Alex's birth story

Mama M. is celebrating mothers this week with a different theme for each day.  Today's theme is birth stories.

I had already written about Nick's birth story back on his birthday in April, so I thought I'd write about Alex's.

But first let me say that all 3 of my pregnancies and births were very different.
Keira was born 4 weeks early.  Probably the easiest of the 3 pregnancies.
Nicholas was 6 days late, which in my mind was 5 weeks late, since Keira was 4 weeks early.  :)  Not too bad of a pregnancy - got heartburn around month #5.
Alex was 2 weeks early.  Here's his story ...

I worked with midwives for all 3 of my pregnancies but Alex's had to be the most wonderful, calm, peaceful birth of all.  Which was good because it was also my last (by choice).

I had decided to work as long as I was able, but the closer I got to my due date, the more exhausted I became.  Gaining 37 pounds  and being the heaviest I had ever been didn't help.  Plus working full time and raising two rambunctious kids really took it out of me.  Add on top of that trying to keep a house clean, laundry done, and dinner on the table every night, I seriously don't know how I did it.  Or maybe I didn't.  I really don't remember.  :)

Alex's due date was December 19, right before Christmas.  I decided to have my last day at work be Friday, December 2.  That would give me a good 2+ weeks to have everything ready for Christmas before the baby came.  Yeah, right.

Sunday night, December 4, I went to bed around 9:30.  Around 11:15 I woke up because of some serious pain around my belly.  When I stood up to visit the bathroom (again!) my water broke.  I called my midwife and while I was waiting for her to return my call I woke Doug.

Um, Doug, it's time.

Huh?  Wha?  Why does it always have to happen in the middle of the night?

Oh boy.

Ann was the midwife on call that night (yay! I was hoping she'd be the one!) and she told me she'd meet us at the Midwife Center.  I called my mom (who said she'd meet us there) and my good friend, Mary Jane, so she knew what was happening and could put me on our church's prayer chain.  We woke the kids, got everyone in the car, and off we went.  The Midwife Center was about an hour away, much to Doug's dismay, since we live 5 minutes from our local hospital.  :) 

I think it was around 1:00 a.m. when we arrived.  Ann and my mom were there waiting.  We went back to the room I had picked (I can't remember the name of it now, but it was the middle birthing suite).  I don't remember now all the details of what happened before Alex's birth.  I remember having to have antibiotics through an IV because I tested positive for Strep B again which I think Ann told me is a rare thing - go figure!

My mom took Keira and Nick upstairs to the waiting room where they had a TV and VCR and they watched movies.  I think she was hoping they would fall asleep but neither of them did.

I walked around with my camera and snapped pictures while I was getting my antiobiotics.

Once the antiobiotics were done, I was able to labor in the whirlpool tub for a bit.  I really enjoyed that.  I was told that the midwives don't encourage you to deliver in the water but if it happened, it happened.  As cool as that would have been, I chose to get out.

I labored in the bed for a while.  I tried pushing while on my hands and knees but the baby wasn't moving along that way, so I flipped over and a few pushes later, we had a baby.  We had a similar experience as with Nick where we didn't look to see the sex of the baby right away.  I was just so relieved to be done with the labor and the pushing. 

So we finally looked and it was a boy.  I knew it while I was pregnant.  I joked all the time that it had to be a boy because only a man could make me that miserable.  :)  Seriously ... I had heartburn ALL. THE. TIME.  I could drink water and get heartburn.  I ate so many TUMS while I was pregnant with Alex, it's a wonder he didn't come out rainbow colored.

The nurse, Jan, took Alex to weigh him.  9 pounds 3 ounces!  Yikes!  It was a good thing he was 2 weeks early!

He was born at 5:12 a.m. on December 5 (12/5) ... cool, huh?  No pain meds used (yes, it is possible).

Doug and the kids hung around a little while and then went home to get some sleep.  I was scheduled to go home around 5:00 p.m. since you only stay at a Midwife Center for 12 hours.  That was the only part I struggled with.  It wasn't like I got any sleep when I had been at the hospital for the previous 2 births, but it was nice to have the nurses take the baby away and try to rest a little.

Alex and I slept in the big bed off and on all day.  Although not much because every time someone came in for their appointment and tromped up the steps, we woke up.  Or at least I did.  They did have a sign on the front door to tell people to be quiet because mom and baby were sleeping, and I'm sure it helped some.  I'm such a light sleeper though that I heard everyone.

He nursed pretty well right away but he mostly wanted to sleep.  I got served breakfast and lunch in bed, which was pretty cool.  I think I got up and showered.  :) 

Diana, my nurse for the day, was pretty awesome.

Doug and the kids came back to get us around 5:00.  We stopped at Wendy's on the way home to get something to eat, so it was 8:00 or so when we got home.  We were all exhausted so I think we all went to bed shortly after arriving.

So there you have it.  Alex's amazing, wonderful birth story.

If you have a birth story to share, be sure to check out Mama M.'s blog and link up your post.

Happy Mother's Day!

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