The Almost Pedicure and Birthing with underpants on.

Thursday May 30, 2013

To do List:

• Rebecca Appointment @ 11:30 (mom will be here at 10:00 to watch kids)
• Sign Commitment to Enroll Form and pick up registration packet at Entheos on the way home (bring birth cert. And immunization record)
• Possibly grab some groceries
• Evict the plant babies from the front room
• Pedi this evening?
• Snuggle up with Jack for a movie when kids are in bed?

This is how the day really went: (times in bold are exact times from my phone call log)

10:00 am - Mom gets here to play with the kiddos so I can get ready for my appointment.

11:30 am – Rebecca Appointment- I’m at 4 cm and 60% effaced! Woo! If things haven’t started by Saturday maybe we can talk about stripping membranes or something.

12:30 pm– I Fill out Entheos paperwork to get Corban registered for next fall.

1:00 – Go to Reams to pick up Bacon (on sale!!! 1.59/lb) and a few groceries for dinner tonight. I’m thinking yummy pork chops, salad, Mangoes, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

2:00 – I come home and have lunch with Mom while kids are asleep/doing quiet time. She made the yummiest lunch ever- a roasted balsamic tomato on a bed of couscous. Scarfed it.

3:00 – Rest for a bit

4:30 – Mom takes kids to the Magna Elementary school playground for a bit

4:40 – I start working on getting the porch planters ready to be planted.

4:55- Jack gets home.

5:00- I rest in a lawn chair in the shade while I have a few contractions every so often and Jack helps get the pots all set up for me to plant while sitting in a chair. (These were strong enough that I needed to breathe a bit through them but not enough that they required my full attention or anything.)

5:20 – Plant the herbs and seeds in the porch planters. Kids get home from the playground. Jack starts making the most delicious dinner ever. Mom heads to Costco and reminds me to call if we need anything.

5:45 – I head inside because I’m starting to get overheated outside and I’ve finished planting the porch planters. One is a Basil Pot, and the other is Sweet Pepper and Herb pot.

5:58 – I call Hawaii Nails to see if they have an appointment avail for 6:00 so I can get a pedicure while Jack’s delicious dinner is cooking AND so I have cute toes to deliver a baby at some point.

6:00- Start to leave for Hawaii Nails (right by Smith’s off 8000 w in magna) but have to pause on the top step for an unusually strong contraction out of the blue.

6:05 – Another strong contraction while I’m on my way to Hawaii Nails

6:10- Have another quite strong contraction in the parking lot of Carl’s Jr/Smith’s.

6:11 –  I call Hawaii Nails and cancel my pedi appointment because I figure I maybe…might… be starting a long labor process. I go through the drive through at Carl’s and order an Oreo shake (extra Oreos). I call Jack to let him know I’m coming back home after I get a shake because I think this might be it.

6:14- Have another strong contraction in the drive through line that is taking forever and a day.

6:16- I also call my mom and let her know that maybe she should head out now to get the kids and they can just eat with us then go to her house tonight.

6:21 – Arrive home but have to wait in the car while I have another strong one. I call Rebecca to let her know about these last few tough contractions. We both agree that it’s probably just because I had been checked this afternoon. I tell her I’ll keep her informed if anything changes and head inside to lie down. I set my shake down on the kitchen counter. I decide I should use the restroom to make sure I’m not contracting because of a full bladder.

6:25 – Have another contraction while lying down. Chloe comes in for a visit for a bit while I breathe through contractions.

6:30 – I ask Jack to start inflating the pool because I’m hoping to have the baby in the next day or two. I am in and out of the restroom- wondering if maybe this is my body emptying itself before “real labor”. I was drinking lots of water trying to stay hydrated. (Remember that Oreo Milk Shake from Carl’s on my kitchen counter? Never got another sip of it…ha ha.)

6:40- Pool is all blown up; my contractions are steadily 5 min apart, and 1 min long minimum. I try to listen to my hypnobabies soundtracks but can’t get comfortable with them (I don’t think I devoted enough time to practicing beforehand-that was my fault). I start needing Jack to use counter pressure against my hips during each contraction.

I labored between the restroom, and my bedroom. I leaned against the yoga ball while Jack provided counter pressure during contractions. I started realizing that maybe we should be filling the pool up because our water pressure is terrible and it will take time to fill. Jack began hooking the hose up and filling the pool between my contractions. My mom arrives to help the kids start eating their dinner. Jack is running back and forth between me and the hose and the kids like a rock star. I use the restroom and notice there’s lots of water leaking out the bottom of the bathroom sink (where the hose is hooked up to fill the birth pool). Jack is trying to help me with contractions and stop the leak in the sink and help get everything together for the kids to leave for their sleepover at Grandma’s. Grandma is helping keep the kids out of the restroom, and eating their dinner, and keep them away from the birth pool. I have Jack get one last pregnant belly picture. I lie down again to see if that will help and notice that my legs are shaking right as each contraction starts. My body is obviously doing something strenuous enough to cause this shaking.

7:18- I call Rebecca and ask if maybe she could come out so we can break my water and see where things are going. I was really calm on the phone and “seemed so nonchalant” to Rebecca. She agrees that this might be it and says she’ll load the car and head out. I acted like it was no big deal and she didn’t need to rush. (She told me repeatedly to call her if things felt like they were getting more serious and she needed to hustle-I agree that I will.)  

7:23- I text our Doula- Barbara Packard and ask her to head on over because I think this will for sure be the night/morning that we have this baby. I get changed into my swim top and some bottoms.

7:51 – Jack calls Rebecca for me because I want to get into the pool to labor but don’t want to get in if she’s just around the corner and can be here soon to break my water. (Her phone didn’t work right then so it was forwarded to her daughter’s phone)

I choose to get into the pool regardless because I want to relax. The pool wasn’t quite to the full line but I didn’t care I wanted to float. The water felt like HEAVEN. I leaned with my arms on the side of the pool and kneeled on the cushy bottom of the pool. The kids thought the pool was the coolest thing ever. They stood at the gate of the front room and wanted to see me in the pool. I kept asking them to listen to Grandma and get ready to go. I loved that they could see me from behind the gate but felt like things were getting a little too intense and was ready for them to head to Grandma’s house. Grandma was helping them grab the last of their “snuggles” for bedtime.

8:01- After two contractions (ten min) in the pool with Jack doing counter pressure I start realizing I’m beginning to feel kind of “pushy” and no one is here but Jack and my Mom and the kids! AND Jack had told me he’d rather not be the one to catch this baby.

***My thoughts: I can’t have this baby yet, no one has broken my water yet. There’s no way he’s going anywhere without someone breaking my water first.

Next contraction hits like a freight train and I feel my water break (which was the weirdest sensation I’ve ever felt!) as my body decides to bear down regardless of what my thoughts were two seconds ago. I realize that I still have my underwear on?!? So I start shimmying them down a bit but only make it to my knees before I have to get ready for the next contraction.

Barbara arrives (in the nick of time) and sits right in front of my face reminding me to keep my mouth open and just let things happen. She starts talking about how great I’m doing and to just keep things open. (“Open” meaning animal like yelling “ahhhhhh my gosh!” right??) I don’t recall much of a break between but I remember asking if his head was out yet because between the pop of the water breaking and my body bearing down I couldn’t quite tell what was happening because it was all happening at once! The next contraction his head was out, there was a small break between contractions (I remember thinking- what on earth? I don’t even have my underwear off- how am I having a baby?!?) The rest of him was born with the next contraction.

***There was plenty of unstoppable yelling but not out of fear or pain- it was just what felt natural- kind of like when martial artists use a good loud yell to add power to a punch or kick. This yelling during deliver was definitely for strength and power. There was never a tear because there was never really pain-pain. It was just so intense and fast. I’m not going to lie- the yelling helped. A lot. Almost like being a teapot that has reached the boiling point. Think: Pressure relief valve going off.

8:09- Barbara caught him and supported his body, and helped feed the umbilical chord through my legs while Jack helped me get turned around (and get my underwear off). Barbara handed Rigby to me to snuggle.

I will forever remember the look on Jack’s face when I was all turned around and holding our newest addition to the family. It was a look of awe, shock, and complete joy. All he could say was “Wow hun! You did it! You’re amazing!”. After a min Jack ran downstairs to grab some clean towels to keep Rigby and I warm. My mom had been loading the kids into the car during the delivery process and I asked that Jack go grab them and let the kids see their new baby brother. They had been quite worried because of all the noise but as soon as they saw that everything was alright, that they had a new baby brother, and a smiling mommy, they were okay. They just could not get enough of seeing Rigby. (Gabe asked if he could see the “special baby hole” [his terminology not ours] I declined politely and tried really hard not to giggle). They were all very smitten with him from that moment on.

8:15- Rebecca called to say she had gotten turned around but was close- Jack told her the baby had just been born and helped her with directions. She was so sad to have missed it. Jack helped her unload her car and get things set up while me and Rigby just got to cuddle in the pool for a bit. She got everything set up then helped deliver the placenta. We got out of the pool and into a nice warm bed. Barbara fed me some bites from Jack’s amazing dinner while I got all fixed up. I had a small tear that needed two stitches but it didn’t involve any muscle tissue like all my previous deliveries had. My tail bone didn’t feel as though it had been broken and I wasn’t bleeding a bunch like my other deliveries. Because I was on my knees and leaning on the side of the pool I saved myself a lot of discomfort in the recovery process. I’ve felt better in this recovery than I have with any of my other deliveries. Rebecca checked Rigby out after we had snuggled for a few hours and he’d had a good chance to nurse. He was 9 lbs. 5 oz, 20 inches long, with a head circumference of 14 ½ cm (chest was a full 15 cm!)! After Rebecca was finished with everything and Barbara left we stayed up for several hours to make a few phone calls and just cherish our new little one. We just had to keep kissing his forehead- it was the cutest squishy forehead because he was so chubby.  We thought and thought about names, we went over our newest list (my phone had died the weekend before and our list was saved on it so we had to make a new one that week). We had thought of several that were our top picks but he just didn’t fit any of those names. We went to bed and started fresh in the morning. The name Rigby was on one of our earliest name lists we’d made in this pregnancy but we’d let it drop off the lists because we were worried people would assume we got the name from a cartoon. When we woke up Friday morning after a little prayer we realized that our son was a Rigby, and that’s all there was to it.

Welcome to our family Rigby Jack Larsen!