April 8, 2009 {Michelle & Danny welcome a little girl at home much to the joy of the new big brother!}
When we found out we were expecting our second child, Danny and I were both ecstatic. I knew I wanted this birth experience to be different than the first time with the birth of our son Hudson. My first birth experience was at the hospital, I had two inductions (sometimes they don’t work evidently, I had never heard of this happening), cervidil, pitocin, IV, epidural, episiotomy, and almost a c-section, all of which are standard procedure nowadays, this I found out later. The worst part was that I did not get to hold my son until my doctor was done giving me eight stitches, he had been suctioned due to meconium in the water and he had been bathed. Nor would they allow me to breastfeed him for almost two hours after delivery due to the fact that I had gestational diabetes, never mind that the poor baby hadn’t had much nourishment from me in two days because of the back to back inductions.
I decided, with the support of my wonderful husband, that this time I wanted to have more control over my labor and delivery. I also didn’t want to be away from my nearly three year old son for a few days after I delivered. With these things in mind, we went looking for a more natural, peaceful way to bring our second child into this world. That is when I found Birthways and Christina, our wonderful midwife. Her calm and comforting nature along with her knowledge put all of our fears of not delivering in a hospital to rest. We soon met our second midwife, Sabrina, when she joined Birthways and continued to see both of them during pregnancy. Chantal called me one day to offer Bradley classes, which I hadn’t planned to take due to the time of the classes. She so graciously put together a shortened version for us that worked around our schedule and even came to our home. I’m so glad we did take the classes because it really helped me get prepared for labor.
After a week of inconsistent contractions, on Tuesday April 7th my contractions started around 6 pm and became more regular than what I had been feeling for the last week. They continued through the night and by the morning of Wednesday April 8th, I was sure I was in labor, so we called to give Christina a heads up around 10 am. By 3 pm the contractions were very intense so Christina decided to come out. About 4:30 pm she checked me and I was 3 cm dilated and she said my bag of waters was very bulgy. Christina had been at another birth that early morning so she went to rest in our guest room until we needed her. I decided to take a shower which felt wonderful, so I just stayed there awhile on my hands and knees. About 6:30 pm I became very nauseated and threw up so my mom went to get Christina who called Sabrina and Chantal to come to my house. I got in the bath tub and stayed there for awhile, the water helped the pain so much. I was in my own world concentrating on the pain so much that I barely noticed when Sabrina and Chantal arrived. I was in a lot of pain and beginning to doubt that I could do this, but I was encouraged and supported by my wonderful birth team and husband and my mom the whole time during the hardest parts of labor.
Christina checked me again and broke my water, I began pushing and my daughter’s heart rate slowed so she told me we needed to try another position and to get out of the bath. So, I got on my hands and knees and pushed more but was having a hard time getting her out. My husband, Danny, sat on the floor in front of me and I had my arms around his neck and with one leg bent I pushed and pushed. My husband and I really got scared toward the end and I was having a hard time catching my breath to push hard enough to push her out, I finally found the strength that by this point I was sure I did not have and our beautiful healthy daughter Eveley Gene was born, at 9:23pm, weighing 8 pound 14 ounces and was 22 inches long. Within seconds of her being born the pain was gone, I was able to breastfeed her, our son was there to meet his new baby sister, both of our Moms were there who had been looking after Hudson all day and our great midwives and assistant were all there in our bathroom, it was such a wonderful loving feeling. Having my daughter at home in a natural birth was by far the hardest thing I have ever done, but was the best thing I could have done to ensure her entry into this world would be as healthy as possible. It was amazing for my husband and I, our bond seemed even stronger after she was born. The best part of all was being at our home and being able to lay in my own bed with my whole family that night.
And now five months later, our daughter is growing so fast, our family feels complete, we are so blessed. I truly have forgotten the pain, it is hard to recall and I thought that was something I would never forget.
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