I had a much healthier pregnancy than my first as far as exercising and eating somewhat healthy. I had gained a lot of weight with my first, not done much exercising, had a stressful job, and thought pregnancy was my free pass to eat what I wanted. I paid for it at the end of my pregnancy with terrible braxton hicks contractions and gaining so much. My knees hurt from the stress of the weight on them. I decided once I got down BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight that I would never again get that heavy.
4 Weeks
24 weeks
39 weeks 5 days
With this pregnancy, I never had any braxton hicks contractions. I made sure to exercise every day but Sunday, my day of rest and I ate much healthier, even though I craved desserts this pregnancy(salty foods were my friend with baby #1). I was positive baby would be early because I had such bad contractions early on with my first baby. By the 37 week mark I was exercising extra to get baby to come. Long walks and jumping jacks were my way to try to hurry things along. My mother even came early from out of town to help out with my older child. Much to my chagrin, baby waited.
About 6pm on my due date, April 4, 2013, I went to the restroom and thought I felt my water break(it had broken with my first so I knew the feeling). I thought if I laid down and my bag was broken, water would gush out. So I laid down for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so my husband and I decided to run an errand. I guess walking around helped and on the way home at 7:08 I had my first contraction. When I got home I told my mom and she got a paper out and recorded it and subsequent contractions' time apart and length. I was having a friend watch my oldest and wanted to make sure it was the real thing before calling her.My contractions were stead at 10-11 minutes apart, but they were intense enough that I couldn't handle my toddler being there.
Once he was at our friend's house for the night, things really got started.I had to really concentrate for contractions. They were between 3-4 minutes apart. I let my midwife know. She was surprised they progressed so fast since she knew my first baby took 25 1/2 hours from when my water broke to his birth. She, assuming a long labor, had made plans and couldn't get away right away. I should add that she was located about an hour and a half away! She told me to call my childbirth teacher/doula. About 10pm she came and sat with me, encouraging me to try different positions during contractions until I found one that made me comfortable. I felt better kneeling against the sofa. Upon her arrival my contractions eased back up to about 10 minutes apart. I did some walking back and forth down the hall to get things going and they did.When they were back to about 3 minutes apart I felt the need to get into the bathtub. The warm water was so relaxing, but that didn't slow labor down as I thought it would. It just eased the pain of the contractions. I was getting anxious about the midwife arriving on time and was assured by Robin that she would assist with the birth if needed. My midwife came just as I was starting to push. I pushed for about an hour. He came out a little then went back in then out a little more etc. Right before his birth he came out up to his nose and stopped. This time he didn't go back in. That hurt so much and I screamed in pain. I begged the midwife to "pull him out!!" She was so patient with me and just calmly said that she couldn't and the next contraction I needed to really push hard. He came out quickly after that and she put him to my chest right away. She rubbed his back and suctioned his nose and mouth. He didn't cry right away even though he was breathing so she was working at cleaning out his airway to annoy him enough to get him to cry more. It worked and a few minutes later he was wailing. The placenta was an easy birth as I didn't do anything to deliver it and it was out. Titus Matthew Hall was welcomed into the world at 3:19am on April 5, 2013.
Titus Matthew Hall 6lbs 10oz 18 1/4 in 3:19am
Meeting brother for the first time.
It was such a wonderful experience and I know that if he were born in a hospital under the same circumstances the doctor would have given me an episiotomy and possibly pulled the baby out and roughed him up or taken him away from me for an unknown amount of time to examine him to make sure he was okay as his breathing wasn't the best right away. I am very thankful for my midwife, my doula Robin, and especially my husband for all supporting me in this special time. I am happy to be planning another home birth for my third baby due in early June, 2015.
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