Annnnd, the third baby Hardy is here! Lucienne Claira Grace Hardy was born on March 4th, 2012 (9 days late, the little stinker!) at 2:45pm weighing 9lbs 1oz and was 21in long. She is perfect in every way.
I figured I should write down the events of that day before I forget....the details get hazy the more sleepless night that pass.
On Saturday night, March 3rd, I woke up several times in the night with contractions. Just one or two at a time, painful enough to wake me up. Didn't think anything of it as this had happened a few times over the last couple of weeks. Woke up at 6:30 to nurse 'Lias and the contractions started regularly 3-5 min apart. They didn't last long, but were consistent enough for me to believe they were finally REAL and I might have a baby today!
Got up, made the boys breakfast, considered going to church cuz who knows how long labor can last and if it was maybe false labor did I want people gossiping for nothing? Decided against church. :P Good thing, too, cuz I couldn't have made it quietly through. HA! I also finished gathering the things together that I was supposed to have on hand for the birth and get out my handy dandy microwavable rice bags that helped SOOOO much with pain management during my last labor.
I called my midwife, Chris, who henceforth will be refered to as MChris to diferentiate between herself and my husband, explained the situation and told her I'd call when things picked up. Picked up. This is a relatively subjective phrase. Things pick up gradually more and more and more until one pushes the baby out. Poof! Things have picked up! So, not knowing how long labor will take, and not wanting to cry 'wolf,' I didn't call her back. I figured I'd wait until contractions were nearly unbearable (again, difficult to determine as they're bearable the whole time, technically). But she, having delivered me before, was a tad concerned that this is what I'd do, end up calling too late and have a baby before MChris could arrive. She called me back at 9:20am. :P
My contractions slowed down around 8am to be only 5-10min apart. Talk about disappointing! I was really hoping that this labor would be even faster than labor with Elias. Alas, this was not to be the case. MChris threatened to hang out at the North Bend outlet mall in case I didn't call her in time so she'd be really close. I don't think she ended up doing that,
My friend Brooke, who was interested in seeing a natural home birth, showed up around 9am to hang out for the day. I say hang out cuz that's really what we did. She visited with me and kept track of my contrations and Labor Log (the details from which I'm using to write this post) the rest of the time.
Coralie, another friend who has delivered 4 children herself but never seen a birth, came within the hour to hang out and act as my doula. She was excited to "experience the miracle without the pain." ;) Can hardly blame her. I hope I get the chance to do so as well someday.
10:55am busted out the rice bags during contractions. Basically, just hot packs to place on my back or lower uterus during contractions- totally help distract from the pain and are very soothing. (Are you going to give birth anytime?? MAKE YOURSELF SOME RICE PACKS!! Or borrow mine. They are divine.
I figured I should write down the events of that day before I forget....the details get hazy the more sleepless night that pass.
On Saturday night, March 3rd, I woke up several times in the night with contractions. Just one or two at a time, painful enough to wake me up. Didn't think anything of it as this had happened a few times over the last couple of weeks. Woke up at 6:30 to nurse 'Lias and the contractions started regularly 3-5 min apart. They didn't last long, but were consistent enough for me to believe they were finally REAL and I might have a baby today!
Got up, made the boys breakfast, considered going to church cuz who knows how long labor can last and if it was maybe false labor did I want people gossiping for nothing? Decided against church. :P Good thing, too, cuz I couldn't have made it quietly through. HA! I also finished gathering the things together that I was supposed to have on hand for the birth and get out my handy dandy microwavable rice bags that helped SOOOO much with pain management during my last labor.
I called my midwife, Chris, who henceforth will be refered to as MChris to diferentiate between herself and my husband, explained the situation and told her I'd call when things picked up. Picked up. This is a relatively subjective phrase. Things pick up gradually more and more and more until one pushes the baby out. Poof! Things have picked up! So, not knowing how long labor will take, and not wanting to cry 'wolf,' I didn't call her back. I figured I'd wait until contractions were nearly unbearable (again, difficult to determine as they're bearable the whole time, technically). But she, having delivered me before, was a tad concerned that this is what I'd do, end up calling too late and have a baby before MChris could arrive. She called me back at 9:20am. :P
My contractions slowed down around 8am to be only 5-10min apart. Talk about disappointing! I was really hoping that this labor would be even faster than labor with Elias. Alas, this was not to be the case. MChris threatened to hang out at the North Bend outlet mall in case I didn't call her in time so she'd be really close. I don't think she ended up doing that,
My friend Brooke, who was interested in seeing a natural home birth, showed up around 9am to hang out for the day. I say hang out cuz that's really what we did. She visited with me and kept track of my contrations and Labor Log (the details from which I'm using to write this post) the rest of the time.
Coralie, another friend who has delivered 4 children herself but never seen a birth, came within the hour to hang out and act as my doula. She was excited to "experience the miracle without the pain." ;) Can hardly blame her. I hope I get the chance to do so as well someday.
10:55am busted out the rice bags during contractions. Basically, just hot packs to place on my back or lower uterus during contractions- totally help distract from the pain and are very soothing. (Are you going to give birth anytime?? MAKE YOURSELF SOME RICE PACKS!! Or borrow mine. They are divine.
11:30 I'm eating lunch- a big plate of pasta and cheese, per my usual- and MChris shows up. She sets up her gear (birth stool, oxygen, heating pad to warm receiving blankets, etc) and hangs out with us. (Seriously, we're dancing to Black Eyed Peas intermittantly for hours.)
After a while, the contractions get so that I'm very distracted during them and Chris asks if he can change the music. I say something like, "Sure. Whatever. I don't care." which was pretty much what I felt. The music didn't matter any more.
Around 2pm the contractions start feeling pressure-y, like I have to poop (you know that feeling). I sit on the toilet a few times, sure that my body is about to clean itself out like it did with my two previous labors. Not so. I got, like, two little turds out. Talk about disappointing. Now I was sure I was gonna poop like a champ when the baby was born. Gross. Kinda every woman's nightmare. (Chris was mixing up banana bread about this time and everyone was joking that I was racing the bread- would baby be born before bread was baked? I was pretty sure not. It felt like this was setting up to be a long labor.)
At 2:30 I went to the toilet again hoping for that ever-elusive poop, had a contraction and pushed a little. But this was not a pooping push. This was a baby's-moving-down push. Oh, dear, the train is coming. Moved to the birth stool for a couple of pushes and then to the couch. MChris had told me during early labor that she doesn't recommend women give birth on the stool because gravity can help too much and cause worse tearing. No, thank you! I would haul my butt up and over to the couch! So I did.
The head was born in one more contraction I think. Then I remember seeing MChris moving baby's head and I was thinking "Don't pull on it!!" but she wasn't. She was just holding it as Lucienne moved it back and forth, trying to get her shoulders free. MChris also felt around her neck for the cord and Lulu grabbed her finger. I guess she was born with one hand by her face. :) Shoulders were born with one more push and the rest just slid out. Daddy caught her. He directly handed me the gooey girl and I remember just holding her and crying that it was over. After a couple of minutes, Chris said "we don't know if it's a boy or girl." Oh! I guess I hadn't checked that, yet. It didn't matter. And I was expecting a boy. But everyone standing around seemed to want an announcement, so I looked. Moved the cord that was between her legs and stared, is more like it. What's this? No penis? I'm sure there was supposed to be a penis. Hmmmmm,
"It's a girl...?" That was my announcement. Ha! We were so supprised. And so happy that our darling boys have a little sister.
The head was born in one more contraction I think. Then I remember seeing MChris moving baby's head and I was thinking "Don't pull on it!!" but she wasn't. She was just holding it as Lucienne moved it back and forth, trying to get her shoulders free. MChris also felt around her neck for the cord and Lulu grabbed her finger. I guess she was born with one hand by her face. :) Shoulders were born with one more push and the rest just slid out. Daddy caught her. He directly handed me the gooey girl and I remember just holding her and crying that it was over. After a couple of minutes, Chris said "we don't know if it's a boy or girl." Oh! I guess I hadn't checked that, yet. It didn't matter. And I was expecting a boy. But everyone standing around seemed to want an announcement, so I looked. Moved the cord that was between her legs and stared, is more like it. What's this? No penis? I'm sure there was supposed to be a penis. Hmmmmm,
"It's a girl...?" That was my announcement. Ha! We were so supprised. And so happy that our darling boys have a little sister.
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