Birth Story

May 31st- my due date
4:30am
I was laying in bed and just not feeling right. I was getting contractions on and off. Nothing consistent like its been the last few days. I managed to fall back asleep for a very short time before the kids had to wake up at 7am so we could take Malikai to school.
8am:
When me and the kids were on our way home from dropping Malikai off, Jamison started singing "Happy Birthday". Its the first time ive ever heard her sing it and I asked her who was she singing it to. Her response was that she was singing to the baby cause the baby was coming today. Sweet girl!

early afternoon I get a phone call from my midwife saying she needed to cancel our evening appt because she was up for the last 2 nights doing births at the hospital and needed some rest. No big deal. There was no real reason she needed to be here. Everything was fine.
3:00pmish
I managed to make it through the school routine. While waiting at the kids' school I even posted on facebook that I wasn't feeling 100% so when the kids got out of school I was sticking to home the rest of the night.
There was comments about the baby was going to come that night. But yet I had been feeling really off the last few nights so I just figured same old crap again today.
Evening was a little bit of a blur. I wasn't feeling well. I was just really tired and had a stomach ache. my back hurt really bad. I was hungry but couldn't really eat. I was trying to stay hydrated but even that was difficult cause I was nauseous. I was on edge. Luckily I wasn't going to be home alone with the kids for very long.
I managed to eat a banana around 8:40. I remember that because I was texting my friend Amanda cause she kept texting to check up on me :)

approx 10pm
I started having some cramping. I would have a contraction here and there. nothing out of the ordinary, but I was feeling off. Something wasn't "right". I remember being on the phone with my brother Tory and I was pacing my kitchen to see if something would start. He had just got done asking me if there was any labor pending and what would happen if the baby wouldn't come seeing it was my due date. It was funny because about a half hour before I talked to him, my other brother Casey sent me a text asking me how the baby situation was going and I told him there was nothing to report yet.
I remember looking at the phone when I hung up from Tory and it was 10:12pm.
At 10:15 the first contraction hit. I was in the bathroom and I had just stood up and it hit me and it HURT. I knew at that time to be safe I was going to start timing them. I got back downstairs and 6 mins later another one hit. It was short, but still painful. I kept pacing the kitchen and dining room. Making trips here and there up and down the stairs cause I knew that movement would help things along too.

They were coming between 5-6 mins apart. I told myself I would wait until about 11pm to call the midwife. I wanted to make sure this was real. 11pm came and I knew this was it. I told him to call the midwife and he suggested to wait until 11:30 to make sure these were going to stay consistent. With each contraction which were now coming every 4 minutes and lasting anywhere from 45-1min in length I knew she needed to be called NOW. They were so way beyond painful. Definitely my most painful labor yet! With each contraction I kept thinking to myself that I didn't know how I was going to make it through the next one, it was horrendous. No position was helping ease the pain. I couldn't even cry, and I tried! Anything to try and distract me.
11:30pm- the midwife was called, FINALLY. She was on her way.
my contractions jumped down to 3 mins apart and the intensity went right along with it. I started shaking so I knew I was going into transition. I knew once I hit transition it wouldn't be long. I always progress quickly when I get to that point. I begged for the pool to be set up. It seemed like it took forever!

I said that the photographer needed to be called too but he wanted to wait until my midwife got here to check me before we called her since she was being paid hourly and didn't want to waste time/money. Boy should he have listened to me!
Time was a bit of a blur at this point. Judging from what I was told, it was right around 12:45am (June 1st now). I was sitting on my couch and I had a contraction and my body did a little push. I was fighting it, trying to hold it back since nobody was here yet. I said that the midwife needed to be called to see where she was at cause I feel like pushing. She just happened to be in my driveway :)
I made it through 1 more contraction and made my way to the bedroom so I could be checked. I no longer got on my bed and had another contraction so she quickly checked me and I was already 9cm!!
THANKFULLY the pool was ready enough for me to get into at this point so I quickly got in there just in time for another contraction to hit.
I had 2 contractions and my water broke. It broke hard too. I never really felt it break with my other kids so this was a new sensation. the second it broke the baby seemed to FLY down the birth canal. It was so intense and so painful that I could barely speak (I was trying to tell my midwife my water broke).
Right after that I had another contraction and my body started to push. I let into it. I pushed right along with it. In the past pushing helped the pain, I didn't feel pain when pushing. not so much this time. I felt everything!
By the 2nd push the baby was crowning. I managed to reach around to feel the head. It was the first time I had ever been able to do this too so that was exciting and it helped distract me from the pain a little bit. I remember thinking that it didn't feel like a head. It was squishy and I could feel a lot of hair.
By the end of the 2nd push the head was out. Next contraction felt like it took forever to come, when it did I had to push for the shoulders. Those were tight. At one point my midwife practically lifted me up trying to get them free. All I had to do was focus and push harder and they popped right out. I was able to grab the baby and pull up and out of the water. Another thing I always wanted to do.

June 1st at 1:06am she made her way into the world!
So labor was 2 hours 52 minutes long. It was fast and furious! before then, my next shortest labor was 4 hours 6 mins with Tiler. She was my first homebirth. My midwife made it to that birth with 45 mins to spare. With this one she managed to be here for 24 minutes I think I was told. talk about cutting it close!

At this point I still didn't know the gender. My midwife was trying to get the baby to react. The baby was just hanging out in my arms. Eyes wide open just looking around. Simply didn't want to cry. It was amazing. Finally after some more prodding the baby cried and I looked to see it was a GIRL!I was really shocked. For the most part of my pregnancy I felt it was a boy. towards the end I couldn't make up my mind. When we were having trouble with the middle name everyone joked that since we didn't have one for a girl, we were definitely going to have a girl. hehe.
We waited for the cord to stop pulsating and daddy cut the cord. I immediately got out of the pool so I could deliver the placenta. As im standing there waiting for another contraction that would bring that out, the photographer showed up. She was about 10 minutes too late :(
Baby was perfect, she was quiet but very alert. Daddy walked around with her for a bit while I got cleaned up in the bedroom. He tried to wake the kids up to come watch the baby being born but they didn't want to wake up. So about an hour after she was born he went upstairs and they all woke up to meet her. They were very excited!
Recovery has been the best so far. The post contracting was very minimal. Maybe 2 days at most and even then it was only a handful of cramping.
Nursing is going very well. She likes to eat all.the.time! if she is awake she is nursing. As of being 1 week old she was back to her birth weight. She had gotten down to 8.1 the next afternoon when my midwife came back to do the newborn screening test.
the upside to her nursing so much is I havent had to pump yet. Usually by now I am pumping at least 1 whole side. the downfall to it is I am hungry all the time. I cant get enough to eat. Luckily it hasnt caused me to gain weight, but im not losing it either. I lost 13lbs from delivery and ive held onto everything else. This is typical for me. i was hoping it would be different this time around since I started out so healthy compared to the others. Its going to be a long summer!

Having 5 has had its challenges. only because she is so needy. Just the last few days she has allowed me to put her in her swing to sleep. but the second I lay her down I need to run and get things done cause when she wakes up she is not happy. I know this will be short lived and luckily the older kids are being very patient with me.