The Babe has Arrived!

Here are the stats:

• Babe was born on Friday morning
• Labor lasted about 3 hours, and she was born at 6:14 a.m.
• She weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces
• She is 19.5 inches long
• She has short blond (hint of red) fuzz for hair. It looks like Chick's did.
• (By the way, Chick weighed 7.7 and was 20.25 long with an 8 hr labor)

Here are some pictures!

Here's an approximate timeline of the birth:

2:00 am - Chick woke us up & went back to bed. I worked on the
computer for an hour.

3:00 am - I took a bath

3:30 am - Woke HH up and started doing housework

3:45 am - Called Grandma N & Charlotte (our midwife)

4:45 am - Got into the birth pool

5:30 am - Got out to have water broken

5:45 am - Started pushing

6:14 am - Our little Babe was born!

Here's a detailed story of the birth...read only if you are interested...I won't be offended : )

Chick woke us up for her 2:00am hug, and went back to bed. I was having slight cramps & didn't feel the baby move after I moved around a bit & I got nervous about things being ok...so I got up and went to do some design work on the computer. The baby did move some, which helped me to feel more at ease, but after an hour the cramps were getting a little more annoying. So I went and got into the bathtub for a little bath. That's when I decided that they weren't CRAMPS but actual CONTRACTIONS...that were getting stronger. After only half an hour I decided that this was IT, and I woke HH up to start filling the pool.

Honestly, with several false alarms, I'm surprised that he listened to me and got up. But he did. While he started filling the pool, I picked things up & swept, etc...figuring that if it was false labor then the change in activity would get rid of the contractions. But it didn't--they got stronger. Strong enough that when a contraction came I'd have to get down on my hands and knees and focus on relaxing. Then I'd get up and walk around & clean some more. During that time of activity I called my Mom & midwife.

Finally I couldn't take walking around anymore--the contractions were too close. So I went into my bedroom and draped myself over my physio-ball & rocked on my knees. I did that for a few contractions--my Mom arrived while I was doing that. I didn't do that for too long, though--contractions were too strong and the pool next to me was too alluring.

I had a rule to not get into the pool until I was dilated to a 5, and there wasn't any of the midwife team to check me yet, but I couldn't stay out. I got in and was SO grateful for the water! While I was in there the assistants & then the midwife arrived. By the time the midwife arrived I was going crazy inside. I was playing mind games like, "I know that a sign of transition is the feeling like you can't take any more...I feel like I can't take any more, does that mean that I'm going through transition? Or does it just mean that I WANT to be going through transition?"

The funny thing is that one of the assistants met Charlotte, the midwife, outside and told her that I was really calm and it looked like they had a long time left. Little did she know! I felt like all I could do was hang on until Charlotte arrived and checked my dilation.

So Charlotte came in and checked and said that I was at 4. "FOUR?! NO, IF I'M AT FOUR, THEN I CAN'T DO IT. I CAN'T DO IT!" That's all in caps to let you know that I said it frantically, pretty much crying. I just melted. I couldn't believe it. I had totally expected her to say I was at a 10 and could push!

Thankfully Charlotte said that if I felt like that, then there was a good chance that I was really in transition (sort of) but not dilating because my water hadn't broken. She said that she couldn't guarantee it, but often after the first baby the water doesn't break but if you break it things will go quickly afterwards. She thought that it was possible that if I let her break the water then I'd probably go from 4 to 10 quickly.

I had HH come in (he was off doing stuff...I think he liked being busy and getting things done, rather than sitting by helplessly. I'm coherent enough during labor to be ok with that). I held his hand during a contraction & had Charlotte tell him the option, and he thought we should do it. I was ok with anything to speed things up, so I got out of the tub.

They discussed whether or not to take the quilt off the bed--I said no, because from the pool I wanted to see my quilt rather than the ugly sheets that we'd put on for the days after the birth. So, since I was just getting on there for the water breaking, they put down a bunch of pads & towels on top of the quilt. Charlotte waited for the next contraction and broke the water during it.

The next contraction got me to 8, and the next after that was 10 and I was able to start pushing.

The plan had been to get back into the water, but the baby's head started crowning immediately & Charlotte encouraged me to stay put and just push the baby out quickly. So I did.

Pushing Chick out had taken 1.5 hours and was exhausting and my least favorite part of the birth. With Babe it was nice to be able to do something & helped to make the contractions less painful. We don't know exactly how long I was pushing, but think it was about a half hour. It was very dramatic--I was a lot more noisy than with the first birth, and I wasn't doing it on purpose. The plan had been to have Chick watch, but she slept through everything, and given the drama of the scene I'm glad she did. I don't think she'd have understood.

Anyhow, then the baby was born. I got to help pull her out & call the gender, which was cool. HH cut the umbilical cord & weighed the baby.

So far things are going well. Yesterday was busy with a steady stream of visits from family, which was so much fun!

Chick does have some jealousy moments, but generally she loves to give Babe her lovin'! I'll definitely have to be on my toes, but at least she likes the baby. And we are all very impressed that at 22 months she can pronounce Babe's name perfectly! That's something that most people have yet to master!