Be Careful What You Wish For!

Our new little Pumpkin finally made his appearance into the world yesterday! He was born at 7:50 am, weighed 8 lbs. 8.2 oz. and is 21 inches long. He came in the caul, and so far is a calm, mellow dude.

You may know, that Peanut's birth was a long and arduous journey lasting 90 hours with the last 18 of those hours spent laboring at the hospital. We were planning to have a natural birth and ended up having to choose several interventions along the way due to the time she was taking and how my body was responding. So this time, I did everything I could to make this a different and shorter, calmer, less medical experience.

Well, all of those things worked. A little too well maybe! I woke with pressure waves at about 2am, and started to time them. They were 7-10 minutes apart and I was excited thinking that this may be the day, but I didn't want to get too excited since I know that sometimes they can peter out and you are back to nothing in the morning. I debated waking Honey, and then decided I would - just to let him know what was going on. We both agreed that this was great, but were wary of putting too much stock into it. So I turned on one of my Hypnobirthing scripts on my zune and tried to get some sleep.

About an hour later, I timed a few more waves and they were stronger, but still 5-7 minutes apart. I came downstairs and sent out an email to the team in place to help with Peanut just to let them know what was going on and that we might need them later. I walked around, sat on the ball, had a few more intense surges and came back to bed. I told honey what was up and a short while later we called our doula - around 5. We talked and decided that I was still doing fine on my own and we would call her back if and when we needed her. I went back to bed and listened to some Hypnobabies scripts as well. I was really in the zone and Honey fell back asleep, and when I woke, we both decided that it seemed like the surges were further apart, even though we hadn't yet timed them. We did then start timing them - Surges were now about 4 minutes apart, but I had had a few intense ones, and some that we even closer to 2 minutes apart. I also spoke with a girlfriend on the phone and went through what was going on so far, but I still don't think I fully believed that this baby was really on it's way. We started the process of figuring out where Peanut would go when we went to the hospital. We called our doula back around 6:30am and let her know we needed her. We called the hospital and said we would be coming in this morning. Somewhere around this time, I lost my mucous plug and started to laugh and cry at the same time - we never saw this last time and for me it meant it was really truly going to happen. During this whole time, Peanut was coming in and talking to me so sweetly!

From there on out, it is a little blurry and crazy. As we finished packing our bag and Peanut's bag, the surges were really intense and took all of my concentration to get through them. If I didn't catch them in time to get into a good position, they were really hard, but if I got on top of them I could breathe and relax and let my body do what it needed to do. I kissed Peanut and she and dad went outside to meet her aunt who was taking her for the day. At about the same time, our doula arrived to help. When she walked in, I realized I had been making some really low sounds. Then she started helping me through surges and we both realized that I had three in a row that were two minutes apart. I think I said that these last few felt pushy, and she asked if I thought I could make it to the car. I said I was not sure. She asked how far the hospital was - I said about 30 minutes. I think then I realized this baby was coming SOON. Then my body just started pushing and I felt a baby and told her that - she looked and the amniotic sac was bulging. She ran to the door to tell Honey what was going on and that we needed to call 911. He came back in and held my leg up, while she called our midwives and 911. The emergency operator and our midwife talked our doula through preparing me for birthing, but really, there was no option - my body completely took over. As the doula went to open the door for the emergency personnel, the baby's head emerged. Honey yelled for her and she came back in as the baby's body came out. The water broke and she put sweet little Pumpkin on my chest. I would discover later it was her first time catching a baby in all her years as a doula. The emergency personnel came in and it was completely surreal. Here I had this perfect little creature on me who had just popped out and I was absolutely blissful. The team was wonderful, helping to bundle him up, clamping and cutting the cord, making sure we were both fine and getting us out with some level of modesty (not much though - I arrived at the hospital in a tank top and nothing else).

As we rolled outside, I saw a neighbor and smiled and waved. The EMT's said they had not seen a situation like this where mom was so happy and smiling as they wheeled her out. I was pleased to be the one - we were all fine and everyone was accounted for - what more can I ask? In the ambulance, I nursed Pumpkin and he latched on like a champ. We got to the hospital and we were both checked out. After some discussion with staff, and dealing with "hospital policy", We went home that afternoon and just enjoyed our new addition.

I can't begin to tell you how profoundly this experience has amazed me. I just am in shock and awe and I am so grateful to have this body with it's outstanding abilities. I feel so powerful and capable right now, and I feel so good after birthing this way. The hardest thing these next few weeks will be keeping myself from doing too much.