Thoughts about birthing babies

<p dir=ltr>&lt;p dir=ltr&gt;I am blogging from outside of my husband's job.&amp;nbsp; They have come up with this wacky new policy that, since the new manager is a woman, someone must stay until she lives to escort her to her vehicle.&amp;nbsp; This does not please me, especially since they aren't keeping him on the clock.&nbsp; </p>
<p dir=ltr>That's another story.</p>
<p dir=ltr>Anywho, two of my internet friends gave birth on the first. I just realized that they both had their third babies.  One had her first girl after 2 boys and one had her first boy after 2 girls. Crazy, huh?
Anywho, I was thinking about how powerful labor is, how it imprints itself on your life, your psyche.

It's crazy to say but I kinda love labor. I love how raw and human and real it is. I love the dichotomy of weakness and power. I love the anticipationans excitement, the warping of time. I love to hear the stories of other women and to tell my own. 

And I especially love Popcorn's labor. I love how supported I was. There were no time limits, no interruptions. It was me, my body, and my midwives. I wish all my labors could have been so real. 

I hate that cultural made labor something to fear and to dread instead of something to respect and embrace. There's a chaotic beauty to it that so many women miss.

Reflecting on labor

As you know, I have given birth 5 times and each time has been totally different.  Popcorn's was by far, the best and not just because it was 35 minutes long.  I was talking to a like minded mama friend and the difference is that, with the first 4 I felt like things were done to me. With Popcorn, I did something. i gave birth. I wasn't a patient. I didn't need help. I gave birth to my baby and my midwives helped me. They didn't order me around or tell me what to do. They didn't do things to me.  My baby was a bit quiet and sluggish when she was born. They didn't take her away from me and do things to her. They helped her by giving her a little oxygen.  The circumstances were different than they were in the hospitals (I had two in one hospital, and two in another).  

I don't think I could go back to a hospital, barring an emergency.  

If Lettuce and I ever have another kid-which is highly unlikely because I'm getting too old for this!-I'd probably shoot for a home birth, like Jessica at The Leaky B@@b just had and live streamed.  It was baby girl #6 for her.  Watching her labor makes me even sadder that we didn't catch mine.  I thought someone had taken pics of Astronaut cutting the cord but no one did.   I wasn't actively watching her birth but the sounds she was making changed. There is definitely a different kind of sound you make right before you actually give birth.  

My camera can take like 4 hours of HD video and my labor was so short. We could have recorded the whole thing. I'm sad, but I'm not going to dwell on it...for long.  

But you know, it could happen. We could have a 6th baby someday. Who knows?

Friday's Child, or I popped! (a birth story)

Here is Baby Popcorn's birth story:

Yesterday (April 5th), I contracted throughout the day. I'd missed my 40 week appoint on April 4 because of a tummy bug and I was recuperating from that.  My contractions weren't consistent and only moderately strong, so I went to bed around midnight.  At first, I slept through them but about 3 am, I found myself awakened about every 10-20 minutes, then nodding back off.

At around 4, I got nervous and decided to time them.  They were approximately 11 minutes apart and lasted about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  I woke Lettuce up and called my midwife Alex at 4:18 and we had a chat. I didn't want to wake everyone up and get them out of bed if it was going to be hours but after listening to a contraction, Alex decided we should go to the birth center.  Lettuce got the babies up and I got dressed.

We arrived at the birth center around 5 am. Alex was a blur of activity-she had that room ready in no time flat!  Meanwhile, Jen the midwive's apprentice arrived and filled the tub.   I got in the bed around 5:15, 5:20ish and Alex checked me.  I was 3-4 cm dilated and 90% effaced and baby was at -3 station.  Baby was also still posterior.  Alex suggested I wait til I was at least 5 cm to get in the tub because it could slow my labor. Jen put the birthing ball on the bed and I got in a hands and knees position and rocked to help the baby move down.  My contractions were getting a lot more intense but between them, I felt so normal.

Then, something happened. I made sure everyone in the room knew by announcing:

"Something happened!"

I'm eloquent that way.  Anyways, it felt like a little snap so I figured I'd either broken my water or a tiny bone in my pelvis. Turned out to be my water.  That was a preciptious event.  I began making all sorts of ungodly noises accompanied by animal-like wailing.  Fun times in that room. Apparently, there was a marked increase in blood, so the midwives checked the babies heartbeat (fine) and wanted to check me (not fine). I had an anterior or front-lying placenta and we needed to make sure it wasn't detaching early.

Anyways, I as I said, I wasn't fine with being checked as I was frozen in position. I told them I wanted to get in the tub and they said I could after the next contraction. However, on my next contraction I felt this crazy sense of fullness followed by a burning sensation and my body was shoving that kid out! The head was out and Alex looped the umbilical cord from around the neck. Then I delivered the body.

Yep. Kid was born.  5:57 am.  57 minutes after we got there.

The kid was kinda dusky and wasn't crying so Alex laid it on my chest and administered oxygen. The cord had been wrapped around the neck once, possible from the fact that the baby turned around as it was being born.  Popcorn was breathing, but was basically stunned from being ejected from my uterus like the bullet of a rail gun-told you I was eloquent.  The kid looked at me, I looked at the kid. Then I picked it up and looked under the warm towel.

It's a girl!

The long awaited Baby Popcorn is a perfect little girl!   Astronaut cut the baby's cord.  How special is that! He later said, "How often do yout get to cut the cord on your new sibling? Of course I wanted to cut it!"

Never again, my son, never again.

A calm moment

Anyways, I didn't deliver the placenta until 6:35.  Do the math. The baby's birth took about 35 minutes. The placenta took about 40. It took longer to deliver the placenta than it did to deliver the baby. I had to get a shot of pitocin and get on the birthing stool to get it out.

I breastfeed my wee bairn after that. In fact, I've been breastfeeding her since LOL She has an amazing latch for someone so new. I wouldn't be surprised if my milk came in tomorrow. She's passed merconium twice since we got home.  That's right, we're home. We got here a little before noon.

Being born is exhausting. I must eat NOW!

At the birth center, you aren't required to stay home if you have proven your mettle by eating and peeing. I did these with gusto.  I delivered my baby girl over an intact perineum, thank goodness.  Then I took a beautiful nap, the first of many beautiful naps taken today. In fact, naps were en vogue this morning.   Lettuce took a nap. Side Salad took a nap. Princess took a nap.  My mom took a nap. I woke up to a chorus of snores. We got dressed, got our little one ready and packed up.  It feels so very good to be home and in my own bed. I wouldn't trade it for all the nurses in the maternity ward.

The take over of my bed begins

I'll add pictures later because someone tiny is hungry NOW. Man, this kid has a set of pipes on her. Today wasn't just Good Friday; it was a GREAT Friday.

The whole family

Baby Popcorn <3

Baby Popcorn's Birth Stats
GA: 40 weeks 5 days
DOB: April 6, 2012
Time:  5:57 am
Weight: 7 lbs 10 oz
Length: 20 inches
Length of labor: 57 minutes
Interventions: None

Still Pregnant

So I'm either 40w4d pregnant or 41 weeks pregnant and the natives are restless. I'm actually okay with it, surprisingly. No one else is. Everyday, I'm inundated with texts, phone calls, and wall posts asking when I'm going to have the baby. The answer is, I don't know.

Due dates are not an exact science; they are an educated guess.  Just like baby weights (we all have that friend who was told her baby was 9 pounds and it turned out to be 7), it's impossible to medically predict when a baby will be born.  I think that we are so conditioned to early babies-from preemies to 40 week inductions-that a baby being born after 40 weeks is an anomaly.  Which is nuts because the due date is just the middle date.  My dear friend R went to 42 weeks with her last LO, a posterior little fella we call Pip. She's like me, doing things the old fashioned way. No hospital, no needles, none of that hoopla.


Here are a list of factors I think are keeping my baby in:

• Princess was a 41 w 3 day induction and Squirrel was a 40w induction.  My babies have a 50% rate of going past the due date.
• Popcorn is posterior. It's possible that the little noggin simply isn't putting enough pressure on  my cervix to get things...popping. Pun intended.
• I've not gone into labor with a child under 8 lbs.  Astronaut was 8 lb 2 oz and Side Salad was 9 lb 1 oz. The girls were smaller, 7 lbs 9 oz and 6 lb 13 oz. Maybe my uterus has a weight trigger.
• I had a stomach virus yesterday and I'm not back on solid food yet. Maybe my body is cutting me some slack because I am too weak to have a baby today.
• Easter is coming.  Why not show up on a holiday?
• I have a luxury womb.  Why leave?  Ever.

Anyway, I've still been contracting but not enough to push a baby out.  I'm going to take another nap for now.

Foto Friday

All my honey bunnies <3

Today I am 40 weeks and a day, or 39 weeks and 5 days, depending on which due date you use.

Doesn't really matter now, does it? Either way, I'm full term.   Clearly, this fetus is the only person I know who is immune to the infectiously catchy Wobble.  Perhaps a friend of mine was right in suspecting I am in possession of a luxury womb. He said that between the cheese fries, the home cooked meals and the simple warm comfort, there was no incentive to leave.

Perhaps he's correct.

I think that I shan't worry about trying to jump start labor. Baby will come when it's ready. I haven't had one that failed to leave at some point yet.  It is true that the girls needed a little encouragement but perhaps the baby just isn't ready yet.

In the mean time.....

We're waiting on YOU!

Ready to Pop!

Okay, I'll admit it. I am ready to have this baby.  I am really excited, ever since my new goddaughter was born last Monday.  I won't do anything drastic to get it out but I do a few things. Here are some of the things I've done.

I started contracting yesterday. They actually got pretty strong and I threw up a few times. We thought we might get a little baby action but it didn't work out. I've been contracting all day today, too. They've been as close as every 5 minutes and as far as every 20 minutes.  A few have been painful but most are pretty mild.  So I'm trying to get my uterus on my side in the fetal eviction process.

1. Nookie.  Poor Lettuce, nookie doesn't interest me, especially since my girth has expanded to such epic proportions.  However, I suck it up *no pun intended* and get it on in the name of labor.  As you know, semen has prostoglandins that help the cervix ripen and thin.

Sex. Because I never learn.

2. Walking.  I don't like walking, or at least I didn't until we moved. I usually walk in the midnight hour, literally. I  walk between 12 am and 2 am because that's when the hubby is home from work, it's cool, there's no traffic, and the kids are asleep.  I also took Side Salad to the zoo this week.


3. Herbs. Not the ones that actually induce labor, though. I stick to the red raspberry leaf tea and a pregnancy tea blend. I like the Third Trimester Tea from Earth Mama Angel Baby

but it's had to find so I use the Traditional Medicines brand.

Not only are they delicious, hot tea is very relaxing to me.   

4. Body Positions. My womb contains a posterior baby, which may be why my contractions are either strong or regular but not both.  I do pelvic rocks as well as a modified childs pose.  I also sometimes get on all fours and just shake my hiney. Sounds nutty but it's supposed to help and the hubby finds it amusing.  Spinning Babies has some good stuff.

5. Spicy Food. Mongolian grilled it up with the Side Salad and my brother the other day. I made my eyes water and my uterus contract.  Tonight, I'll be having some habenero wings from Chilis.

6. Emotions. I watch exciting movies, the kinds that make you laugh or cry. I watched Airplane! with the hubby.   I saw the Hunger Games this week. May the odds [of going into labor] be ever in my favor.  As an aside, I never knew gold eyeliner could be so hawt on a guy.  

7.  Dancing. Tonight, I danced. I danced like I'd never danced before. I dropped it low with Esther Dean and C-Breezy.  I got busy with Sean Paul.  I wobbled along with V. I. C. 

WARNING: I didn't know my booty was so close to the screen when I taped it O_o

And now, I contract.  If things aren't shaking and baking by morning, I'm going to have to get a little more drastic.

I'm going to gallop down to the playground and get on a swing.

Looking Good, or how to birth a babe in style

So today I was sitting her ruminating about the whole birth experince and what I want it to be like.  This is my 5th baby so it's not my first ride on the merry-go-round.   I have had 4 vaginal births, two were induced-Prnicess and Squirrel, and two with epidurals-Astronaut and Squirrel.  The most medicated was Squirrel (my tiny baby)  and the least medicated was Side Salad (my mammoth baby).

Anywho, this is my first non-hospital birth.  Yep, that's right. I'm leaving the comfort of the sterile (hah!) medical fortress and going commando.  I'll be birthing at a lovely birth center with two fantastic midwives. 
[Sometime soon I will go into the mechanincs of how medical choices are impacted by finances and what that means to people like me, but suffice to say it's worth it.  I <3 my midwives and my visits are always so long. I haven't had some of the issues I suffered from with other pregnancies, such as hemmaroids and constipation.  It's different.  But I digress. I wanted to talk about my upcoming labor.]

At the ripe old age of almost thirty, I know what I want and what I don't want, and I am less afraid of labor.  By using the birth center, I can avoid things like invasive monitoring and epidurals.  I'm one  of those people Kim Zolciak refers to as a "dumb ass."  I prefer to think of myself as capable of rational thought and able to make decisions based on them. The research I have done and my prior birth experiences led me to this choice. I plan to labor in the tub but I don't know if I want to actual give birth in it. I think I'd rather use teh labor stool.  The idea of wallowing in a tub of poo kinda grosses me out. I want my daughters present, and Caeser Salad and my mommy.  Oh, and my BFF Stacy.  I want to be able to drink (Naked Orange Mango) and to eat if I'm hungry. I want to be able to get up if I feel like it. That's pretty much it.  There's a longer list of things I don't want than things I do!

Being unemployed gives me lots of time to read and drool over stuff I want and today, what I want is some labor apparal!  That's right, you can buy clothes for birthing and they are right cute, too! Binsi's stuff is pretty cool whethe you are hospital birthing, using a birth center, or birthing at home (maybe #6 will be HB. If there is a #6).  I am serious about possibly splurging on some if we can spare the moola. Why not just rock a bikini top and a sarong, you say?  Here's why:

• I'm a bit...gifted up top.  38G, to be exact.  I have yet to meet the sports bra that can accomodate my cuppage while being tight enough on my ribs to work well. 
• A bikini top *might* work, so I'm looking for one now. But it might also be a pain to put on, unlike the Binsi.
• Sarongs are meant to look pretty, not get wet. The only one I have is a gorgeous sheer turqouse number edged with tiny cowrie shells. Fancy, indeed.  Not birth worthy at all. 
• I like new and novel things and I love supporting small businesses. 

Since I'm planning on being sociable and chatty, I'd like to look presentable.  Therefore, the Thankiki and the Binis II Too would be great. The Thankini is long enough to cover up my midsection and the wrap is so versatile! I can use it for all kinds of stuff, like a sarong, a shawl, a BF cover, a light blankie, etc.


 So if you are feeling generous, you should buy me one.