Since the kid is 6 weeks old now- I thought I should probably blog about his arrival and get everyone updated. Here he is- Jair (pronounced Jay-air) Tobias Ross arrived at home in the tub at 11:40pm on June 16, 2012 after 6 hours of active labor. He was 20 1/2" long, and 7 lbs and 8 ounces.
The name Jair is Hebrew and means "God Enlightens". There were 4 different Jairs in the Bible and was the first and only name that my husband picked out and liked! Naturally, he was an instant hit with the siblings. Teagan said he was the "cutest little rascal she had ever seen!" Ireson told him that he was so happy that he was finally here and "out of me." James was so excited to be able to pick him up and walk around with him and hasn't stopped kissing him since he came out. They are all great babysitters!
So here's the story. On Tuesday June 12th I started having serious contractions. This was odd for me since with all my other babies I always had my water break and then I had my first contraction and
then within 7 hours I deliver a baby. That's what I do- *normally*. Well, Jair decided he wanted to be different. The contractions were uncomfortable enough that I even called James and told him to head home from work that evening since when I start contracting things progress quickly in a "wam bam thank you maam" sort of way. Then as Tuesday night progressed- nothing. Darn it all.
Come Wednesday, I had a couple good contractions but there wasn't a pattern any more. Then come Thursday it all came to a stand still and I'm thinking- what the highty hoe neighbor is going on?! Meanwhile, each day I continued with a normal day's activities of cleaning, gardening, walking, mowing, etc. and come Friday am, still nothing! I'm getting seriously antsy since we are supposed to leave to our vacation in two weeks exactly. I was also bored out of my mind! "Bored" = a word we don't use in our house yet completely justifiable for a pregnant woman, stuck at home amidst eager anticipation!
Friday, my Mom came over for some Grammie fun and lunch. The entire afternoon I was having some fun contractions of the "oh crap these hurt so stop teasing me and do something already" sort. I kept on trudging through succumbed to the fact that nothing was going to happen because I've been playing this game for almost 4 days now.
Later that day my Dad came over for dinner. We were all outside sitting around and chatting being all lazy when I stood up to go inside for some reason or another and whoosh..(or gush rather)... and oh happy of days my water finally broke! I went inside, stuck a towel between my legs, called James to come home, called my midwife, and headed up stairs to set up camp, aka- my birthing kit. At this point, we're all excited because B-day is finally here. Then the unthinkable happened, rather didn't happen....as in nothing happened. And again I say NOTHING! I was losing fluid steadily and not a single stinkin' contraction! Not my *Normal*. I figured I'd go to bed and try to get some sleep since it was going on 10 pm. I slept great! Probably better than I had slept in days! Yet- not a single contraction all night long.
We got up the next morning, Teagan comes in our room and says, "You haven't had that kid yet?! Come on already!" Yeah, no kidding kid. That day we had nothing on the agenda except to get this kid out. We went for a huge walk to the park, did more yard work and waited. Finally, I started having regular, good, hard contractions around 5pm.
I called my midwife with the update. Meanwhile, she had been with another client who had been in labor for over three days. The lady was a vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC) and this was her first home birth. Pam, my midwife was understandably torn. Only 4 times in the past 15 years has my midwife had to have her backup attend one of her own client's births.
Of course you want your own midwife. You develop an awesome relationship with your midwife when you do home birth. It's a different dimension in every way than a hospital birth. I put her at ease and I told her that I had total confidence in her back up midwife since she wouldn't just have *anyone* as a backup and to stay and send her. So it was decided that her backup would come to my birth, and Nicole showed up around 8pm. As I had prayed, she.was. FABULOUS! She had noticed all the scriptures I had posted around the house, and she asked me about them, told me of her own Christian convictions and then asked me if she could pray for me and our birth! Yes, I love her. God certainly blessed this circumstance.
So without going into all the graphic details, Jair was born at 11:40pm. About 7 hours later after going in to transition after about the first hour of active labor...as I *normally* do. He came out posterior, as all my kids *normally* do...however he also decided to come out sideways. Yes, his head came out looking left. I had done all these crazy maneuvers during labor as my cervix, though dilated, kept coming down with his head rather than go up over his head as it should. My midwife used some amazing homeopathic medicines on me to help my cervix melt away and it only took two contractions after taking it to make that happen. His arm was up and in the way too, just like Ireson had done in labor, so that demanded more crazy maneuvering! I *normally* always throw-up or dry heave through the last hour or two of labor and this was no exception. Though I only pushed 3 times, I had 5 hands "down there" helping hold either my perineum, hold me up in my squat, stretch my "lady parts", or steer baby's head as it came out. It was rough. It was violent at the end. That's the only word I can use to describe it-violent. Ireson's labor was bad, as in hard core intense, but I think Jair out did him. *Normally* people's labors get easier with each progressive kid. Mine do the opposite. At least, my normal active labor stayed the same.
As things got harder, Nicole prayed over me. She went out into the hall, called her friend and Pam, my normal midwife, and asked them to pray for me. James was praying over me. I was screaming, quite literally, and praying/screaming to God. My mom actually had to go stand in the hall because it was too intense for a bit there. Nothing was scary or dangerous or bad, it was just intense and hard. Hard isn't even a good word. It was the awesome fear of God. We didn't even have Mom get the kids up because it was too much at the time. Once baby was out- the kids actually woke up to him crying even though they didn't hear my screaming for the 3 hours prior! Gee thanks.
All I needed was a bit of vindication for all my hard work and I got it when my midwife said, "You know, in all the fifteen years I've been doing this, I can honestly say, that labor was one of the 'tougher' ones. It's in my top twenty." That's right baby! She was basically saying I was a rock star.
My uterus didn't prolapse this time as it did last time though I did start to hemorrhage, as I did with Ireson. She simply hooked me up with some more fantastic homeopathic meds, and I immediately started to nurse baby within the first 15 minutes as everyone after birth should and I was all good. Don't even get me started on all the unecessary things they would have done to me in a hospital had I been there!
Recovery was fast and fabulous. I felt so good the next day that I was cleaning like a mad woman and out doing yard work. Yep, God knew what he was doing when he designed natural childbirth.
Overall, it was awesome (in hindsight) though I'm fine with not doing that again in such a hard manner! though I'm sure that feeling will wear off in time:)
