Eliza Ruth - Baby 11

Eliza Ruth

I had been dealing with prodromal labor for a few weeks, starting around 37 weeks.  Off and on contractions, but nothing big.  The day I hit 40 weeks was very uneventful for my poor uterus, so we made a due date “date” with Hannah and Brigham.  We got out of the restaurant around 9:30 pm.  Then we shot off and hit up the opening weekend 11pm movie showing for The Avengers: Infinity War.  I did have a few strong contractions during the movie, and it was a bit distracting.  However, they quickly fizzled out. 

Come about Monday night, or a Tuesday morning since it was about midnight, contractions started about 15 minutes apart.  It would go on for hours, and then stall out for an hour or two.  Then pick up again, and stall again.  It was exhausting, but I was happy to get that portion done. I slept maybe 3-4 hours that night broken up.  

Come evening, I headed to the restaurant and worked on cleaning over there.  I needed to move and get my mind on something else, but also needed some space from my kids.  As much as I love them around, they were also part of the reason things kept stalling.  

When I went to bed that night contractions started up again at 11pm.  I had 2 or 3 at 15 minutes apart.  Then one that was 10 and then 8 minutes apart.  After those I stayed at 1-2 minutes apart for the duration of the labor. 

I labored in bed for a while.  I found leaning back, staying propped up with my arms behind me and tilting my pelvis forward made thing bearable.  After several bathroom trips though, I decided to just stay in there.  I spent the rest of the night going between sitting on the toilet, standing and rocking my hips, hands and knees on a bath towel on the floor, and leaning over the sink and rocking my hips.  At a point, I was so exhausted and fell asleep on the toilet as well as when I was laying on the bathroom sink.  It was only for that minute or two, but I grabbed what I could.  I also ended up laying on the towel on the floor a couple times and dozing off for a moment at a time.  The exhaustion was overwhelming. 

I was tired of the constant laboring.  The close contractions for hours and hours.  I started pushing, breathing baby down,  and trying to focus on visualizing my cervix opening through each contraction to try to help dilate my cervix more.  I was going by my mucus plug loss, and it started going more at that point.  Sometime around 4am I felt the beginnings of the bag bulging.  Just a small part, but what a huge encouragement!  I don’t check my cervix, but I will reach in far enough to feel for the sac or baby. Feeling the sac was wonderful!  Not too long!

Brent woke up around 5am and made his way into the bathroom.  Seeing how the toilet was occupied, and knowing I wasn’t budging for his bathroom run, he left for a moment and then came back.  

As he was gone, I felt a large mass coming out of me as I labored on the toilet.  I held my hand there as it came out, and then it burst!  My water had broken, and the sac was definitely a strong one.  It was really an amazing thing to experience.  I was almost sure it was a baby with how it felt in my hand.  That was at 5:10am, as I checked my phone to see the time.  

Brent made it back within a minute, but going by my noises, he went and woke up Hannah to help.  Unfortunately I was zero help with where I had stashed my tinctures.  I had moved to the towel on floor and my communication was mostly waving him with my hand.  In the end, we ended up without the tinctures, twine for the cord, or cord scissors for the birth. 

Brent came back in from looking for my birth stuff, and saw me on my hands and knees but facing the door.  He asked if there was any way I could turn around (we had been through this issue before with Z).  I kind of laughed and managed to turn so he could help catch baby.  

A moment later I felt baby’s head coming down.  I couldn’t say anything at that point, so I just held my hand down and felt the head.  I wanted another moment to prepare and relax, so I more held baby’s head inside me just to prevent too much more stretching.  After the contraction I told Brent that the head was coming.   

Although I’m pretty sure what I said was “Head, baby’s head, head...”. 

The next contraction I gently pushed, but more just let things move on their own while holding baby’s head to keep it slow.  As the head got about halfway out, I wanted to be done, and have a little push to finish up.  The head was out!  I started saying over and over “That feels so much better!”.  

It felt soooo much better!

Brent said “He’s just looking at me”.  The reassurance that baby looked good was amazing.  

I’m not sure if I waited for another contraction or not, but I pushed and baby shot out!  Brent caught baby and then said that baby was a girl!!!  I was wrong!  I was thinking boy the whole time!  

I was so happy!  I was done, baby was here!!!  I turned myself around and sat on the towel then held baby as they got towels for her.  

Everything was relatively easy, and my recovery has been amazing.  Minimal after birth pains, minimal bleeding after the first day, and I’m not sore.  Baby is healthy and just perfect.  Her latch is not good.  She has a lip tie making nursing almost unbearable at times.  However it’s getting better.  Especially now that my milk came in.  She’s a sweetie though.  If she’s upset I can just talk to her and she calms down.  

Eliza Ruth

Born May 2, 2018

40w 4d

5:20am

9lb 1oz

Baby 10 is here! Our 6th baby girl!

I haven't talked about this, but we found out at the beginning of the year we were expecting baby 10. From the very start of this pregnancy I had a strange sense of urgency to get everything ready or when my baby came.  I wasn't sure what the reason was, but I assumed it meant that baby might be earlier than the 40 week date.  As my date got closer I found myself getting anxious.  When October 30, at 40 weeks passed, I was getting irritable.  I was really wanting to get labor started, and it was hard to just wait.  However, I also knew that everything was fine and I didn't want to rush and cause any problems. 

I was getting more exhausted with a mixture of very bad acid reflux and not sleeping from that and contractions going from midnight to 4am nightly.   Around 40+4 the contractions switched to all day and nothing at night.  This was a wonderful break, and it gave me a chance to catch up on sleep.  On Saturday, November 5, I decided I needed a super rich meal.  The kids had eaten dinner and gone to bed.  Due to a crazy day, Brent and I hadn't eaten yet.  I made us some rich, homemade Mac and Cheese at 11pm.  We stuffed ourselves and went to bed.  At about 12:45am my contractions started and were 2 minutes apart.  I knew they would fizzle out around 4am, but laughed internally that at 2 minutes apart this could be fast.  I posted on a couple facebook groups so I could have a timeline, keep my friends updated, and they would know incase something came up that I needed answers to.  I got up at 2am to go to the bathroom.  Then at 3am Brent jumped out of bed choking.  He had a sudden acid reflux attack and inhaled it.  I stayed awake and listened to make sure he was ok and made it back to bed from the bathroom safely.   Then woke again at 4am and my contractions were still going, and still the real feeling ones in my cervix.  However, they were 5-15 minutes apart.  

Around 8:20am my plug started to come out.  That's when I knew it was getting real.  I only lose my plug during labor.  I continued to labor throughout the day.  I realized that if I laid on my side that my contractions were back to back and strong enough to bring me to tears.  When I sat up, they were more spaced out 5 to as far as 30 minutes apart, and easy to breathe through.  I decided to stay sitting.  I would rather prolong the labor and be more gentle on myself, than try to go faster and harder in hopes for a faster birth.

Around 3pm Brent made a comment that my noises were sounding more orgasmic, which is know to be when I'm getting closer.  I moved back into my birthing room and spent time on my birthing ball.  At 3:30 I felt a small gush of fluid and walked to the bathroom.  When I got to the toilet I saw there was blood in my pajama pants I was wearing.  I had heard I others bleeding when their cervix changed quickly, and a few friends of mine confirmed they did the same.  However, I still felt concern and got worried thinking about different reasons for bleeding, such as the placenta.  I knew it was up high, but thought of detachment.  I kept trying to get baby to move, but with back to back contractions it was hard.  Baby finally have me a kick, and I felt a little better.

At 3:45 I knew I needed to be in the water.  Contractions were coming fast and I wanted relief.  I got in the shower and sprayed warm water on my stomach.  About 15 seconds later my water broke.  I immediately noticed it was very stained.  A second thing that I had never personally encountered.  It wasn't necessarily concerning, but it was something else I had to monitor.  I mentioned it to Brent when he came in right after that.  He asked worriedly if that was bad.  I said it meant baby was stressed at some point (possibly because I fell down a couple weeks earlier), but only bad if baby inhaled it.

Brent stayed in there with me the rest of the time.  He helped with counter pressure and refreshing and warming the water in my tub.  I kept changing position from hands and knees, sitting, and squatting so I could keep the contractions coming since they kept stalling out.  I kept pushing on my stomach to get baby to respond, and did get a kick or roll to the side occasionally.  I will admit that I was rather stressed.  I would kind of test push with the contractions, but never felt progress with baby.

I moved to my knees and laid over the bench seat on the back of the tub.  As a contraction started, I felt a pop and my water broke again.  I let out a primal roar, and pushed as baby's head made it halfway down.  Another contraction and baby was crowning.  I stopped.  At the next contraction I began to push, but stopped and cried out "I CAN'T DO IT".  That was my cue.  Brent said that's when I'm at the end when I tell that. The next contraction I began pushing.  It hurt so bad.  Suddenly I knew baby had to get out right now.  I screamed baby out with a sense of urgency, and felt what I believe was me tearing slightly.  Baby's head was out.  Brent said he could see baby's little face.  The next contraction came and I pushed, but baby stopped halfway instead of the normal slide right out.  He said to stop.

Brent and Hannah (my daughter) said the cord was noosed around the neck really tight. There was no slack.  I felt a strange and painful movement, and he said baby's arm was out. Once he got one arm out they saw the cord was around baby's arm too, holder the arm up above baby's head.

He finally got the cord off baby's arm which gave slack to get it off the neck. I said I was going to raise up, and I raised up on my feet to put my butt in the air, but still laying on the bench.  I told him to keep baby's head out of the water.  I couldn't push, and kept yelling at him to stop pulling on her.  There was such pressure, and I felt like he was pushing on my perenium while pulling on baby.  He them said he wasn't doing anything.  It was just baby slowly coming out without help.

Once baby was out I asked "Is she ok?".  I heard a couple tiny cries.  Then asked if baby was a girl.  We had another girl!  She was very calm. She cried a couple times, but just looked at us. 

She is absolutely perfect.  She was born on Sunday, November 6 at 5:40pm CST.  She weighed 8lb 10oz and 21 1/4 inches long.   Our 10th baby!  Still no name.  I love the name Lena.  We shall see.

A call from the press

Kind of half way freaking out. 

Phone rang. Hubby looked at it. It was the local paper. Ummmm? Ok. He answered it and talked for a few seconds, then says "Yes, she's here." and hand the phone to me. Cue question marks from both of us. 

It was the local paper wanting me to write up a piece for their Christmas edition about home birth. She's emailing me some questions. Things like how many home births vs hospital. Home many kids. What I would suggest to women who are looking to birth at home. 

Wow! 

I know I sounded super paranoid. I am when it comes to stuff like this in public.  There have been a few recent bad home birth articles lately in the national news.  Still, I get to write it up and decide what direction it goes, for the most part.  It can be a happy and good home birth piece.  

Welcome Zechariah Bruyn To The World

I'm going to start earlier in the week. I went to bed Monday night at 40+1. I will admit that I had been ready for a couple weeks, but still thinking that he could hold on like Joy did and wait until almost 43 weeks.  

Ok, so I went to bed Monday night exhausted.  What did I do all day. I cleaned all day long. 

"My house is ready. My birth kit is ready. I organized baby's clothes and diapers. Dinner was ready by 4 (a little crazy on getting dinner going early). Showered, did laundry, organized. No sewing today."

I had the nesting bug.  I I had been sewing cloth pads and a few fun craft projects all week. 

I'd been having pretty hard contractions for 5 to 7 hours at a time starting Monday.  They would go on for hours, me breathing through them, then stop.  

Wednesday night I decided to take a picture. I thought "This could be my last picture of this pregnancy". 

So, come Thursday night, I was tired and ready.  We went to bed and at midnight (12:04am actually) a very hard contraction came along.  My eyes popped open.  Ok, this might be it.  I fell back asleep.  Another contraction.  It was one hour apart.  This happened until 4am.  Then they picked up.  I stopped timing at that point.  

I went back and forth between bed and the bathroom. I lost track of time at that point.  I listened to music on my phone. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom between laboring on the toilet, hanging on the counter, and kneeling over my birth kit box.  At some point I got on the couch and slept between contractions.  Waking only to moan, cry out, and at the end sob through the last few.  

I went back to the bathroom and labored between my triangle of locations.  None were helping.  I kept telling myself that it was getting close.  I could feel baby's bag of waters bulging.  I waited and labored longer.  I moaned and yelled through my contractions.  I kept talking to baby, saying it was time to come out.  

**Later that day Hannah (12) apologized because she said she smiled hearing me because I sounded like I was singing opera.  She said I was hitting the notes rather well.**

I could feel the bag of waters, and knew I couldn't go on for much longer.  I was exhausted physically and mentally.  I pinched to break the sac, and a little liquid did come out, but the bag was still intact.  I labored a bit longer and tried again.  This time water splashed across the chux pad.  Things picked up from there.  

My oldest daughter Sadie (15) was hanging around outside of the bathroom.  She asked if I needed anything.  I said I needed her dad.  

They both came in, but I had kind of wedged myself into my triangular area where there wasn't a lot of room.  I hadn't wanted to move to far to change positions.  He had no space to get in by me.  He said to come to the living room where there was plenty of space to have baby.  I began roaring and said I can't move. I could feel baby's head.  At this point I was stuck leaning over my birth kit box facing the wall. 

He asked Sadie if she could get behind me.  If she would want to catch the baby.  She jumped at the chance, although very nervous since she hadn't done that before.  She had only helped with Bekah's birth, but didn't catch.  She was afraid of dropping the baby. Brent told her to be careful because baby will be slippery and come out with some force.  He then said to watch for the head. 

At this point I was feeling baby's head and knew the progress of what was going on. Unfortunately the only communication I could give them was my primal roars.  I would push through contractions and feel his head very slowly make it's way down.  Oh how I wanted this finished.  I kept thinking how close it was.  How I would meet my baby soon.  His head got close to crowning and Sadie told Brent she could see his head.  They both began encouraging me.  The excitement was in the air.  Baby was almost here. 

I pushed a couple more times and his head began to crown.  I took a break between contractions and slowly pushed him in just a bit.  I needed more time to stretch.  I pushed again on the next contraction and still couldn't get him out.  On the next, with Brent and Sadie encouraging me, I pushed and roared.  I thought his head was out, but they said to keep pushing.  I guess I stopped about his face.  It was like his head went on forever.  Then, finally, his head was out!  They said how he had a perfect head!  I found out later he was sunny side up.  

Next contraction I didn't wait.  I began pushing.  Brent readied Sadie.  I'm not exactly sure what's really going on with them, as I'm facing away from everyone.  I hear Sadie ask why baby is blue (a bit scared) and we both said that how they are, it's ok.  Then Brent said the cord was around baby's neck, but it was beyond the point of stopping.  Baby was out.  (The cord was not looped around the neck, but draped across his shoulders.)

I hear Brent say "It's a boy!".  What a surprise to me!  I felt the entire time baby was a girl!  

He asked the time.  11:20am. I said it sure felt like 4pm.  

I was exhausted.  With my others I wanted to immediately hold baby.  This time I could only drape myself across the box and rest.  After a few minutes I was able to shakily stand up and see my baby boy. I don't know how long I waited, but he was cleaned up by that time. I guess he was really cheesy.  I grabbed a towel and sat on it while I finally held my little (not so little) guy.  I stood up and felt movement.  I squatted and pushed the placenta out. We then tied the cord and Brent cut it. 

Brent then asked everyone what their guess was on his weight.  Sadie said 7lb something.  My eyes got huge.  I laughed and said I guess 9lb 10oz because his head was so big.  Brent guessed 9lb 16oz.  I laughed and said that was 10lbs.  He said it's also 9lb 16oz.  Ha ha!

They took him out and I sat in the toilet for a while.  I was cold and shaking so hard I couldn't do much else for a while.  After I gathered myself, I was able to shower.  After I got out and dressed I went to the living room and found out he was 9lb 10oz on the dot!

Brent then looked at me and asked about names.  We had thought of girls, and I mentioned boy names, but nothing was decided on.  He said "What about Zechariah?".  I was so happy!  It was one I wanted since Moses.  He asked about the middle name.  I had no idea.  Then he said (since Zechariah was a family name) what about Zechariah's middle name, Bruyn?  Perfect!

Zechariah Bruyn

Born 4/25/14 at 40w 5d

11:20am

9lb 10oz

21 1/2 inches long

15 inch head

Brigham's Birth Story

Today is Brigham's 7th birthday.  What a fast 7 years with my sweet man!  I wanted to share his story here.  

He was our first home birth and first boy. I researched all the information while we were TTC so I could 'convince' my husband to have the baby at home. When I told him I wanted to have our baby at home, he said he felt the same way.

Luckily, I didn't do all that work for nothing. All our parents were very against this. They knew I or Brigham would die. We showed them the statistics on how home birth was safer than hospital birth. They didn't get any say in the matter anyway. We found a wonderful midwife the next state over (we lived in MO and was near impossible to find a home birthing midwife.) She did all the prenatal visits at my home. She made me feel very empowered and educated me about pregnancy and birth more than I could have known. I had 3 children before and didn't know squat. Funny how uneducated I was when I put my faith in the doctors. 

I had a friend ask me to call her as soon as I went into labor so she could take pictures and document the entire thing (she's a photographer). She wanted a home birth so badly, but at that time her husband didn't like the idea very much.

I went to bed around 1am and thought, "Tomorrow morning I'll put the waterproof pad on the bed so it won't get wet if my water breaks."

I'm a procrastinator and was a few days overdue. Two hours later I woke up and water hit my knees. Funny! Too bad I didn't get that waterproof sheet on before I went to bed. :) I went to the bathroom and used a little strip to make sure my water broke (I thought what the heck! May as well make sure.) I went to my husband and kind of woke him up. I told him I had good news and bad news. The good news was I didn't wet the bed. I never told him the bad news. He guessed it on his own... No sleep tonight. 

We called the midwife and my friend. I walked around for a while in the house and ate some breakfast my FIL brought to us. I didn't want to eat but they made me. After a while my contractions stopped so Suzanne (my midwife) checked me. She said that my water broke on the top and asked if I wanted her to she could break my water again. I agreed because I was so tired and yet so excited. I couldn't wait to hold my baby.

I labored in the living room. We had a hammock stand and I hung from the hammock. I hung from my doula (who I almost bit). Glad I got my senses back before that happened. I pushed from the hammock for a while, but I was so exhausted that I just couldn't push any more.

They helped me to the couch and I decided to push while on my back. I didn't want to do this position before then, but I knew I could push from that position. I let out a huge scream and, after a few pushes, our little man's head made it into the world. I hear about the ring of fire, but I don't remember that. I do remember how bad his shoulders hurt when I pushed again. He was born a few minutes after 12pm.

What a wonderful experience. I always want our future children born at home. It was so wonderful and spiritual. I appreciated the births at home much more than those in the hospital. It is something else to feel it and know how hard your body is working to bring this wonderful little child into the world.

One Born Every Minute...

So, I finally got to watch episode 1 today. I must say, I was sorely disappointed, but not really all that surprised. I was extremely saddened by the second woman who ended up with a cesarean. When she said she had lots of pressure. The nurse said it was because baby was coming and she was almost fully dilated (she was at a 9 1/2). Then, when she hit transition (you could tell), they called emergency c-section for "failure to progress". I was like WTH!!!! She's at a 9 1/2! Baby is pushing it's way down! I was so ticked!!! DH thought it was complete crap!

**Here is the link to the video.

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/one-born-every-minute/video/full-episodes/episode-1-to-medicate-or-not

Fast forward to 27:45. She says that there is a lot of pressure. The nurse says "That is the baby. You are almost fully dilated." Then at 28:07 they call "Failure to Progress" for the reason of the cesarean! NOTHING about baby having ANY problems.**

I've also been hearing all about how the "crunchy" family was so rude and obnoxious. How the nurse (Pam) was also rude and obnoxious. How they should have had a birth in a birthing center if they wanted to go natural. So on, and so on.

I think that the nurse, was a bit rude with her overall attitude about their labour and birth wishes. She needed to step back, and let them labour. Really, just leave them alone. They didn't want all the interventions. After hours of hard labour, I can tell you that I am much meaner than they were. DH is also very protective of my wishes. Neither on of us would have been so nice, and probably would have just asked for a different nurse. The couple most likely would have LOVED to go to a birthing center, but they couldn't. Why? Here is what the mother had to say:

"First of all, there are no birth centers in Columbus, and several homebirth midwives, but only one homebirth midwife practice that has a physician ‘back-up’ (which just felt responsible to me). But, NO insurance locally covers homebirthing, so at first, it was an economical decision. Later in my pregnancy, after we began taking NCB classes, we decided that our next baby would be at home, but there was also a measure of comfort in doing the first at the hospital, since I had no idea what to expect."

I was disappointed when they finally pressured her into Pitocin. :( At 21 hours of labour (which is normal), she was tired and (IMO) they took advantage of that.


Overall, I really think that the show put the hospital and staff in a negative light. The nurses spent a lot of time rolling their eyes when the woman was moaning through her labour pains. They always had snide little looks on their faces. They were always pushing interventions. Which I understand. It is there job to sell the drugs and procedures. The more they sell, the more the hospital makes.

It was actually really sad to watch. However, on the plus side. This show did remind me why I enjoyed birthing my last 3 babies at home so much. It was a little more painful, but so much easier, happier, more comfortable, and much less stressful.

I think that the first episode is all I care to watch. I think I'll throw it in the "A Baby Story" trash bin. It's too bad, because the previews really made it look like it was going to be interesting.