zoey's birth story...

My 3rd little "grey alien", isn't she sweet?
term from my brother, Ben

 I had been having contractions for...well...MONTHS! We almost went in on several occasions. But I was determined that I would wait out the pain for my water to break. I wanted to have a natural birth. Nick STILL laughs at me, but I had been doing research and a ton of literature stated that if you have a 'gentle' birth, or natural birth, the child had less colic, reflux, general upset, etc. OHMIGOODNESS was Claire a hard baby. That could have had a LOT to do with being a first time mom, but she also had a traumatic entrance into life, so who knows? I had wanted to try natural with each of my kids, but Nick is not so supportive of people who go through pain when there is no reason. I gave into it with Claire at 8 cm, still labored for another 4 hours to make it to a ten and then PUSHED for 4 hours. Having a cord wrapped around your little one's neck certainly slows down the process. I'm sure the meconium didn't help, either. Looking back, I don't mind that I gave in with her. Matthew was a BREEZE! I made it to a 9 and couldn't bare the thought of another 3 hours of labor with a few more hours of pushing. So, I gave in. 5 minutes and 3 pushes after I received the epidural, the kid was out. Seriously. And he was the EASIEST BABY! Despite his lung/tracheal problems. People tell you the second birth is easier. Obviously I wasn't listening. So...I was determined to try a 'gentle' birth.

I prepare you now. I don't get overly graphic, but I am going to be honest and tell you more than I have with other births. So, if you are not interested in reading further, then don't. I'm not offended. I honestly record it for posterity and don't expect people other than my children to really ask a lot of questions. And only so they can know what to expect.

I picked hypnobirthing. I picked it because I read my friend, Marissa M. did it with hypnobirthing and for no other reason. I checked the book out from the library and read it. Practiced the exercises and died of cheese overload in the process! Who dreams of themselves in purple mist?!? Let alone the other colors of the rainbow!?! I did settle on liking the 54321 and the aaa....bbb...ccc...exercises just fine. Breathing was just like the stuff I teach voice students, so no biggy. I did the squat, pressure point stuff, and looked up yoga for pregnancy and labor online. I was ready.

I prepared for labor: Walking up to 12 miles a day, spicy food, pressure points, stripping membranes (4 times!), shoveling snow, etc. Finally, when I was about ready to die, the contractions came for real and STAYED! I was so nervous they would go away that I didn't tell anyone about starting real labor except for my friend, Heather, who watched the kiddos for the first part. We went grocery shopping, we picked up a dresser for the kiddos room (ding and dent sale! Hooray. Rosi's WELCOME BABY present. Thanks, Momma), and finally we dropped the kiddos off and headed in.

Last pic of just the three of us!!

Treanna (said Trina) was my CNA and when she asked me how I was planing on doing this birth, I told her hypno style and she mentioned she was a trained Doula. Well, cool! She actually put a bit of pressure on Nick and said she'd show him what to do. I was thrilled. Reading about hypno and the Bradly method, and other choices, Dad's are supposed to be super involved. I didn't think for 1 minute that I could convince Nick to help me with this. Pain? "Come on, Deb. God made pain medication for a reason. Use it".

So, first check: 5 cm
AH!!! I hadn't waited long enough to come in! Darn it! I was so scared the contractions would go away, I wasn't willing to see if my water would break. I wanted to know how far along I was and wanted to know NOW! So, we went in.

Got in the Jacuzzi. Blessed waters. Thank you. LOTS of hypno stuff there.

Next check: 6+ cm

Nick helped me walk around, Treanna told me to keep my jaw loose and say "ah" a lot. Felt ridiculous  but it helped. Nick put pressure on my lower back and I swayed. Again, felt ridiculous.

Next check: 8 cm

CALL THE DOCTOR! He's breaking this water NOW!

Doc check: 8+ cm

Doc breaks water and 3 almost unbearable contractions later, I was able to push. I expected to have to be checked before I pushed, but Treanna kept telling me it was okay to push if I felt it was time. Oh my word. It was time! 3 pushes later, she was out. Can I describe the feeling? Not romantically, so I won't. It was bad. I was shaking so hard I was scared to hold her. I was light headed and the pain, while had significantly reduced hadn't completely vanished. Wow. That was a doosey.

Couldn't have done it without Nick and Treanna. Seriously. All the nurses I've ever talked to about doing it naturally all tell me that EVERYONE always asks for pain relief and 90% of the women who make it with no meds is because they are too far along to get one. Well, I didn't ask ONCE for pain relief. instead, being the idiot I am, I asked for the doc to break the water! AH! I now know the difference between laboring with my waters intact and without. I was right to not want to come in until my water broke, but MAN! I think we would have had the kid on the kitchen floor had we waited that long!

First pic with parents

 She is a KEEPER! She snuggles, phew! She looks a TON like Matthew did when he was born. She has stork bites on the back of her neck. She is a good nurser!!! Phew! So far, no mastitis. With Claire, I had it 4 times, Matthew I had it 3 times. I'm more than relieved. She has been known to sleep 6 hours...scaring me @#^*@*(@!)-less when I wake up to hear nothing from her. She is LOUDER than both my other kiddos combined at this age. She had jaundice and had to be on bililights for a few days, but nothing horrible. I'm so grateful for this monster.

First bath---this is how we knew she liked to snuggle. She kept nudging
her head into the nurses hand as she cleaned her head off.

Matthew and Claire weren't allowed in the hospital at all, so this
was the first time they saw her, at 3 days old.

1st brother kiss

The pic of Claire's first time holding her isn't cute at all. So I need to find a substitute.