Painting the Memories of Home

Jun. 28, 2007

The birth story

Well, here we are...ten days after my little baby Charis (pronounced Care-iss. Rhymes with Harris and Paris...the root of the word charismatic) made her appearance, and I finally have a breather to sit down and type! What an amazing week! A baby and the movers all in one 5 day span. Would you believe it? Could life be any crazier. I submit that it can not! Well, maybe. I'm thankful I got to come "home" to our house and not a hotel room. Thats for sure!

Well, for those of you interested in birth details, here they are. Josh and I were sleeping on an inflated mattress on the living room floor. I'd been feeling pangs here and there but woke up with definite contractions about 8-10 minutes apart the next morning. I went ahead and ate breakfast...and even lunch. I called my aloha-friend "N" and put her on alert...she was planning to be my "doulah" and encourage me to make it "all the way" unmedicated. Knowing things were really happening, I lay down for a nap that afternoon to try to rest up. Charis was awfully sweet in deciding to come on a Saturday. Josh got his nap in too. Things began to intensify when I woke up and we timed contractions for awhile, finally heading to the hospital which was a half hour drive away up over the mountains. My mother-in-law, Sophie, and my aloha-pal all followed behind. Sophie had expressed a real desire to be there for the birth, and I'd promised that if the timing worked out well we'd try to let her be the one to cut the cord.

The midwife on call greeted us at the hospital and checked me. I was 5 cm. This was a slightly discouraging number because I felt like the contractions were unusually painful for only being five, as compared to my recent previous births. But they admitted me, and showed me to an amazing birthing suite. It was huge, with glossy wood floors and a jetted tub in the bathroom. I bounced on the ball for a little bit--the pressure from the sitting on the ball really cuts the pain of the contractions in half. I almost didn't want to get off, but decided to try the tub they had filled up for me. It felt great to get into the warm water and get my lower back up against the jets. J massaged my lower back and I used an audible moan to get through the contractions, a technique proposed by my aloha-doula-pal. I liked it. After a short time I suddenly felt super-nauseous, which is I guess my body's reaction to bigtime pain. I must have been in transition. So they helped me back to the bed. I gave up the idea of walking around. It was almost time to push!

The pushing stage is a relief to get to. Finally, you feel like you can do something and not just get through contractions. Charis, however, decided to give me a run for my money. My last four children were out in about 3 pushes. Charis took an hour, and I was perspiring like mad, on oxygen, and asking for forecepts. In retrospect, I wonder now if the midwife's pronouncement that I could "push anytime" was premature. I wasn't really feeling the true urge at that point. It wasn't until the end, that I really felt that true "URGE" to push. I think I may have wasted a lot of energy on pusing before she was really descended enough. Come to find out, the happy girl was "sunny-side up" (face up) hence all the back-labor and tough push. Quite the birth for going "au-naturale." But I was really glad afterward to have gone unmedicated all the way. Sweet Sophie was a great little cheerleader. She stroked my hair and said, "You can do it, Mommy!" What a brave girl!! When the final push came and finished, I was so overcome with relief and so completely spent that I could hardly lift my arms to or head to "take in" the little new life plopped on my belly. Sophie did indeed get to cut the cord.

Everything was a blur at that point. I lost a lot of blood with the placenta, and suddenly the midwife and nurse whisked the baby away, were pummeling my stomach and giving me a shot in the rump of something to get the bleeding to stop. It felt like I was getting beat up. They got me on pitocin quickly to help the uterus contract. (I'd had a hep-lock but no IV up till that point). I began to shake and my hands began to tingle. I was suddenly freezing cold and my hands were white. It was a very queer moment. I guess it had to do with all the blood loss happening so quickly. But it all came out fine. Things settled down. I asked for piles of blankets to be brought to help stop the shivering.

So, to wind it all up, I love giving birth in the evening...you get to actually go to bed and sleep some that night. Charis nursed right away and slept really well right off the bat. Josh made a big sacrifice and slept on my bedroom's pull-out sleeper chair all night so I could have his company. All the kids came the next morning and were even there when our family friends the F's and E's showed up for a combined total of eight adults and eleven children in ONE small hospital room! What fun that was. She was born on Saturday night and I came home on Monday to flowers, signs and a welcome home cake. My dear M-I-L had facilitated that endeavor!

I had a day to recoup, and then the movers came on Wednesday with all our household goods from Ohio! And my mother in law flew back home that night. So I've been nursing and unpacking boxes, nursing and unpacking boxes. There are only 2 boxes left in the whole house! Books are in nooks and it feels SO great to be settled at long last! Thank you, everyone, for your warm congrats and prayers. We felt really surrounded with love and help. What a victory and real sense of God's grace to us. Charis is Greek word for "grace" in the Bible. After the losses of two pregnancies before we're so happy and thankful to the Lord to have new life again in our arms.

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Comments

Jun. 28, 2007 - some rest

Posted by javamamma

I enjoyed reading your story. I love your little one's name - it's beautiful! In between the feedings and the boxes, try to get some rest, eh? :o)