Seven Years Ago Today....

Sean's birth story - or- what we did for Thanksgiving '99...

On Wednesday, (11/24), Pete came home from work and we enjoyed Chinese food take out for dinner, Ahren (2 1/2 at the time) fell asleep early at 6:30pm and slept until 8:30pm, in an effort to get her to fall asleep again I nursed her until 1:30am, when she FINALLY fell asleep and I crawled into my bed at 1:45am. At 2:00am my water broke! We called Nancy (our midwife) and began gathering our supplies. During early labor I used the birth ball a lot, which really helped.

Pete was skeptical about the idea of having a homebirth and really wasn't comfortable with it until the end of the pregnancy. But he really did a great job at everything.

One thing about me is that I'm a puker - anytime I get sick, I throw up - no matter what. So why should labor be any different? But the interesting thing was that once things started getting serious, I shut my eyes - and I did not open them until after Sean was born. Literally, we were moving all around - to the bathroom, livingroom, bedroom, and the entire time, my eyes were shut. Through several rounds of up-chucking, my eyes were shut - the amazing thing is that I felt so cared for by the three midwives there that I knew someone would be there with a bowl or bucket. I think I was so focused inward that when I tried to open my eyes the visual stimulation was too overwhelming, so I kept them closed.

Sean was born at 10:24, I remember being surprised that it was daytime, because when I had my eyes open the last time, it was like 4am and pitch black out! He scored a 9 and 10 on his apgars. He was 7lbs. 8ozs. and 21 inches long. Our family (mil, bil, sil, nephew and Ahren - when she woke up, she went over to G'mas) were across the street at my mil's house, so after we got all cleaned up and rested a bit, we went over there for Thanksgiving Dinner. What a treat for everyone else to get to see a real newborn baby!! That surely doesn't happen everyday.

While many would think that having a homebirth would spare a mother from having too many needle sticks - but alas, not exactly the case, because I'm Rh negative, I had to have a blood draw and then later a shot to protect any future babies from Rh factor issues. I also had some tearing, so I had to get stitched up afterwards. Happily I could do all those things from the comfort of my own bed.

So there it is, Sean's birth story. I feel so blessed to have had such a beautiful birth, it will always be one of the best moments of my life.