Lances Birth Story

I am trying to find the birth stories of my children on the net and archive them here.

Here is Lance's


Friday morning at 12:48 am...And the story goes...
The Birth of Lance Ares

Since Tuesday we had been trying to get labor started naturally, and between what Gail started by stretching me a little and the walking and bouncing on the birth ball, contractions were coming. They were pretty regular through out the day but I was frustrated because they only seemed like a minor discomfort and so just couldn't be real labor.
On Wednesday night we called Gail and Bonnie, the contractions were finally stronger and I could feel them in my cervix. Still, I was frustrated because they only seemed like a minor discomfort. By around midnight I was still only dilated to a 4-5 cm and so we all went to bed. I woke up around 4 am and realized the contractions had completely petered out and so I just went back to bed after telling Gail they were over.
When I got up the next day, the contractions started up again and I had mixed emotions about them. I knew they were doing a little something; my bag of waters was bulging during them so I felt it was just a matter of my water breaking but I wasn't willing to have my water broken. That evening I told my sister if she wanted to go home too it would be ok. I just didn't think anything was going to happen and I was sad because I didn't want Gail to miss this birth too. She was leaving in the morning for Belize. Susanne didn't want to leave though because she knew it would be ALL OVER as soon as my water broke. Around 7:30 my sister took the kids for a walk and Scott and I, well we worked on getting labor going. I thought my water might have broken as I bent over, but I wasnt sure and then there were two other times I thought maybe, but it just didn't seem quite right. The kids and my sister got home and I started to get Erick and Kyra ready for bed. I was getting ready to lay down with Kyra to read her a book and nurse her to sleep when "whoosh" I had a little gush of waters. I knew this was it. I tested with the nitrazine paper on my panties and it instantly turned blue. Tonight our newest family member would be born. Contractions started getting much more regular and intense almost right away. I called Gail to let her know it would be tonight and then I lay down to finish that story with Kyra. Kyra fell asleep quite easily and the boys went to bed.
My sister and I worked on getting the pool going, Scott was sleeping on the couch. I called Gail back within the hour and told her that the contractions were already starting to intensify and I thought she and Bonnie should head out.
We took the leaf out of my kitchen table and pushed the table into the corner of the dining room. I was going to do this outside but there were storms brewing so I had to change my plans. Bonnie and Gail arrived and we talked about where I wanted to have the baby and I explained that I didn't really know but that the pool was the most likely spot. We put the pool in the other corner of my dining room and filled it. It was really easy to fill and I was so ready to get into it before it was even full. Dr. Danise, my RMT, also arrived and almost instantly got to work on me.
My spirits were good and we all talked and joked while I labored in the pool. They were literally sitting at my dining room table eating and watching me labor. It was good. It was nice to have the happy spirits in the room while my body readied itself for the impending birth.
We joked about Gail not getting much rest before her trip and I giggled and said "you get to sleep on the plane, and you are going on VACATION for Gods sakes quit complaining." All the while I was having a pretty intense contraction and my eyes were closed and I was still in the back of my mind talking myself through my stages of labor.
Soon I needed complete silence during contractions. I would talk myself through it, or moan, or whatever felt great. As I was moving into transition I was talking out loud about moving into transition, reassuring myself of where I was. I moved into a position on my hands and knees and was in need of some serious counter pressure. Between Gail and Dr. Danise they took turns giving me what I needed. The baby felt so high in my belly and I was encouraging it to move down, saying, "You are too high you have to move down". Suddenly I felt like I had to have a BM so bad, and I tried but it just wasn't right to try to push like that, so I rolled over to my back and I said I would need to push soon but that I wasn't quite ready, "soon I am going to push, soon I will be pushing" Gail checked me and I yelled for her to take her fingers out as soon as she said I just have a small lip left. I put my fingers in there to see about the lip and to concentrated on getting it to go away so I could push. Suddenly I could feel the cervix finishing off, slowly opening the rest of the way and I started to push. It burned so bad. Nothing like I had experienced before in my other labors. I would put my hands down there to see where the baby was and I kept talking to him about not moving too far back to come on out, that it was time. I would get so frustrated though and ask him to "come back" after a contraction ended and as I was resting. With the next contraction I pushed with all my power screaming an ear-piercing scream as he moved deep into my birth canal. I needed this baby out, the ring of fire was so intense and I couldnt wait for another contraction to get him out. I could feel his head and I was telling my "fuzzy headed little baby" to come out. I could feel the hair wafting in the water and so, as my contraction was going down and he was in a full crown, I used what little contraction I had left to get his head out. Scott waiting at the other end to catch our last-born baby. After 13 minutes of pushing the baby's head was finally in his hands and with the next contraction I pushed his shoulders and the rest of his body out into Scotts awaiting hands. I reached down to take our baby from Scott's arms and pulled him to my chest, laid him down and saw it was a new baby boy. Lance Ares. The kids were right there waiting to meet their new brother, they woke sometime during transition and came in to see their brother being born.
I got to sit for only about a minute and Gail said it would probably be good to get out since I wanted to birth the placenta before cutting and clamping the cord. So I got up and walked to my bed. We all crawled into the bed and snuggled while waiting for the placenta to be delivered. Bonnie checked me and said I only had two small grazes. She showed me with a mirror. When we finally unwrapped Lance to take a good look at him we were all pretty surprised how big he was. We were guessing somewhere in the 8-9 lb range. After the placenta was born and I tried to nurse him, I let the midwives do their assessment and to our surprise when we weighed him he was 9lbs 13 oz. I never once in all the time I was pregnant measured big, so it was a definite surprise. I sure didn't look like a woman who had carried an almost 10 lb baby, but I did feel like one who just gave birth to one. As he lies here next to me right now, I am in awe with his beauty and my power to bring such a large baby into the world. This birth was perfect in every way. I got everything I wanted and nothing I didn't want. He is pleasantly perfect!