little feet, big sky

OMG. I have a baby girl! Pics to come soon, but she was a healthy 7 lbs. 8 oz. at birth. The home birth went well, but she was stuck at about +3 after about 3 & 1/2 hours of pushing. (Thank god I didn’t know I’d been pushing that long!) I was super active in labor (which was good), but so exhausted by then that the decision to transfer to the hospital for a vacuum-assisted delivery was an easy one. The car ride was sheer hell, but the L&D staff at Cedars-Sinai was great. I had five minutes to try pushing, and if that didn’t work, our doctor was for a c-section, so I agreed to the epidural. It took 10 minutes to kick in, I had 5 minutes of blissful relief, and another 5 minutes of pushing with the doctor’s help and she was born.

I honestly felt I had the best of both worlds and am extremely happy with how things went. Of course, finishing off the delivery at home would have been best, but this was a close second. She got little, if any, of the effects of the epidural, and my being pain-free for the delivery and after meant I could instantly put her to the breast, as well as advocate for her best interests myself in the hours later. Totally awesome.

More to come in a bit!

I had another appointment with our midwife yesterday morning. (We’re setup for appointments every two weeks now.) Everything looked good, so yay! She said that she started to get tired and heavy around this time, too. She guess-timates that the baby is about five pounds about now, give or take a bit, which is pretty good for 34 weeks. I’ve been cleared for visiting my mother up in NorCal next week, and I’ll probably drive up, taking breaks along the way. (I hate to fly these days, the way TSA is.)

I finally got around to ordering the birth tub yesterday. Today, it’s Errand Day, picking up groceries (as I’m finally tired of eating out) and picking up birth supplies from a list the midwife gave. And I absolutely have to call pediatricians today to set up some interview appointments.

And that’s it. I’m sure by the time I’ve done that, gotten home, put away groceries, made dog food and done a load of laundry, I’ll be wiped out. I’ll have just enough energy to make some rice & curry, or pasta-something for dinner and will crash shortly after. *sigh* Nothing to be done about it, I guess – this is what the end of pregnancy looks like: a messy house, lists of things to do and one tired lady who look like she swallowed a watermelon whole, passed out on the couch.

Finally made it back to prenatal yoga this morning. :-) Have been putting it off like a slob, and as I’ve noticed more aches and pains over the past couple of weeks, I realized I had to start doing something about it now before it turns into a colossal problem later.

Overall, it was so worth it, because I met another expecting mom who was planning a homebirth, too! It’s amazing, because out of the entire prenatal class, the instructor had commented privately to me that I was the only homebirth in the class. The others were all planning hospital births, planned medication and even planned inductions. Wow. I always thought yoga would attract the more hippie types, but I guess not! So it was nice to catch up with this random, normal non-hippie woman who was also working on a home birth with midwives & a doula. We chatted for a bit and swapped email addresses to keep in touch. :-)

My local yoga place is adding another prenatal class midweek in the evenings, and I vow to go to that one, too. Two days at week. I’m also planning on getting an elliptical here at home to work out on daily. Hopefully, more exercise will take care of my increasing back tension and will give me more energy. Hopefully!

I hadn’t even thought of this, but it’s another reason I’m skipping the classic doctor-hospital route and happy for a midwife-assisted homebirth:

Pregnant women are more likely to catch the flu and become very sick, which can cause pregnancy problems. Pregnant women go to the doctor’s office a lot for regular check ups (can’t they get some new magazines in the waiting room, already?) which means they won’t be able to stay home and avoid people who may have the flu.

- From APHA’s Get Ready for Flu Blog

I’m 23 and 5/7 weeks pregnant and the hardest thing about being pregnant so far has been… other people.

I knew I didn’t want a hospital birth even before the spouse and I started trying. I’ve never been in a hospital for more than a few hours in the ER for an ear infection and I had no intention of starting now. I knew I wanted a midwife, but it wasn’t until I got pregnant that the hub and I started to talk about a homebirth. A few weeks looking around on Google and making a few phone calls turned up some interesting information: no birth centers within safe driving distance. So we started shopping for midwives and found one that we liked, met her and happily signed up for a midwife-assisted homebirth.

I knew this was going to be an unorthodox decision among family and friends, but I had no idea just how much. Perhaps if this was our second child, or just not our first, I wouldn’t have been swamped with other people’s opinions. Most people, primarily other mothers, would instantly exclaim “Just get the epidural – don’t wait!” To this I would often smile and half-joke “Well, I’m having a homebirth, so that’s a no-go for me!” Their expressions were often comical, somewhere between confusion and disbelief. I guess for most, homebirth is just not in their vocabulary.

Even my mother had a strong negative response. Her reaction was as if I’d just stated that I planned to find a barn in the mid-West to have my baby when I go in labor. It’s more than a little frustrating, because if you look at the numbers, homebirth is safer than a hospital birth if you’re not a high-risk pregnancy. And in all honesty, few women are truly high-risk. Doctor-assisted prenatal care has nothing on my midwife. :-) I’ve had monthly prenatal visits (my home or hers) for well over an hour each. I have my pulse & BP checked, urine for protein, prenatal blood screening, ultrasounds at 8 and 20 weeks, and an AFP screen. Plus, I have her home and cell numbers for any questions or concerns. Bloating like mad? One email gets me a reply with tons of natural tips and solutions. Funny pain in the side? A quick call to her cell gets a warm, friendly explanation and advice. The thought of going to to a doctor for prenatal care sounds like a nightmare!

The average c-section rate in hospitals in the U.S. is about 46%. My midwife’s is under 15%. I believe the best way for my child to be born will be quietly and gently at home, surrounded by his or her loving parents, two qualified and experienced midwives, and a doula. He or she will be gently dried off and half-wrapped in a blanket to keep the skin-to-skin contact that newborns find so soothing. The midwives will assess the baby and me to make sure we’re doing well and we will be left alone to enjoy the new addition to our family.

If you’re newly pregnant, or planning on it, I highly suggest two books: Immaculate Deception II and Misconceptions. If you’re the too-lazy-to-read type, then netflix The Business of Being Born.