Reed's Birth Story
Maureen’s version...
I woke at about 4 am to a nice strong contraction. I glanced at my watch to note the time, and dozed back off. About 8 minutes later, I was woke by another one... This pattern continued till about 6 am, I was starving, so I got up for a quick bowl of cereal, and laid back down to continue resting while I could.
At about 8 am I couldn't really sleep between anymore (excitement) so the family and I headed out for a walk. When we came back in, I was starving again and ate a turkey roll up, and laid back down for a few. At this point, contractions were still 8 minutes apart, but much closer when walking. I couldn't really comfortably handle contractions laying down, so we headed out for another walk. Swaying my hips and closing my eyes with my head hanging back was the best way to get through the contractions at this point. I really went inside myself, and when I came out of each contraction, all was super vivid. It's as if my senses where super heightened.
After this walk, I had another turkey roll up (starving again) and my sis took Miles off to the park. I sat on my yoga ball for a while, and then out for yet another walk...
This time when we got back, I was feeling a lot of pressure. Jason made the call to Claudia (we had been chatting on the phone over the course of the day) and let her know we were ready for her to come to our home.
When she arrived, she checked me right away and I was at 9 centimeters, baby was at +1 and I was free to hop in the Jacuzzi.
The water felt wonderful, and before I knew what was happening, my body was pushing... For some reason I resisted, and then after a few contractions of my body working with out my conscious mind, I set about pushing. POP my water broke, nice and clear, and what a relief, out shot my slug-like mucus plug. Then it was time to hold back and let my self stretch. At this point it was dark out, with just the candles lighting the faces of the people I loved so much, everything was silent and peaceful, I could hear the song of the insects and the breeze. It was so spiritual... Then it was time to PUSH to get the last of sweet reed out, thus ended the peace of the evening with my one ork like howl, and tada!!! out he tumbled... all 10 lbs 2 oz's! Huge, beautiful and ready to nurse!
We stayed in the tub nursing and snuggling for about 30 minutes. Miles was in awe... he really got into watching things, and then came and sat next to me and Reed. Miles took the honor of cutting the cord!
It was such a wonderful and beautiful day. I really couldn't have hoped for things to go any better then they did. I feel empowered, and right with the world...
Jason’s version...
Last thursday morning, I woke up early (4:30am) to go to work when my wife told me I should just stay in bed because she was having pretty strong contractions. So we slept until about 9am, when the contractions became pretty consistent. We walked around the neighborhood many times that day, and she would just stop, close her eyes, and rock back and forth when the contractions came. And I was timing all of the contractions and how far apart they were. Around 5pm, things were getting pretty intense for her and contractions were 1 1/2 min. long and about 4 mins. apart. She sat on our yoga ball and I would try to counter the pressure from the contractions, which were pretty painful at this point.
I called the midwife around 5:30pm and her and her aprentices came over to our house, set up their equipment and examined her. At this point, my wife was exhausted and I was trying to keep her focused on the task at hand and to keep her in good spirits. We had no idea how much longer we had to go, but we'd hoped it wouldn't be for too much longer. Anyway, when the midwife checked her and said "You're at 9cm! I can feel the baby's head; looks like you're ready to get in the hot tub. You couldn't wipe the smiles of happiness and relief off our faces at this point. That gave her a big second wind, which she needed for facing the next phase of labor: the pushing.
Her and I got in the hot tub, which is enclosed in our gazebo in the backyard; I was still applying pressure on her lower back to counter the pressure from the contractions. We were in the tub for about 2 hours (with 45 minutes of serious pushing during contractions). My wife was a trooper she did a wonderful job. Our baby boy Reed was born @ 8:24pm.
Miles (our 3 1/2 year old) was out there for the whole thing. We held our newborn in our arms and stared at him for about 15 minutes, while the placenta was being delivered. Miles cut the cord (I helped) and we eventually went back inside!