Lucy Belle
On Friday I was having contractions all morning, and they were ramping up enough around 2 to lay down and time them. They were 3-4 minutes apart, so I called my Mom and had her come, then called the midwives. They said to call back when they got more intense/ or lasted over a minute.
Around suppertime, we were getting Mom settled, and trying to make supper and get everyone fed and to get down to our “birthing space”. I guess we didn’t have everything as ready as I thought! We timed contractions and they were intense, lasting over a minute, and I couldn’t talk through them. Chris was adding water to the birth pool, so I went to the bathroom to sit on the toilet- it was the best way I found to relax completely. I called the midwives again so they would come, but still thought we had LOTS of time left! This was probably 8 PM.
Chris came and rubbed my back and the contractions were INTENSE, I could feel baby being pushed down. After about 5-6 of those contractions I got very cold and shaky, but thought I was just cold. Chris was thinking I was in transition, but I didn’t think we could be that far along. I started feeling a lot of pressure, and told him that, and with the next contraction I realized that Lucy’s head was crowning, so I stood up and Chris delivered her. I had to push her out with one contraction because he saw immediately that the cord was around her neck, but he untangled her and her color improved immediately.
THEN we really didn’t know what to do (I’m glad we covered emergency childbirth in class)! It was awkward with baby, placenta, and me all connected, but we delivered the placenta, my Mom came in to help us with extra hands! We called the midwives, and they said they’d be there soon, just to relax with baby as best I could. It took us almost an hour after delivery to get in bed because handling a baby with placenta attached is pretty awkward!
We never really got into our birthing groove- we relaxed on the bed and visualized for only 15 minutes or less, we never used the birthing room or pool, it all just happened so fast. But everything happened the way it needed to since her cord was wrapped.
The midwives arrived 30-45 minutes after the birth and checked everyone out. They were really happy with how alert and responsive Lucy was, she had excellent reflexes and sucking abilities- they said she learned to suck on her fingers in utero. So that’s our story- Chris says he recommends this experience to everyone, that catching his baby was incredible.
I think it’s important that people know that anyone can do what we did- once the process is going, there’s nothing you can do to stop it, it’s as natural as anything.
Around suppertime, we were getting Mom settled, and trying to make supper and get everyone fed and to get down to our “birthing space”. I guess we didn’t have everything as ready as I thought! We timed contractions and they were intense, lasting over a minute, and I couldn’t talk through them. Chris was adding water to the birth pool, so I went to the bathroom to sit on the toilet- it was the best way I found to relax completely. I called the midwives again so they would come, but still thought we had LOTS of time left! This was probably 8 PM.
Chris came and rubbed my back and the contractions were INTENSE, I could feel baby being pushed down. After about 5-6 of those contractions I got very cold and shaky, but thought I was just cold. Chris was thinking I was in transition, but I didn’t think we could be that far along. I started feeling a lot of pressure, and told him that, and with the next contraction I realized that Lucy’s head was crowning, so I stood up and Chris delivered her. I had to push her out with one contraction because he saw immediately that the cord was around her neck, but he untangled her and her color improved immediately.
THEN we really didn’t know what to do (I’m glad we covered emergency childbirth in class)! It was awkward with baby, placenta, and me all connected, but we delivered the placenta, my Mom came in to help us with extra hands! We called the midwives, and they said they’d be there soon, just to relax with baby as best I could. It took us almost an hour after delivery to get in bed because handling a baby with placenta attached is pretty awkward!
We never really got into our birthing groove- we relaxed on the bed and visualized for only 15 minutes or less, we never used the birthing room or pool, it all just happened so fast. But everything happened the way it needed to since her cord was wrapped.
The midwives arrived 30-45 minutes after the birth and checked everyone out. They were really happy with how alert and responsive Lucy was, she had excellent reflexes and sucking abilities- they said she learned to suck on her fingers in utero. So that’s our story- Chris says he recommends this experience to everyone, that catching his baby was incredible.
I think it’s important that people know that anyone can do what we did- once the process is going, there’s nothing you can do to stop it, it’s as natural as anything.
