« The birth story of Guthrie »

Phew, can I get this all typed up without being interrupted and totally losing my train of thought? Sweet G has a full tummy, and is tucked snugly into the sling, so we'll see!

On Tuesday morning, I lost my mucus plug. I had a few "this is it!" moments over the next couple of days, but I'd been having those for a few weeks. My first two boys were born at 39 and 38 weeks, and here I sat at 40, just waiting. 

Friday morning I had some bloody show, and some fairly intense contractions. I asked Keith to stay home (I had been up at night with the contractions, and hadn't gotten much sleep). We had a midwife appointment in the afternoon, so we went, and I let her know what was going on. She figured that she'd be hearing from us later in the day, probably after the kids were in bed.

We left her office, and went for a walk in the ravine. Contractions were picking up and getting difficult to walk through. We headed home and went about our day. We had some dinner and put the kids to bed, and, as predicted, things picked up once they were asleep. We called my sister (who was acting as my doula), who came over around 11pm, and then called the midwife to let her know that the contractions her about 4 minutes apart and one minute long. Things continued to progress, and then, around 3:30 am, they basically stopped. They slowed down to about one every half hour, and were easy to breathe through no problem. We went to bed, and I was pretty grumpy, remembering how Teague's birth dragged on stop-and-start like this for days. 

We got up around 7 am, and sent my sister (who was sleeping on the couch) home. I was very grumpy and discouraged. I believe I even told Keith that I was in "the grumpy stage of labour". Ha! I had a bath. Keith timed some contractions for me, and they were about 4 minutes apart again. Hurrah! I think now that they slowed down earlier because my body needed some rest. I had Keith call my mom, because I wanted her to be there when the kids woke up, since I needed Keith, and didn't want to worry about getting them ready for the day. She arrived at about 8:30 (the kids were up by then, but were very sweet and easy), and took over the kiddos so that Keith and I were able to focus on the labour. 

Around 10:30, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, and I was feeling a bit transition-y. Keith called the midwives. I wanted to make sure they arrived early-ish, because I knew that once my water broke, we wouldn't have much time before baby was here. The midwives, and my sisters arrived around 11-ish, I think? They set up their stuff, checked baby's heartbeat, and I laboured on. My boys were mostly upstairs with my mom, but did come down for a bit. They were so so sweet and helpful, and spent a bit of time in the pool with me. Around noon, I asked to be checked. I was 7 cm, completely effaced, easily stretchable to 10 cm, with a bulging bag of waters. I tried a few different positions to bring baby down even more, in the hopes of breaking the waters. I got out of the pool and walked the stairs a few times, but in the end, the water just felt better. 

After a couple of hours, I asked the midwife to check me again. To be honest, I wasn't even convinced I was in transition! I never got to "labourland", and was able to have conversations, and make jokes right up to the end. In fact, I braided my hair! That says a lot about how smooth this labour was. Anyways, before she checked me, I felt down, and could feel the membranes bulging on the outside! She checked me, said that the baby's head was right right there, and that the waters were definitely holding him back. She offered to break them, and I totally complied. (The only thing that made me hesitate was knowing that I'd have to push the baby out very soon... I do not like pushing. But I reasoned with myself that I was going to have to push sooner or later regardless, so I'd might as well do it now and meet this baby!) So break them she did! She tried to do it with her fingers, and then had to use the amni-hook. It was hard! She said my membranes were like steel! Haha. It took a good long while before the actuallybroke. That was at 2:35.

I flipped onto my hands and knees, and pushed for about 15 minutes. Man. Pushing sucks. I know some people love it, but for me, it just hurts. Oh! A funny side-note. My boys had been upstairs watching a video with my mom. Once we broke the waters, I had one of my sisters go get them, since I knew baby would be born soon. They both totally freaked out that they had to turn the video off! So, here we are in the living room, I'm push-screaming, and the boys are both having complete meltdowns, and everyone in the room is trying to calm them down, while help me out. It was quite an intense few minutes!

At 2:57 pm, he arrived! One of his shoulders got a bit stuck on the way out, but the midwife was able to slip it out pretty easily. Quinn got to announce the sex ("it's a... a... a penis!"), and we all fell in love. Bliss.

Birthing the placenta was a bit tricky! I've never had an issue before, but this time the placenta flipped around, and was born mother-side first. I had to try different positions and actually work quite a bit to birth it! 

After nursing for almost an hour, sweet Guthrie Walker Cecil was weighed and measured. 8 lbs, 5 3/4 oz, and 20 inches. Born at 40 weeks and 3 days. 

Nursing is going awesome, my milk came in yesterday, and everyone is doing so so well. It feels like he's been here forever. 

(A quick note on the name. Guthrie is a Scottish surname from a few generations back on my paternal grandfather's side. We are also big Woody Guthrie fans, and the name means 'from a windswept place. Love! Walker is another Scottish surname from my paternal grandfather's side. Cecil was the name of Keith's paternal grandfather. He passed away before I met Keith, but I've only ever heard how awesome he was. It felt right to honour him.)

 Julie is a crafty Canadian doula mama to three georgous boys and blogs over at The Little Lads .