I forgot to copy and paste my birth story, so here it is, jsut a few months late

Sunday, Nov 21st
Early in the morning my Braxton Hicks started to get a little painful, and slowly got more painful, though not unbearable throughout the day. They were however very irregular, anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours apart. Then at about 7 PM they became VERY regular, coming every 10 minutes. They were painful, though with just a little bit of breathing and relaxing I could get through them. Sleeping through them was not possible, so I had a very sleepless night, getting up every 10 minutes to walk and breath the contractions (walking made them more bearable).

Monday, Nov 22nd
Come about 4:30 AM I woke Austin up because the contractions had started getting stronger and I was needing some help getting through them, but they were still 10 minutes apart. Asher woke up at about 6:30, as usual and nursed. Before he was done my contractions were down to 3 minutes apart, but I had a feeling it would fade quickly. Within 2 hours, they were back to 7-8 minutes apart and within another hour after that they were up to 10 minutes. In that time though we took Asher over to a friend's house so that we could concentrate fully on my contractions. Contractions continued at 10 minutes apart and close to the same intensity for the rest of the day. Finally at about 5:30 I sent Austin to go pick up Asher, not wanting him to not be at home at night for no reason. At 7 PM we put Asher to bed, and I nursed him to sleep. My contractions went to 5-6 minutes apart but I wasn't too hopeful that they would stay that way. They started getting stronger though and by 8PM I told Austin to call our friends to come pick Asher back up, as I didn't want him to leave me long enough to take Asher over there. My contractions were getting very very strong and I wasn't sure I could handle it much longer. We decided to go to the hospital and I told Austin that if I was dialated to at least a 7 I would follow our original plan of no drugs, but if I was less than that I needed the epidural because I couldn't do it for much longer.

8:30 PM Checked into the hospital. The nurse checked me and said I was almost 100% effaced but she couldn't tell how dialated I was because she couldn't find the edge of my cervix, so they called another nurse in who declared me dialated to an 8!! Woohoo!! I was almost done and could certainly do it for another hour or two to dialate the rest of the way. My Dr came in and wanted to rupture my water, but I told him no, I wanted to wait and give it time to rupture on it's own. We walked around the hospital for a little bit then went back to the room. The very next contraction, my water broke. At this point they told me I had to get in the bed and stay on the monitors, not what I wanted, but I didn't feel like arguing as I was sure I would be done soon anyways. However, I still hadn't dialated much. Through the next few hours my contractions got stronger, and closer together, but never less than 3 minutes apart and usually closer to 45 seconds long. At one point Canaan's heart-rate dropped dramatically, but a simple change in position solved that.

Tuesday, Nov 23rd
1:00 AM
I (finally) felt the urge to push!! However, I was told I still had a lip of the cervix around the edge and it was starting to swell, so I needed to do my best to not push until that last lip was gone. This was the hardest thing in my life to do. With nearly every contraction my body would automatically push at least once and it would take everything in my body to stop the pushing. About every other contraction I was asking them to check me again to see if the lip was gone so I could push. Sadly, it took another hour before that last little edge was gone.

2:00 AM
The OB on call come in and checked me, and I about screamed at her when she was daft enough to still have her fingers up there during a contraction. Then she asked me push against her hand and she pushed that last lip out of the way (which pissed me off b/c I had asked them to push it away half an hour ago and was told they couldn't do that). I heard the most beautiful words in my whole life "You can push now." With every push I could feel my birth canal stretching and knew I was making progress. After about half an hour Austin was getting excited because he could see the head coming down with every push. The nurse asked if I wanted a mirror (which I swore I would never want) so I could watch and I said yes; I felt I could use the extra motivation. The need to push was so great, that sometimes I would want to stop to rest and breath and was physically unable to. At this point I entered my own little world, the only thing I thought about was getting that baby out. I could hear and see what was going on around me, but was not a part of it, and when I was asked a question, I was unable to answer. My only focus was pushing that baby out.

2:54 AM
Canaan Michael was born!! I will always remember the feeling of his body coming out of mine, it was the most unique feeling in the whole world. I only tore a little (took 2 stitches) and the placenta came out soon after.

After Thoughts
Immediately after, my first thought was "and I have to do this again?" (with future kids) but now that it's several days later, the memory is fading and now it doesn't seem so bad. The recovery has been so much more incredible then it was with Asher's c-section. 12 hours after Canaan was born I was up walking around, 36 hours later, I was at home making a bed. I feel better 3 days after Canaan's birth than I did 3 weeks after Asher's c-section.
__________________


DH- Austin
DS1- Asher (12/02)
DS2- Canaan Michael (11/04)

When I was pregnant with ds1, I did a lot of reading, but I avoided all the
stuff on c-sections. Not because I didn't think it could happen to me, but
because I was terrified it could happen. I really wanted a homebirth, but we lived in a small town with no facilities for emergencies; everyone had to go to one of the two bigger towns nearby (1 1/2 to the nearest) to give
birth. There were also no midwives anywhere closer than 5 hours away, so it would have had to have been unassisted. I strongly considered it, but dh was terrified and since he would have been my only support, it seemed too dangerous at the time. So, I went to the hospital and I ended up with an unnecessary cesarean because I ran out of time after my water broke and labour didn't start, even with massive amounts of pitocin.

When I found out I was pregnant again a few years later, dh & I discussed
things and decided that we would have an unassisted pregnancy and birth.
Unfortunately, I lost those babies and then the next 4 pregnancies.

When I got pregnant with Cameron, I really didn't think I'd actually
have a baby from it. I even went and had a pregnancy test done by the
doctor so that there would be a medical record for me to get assistance
in finding out why I couldn't stay pregnant. I had an appointment
set up with a fertility specialist for a couple of months later. I didn't cancel
the appointment until just I was supposed to go because I really did think that I would need it.

It didn't really sink in that I might actually get to keep this baby
until about the time I had an ultrasound to check for placental
position. I had avoided medical care until that point and continued to
do so after, but I became a lot more careful about what I was eating and
tried to start getting a bit more exercise. The pregnancy was pretty
uneventful, although I started having some major pelvic pain around 28
weeks, which seemed to randomly disappear and reappear, though it never
got as bad as it had been when it first started. I also had some problems
with internal bruising from a bony heel digging into me, especially
when I had a cold.

I tried not to think about the birth too much, but it kept coming up,
especially what had happened with Brandon. I really believed (and even
more now) that if I had just stayed home until I actually started
contractions, things would have been so much different. I was always
upset about what he had to go through, just because I was stupid, but
now that his brother has had things so much better, I can't think about
Brandon's birth experiences without crying. I just gave him a big hug
and apologized, though I doubt he understands.

Anyway, things started the exact same way this time as they did with
Brandon, only a couple of weeks earlier. My water broke on Tuesday
morning. I woke up around 3am and felt a bit damp, but figured it was
just sweat since our place is hideously hot. Around 4:30am, dh came to
bed. We talked for a few minutes and I thought I felt something. I
thought maybe I was losing my plug, so I went to the washroom and
realized that I was getting gushes of fluid. I really hadn't expected
things to start this way and had been taking vitamin c for most of the
pregnancy to try to avoid it, but was hopeful that labour would start in a
few hours.

During the day on Tuesday, I would get an occasional contraction, but
never more than about 1 an hour, sometimes I wouldn't get one for
several hours. Wednesday was more of the same, although I was getting
one almost every hour. There were even a few that were closer together
than that. I kind of lost it on Wednesday night. Between the leaking
and the fear that I was looking at a repeat and labour would never start
(which I know was completely irrational, but I was tired and desperate
for labour to start). I lost it so bad I seriously considered going
to the hospital. Dh very bluntly asked me would I rather leak or be cut open again? That quickly brought me back down.

About 10pm on Thursday, I went to take a shower (aka hiding out
from my mom phoning to find out what was going on). While I was
in there, I also scrubbed the tub a bit, since it had been driving me
nuts for days. Near the end of my shower or just after I got out,
labour suddenly kicked into high gear. From every twenty minutes or so
(we weren't really timing, except for one or two contractions
occasionally), contractions moved to 15 minutes, then 7, then 2, in
less than a couple of hours.

I tried taking my older ds to bed, but they were just coming too strong
and too often, so dh put ds to bed, then came back out to help me. I
tried a bunch of different positions, but lying on my side seemed to be
the easiest way to cope for most of them. During this time, I kept
trying to keep myself hydrated, which meant I quite often had to get to
the bathroom and back to livng room. Most of the time I managed to get
all the way from one to the other between contractions, but one time dh
came out from checking on ds and found me leaning against the wall near
our apartment door. He pointed out that probably wasn't a good place,
since the door isn't anywhere near sound proof.

I really can't remember exact details of what time what happened, I know
I would spend a few contractions in the bathroom whenever I went there,
but gradually I was spending more and more of them there, some on the
toilet, some leaning against the wall and some hanging onto dh, which
seemed to make them a bit easier to cope with than anything else.

Sometime around 3/4am on Friday, I started getting pain in my back, too.
Until this point, all the contractions had been in a band extremely low
down in my belly. Once they started hurting in my back too, I just
couldn't take anymore and decided to try sitting in the tub and using
the sprayer during contractions. Unfortunately, we only had one and it
didn't stretch very far, so either my back or my belly got sprayed, and
it was very difficult to get my back without standing up, which I didn't
want to do. Dh put a pillow in the tub with me and I alternated between
sitting up and leaning back. Sometimes one seemed to work, then the
next time it would make it hurt worse.

I finally got dh to put the plug in (I couldn't reach and didn't really
have room to move) and let the tub fill while I used the sprayer. Once
there was enough water, dh started using a cup to pour it over my back
during contractions while I sprayed my belly. The pouring didn't really
do anything to lessen the pain, but it did give me something that
briefly distracted from it, which was nice.

I should point out that dh was spending a lot of time going back and
forth between myself and ds, who kept getting disturbed by my moaning
through the contractions. I also tried to encourage dh to spend time doing
other things, since I didn't know how long this was going to go on (though I
was desperately hoping it wouldn't be too long) and I didn't want him to be
in too much pain (he has severe back and knee problems) when I really
needed him at the end. As it was, whenever I had him put pressure on my
hips, he wound up hurting himself.

Around 5 or 5:30, I got out of the tub and moved back to the living
room. I think. I know ds got out of bed around 6am because I was
disturbing him so much. At that point, dh put on a video game for him
and then spent his time with me during contractions and with ds in
between most of them. With ds in the living room, I moved to the
bedroom, which I alternated with the bathroom, for the rest of the time.

By around 7 or a bit later, the only way I could endure the contractions
was to push during them. I don't know if I was fully dilated or not and
I didn't feel what I would call an "urge", but the pain was manageable
when I was pushing and excruciating when I wasn't.

Sometime after this, dh checked me and said it felt like the baby's head
was jammed against my bones. I spent several contractions on my hands
and knees, no idea how long, but when dh checked again, he said it
seemed like the baby was even more stuck and had moved back. I decided
to try lying on my back for awhile to see if that made any difference.

I don't remember if I did it because I remembered someone mentioning it,
because it felt better or because dh had written to the list and a
couple people mentioned it to him, but I started arching my back during
the contractions, occasionally alternating with sitting up and leaning
forward, which seemed to also make it hurt a bit less.

The arching seemed to be working, but I couldn't really do it very well due
to the problems with sciatica I'd been having for months (I was going to
be going to the chiro that week, but never went because of the leaking).
I had some pillows and a cushion under my head, so I got rid of the
pillows, which helped me arch a bit better and I heard a slight sound
kind of like bone on bone.

I knew then that the arching was probably making a difference and I
wanted to be able to do more of an arch, so I left my cushion where it
was and slid so that my head was on the floor (our bed is just a
mattress on the floor). I then planted my feet on the bed and used the
cushion to help me get a bit more arch. After a few times of this,
there was a loud, several second long, sound of bone on bone. I didn't
feel anything, but I must have subconsiously noticed something, because
I don't recall doing much, if any, arching after this point.

__________________
Lisa-Marie
Mommy to Brandon, Cameron and far too many angels.

During all this, dh and ds were in and out of the room and shortly after
dh came and lay down on the bed next to me. I seemed to be getting a
bit of a break between contractions at this point, though they were
still extremely painful. Dh was so wiped, he fell asleep for several
contractions. At some point, they must have eased off enough that I was
able to sleep briefly, too. I have no idea how long we slept, dh seems
to think he only slept about 20 minutes, but he actually fell asleep
twice, once was when I was asleep too, so it was probably longer than
that. I woke up and dealt with a few contractions before they got bad
enough that my moaning woke dh up.

I continued labouring in the bedroom for awhile. My friend, J,
called around 12:30 to see how things were going. We had planned
for her to come watch ds if needed and maybe offer some reassurance
to dh (since she had had a VBAC herself), but ds was doing really well and
dh had been coping pretty well, too, until it seemed like things were dragging on forever. She managed to reassure dh some. Around 1pm, ds fell asleep on the couch in the living room, so dh no longer had to go back
and forth between us.

By this point, I was just thinking about the next break between
contractions, they hurt so much. When I was between them, I just enjoyed the relief and didn't worry about the next one. There were several
points, and this was one of them, when I really, really wanted dh to just call the ambulance and let them make the pain stop. I really didn't believe I
could take it anymore, but I did. The first time I felt like that was when I was in the bath and started pushing the first time. I also felt like I couldn't take it anymore around when I was arching my back, especially before I figured out that doing that would help. Changing positions didn't seem to help at all, but I kept trying anyway. I alternated lying down on my back, my sides, kneeling against a pile of cushions, sitting on the toilet, leaning against the wall and hanging onto dh.

I decided to try the tub again for awhile. I don't know exactly what
time that was, probably about 2:30 or 3. I think it helped a bit. I
started pushing some again while I was in the tub, but I couldn't really
get comfortable in there and had to keep moving around.

Dh was completely exhausted and in agony, so when he talked to J again,
and she offered to come over, he was very willing to have her. She had
to get someone to watch the kids and then she got stuck in traffic, so
she didn't make it here until about 5, at which point I was back in the
bedroom and I'd been pushing again. Just before she got here, dh
checked me again and the top of the baby's head was only about a knuckle
in.

I can't tell you how relieved I was that I was actually making progress
this time. I couldn't feel him moving down at all, but obviously this
time the pushing was working and he hadn't gotten stuck again.

When J got here, ds woke up and dh stayed with him for a bit while J
came to support me. I was pushing on the toilet when she got here and
didn't really want to move, but I also didn't want to have the baby
there, so eventually I moved back to the bedroom.

I alternated pushing in kneeling, hands and knees and reclining
positions. I couldn't get enough leverage in either of the first two
positions and it was taking forever. Knowing I was so close, I really
wanted to get it over with.

When the head was visible and not really sliding back anymore, I
switched to a mostly sitting position, with a huge pile of pillows
behind me. J told dh she didn't think it would be very much longer, so
dh and ds came into the bedroom, too. We had promised ds that he could
watch the baby be born, but he didn't want to be around the rest of the time.

J suggested that I plant my feet on the bed against the bed to try to
get a bit more leverage. I did this for quite awhile and the baby was
very slowly moving down more, but I still felt like I wasn't
getting anywhere. J then suggested that I try holding dh's hands, since I kept grabbing at my arms to try to use my whole self to push. Holding dh's
hands really helped with the pushing, since I really yanked on him and I actually started feeling like I was making progress.

I reached down to feel the baby's head and there was quite a bit out. I
couldn't understand why it was taking so long to get his head out, but
after he was born I realized that what felt like it must have been all
of his head above the eyes was actually only about the top half of his
head, it had molded so much.

I kept pushing and I actually started screaming with every push. I'm
not entirely sure why, since it didn't hurt that much, it just felt like
the right thing to do. Really surprised we didn't have anyone coming to
check on things here. I was determined not to tear, so I regularly
paused between pushes for things to have time to stretch. It was
uncomfortable, but I figured it was better than recovering from a tear,
especially since I had no one to sew one.

It was really weird how I was thinking rationally, but I wasn't able to articulate anything while I was labouring.

I finally felt his head come out and knew that one or two more pushes
and I'd be done. The cord was around his neck loosely, but I just
couldn't handle having anyone's hands there long enough to unloop it, so
I just pushed the rest of him out into dh's hands and J unlooped the
cord. Then I got to hold my new little boy! He let out a little whimper
and pinked up right away. We didn't suction him at all since he
obviously was breathing fine on his own and "There is no need to suction a healthy, full term baby at birth." Dr. Jack Newman

I found out later that he had come out facing my right hip and he hadn't
rotated at all after his head was out, he just came straight out the next
time I pushed.

Dh got a towel to cover him and I sat there and held my new ds for quite
awhile, at least an hour. J left right away, since she had only planned
to come over for a little bit to give dh a break and she had to get back
to her kids.

Eventually my tailbone started really hurting from the way I was
sitting, so I got dh to come tie the cord. He tied it off with a couple
of shoelaces that had been boiled and then cut it with a pair of
scissors that had also been boiled.

The placenta still hadn't come out, so I got dh to tie the cord again
closer to my body and cut it short so I didn't have to have it dragging
around until the placenta decided to come out. Dh took our new little
boy and I went to have a shower. I was a bit woozy, though, so I sat
down in the tub and used the sprayer to wash myself.

Eventually we had some nuked chili for a very late supper, around about
9:30. After that, I went to get ready for bed. I went to the washroom
and the placenta came out, about 4 hours after the birth. It really
stung coming out because it was huge. We were all too exhausted to deal
with it, so we put it in the fridge overnight, then froze it. Eventually, we'll be getting a tree and planting it at my mom's place.

We weren't expecting the baby quite so soon, so we had no diapers. We
just kept Cameron wrapped up in a towel until the next day, when dh went
and bought some diapers. We didn't dress him or bathe him until Monday
morning, when I gave him a quick sponge bath to get rid of the little
bit of blood that was still on him. Except for a tiny bit in the creases, all the vernix got rubbed into his skin, like it's supposed to be.

We weighed him by putting him in a sling and hanging it on a fish scale
the day after he was born and he was 8lbs 8oz. His head was 35cm and he
was about 19 1/2 inches long. Really hard to measure, though, since he
was so curled up and not at all happy about me trying to straighten him
a bit. It turned out that the fish scale was off by quite some way, since when I took him to the health nurse at 10 days old, he was only 6lb 12oz.

__________________
Lisa-Marie
Mommy to Brandon, Cameron and far too many angels.

Sunday morning July 3rd I woke up not feeling quite right but didn’t really think anything of it. Had some breakfast and got dressed. Didn’t feel like doing anything so I sat at the computer for most of the day. Around 11 am DH, DS and I drove over and turned in some bottles and cans. We drove around the countryside a little before we went back home. I was having a few menstrual type cramps but nothing real regular and nothing like I thought real contractions would be like. When we got home, we had some lunch and I moped the kitchen floor. Sent the two kids outside to play in the water and I got back on the computer. I was still having the cramps but wasn’t really paying much attention to them. I went outside with the kids for a little bit and the cramps seemed to go away. When I got too hot I came back in and got back on the computer. The cramps started back up. Sometime around 4 I started to watch the clock and pay attention to what was going on. I wasn’t sure I wanted to say to much because I was almost afraid to go to the hospital too early and have to be sent back home because nothing was happening. Hubby kept telling me we had to wait until after midnight because he wanted a July 4th baby. I think I might have told him where to shove it but I am not real sure. While watching the clock I realized that the cramps were happening every 5-10 minutes apart on a pretty regular basis. We decided around 5 or so hubby made dinner and after that we decided to call a couple of people and get my son picked up. I decided to take a shower and see how I felt after that. By the time I got out of the shower they were varying from 3-5 minutes apart and getting hard to talk through. Shall we say at this point, “Let’s get a move on!� Hubby got in the shower after me and my daughter finished getting her and her brother ready and I tried to get dressed and get the rest of my things packed. We called my mom (3 hr drive) and my sister (1 hr drive) to alert them that we were headed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I would have a contraction and then be fine as soon as it was over. I was actually pretty comfortable on the way there. It took about 45 minutes for us to get to the hospital. We checked in, got wheeled upstairs and into a room. At this point I don’t really know how far apart they were because I stopped paying attention. We got me hooked up to the monitors and the nurse checked me and I was almost 5 cm and 100% effaced. My doctor was not on-call so the nurse had to go and ask the on-call doctor if it was ok for me to VBAC, which he said was fine. I asked for an epidural at this point because I was pretty uncomfortable and I figured it would take a while for them to get it done. The nurse went to order the epi and they started my IV. I had to have antibiotics because I had tested positive for GBS during my pregnancy. At this point I couldn’t tell when one contraction stopped and another one started. I had been lying on my side and at one point couldn’t take it and rolled to my side. I felt a huge gush and knew my water had finally broken. That was the best feeling. It was like instance relief to have my water break. I made a comment about how good it felt and the nurse is started pulling blankets up and checking to see what I was talking about. She couldn’t believe how it had shot out.

I was started to feel pressure like a BM and the nurse asked me if I was feeling pressure and I said yes. She checked me again and walked quickly away saying we were gonna have a baby. I couldn’t believe how fast everyone started moving. She had wheeled a cart next to the bed and I asked her what I was at and she said 9 cm. I was really shocked it had gone that fast. The nurse ending up delivering David. She was trying to get me to focus and pay attention to her and push slowly so I wouldn’t tear much but I just wanted to get that baby out. He finally arrived at 9:18 pm. We missed Daddy’s 4th of July wish but oh well. I have a first degree tear that the doctor was able to come in and sew up fairly easily. He arrived just in time for that part.

My daughter watched the whole delivery and was pretty amazed. She didn’t really have much chance to get squeamish and ask to leave the room. Good thing because my sister was still on her way to the hospital and she was supposed to be my daughter’s support person. The nurses said that she had done really well during the whole delivery. I was really proud of her.

As I sit down at my computer to finally type Alexander’s birth story out, I can’t help but reflect at how completely different this experience was from Nicholas’ birth. A few words that immediately come to mind with regards to the birth and caregivers are: control, caring, gentle, empowered, satisfaction, safe, support, peace, love. I feel like I’ve waited a lifetime to
get to this point – a point where I finally feel at peace with myself, my body, and both my sons’ births into this world.

Making the decision to homebirth wasn’t an easy one for me or one that I went into lightly or without thought or research (lots of research!). Family support was limited and even I questioned my decision for several months of the pregnancy after the tragic loss of a very dear friend of mine’s child. She was a very important support person in my decision to homebirth so when it happened, my life was turned upside down. Between my sorrow for
her loss and my own emotional loss, I struggled to find answers to what was the right decision for me. But I know today that through that grieving and learning process emerged a stronger, more confident and more whole person than what I was when I began this journey.

I suppose it’s time to talk about the actual birth. Alexander made his way into the world on Monday February 6th, 2006 weighing in at 7pd 10oz and measuring just over 19inches in length. But the birth itself began on February 4th, even though I didn’t know that was what was happening just yet. I had been having Braxton hicks contractions on and off for the past
several weeks so when I felt them on Saturday, I didn’t think much of them, even though I seemed to be having them consistently throughout the day. I went through the night with them and found them more of an annoyance than anything else but proceeded to continue to ignore them. On Sunday they not only continued but I started to feel crampy with them as
well when they would come. By evening (Superbowl Sunday), they were more consistent and more noticeable. I called my midwife and doula to let them know that I was having consistent Braxton hicks (or at least I thought they were at the time) and was told by both to drink a half a glass of wine and take a warm bath to stop them. After all, I was just over 36
weeks at the time so no one, including myself, thought that this was the real thing. I proceeded to take their advice (who would turn down a warm bath and a glass of wine?). It didn’t stop the contractions though and they continued on through the night. I was able to sleep in between them until about 4:30 in the morning when Scott got up to get ready to fly out for work. He left for his flight about 5:15 and I got up after that and started to get more worried as they seemed to be getting closer together and stronger. About 7:30 I gave my doula/close friend Cori a call and told her what was happening. I still wasn’t sure I was in actual labor at this point, although looking back I think it was pretty obvious that I was. She told me she would be right over and we left it at that. I called my midwife next to let her know what was happening and she was shocked to hear that the wine and bath hadn’t stopped the contractions. She told me to have Cori do a full check (Cori is just a handful of births away from being a midwife herself) when she arrived and call her with the details. So for the next 2 hours I labored through the contractions while Nicholas played and ate breakfast. Cori arrived around 9:30 and I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I was to have her there. She proceeded to check me at proclaimed me to be 3cm with effacement and a bag of water that was starting to bulge. So it became official: I was in labor and the baby would come that day. Cori called Molly (the midwife) to let her know she should head over
and I called Scott to let him know he needed to turn around and come back home on the next flight. Scott ended up getting back on the same plane he flew over on and had the same flight attendants who talked his ear off about his wife being in labor.

It’s kind of a blur as to what time Molly and the other midwife arrived, but I’m thinking it was sometime around 11am. I had started my laboring in the kitchen, but by the time the midwives came, they helped me to try out some new positions that really worked well. One was sitting on the birth ball next to the bed and completely relaxing into Cori’s arms while a contraction was happening. The best position though, was a slow dancing position of sorts
with Molly where I basically just relaxed my entire body into her and rocked back and forth while the contraction was happening. I did this position during transition and I have to say I felt no pain through any of these contractions, just pressure below. I could have labored like that for another 10 hours and been fine, but I was found to be complete by 1:30 so it wasn’t
to be. It should be noted that when I started out in labor Alex was actually malpositioned just like Nicholas was, which was definitely a concern to me, but through position changes during labor they were able to easily get him into a favorable position for birth – something I still find amazing as that was the reason for my first c/s with Nicholas.

This is where the real excitement began. I had made it to 10 with Nicholas’ birth and even pushed for 2 hours, but he never went anywhere. So I knew this was the point where I would need some extra reassurance. Scott walked in the room just as pushing began and was a wonderful coach throughout the whole process. The first push I thought I would try in the
slow dancing position since it worked so wonderfully for labor. No way. It was so intense and painful that I almost lost my legs out from underneath me! Somewhere around this point my water broke. I have to mention I thought this was amazing as well as with Nicholas my water broke before contractions even began! The next position that we tried was the
birthing stool. I worked with the stool for five or six contractions and made a little progress but it was still slow at best. So then we decided to try the good old supine position (on your back feet pressing against a person for leverage) and this did actually work to help bring the head down a bit more. I couldn’t believe when they told me I was plus two station. I had
never been anything more than zero with Nicholas so I was past my stuck point from last time! This was a huge relief to me. I was starting to have terrible leg cramps though with each contraction that were inhibiting my ability to push so finally the midwives had me get up and try pushing on the toilet. At first I pushed sitting backwards on the toilet. I did this for a
couple of pushes and nearly crumbled the porcelain on the top of the toilet I was grabbing it so hard so they had me face forward and push. This was what finally did it. Two pushes and the head was full on crowning. We then moved back to the bed because they didn’t want me to tear and needed the crowning to be more controlled. Now there’s an experience: walking
across the room with an almost 14� head between your legs. I laid back down on the bed and gave a couple more cough like semi pushes (and a few animal screams to go with it) and the head was out. A minute and half later, Alexander was born. I can’t tell you what an intense and amazing feeling it is to feel your child come out of your body like that. It was absolutely surreal.

In retrospect, I know that I had a lot of fear associated with the pushing and there were many times I wanted to give up (although that’s of course not an option). I think I probably could have gotten him out in half the time if I had a relaxed more with it, but despite this he came out and helped me prove to myself that birth actually does work and my body’s not broken or defective despite what I was told by the numerous OB’s I saw who told me I
wouldn’t be able to have a child vaginally. I am just so grateful and thankful to have had the support I did from my midwives and Cori. Having a homebirth was an amazing, empowering, and safe experience and one that I will definitely repeat when and if we have more children.

This will be a short condensed version as I have a very demanding little one .
I went in to be induced on Jan 20th. I was induced with pitocin and had my waters broken at 2 cm.
I was in labor for 10 hours and after 5 pushes my little man arrived. It wasn't exactly the birth I had hoped for, the pitocin was a bit#h but the end result was wonderful.
River Alan was born at 7:31 pm weighing 7 lb 13 oz. The u/s said he was going to be 9 1/2 lbs at 40 weeks, so don't take complete faith in those.
I went to 40 weeks with not much progress and my bp was on the high side, thats why we went with induction. I debated many times on rather to go through with induction or just go for another section. I think I made the best choice I could have eer made. Everything went wonderfully.
Good Luck to everyone who hopes to have a vbac and DONT give up hope!

I went into labor spontaneously the day I found out my section date. I was worried because the baby was in a bad position. When I arrived at the hospital I had already gone to 6 cm and the baby was in a new position - posterior. The doctor immediately broke my water. The contractions got really strong and I tried to hold off on the epi as I was afraid it would stall out my labor but I gave in because it was back labor. I got to 10 cm but had no urges to push and the baby was still up at -1. That's when I knew I had the best doctor in the world. He said, "If we get you to try and push now, you'll be tired out and we'll probably have to section you. Let's just hold off and let you coast." I had a try at pushing about an hour later but nothing much was happening. Again, he decided to let me rest and he added a tiny bit of syntocin (I think) to get the contractions more regular. It worked. The baby dropped to +2 station while I was resting for an hour. I tried pushing again but now the baby was stuck sideways. The doctor decided to try the vacuum and amazingly, it worked. He vacuumed through 2 sets of contractions and then I did the rest.

I now believe that babies will find a way to get out (a great doctor helps too!) and that labor can just happen out of nowhere.

Robert James was born on Jan 28th at 3:41 am after 14 hours of labor. He was 8 lb 12 and 21 inches. Despite trying out all sorts of positions and being vacuumed, he looked great.

Teagan was born at 1:03pm 12/10/05. She weighed in at 7lbs 5 ounces and is 19 1/2 inches long. She is beautiful.

I got my VBAC!! It was amazing! I gave up going natural after 6 hours of labor (total of 12 hours labor) due to the fact that I had been vomiting since 2 hours into the labor and she was posterior which was causing me the most intense pain plus I had some really weird contractions.

Okay the whole story:

As had been very obvious, there has been much confusion for me recently about losing my mucus plug and bloody show, well it got worse Friday night. We were out walking around the stores trying to induce labor and I felt a lot of wetness in my underwear. I went to the bathroom and looked and my underwear was wet and it was not pee but I wasn't leaking anymore, so I just assumed more discharge. I had no real contractions so didn't think anymore of it.

Fast forward to 1am where I'm lying in bed trying not think of having the baby, get up to go the bathroom and feel an even bigger pop! Run to the toilet and there is still no huge leak of fluid as I had with my son but then I had a huge contraction (yep no mistaking those!) and realized what was going on. I wake up DH to let him know, but he goes back to bed since I'm planning on laboring at home. I go and call my MW and Doula. My MW was fine with me laboring at home until I felt ready to go the hospital. She called ahead and reserved me a room. I then called my Mother who said she would head on over to keep an eye on Alex.

During this time, I had a few contractions but nothing terrible. About 45 minutes after my water broke, I started to have some very intense contractions. I decided to wake Chris up so he could time them for me. They were coming about 5 minutes apart.

My mother got there about 2:20am and all hell broke loose. All of a sudden my contractions started to come every 2 to 3 minutes apart, they would peak start to fade, peak again, start to fade and peak and then fade..then they started up again 2 to 3 minutes later. So to me it felt like I was having 3 contractions for every one. Then to make matters even more fun, I started vomitting. I couldn't stop. It was horrible.

My Doula got there about 15 minutes later and was in disbelief how fast my contractions were coming. She thought I was in transition since they were coming so close and with the vomitting. We stayed at home until 3:30am and then headed out to the hospital.

Obviously I was not a happy camper. I was not expecting to be vomiting like this. The only thought that kept me going was my Doula saying this meant that I was really close.

So we get to the hospital, while they were trying to check me in L&D, I have three more contractions. All the nurses started going nuts trying to get readings, they think I'm in transition also and am going to have the baby any time. Well imagine everyone surprise when they finally get in to do a check and I'm only 3cm??? I'm not ashamed to say, I broke down crying. I could not believe it.

I made it until 6am when they gave me a shot of nubain, which I thought was heaven. It took the edge off the back labor I was having but I still felt in somewhat of control. At 7am they checked me again, I was only at 4cm. This whole time I'm still vomiting, I'm still having horrible back labor, I could not stand anymore because my legs were shaking so badly. I said screw it, I want my epidural!

Epidural man came at 7:30am and he was great. He did a very nice job. He kept saying I was going to feel pain here and there but due to all the intense labor I was feeling, ha! It felt like nothing. It was a good epidural because I could still feel the pressure from the contractions, I could move my legs and body.

So it took me from 7am to 9am to get to 6cm. Then my nurse checked me at 10:45am and I was still at 6cm. She was afraid I was stalling, so she had me roll over onto my side for a bit. My MW came at 11am checked me and I was 10cm. My body is so weird.

I started to push at 11:30am and it took forever since she was posterior. I just could not seem to get her under my pubic bone. I finally started to push while on my side, and I really made great strides. At 12:45pm my MW told me that she was going to have to call the OB when I was pushing past 2 hours. Since we could see Teagans head, we knew she was coming down, it was just going slowly. My MW did not think it was going to be a problem but she wanted me to know. Apparantly that was all the incentive my body needed and Teagan was born 18 minutes later at 1:03pm Threaten me with an OB and see what I can do? LOL. It was so amazing pushing her out. I could feel it all. It was the most empowering and primal thing I have ever done in my life. Amazing. I was crying, my doula was crying, my husband was crying. Teagan came out crying. It was so cool.

The whole time I was pushing my MW was massaging and stretching that area. She also used a lot of hot cloths and oil to help things out. It must've really worked because I only had one tiny tear which was so small it didn't even need to be stitched.

I gave birth to 11 children. I had two c-sections and I also gave birth to 9 children vaginally without any drugs. I VBAC'ed a total of 6 children (including two sets of large twins). Our second set of twins was VBAC'ed after 2 c-sections. Here is my last birth story (the best so far):

Our second set of twins, Heidi&Rosi, were born naturally (vaginally, no drugs) at 40 weeks:
Our dream births came true!
October 18:
3 PM: After having had “gas pains� and off and on cramping all day (with increasing intensity), I call one of my three OBs to get her opinion on my pain. She gives me the option to head for the hospital straight away or to come to her office to get checked for dilation. I call dh and we both head for the Dr.'s office. The good news is that I am over 5 cm dilated.
As we are leaving the doc’s office, dh and I decide to go grocery shopping, to get all the kids fed and ready for the night and to prepare our room for the baby sitter.
9 PM: All the kids are fed, bathed and happily watching new movies we bought for the occasion in their individual rooms. Dh makes the phone call to our Dr. who is going to meet us at the L&D in 45 minutes.
9:45 PM: After packing up our final few things such as dh’s guitar, songbook, talisman, etc., we arrive at the L&D floor. When evaluated by our Dr., I turn out to be at 7+ cm. I change into my lucky, green gown and lay down in the labor bed for a short fetal heart monitoring session. Dh and I then walk around for quite a while, contractions are still relatively mild.
11:30 PM: Dh and I sing a few favorite songs to pass the time and relax a little. We go for another walk. When checked again, I have not dilated any more and contractions start ebbing off. Fetal monitoring is done again and no signs of distress in the babies. Walking, playing music, walking again, etc…
2:30 AM: I’m getting a little frustrated at the slow progress. Only mild contractions, 10 min apart and still lingering at 7 cm dilation. I tell dh to take a nap in the recliner while I lay down in the labor bed to rest on my side. One minute into the relaxing position, hard contractions start to hit me like a brick, every 2 minutes for over 60 seconds. I tell dh that I’m starting to become very uncomfortable, he rubs my back and feet, holds my hand and breathes with me. Intermittent monitoring which doesn’t show all the strong contractions. Dr. checks cervix and it’s 9 cm. Dr. and nurse leave us again to labor privately but pain becomes so excruciating that I yell for her again to check me just 10 minutes after the last exam. I’m complete and everybody starts rushing. My labor bed is pushed into the OR, dh has to change into the scrubs, I’m yelling for him because I can’t help the urge to push. The doc, dh and the nurse help me switch to the OR table and elevate the back for me. Doc and nurses are still getting changed and utensils ready when the head emerges. I recall them turning around saying “oh, oh, here’s the head, quick�, the body comes out and I see a “small bundle� laying in front of me. It is 3:43 AM on the 19th of October, 2004 when healthy Adelheid Maria Healy (HEIDI) enters the world. Our Dr.immediately puts her to my bare chest and lets the umbilical cord pulsate a while. Dh gets to cut the cord and I get to breastfeed Heidi who is looking around alert. She looks so tiny and pink and has a nice ring to her strong cry. The nurse picks her up to weigh her and she turns out to be a good 7 lbs. 14 ½ ounces. She’s returned to me. Dh and I play with her until the contractions for the second baby’s arrival become too strong to keep Heidi on my chest. In fact, the contractions become as strong as they did with the first baby. The Dr.says the baby is still high up and tells me to push hard with the next contraction. As the pain becomes more intense again, I push as hard as I can to get the baby to descend. I’m wondering why it is so intense…The contractions become so painful that I can hear myself scream “oh my God, oh God�. I’m grabbing on to the back of the OR table, moving it up at the same time I’m kicking in the footrests. Dh and a male nurse bend my knees back to keep me positioned. Finally the head of baby B is about to crown. In my eyes it takes an endless time to get the head OUT. I hear the doc say “keep pushing, you’re doing a great job, the head is halfway out�, I’m saying to myself “WHAT, only halfway out, how long can the head be?�, finally the head is out and I’m still going “oh my God!�, the body follows quickly but not as easily as baby A’s. Then, the entire baby is born at 4:38 AM. I’m still screaming my lungs out. Boy, that was hard. Doc tells us that Rosi was face up, ouch! Baby B is Rosamund Gertrude Healy (ROSI) and she is placed onto my bare chest with her umbilical cord still pulsating before dh gets to cut it. Unlike Heidi, she’s covered in vernix. She’s all greasy but beautiful like her sister. After breastfeeding her, she’s weighed and produces a whopping 9 lbs. ¼ oz.! No wonder the birth was so excruciating. She weighed over one pound more than baby A! The placenta comes out and lookes as one placenta. We chose to take the placenta home with us. So no pathological report.
This was the dream birth(s) of our lives. Everything went according to our birth plan. It started out as a long, latent and active phase which wasn’t too painful and it developed into the shortest but most painful transition phase for each of the babies (since the cervix partly closed after the first baby I had to go through a second transition to fully open it again, plus the way for B wasn‘t really “paved“ since she was so much bigger than A).
Our Hospital is the most modern, yet most natural place to give birth in. Doctors as well as nurses believe in the strength of the female body and encourage women in every possible way to give birth the way they want to. Thank you God, thank you dh and thank you ... Hospital with your professional staff!

NOTE: Dh got to take the placenta home. As he went back to L&D to pick up our refrigerated placenta, he passes the all the nurses with the plastic bucket containing the placenta, saying: �That’ll be great with a couple of fried onions!� They all backed off, laughing nervously, hahaha! He's always joking!

Another note: The maternity ward staff was just as nice and efficient as the labor staff. In fact, a lot of nurses (even from other departments) came to see the big twins and to double-check if I really gave birth to them naturally. I guess the word got around.

BTW: Our first set of (identical) twins was born naturally, without drugs at 40 weeks as well and they weighed 7-11 lbs and 7-13 lbs.

Me, Heidi&Rosi shortly after the birth:

Our induction was scheduled for Friday, November 3, 2006, at 7am. I had seen the DR on Tuesday and was 2-3cm dilated and 75% effaced. I started having contractions (again) about 11pm Thursday night, but they were gone by about 3am. The hospital called Friday morning about 5:45 to tell me they were full and I was being put on hold. They’d call again by 9 to let me know what was going on. So DH and I got to sleep a little while longer and decided to go to IHOP for my ‘light’ breakfast. There is nothing light about what I like to eat at IHOP! lol Their pumpkin pancakes are fabulous by the way. We were leaving there about 8:45 when the hospital called and said come on in.

So we got there about 9 and got settled in and did paperwork etc. The nurse checked me before starting the pitocin about 10:30 and I was 3-4cm then and 80% effaced. She told me the DR wanted me to have my water broken, we just needed a DR to do it. We spent 2 hours waiting for a DR to come in and she was upping the pitocin the whole time. I still wasn’t real bothered by the ctxs, but they were getting close together. I had my water broken at 12:35pm and pretty much immediately wanted my epidural. By the time the anastheologist got there (I think about 45mins later) I was screaming and crying. I was NOT a good patient at all, I felt bad later. It took him several times to get the epi in and I still have the nasty bruise to prove it. He got it in and just like always it’s not working on my left side. The problem? I’m now at 9cm and there’s just not anything they can do about it! I lay there screaming and crying and begging them to do something and the nurse was nice and keeps telling me they can’t b/c then baby wouldn’t be able to breathe when she came out. I eventually stopped asking and just went back to screaming. I hope those walls are super soundproof! I then wasn’t being very cooperative and they lost her hb on the monitor so they had to do a scalp monitor on her and she was handling everything like a champ unlike her mother. My DH was so sweet and was there the whole time w/ me trying to help me. This was the first birth he really got to participate in since AJ was a c/s and Evan needed out so fast and the whole NICU team was there he wasn’t even close to the bed! I’m so proud of him for not being squeamish, he’s very sensitive w/ things like that. I wasn’t looking at the clock at all so this is just estimates, but I’m guessing by about 1:40pm my DR was there and we were all ready to have this baby. My biggest problem was it seems she settled on a nerve in my left pelvic area and I wasn’t screaming b/c of the ctxs, but b/c I had this pain in my hip area like I had never felt before and it was awful. Everyone was telling me to hold my breath and push and all I could do was scream it seemed like. I think eventually my DR gave me a small episiotomy b/c w/ all the pushing I was getting done she wasn’t coming out fast enough for ME, lol. Right after that I got her out and she was born at 2:04pm. Yay! So from pit to birth was about 3.5 hrs and about 1.5hrs from real pain to birth. She was 7#1.9oz and 20" long w/ pretty brown hair and blue eyes. It took us 2 days to agree on her middle name. I wanted Ilana Grace Ellen (Ellen after my grandma), but he didn’t want 2 middle names again (Evan has 2 middle names). His cousin came up w/ a compromise and we named her Ilana Gracellen instead. So we both got what we wanted. If there is a next time, I’m getting the epi ASAP, I’m not sure natural childbirth is for me after all. Lol

Things are going great now except super sore nipples. I feel like a ftm all over again. I’m only taking Motrin for the soreness (who knew you used so many muscles in childbirth!) And I ended up w/ a 2nd tear/cut so nothing big. It’s not bothering me at all. The boys are doing well and seem more and more excited about it since we’ve been home. AJ got to cuddle w/ her this morning while I went to the bathroom (DH was there, don’t worry). I so wish I had had the camera then!

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me-28 DH-34
Adam Jospeh Jr. (AJ) born 5/27/03 via surprise c/s

Ilana Gracellen born 11/3/06 via
Baby 'O' around Valentine's Day 2009

Host of CS's Food Allergies board (click here)

Former host of EP's VBAC board (click here)

My background...My first son was born via cesarean due to breech presentation. My second was an elective repeat because I didn't really know any better to fight for what I wanted. I ended up with really bad post partum depression because of it. I knew with my next pregnancy that I didn't want to go through any of that again, and I would do whatever it took to get a VBA2C. I did a lot of research and educated myself so that I was armed with information and facts if my doctors would let me VBAC. In the end, I found a very supportive doctor that was 2 hours away, and he even let me have his midwife be there for the delivery instead of him.

On my due date, Jan 28th, my Mom and I went to walk around the mall after Porter got on the bus for school. I was having a few pressure waves, but they were very mild. As we were walking they became pretty consistent at 10-15 minutes apart. We kept walking until it was time to pick up the boys from school, so about 2 ½ hours. I wanted to keep moving, so we went to the Family Living Center with the boys, and they got to make rope, and learn how to make candles while I walked around the bui