Lexi’s Birth Story

We are all doing great today. Kate is so smitten with her sister and really seemed to understand when we told her that the baby came out of mommy’s uterus — she immediately kissed her the way she used to kiss my pregnant belly.

Sorry, still no photos, my sister just came home and I need her to dig around for a camera cord for me. But we’ll post them when we can!

Click on the more if you want to read the birth story. If you aren’t into that sort of thing, really, don’t feel the need to do so. Birth stories are a little graphic for the faint at heart.

Lexi’s Birth Story

Early Wednesday morning, I lost my mucuous plug and started having a few weak contractions intermittently. As the morning progressed, I had several more contractions, a few close enough together for Mike to start tracking them. Being (a) bored and (b) very skilled with Excel led Mike to make a killer contraction-tracking spreadsheet. I just puttered around the house for all of early labor and noticed quickly that Lexi had centered herself more in my pelvis and my SPD pain was gone!

At four my contractions were about seven minutes apart and we called Audrey, our midwife, to let her know that I was in labor. I called Meadow, talked and paced for well over an hour, which sped up my contractions and heightened their intensity, but I was still very much in early labor. Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo was on the menu for dinner, but being a woman of weak stomach, I vetoed that in favor of a plain Chick-Fil-A Char-Grilled Sandwich.

Audrey had said to check in at seven, and right at seven my contractions had reached five minutes apart and about a minute long, so she got her stuff together and left (from the far opposite corner of the Raleigh metro area where she was doing a post-partum visit.) Meanwhile, my dad and grandma had arrived, having driven from upstate New York that day (my grandma is staying for almost a month and wanted her car.)

Audrey arrived just before 8:30 and unloaded all her gear. She declared she thought the baby would be born by midnight. She checked me (for the first and only time) at 9:10 and I was 5-6 cm, 90% effaced and Lexi was at 0 station, so I was in the clear to get in the tub for an hour. Laboring in the warm water was really relaxing, and it was great to be able to turn on the jets during contractions. After my hour was up, I could tell that my labor was progressing, but not especially quickly, so though I hated to give up the cozy water, I got out and labored a while standing and side-lying in bed. I started having a slight urge to push about an hour later, though my water had still not broken. I tried pushing gently with a few contractions to pop it, to no avail, and decided to get back in the tub to labor there. I pushed for a dozen contractions or more and just could not break my water, even trying to poke it with my finger. Sometime in the middle of this, Mike threw on his swim trunks and a t-shirt and sat behind me in the tub, holding me and helping me brace myself to push.

Right around midnight, I asked Audrey to break my water. The next contraction, she did and the calm I had felt the whole labor process went out the window and I pushed and pushed and two contractions later, Alexine Antoinette was born, at 12:12 a.m. on Thursday, 12.22.2005 in the big tub in her grandparent’s bathroom. I had a very small, superficial tear, which was amazing to me considering how fast I pushed her out. Lexi was born screaming, pinked up immediately, and was so irritated the midwife wanted to get her dried off and wrapped up quickly, so we cut the cord and got her out of the tub. Delivering the placenta took 30 minutes as Lexi would not nurse immediately and massaging my uterus was the only way to get strong enough contractions to push it out. I delivered it on the gorgeous hand-carved birthing stool one of Audrey’s clients made for her – it was very comfortable.

It’s 15 hours later now, and I am sitting in a recliner, Lexi sleeping in a ring sling on my chest. As I think back to my labor, I was very relaxed for all but a few minutes of it, and feel great today. I am amazed at the difference in how I feel having given birth naturally and at “home” versus the hospital.