, ya know?

Anyway, all went well. About 3.5 hr labor total...from first, faint twinge. Another boy...wasn't named until Sunday morning: Gabriel Stephen Weight and all that are unknown. Sorry...you just get the REAL basic facts here LOL
 
ADS

j4m4d8

New member
Congratulations! Lots of love to your new little one, and I'd love to hear all about it. I'm kind of a chicken about home births--ideally I'd love to live next to a top-notch neonatal intensive care unit and have the baby at home, but reality is that we have to drive an hour to get to a hospital that delivers babies.
 

Tara

New member
Birth Story Alert -- TMI

***Warning* Birth Story *Perhaps TMI***



Saturday January 21, DH was at work, just the kids and I as usual. I was kinda tired and my ankles were swollen again. I'd not had this with any other pregnancy now here I am, with this recurring deal. Argh! But anyway..I decided to lie on the couch to rest a bit. Shortly after I get there, I feel a bit of twinging. Sure, could be contractions, but not exactly *screaming*. I continue to rest. Then I get a phone call or whatever, kids, something called me up from the couch anyway, so, I gave up on my rest time. About time to start supper. It's about 5pm now I guess. I headed to the couch I think around 4. I'm feeling these "twinges" a bit more now. With some regularity. Whenever I am up, they're about 8 minutes apart and just strong enough to make me cringe once in a while. So, I'm thinking, if I stay up and about, this could be labor, right? LOL But darn I don't want to be UP, my ankles are still swollen and itchy.

Shortly thereafter, I decide to call DH. See if he can come home now with some pizza for supper. The contractions were just enough, that if I had to be up, I certainly didn't want to be standing around cooking supper. They were just strong enough that idea didn't appeal to me at all LOL Well, DH says he's right in the middle of delivering a car. Am I ok or does he need to come RIGHT now. No, no, it's fine. Nothing THAT intense or close. I was just 'uncomfortable' enough that I didn't want to fix supper and it really was time to eat. I had nothing quick n easy to throw the kids. Ok, he should be done in about 10 minutes, was that ok? Yes, that's fine. So, about 10 minutes later he calls me back. "Are you sure you're ok? I'm having a heart attack here!" LOL Yes, I'm fine, REALLY! So, he's on his way home. Orders pizza shortly upon entering the door. Now things start picking up. I am going to the bathroom repeatedly! It's driving me crazy quite frankly. Then...oh then...each time I go to the bathroom, the contractions intensify. Yeah, so, here I go to sit on the toilet and I'm in one continuous contraction. I get even the slightest relief and I get myself together and out of the bathroom.

Now, I find myself in this leaned over position. I stand then when a contraction hits I lean over and rest my hands on the arms of the chair, doing my little rocking and swaying bit. Back to the bathroom!! Ack!

This time, another long contraction. Each time I try to move off the toilet, another wave comes, so I'm rendered motionless, just dealing. I finally make my way a step past the toilet squat/hover. I am now leaning over the tub. Think, above, only not chair arms, instead, tub. Oooooook this is insane! I'm going to run some water in the tub. (I had DH clean that well after ordering pizza ;-) ) Thinking at least if I must be in this position, maybe it will be better in the water. I mean, at this point, I would pull up my pants, walk to the other room and have to go start all over again. And be in the bathroom for a good 5 minutes. SOMEthing had to change here. Well, DH hears the water running and comes rushing in to see if I'm ok. "Are you ready for that already?" he asks. So I explain my thoughts. Ok. So, water is running, I'm still pretty well in this continuous contraction. Oh and I've made it back to my toilet hover position now. I just leaned up to turn on water then back to the toilet to pee.

DH is still in there with me, he's just gotten the pizza, kids sat at the table eating I do believe. So, he's in there with me. I'm hovering over the toilet, trying to make my way to the tub *pop*. Uh, my water just broke. Not the big *POP* *gush* but a *pop* and some gush nonetheless. DH exclaims "uh, hon, you can't have this kid on the toilet" LOL I know, I'm working toward the tub, really, I'm moving in that direction. I'm in!!! Ok, water's a touch too hot..I can't reach up to cool it. I'm on hands and knees, not much water yet, I think it just came to my wrists, slightly above? Anyway, still dealing with contractions, can't reach up to cool the water. DH reaches up to turn it off..no..not off, just cool, keep it running, more water! Ok, fixed that. Water running again.

This whole time I have been doing this whole bathroom routine...I just kept telling myself "I can do this I can do this" "God is with me, He is my strength" "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" I did NOT want to freak out and lose it all, but I could feel it lingering, just hovering in the background, waiting to strike! I was NOT going to let it. I was determined to keep my focus. Dealing one contraction at a time. Don't think about the next. Don't think about the time. Just focus on the now. Get through NOW. Lean on Him, trust in Him to give me the strength to do this. He is in control.

So, now I'm here in the tub, water rising to a more reasonable level. And I think at JUST that moment, when the water was 'high enough' to be considered birthing into the water .... I had a big contraction and pushed. I felt this little head come out. It felt like the bag was still around the baby. In another moment, another push..the baby slinks further out. Then one more big contraction and push and *baby*! DH actually got this one. I was on hands and knees so baby was delivering to the rear. He picked up the baby, awaited a cry. Good lusty cry, all clear! Kharissa (my 2yodd) hears from the other room "Baby!" Too cute, I tell ya hehe

I am still rather immobilized. I remember before, birthing in the tub even, I could return to a normal position and hold the baby. But I'm still *stuck* in this hands knees position. So, DH is behind me dealing with the baby. Finally he tells me it's another boy. :)

Then we drain the tub, as I am able to move again. We get the baby passed through so I can hold him. Wait a few more minutes to get myself together then we're off to the bed. DH has it all prepared for us. Once there, I still can't sit down and hold the baby. Just something about it, isn't working for me. It was weird, stuck in this hands and knees position still. I could lean back on my feet a bit, but I couldn't sit just yet. So I just stayed like that for a bit longer until the placenta was ready. I don't remember how long that took, not very long though. Maybe 15 minutes? Then once that was over I could sit..aaaah, much better. So I sit back and hold my little guy after daddy took care of the cord. He dabbles at nursing. Then really latches on!

Oh, then we stop and think about the time...anybody catch an approximate time? LOL Guessing on how long we'd been in the bedroom, we put his birth at around 7:30pm Saturday Jan. 21, 2006. Do you guys have ANY idea how crazy it drives folks to not have a time? Nor a name? Nor weight, etc. LOL I LOVE it LOL

Though, I do mean to measure his length and head, just haven't done so. I hopped on our scale to get a 'rough estimate' Rough indeed..I think our scale is dying, it has attitude at times. Anyway..we get "somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds" LOL Na, really a bit closer to 7.5 ?? I think we'll weigh him in the produce section when we go shopping this evening teehee

Oh and Sunday morning we settled on a name: Gabriel Stephen
I asked DH for names/suggestions that meant: God is my strength/redeemer/deliverer something like that. He came up with Gabriel or Isaiah. Now, I had already thought about Isaiah, I just wasn't certain yet. Nor did that just JUMP at me once he was born. So, we pondered the two names for a while. DH really liked Gabriel, Isaiah was fine too, but he was leaning to Gabriel. Then the more I looked at the baby, the more I liked Gabriel. Yep, that's good...Gabriel "God is my strength" Stephen (FIL's middle name) And we gave Him the glory \o/ \o/ He saw me through. He gave me the strength I needed. He answered my prayers. God IS my strength.
 

Dreaming_of_Speed

Senior Community Member
Wow! I dont know about giving birth in my own bathtub, with twins i get little choice as i'm already high risk so i think i'll just stick with a hospital but no c-section.

Did you not already have a name picked out? I'm pregnant with twins and all i do these days is play with names (and nursery decorations).

Can you post a picture? I love baby photos! :)
 

Tara

New member
We hadn't settled on a boy name..still tossing around a couple. But then I decided I wasn't going to fret over it..the name would come to me when I saw him. And getting through labor as I did..I had my 'idea' in mind, for meaning of his name.

Pictures are going to be a bit..my digi cam has dead batteries AND charger Grr And I'm horrible about getting film developed. BUT, I will post whenever I have some.

Oh and this was actually my 2nd child to be born in my own bathtub hehe All have been born at home, Gabriel was my second waterbirth.
 

thepeach80

Senior Community Member
How exciting, that's great! Congrats! I mentioned a hb once and DH looked at me like I had 5 heads. lol Assisted hb are illegal here anyways, stupid state! If we only had a birthing center, it would be a nice happy medium. I had a VBAC w/ my last and fully plan on doing it again w/ the next one.
 

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
Oh, I just love HB stories :) I was too much a scaredy-cat to try it myself with DD, but my guy & I are moving just 1 block from the hospital where he's the OB so we're planning on staying at home until the very last second when we do decide we're ready to even get pregant :rolleyes: :p

Much love to you Tara, baby Gabriel & your whole family!!!
 

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
Yeah - I'm too chicken otherwise :eek: But, I get all teary hearing other HB stories ... so thanks again Tara for sharing! :)
 
S

shellabella

Guest
Tara,

Congratulations!

I love the name you chose.

You are so very brave to have a home birth. My husband would have to go to the hospital if I ever tried that. He's a worry-wart.

It's my first visit to this site since breaking my computer table, when I was trying to move it earlier this month. Thank you for replying to my first post.

Hug that babe! Good job!
 

Tara

New member
OH I certainly believe the majority of complications at a hospital are due to medical intervention received therein. Hospitals are trained to treat labor/birth as an "illness" or something the equivalent of a kidney transplant. It's really not! LOL Our bodies were designed to give birth. Yes, some DO have difficulties, I understand that. But for most...it's a natural process and should be allowed to be such.
Pushing without having the urge, oh yes, almost a guaranteed tear there. Not the mention the position in which they have one WHILE pushing. Not condusive to opening things up. An active birth is much better on mom and baby. Not the 'confined' birth that is pushed at hospitals. Some will actually let you walk a bit, but most are willing to give up their control to let mom labor and deliver in a position that best suits her.
You should be allowed to do as your body is telling you. For me, that's standing, walking, kneeling, squatting, leaning and rocking. NEVER am I sitting or lying. If left to her own, a laboring woman will find a good laboring position. One where she feels she can better handle the pain and one that allows the baby to freely descend.

I could go on and on LOL Talking about homebirth gets me all fired up ;)

Sorry, I don't have any sites to list. If I remember any I'll pass them along. But I've not had any bookmarked in quite some time. I'm thinking of one..but I don't have the addy. If it comes to me, I'll come back. There's at least one that's 'on the tip of my tongue'.

Anyway, even if you're unable to have a homebirth, a lot of good info can be had by reading up on them. That whole 'active birth' part is VERY beneficial. Oh there's a book by that title Active Birth I forget the author, ugh, and kid is on me at the moment, can't get to my bookshelf LOL

Ok, rambling again.........

Thanks hehe
 

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