I am yet again being woken up by contractions and figure I might as well get up and see how things go. I leave my husband upstairs to sleep, no point waking him if I’m just going to be in bed in a few hours anyway. The contractions are about seven minutes apart.
At three thirty we decide to wake up my husband as they have quickly moved from five minutes apart to three minutes……..this seems to be it. I call my Doula and get everyone going on setup for the pool and just keeping me company. My friend starts insisting we call my midwife, I am reluctant as I don’t want to call her over for another false alarm. Another half an hour will take care of that as they become more intense even if the timing remains the same. She of course is at another birth. My second is off for the weekend so our third will be attending. Lucky for us we met her in the hallway once, at least I have a face. We decide to be safe and have her come assess me. (timing becomes a blur after this) A little while later we get a call from the midwife on her way, now, I am sure this is it. Wonder if we are having a girl or a boy.
When the midwife shows up and assesses I am seven CM. Good thing we called. A little while later the contractions get a little more intense and I know I am in transition, this is when the second midwife is called. For the first time I am having back labour and this is one of those times I am thankful for the Doula, she rubs my back with every contraction leaving my husband free to take care of other things. They had started to fill up the pool and the original plan was to fill it halfway and then do the rest when I am ready, I let them know they better just fill it up.
I head upstairs to pee and have three or four contractions on the way there and back. Stand at the table for three or four more and then feel things are changing and soon I will need to push. I get into the pool and the water calms everything down but I can feel my body starting to change to a need to push. Within three contractions I need to push. My back is awful, it feels like someone has taken a rolling pin and is rolling it on my spine from the inside out. For the first time when a contraction starts I am thinking “Oh God, not yet I need more time.” The Doula tries to rub my back but it makes things worse so she immediately backs off. I have a few seconds rest between contractions, we joke about the state of my unshaven legs. Fortunate for me the baby arrives within a few pushes. They are placed on my belly and I get a few minutes to rest.
I am informed that I am bleeing a little too much so they need me out of the pool fairly soon. OK but is it a boy or girl? Quick check and we have our third boy. The cord is cut by my husband and then they again start encouraging me to get out of the pool. I get to the couch and they assess me again, still a little too muchblood so they ask permission to give me some oxytocin. I am reluctant but when they ask again shortly after I know it must be serious enough to require something so I give th OK. The needle is in quickly after that. It does the trick and the bleeding is controlled quickly.
Baby is checked for breathing and heartbeat. All five fingers and toes are there (that is my check) and they do an overall check of him to ensure he is healthy. I never even see cleanup but know it happened. I have my bloodpressure checked a couple times and bleeding assessed a few times. Within a few hours they are headed out the door. Going to another birth, I hope they manage to get some rest sometime today, but the chances are low.
My son was born at 7:05 AM weighing 9 lbs 5 oz. Our family is complete. I will see my midwife tomorrow. She will see me at home three times this week. I lay on the couch all day talking wiht my husband and children and resting. OK so several phone calls are made to grandparents, aunt/uncles, and friends. Good news is hard to keep quiet.
Well my daughter had said I would have the baby on the twentieth and if that is the case something better happen pretty soon. I don’t have any urges to clean like I did with the last three.
I spend the day with my best friend getting things done she wanted to do before going back to BC. At one the stores I do my “never pass up the opportunity to use the bathroom” breaks and notice my mucous plug is starting to come out. That usually means for me that the baby will be here within three days. Here’s hoping.
I call the midwives and leave a message letting my midwife know that my plug is coming out.
Can’t eat much that night, was suppose to go out with the girls but call to cancel, just can’t imagine having to sit in one place for that long. My husband and friend decide to watch Transformers II which is great as I haven’t seen it yet. Once again half way through the movie I decide I might as well go to bed since I can’t seem to find a comfortable position anyways. The sleep will do me good anyway.
Even with this being my fourth pregnancy there still is some question about what is real and not. I have concerns about the midwife not making it on time and the contractions are five minutes apart. It is 3AM and I decide to put a call in to the midwife, could she just come and take a look then we can go on from there.
Half an hour later she arrives, straight from another birth. I am only two CMs and not far along……probably not tonight. We all head for some rest. I am getting tired.
Disappointing but true here I am seeing the midwife and still pregnant. I have done pretty well to now but it is time. The complaining about how uncomfortable I am has started and this baby better come soon. I still have another week till my due date. The swelling is getting really uncomfortable and my ability to put on my socks is almost gone. To bad it isn’t summer time so I could just switch to sandals. One good thing about the early melt, those snow boots that don’t fit anymore can be put away.
All checks (heart rate, blood pressure, and belly measurements) are fine and now we play the waiting game.
We got caught up with our midwife as it had been a while since we had seen her. For the last little wihle we had been seeing other midwives within the group. I love my midwife and have developed a special relationship with her and as much as I don’t like seeing anyone else I know it is important to get to know the others within the office, you never know which one may actually attend your birth. It was good to be with her again.
We discussed which midwives we were most comfortable with which is important so they can try to ensure you have people at your birth that make you as comfortable as possible.
Blood pressure, heart rate and belly measurements were done and off we went, hoping that we wouldn’t have to be at the next appointment but guessing the chances were fairly high. I never go early.
Another appointment, this is the start of every week. The time seems to be flying and soon the baby will be here… We arrived to have the midwife we were supposed to see on the way out for a birth. It happens, they get a call, have the mom come in and before you know it they have to leave and there is no time to call you and let you know the appointment is cancelled. We drove across town so with some flexibility on our part and theirs we got to see someone anyway.
Things are really coming down to basic checks like blood pressure, measurement of the growth of the baby and heart rate. We also discuss the fact that my oedema (water retention) is one sided and when to be concerned about it. Right now a little lopsidedness is OK and oedema is fully expected. We go over when to call the midwife and how to get a hold of them if it is the weekend or night.
Ah seven months pregnant and starting to get those uncomfortable feelings that come with the third trimester. I have told myself I won’t complain until week 39, we’ll see how well that works out.
Once again there was some discussion about my veins. They are getting worse but there isn’t much to be done about them. The kids were so excited, they were grabbing the stethoscope and trying to check my heart rate. So, we jumped right into measuring the blood pressure which was down from last week. Then my son grabs the dopler and starts opening the bottle to put the gel on, well, guess we better get right on that. While two people try to keep him from over gelling everything my daughter grabs my belly and gives it a good shake, kinda like a bowl of jello. She claims to be checking the baby for size and health, and everything is fine. She is right, the baby is fine and still head down. I am only measuring at 30 weeks but there is no concern. My impatience son puts the dopler down and gets the heart right away, again 142. Next appointment is in two weeks. Hard to believe I am already 31 weeks along and sometime within the next nine weeks or so I will have the final child of my childbearing years.
Another meeting, more problems. Having slipped on the ice and hurt myself we needed to discuss what actions I should have taken after the accident. A call to the midwives would have been good as they would have had me come in to make sure I and the baby were OK.
A decision was made about the GBS and then we talked about requirements for the baby after birth, such as vitamin K shots and ointment for the eyes.
Again the usual blood pressure, heart rate, baby position, and belly measurements.
Next appointment in two weeks and then we are in the final stretch of every week. Wow has the time gone by fast.
With so many people getting in sick in my life since the new year we spent at least 15 minutes of the appointment talking about stress management. It is amazing how much things can change within a few weeks that are beyond our control yet need to be managed in order to stay healthy for ourselves and our unborn child.
Once that was discussed we talked about the GBS (group B strep). A self-swabbed test they do for mom and baby. Since I couldn’t think straight they left it for me to decide the next visit.
As usual from there was blood pressure, baby position, heartbeat and measurements. Appointments really are quite quick these days unless you have any major concerns like stress, then they certainly are willing to give you the extra time.
