Here are some of the details of my beautiful birth of Courtney.
(But not all of the details!)
With the help of 2 midwives, we had a 100% natural birth at home. It lasted almost 24 hours.
It all started when I was getting up on an hourly basis due to my 41.5weeks of aches and pains (and pee).
I knew something was different.
It was 5:30am.
Dave was already up and having coffee and watching sports.
He came back upstairs to have a shower at 7am and I told him that I had not gotten back to sleep and that he should stay home with me.
My mom was staying with us, so he didn't think anything was different with me as I was already so far overdue and I always felt terrible each morning after little or no sleep.
But I told him that this time I was feeling strange new intervals of the same strange pain over and over and over...
He decided to stay home (lucky for all of us!) and take care of me.
I tried to get some rest, yet I could feel contractions showing up every 15-30minutes on and off.
After a few hours, my mom had gotten up and was preparing herself for the lunch date we had planned at noon with Dave's mom Lee.
Dave went downstairs, called his mother and explained that today was not a good day for lunch.
He then proceeded to explain 'the situation upstairs' to my mom.
So I'm sure they both paced around frantically while I had some privacy upstairs coping with my pain.
We thought it would be a good idea to watch a movie. What better movie than
Team America: World Police.
It was the first movie we ever saw together, so it made me laugh. I could not get through even half of it.
At around 3pm we called our midwife and it was her birthday, so we felt horrible already for disturbing her. We had just seen her on Tuesday afternoon for a very uncomfortable 'stretch & sweep' to hopefully get things going.
I had promised her I would try not to go into labour and spare her birthday, oh well. I tried.
Genvieve showed up around 4pm, said hello to my mom -who was surprised to our midwife arrive at our house! then she definitely knew that our lunch date was off with Lee and there was a baby coming sometime soon!
She looked happy to see us, as we had made it 41.5 long weeks together.
I used a TENS machine to help cope with contractions which was a lifesaver.
I also had a warm bath half way through and used a birthing ball.
And many many focused Karate breaths. I felt like I was doing my brown belt passage (all over again!).
Our second Midwife Amanda arrived at our house around midnight to assist Genvieve.
What a tough job!
At 1:52am Courtney Julianne was born.
It was a beautiful birth.
The midwives have never delivered such a healthy baby before.
she scored 100% APGAR test.
She was big: 8lbs 14oz, 23".
100% natural.
I got to cut the umbilical cord and it was a very special moment.
Finally she was in my arms.
She cried very loudly and Dad got to hold her for the first time while our midwives took care of me -after I held her skin to skin of course!
Our Scottie dog Lola ran into our room after hearing the first few loud cries, Dave quickly ran downstairs with her (to put her outside!) handing my mom our baby in a wild fury.
It was a very thrilling moment for her! here is our baby! ha ha.
The long day kind of seemed like a blur to me, but it was all so beautiful.
I think that by taking Karate (years ago) helped with my breathing and pain tolerance. This was not an easy task.
We also took Hypnobirthing courses, which was great for visualization techniques and trying to stay focused. I listened to a hypno cd for 2 months every night, and then all day long during contractions.
I loved my beautiful birth.
I enjoyed having a natural birth with all the comforts of being at home.
The pushing felt very extreme, not enjoyable to feel at 100%!
I wish I had a little bit of laughing gas. But I held David's hands throughout and now he has scars on both.
Our midwives left our house around 5am. What a team!
We gave our many thanks again them both.
And we thanked Gen for leaving her birthday dinner date with her friends to be with us.
They also had follow up care at our house 3 times including help with breastfeeding.
Many thanks again to our Midwives and to my husband and to my mom.
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