His arrival came much much later than I had expected. Even though I tried really hard not to have expectations for his birth, I couldn't really help it! I thought for sure he was going to come early, it just seemed like there was no way he would be late! Well, September began, and wore on and on and on, and he remained firmly entrenched in my body. He was due on September 18th, and that came and went with little fanfare. I began having some good Braxton Hicks contractions that week, but he was EXTREMELY high, so then I began to think he was never ever going to arrive! :)
We had a midwife appointment the week of his due date, and when I was checked, I was not dilated at all. That was pretty disappointing, but we started going for good hilly walks, and thinking open thoughts. Another appointment, and no change. Then, on Monday, since I was overdue we had a non stress test to monitor his heart rate to make sure he was still doing well inside, and also measure the amniotic fluid. Everything checked out great, and I was measuring at 3 centimeters dilated! Hooray, progress! We figured we should go for another big walk, and then take a nap as I was pretty worn out.
We ended up walking about 6.5 miles that day. When we got home around 4, I laid on the couch to try to snooze a bit, but kept waking up with contractions, which felt a bit more real than previous days, but still not horrible. Kevin was supposed to tutor that evening at the library, and Talia was due home a little after 5pm from daycare. I didn't think I was actually in labor yet, so sent Kevin off to the library. Talia arrived home, and suddenly I realized this was real!!!! I couldn't really function, trying to get dinner ready for Talia took all my focus and I realized that it was time to call Kevin home and get things swinging!
Kevin arrived home around 5:30, and we called my sister in law Kate to head over as well as Kevin's parents to head to the ferry to pick Talia up for the evening. Kate arrived around 6, and helped distract Talia while I labored a bit on the yoga ball and Kevin got the birth tub set up. We'd called the midwife as well, and she called back around 6:30 and done with Kate about coming around 8pm. Kevin's parents arrived about 7:15, and whisked Talia away. This whole time, I was trying not to let my pain show to Talia and I was having a hard time relaxing. Once she was out the door (with one of the best kisses good bye of my life!) I was ready to get things moving! I think I got in the tub almost immediately, which felt so much better than the yoga ball. The contractions were getting stronger, but I figured we still had hours to go based on my experience with Talia.
Our midwife Elise arrived at 8pm. She got herself set up a bit, then check to see how far is progressed. I was surprised to learn I was 8 centimeters! He was still stationed really high though, so again I figured we were in for a long haul. I started giggling to myself at this point, because I got The price Is Right "Come on dooooooown!" in my head! With Talia I was still several hours out when I hit 8 cm.
I switched to kneeling in the tub with my arms draped outside and holding Kevin's hands while Kate applied pressure to my lower back during contractions. I very quickly started feeling the urge to push. It was a very different feeling this time, with my whole body bearing down hard with each contraction. With the very first pushing feeling, I looked at Kevin and said "snip snip snip snip snip!"Apparently I am very done having children!!!
Around 8:30 the assistant Carly arrived, and I was pushing pretty hard. At some point here my water broke. It was bizarre! I was pushing and all of a sudden it was like a water balloon popped inside me and I felt the gush! Apparently there was meconium in it, just like with Talia, and Elise checked his heart rate, which was slowing down. She was encouraging me to try new positions, which I really didn't want to do. I felt like every time I moved I had to learn how to manage the contractions all over again! She wanted me to try to pee to make some room for him, but I couldn't do it in the tub. Despite the fact that I was mostly naked and had been pushing out a fair amount of stool, I'm a fairly private pee-er! So they wanted me to go to the toilet, on the other side of the house. This did not please me one bit. I very begrudgingly got out of the tub, and scurried to the toilet before another contraction started. The moment I sat on the toilet, I felt him clunk down and felt the ring of fire! I panicked that he was going to come out into the toilet! Very quickly, they laid towels and pads down in the hallway outside the bathroom and helped my get onto all fours right on the rug! With 2 more giant pushes, he came out and into the world!!! At 9:27pm, we heard his cries and his first breaths! Elise passed him between my legs to Kevin and then into my arms! I was shaking so hard and couldn't believe he was finally finally here! He was slick with meconium and oh so perfect! They let his cord stop pulsing and then Kevin got to cut it, and they helped us all into bed back on the other side of the house. I sure didn't expect to have him on the floor in the hallway, but when he decided he was ready to arrive, he sure came fast!
All in all, it was about 4.5 hours of labor, which was crazy fast! It didn't give me a lot of time to transition myself each step, but also meant I couldn't dwell on anything too long and want to give up! I'm ever so glad we were able to have our home birth experience! It was so nice to just be there and not have to get in a car or have doctors breathing down my neck about anything!
Clark is a lovely little man! He's very relaxed, and spends most of his time sleeping, quite the contrast to his big sister who has always beetn wide awake! He's got tremendous dimples in both cheeks and his chin! We've had a rocky start to breastfeeding, but are hopeful that we can get things in the right direction and have a long and successful nursing relationship. He's had his tongue tie clipped which helped my pain a ton and he seems to be getting more milk now. He's slowly but surely gaining weight now, though we are keeping a very close eye on it to make sure he doesn't slip like his sister did. It's been harder for me in a lot of ways, not least of which because I was just praying that things would magically be awesome this time around. It has also been hard for me not to be available to Talia like I'd like to be. She's been an amazing big sister though, and mostly is great with Clark being here!
Clark is now 16 days old! He's waking up to the world more and more each day. He is a champion sleeper at night. We have to set alarms to make sure he gets fed every few hours, otherwise he'd probably sleep through the night! I'm looking forward to his personality showing more in the coming weeks, seeing those first real smiles and him recognizing his family, and to nursing not being the main thing I do! Haha.
Here some photos of his first couple weeks!
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