Karen was due on my birthday, January 5th. I had Colin on her birthday so I thought it was really neat she was due on mine. I knew it was unlikely that she would give birth that day but it was fun. She is always late, between 3 and 22 days, so being on time would have been very different.
I had invited her to Colin's birth. We were unable to think up a sitter for her nursing baby at the time. I had him in a hospital where you are only suppose to have your spouse with you. Very old fashioned! I was leaving my kids (13 to 3) to watch themselves and I lived 45 minutes from the hospital so leaving her baby with my kids wouldn't work. Bummer! She had said I could come to her next birth since she was going to have another homebirth and babies were welcome.
Karen had 2 births where the midwife didn't make it and I live 4.5 hours in good weather from Karen so being able to make in time was questionable. She always has bloody show 3 to 4 days before so we thought we would have a warning.
Thursday morning she ICQ'd me and asked "Guess what?" yet again. I answered her something silly only to find out she was serious this time. She was starting to lose her plug! 3 or 4 days would be Saturday or Sunday. Of course instead of packing to go to Karen's I read 2 Harry Potter books instead. Karen HAD given them to me so it was a bit fitting.
Friday I had my 10 o'clock coffee and headed to chat. Around 11 o'clock Karen showed up and said she started having contractions. I asked her if I should leave then and head down. I just had my coffee and would be awake enough. Karen said that she would worry if I left so late. I stayed home as I didn't want to worry her. We chatted till about 2 am then Karen went to bed. I stayed chatting a little longer thinking that I would miss the birth. Last time she had contractions at night she woke up having them the gave birth in the morning.
I woke up at 8 am and got on the puter. No message from Karen yet. Just before 10 Karen got on. She wasn't having any contraction anymore but was going to go grocery shopping and thought that would get things going. She told me that I should come over. I talked dh into keeping Colin at home while I got ready to go. He nervously agreed. I packed very light. Digital and video camera, snack for the car ride, car mug and a sheet! LOL. I left around 11 am. The roads were great! All the way down I wondered if I was going to make it on time and what would happen. I arrived just after 3.
When I got there Karen was doing laundry and still wasn't having regular contractions. We sat down and chatted for a while. She showed me her list of "nesting" things she was working on. I offered to help. The list was pretty long but most things we easy to do. Not sure if we could do them all we started doing the more important to have done for the birth.
By late evening I was starting to regret leaving Colin at home. I missed him and felt bad that dh was stuck with a most likely fussy baby. I had never left him more than 15 minutes before. My breasts were getting sore too. I tried to express some milk but I didn't have much luck.
By 11:30 we had gotten almost every thing done. Kate was acting tired so Karen brought her up stairs to nurse her to sleep. Not long later she came back down saying she couldn't nurse as it was making her sore and gave her a bunch of contractions. They were coming every 2 minutes. She wonder if she should call the midwife. I said that contractions every 2 minutes that you can't talk through sound good enough to call the midwife. It was 11:53 then and she wanted to wait till midnight.
I wanted to see the birthing tub so we headed upstairs. 2 contractions later Karen wanted to call the midwife. There was no question now. The midwife was on her way. Sander was setting up the tub. It was a neat looking thing. The instructions were not all that clear but the midwife was going to be there soon. Looking back it would have been nice to have set the tub up as soon as I got there LOL.
Karen was managing very well. With each contraction she would stop what she was doing and hum an ooooohhh noise. She said the contractions were intense but not painful. She was smiling and excited between.
The midwife called her partner who arrived not long after. Karen called her friend Dale to help watch the kids. Cees and Tim were in bed sleeping. Tara and Jane had fallen asleep watching a video after we went upstairs to see the tub. Kate was still happily running around at 1 am.
I got out my video camera and started filming. The midwife checked Karen who was at 8 cms. Karen said she had hoped at least 6 so 8 was good. We knew it was going to be fairly soon. Karen continued to vocalise during contractions and seemed very happy between. Kate got used to her vocalising fairly quickly. At first she would stop what she was doing and try talking to Karen.
The tub was taking a long time to fill and the hot water ran out before it was filled. Karen didn't worry about it. She said if the baby came before the tub was filled that it meant that the delivery was easy enough and it wasn't needed. The midwife said she could go in the tub if she wanted. Karen decided she would and hopped in. She said the tub was nice. We all sat around on the floor. The tub was set up in the extra bedroom that was being used as a playroom. One of our nesting things was cleaning up the toys in there. The closet was full of balloons which Kate thought were fun to play in.
Karen said she started to feel like the contractions were getting pushy. She was vocalising a bit louder but was still comfortable between. She joked that maybe she should have had a planned c-sec or an epi. The midwife checked the baby's heartrate which was good. Cees and Tim were woken up. Tara was brought up stairs but refuse to wake up. Kate curled up in Sander's lap and feel asleep. He laid her down in their bed. The boys saw some blood and started goofing around a bit. Karen didn't seem bothered at all. I asked her after and she said I was right. Dale took them down for a snack which they were very happy to have.
A couple more contractions and her vocalising got a bit louder. Tara finally started to wake up. Karen said she could feel the baby moving down so the boys and Dale were called back up stairs. Karen had a big long contraction. Her vocalising got higher pitch and the baby's head came out covered still by the membranes. The rest of his body came out while the midwives tried to remove the membranes. They placed him in her arms. The baby looked a bit strange with the membranes over his head. The got it off and put a towel around him and a little hat on his head. He started to let out some cries. The cord got clamped and Sander cut the cord. The midwives collected some cord blood to check for rh factor.
The midwife asked Karen if she wanted to get out of the tub to deliver the placenta. Sander took the baby while Karen walked to her room and got into bed. Karen got into bed and started getting the shakes. The tub had cooled off a bit and she was wet. I know I get the shakes after birth and I could only imagine that it was worse being wet. The baby had been crying almost since birth. Karen cuddle with him and tried to get him to nurse. He was holding his hands up and rooting really well. After a few tries the baby started to nurse. Karen mentioned she felt something and the midwife helped her deliver the placenta.
After the baby nursed and was calm again the midwife did the newborn exam. The measured his length. He was 21.5 inches long. She then lay him in a cloth that she hung from a scale. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces. While being examined he was making cute new born noises. I mentioned to Dale that I had those noises from my last on video tape. Duh! I got the camcorder going again!
After the exam Dale and I got a chance to hold him. I only held him for a few minutes as my breasts were getting pretty sore by this time. He was beautiful. His nails were very long and he felt so soft. Karen made a few phone calls since in the Netherlands it was already daytime.
The midwives started packing up their stuff and the boys went back to bed. Kate had stayed asleep in the bed with Karen. Tara laid down on her mat. Each time I stayed over I used her bed and she enjoyed that she got to sleep in Karen's room in her sleeping bag. After the midwives made sure that Karen was fine they left.
I went to bed and sleep soundly till 10 am. For breakfast we had a traditional Dutch treat of "mice" on crisp bread wafers. They serve it after a birth. The mice is pink and white sprinkles and tastes sweet with a bit of licorice. I enjoyed them.
After transferring the video, cleaning up a bit and talking to Karen I got ready to go home. I really enjoyed be able to be there. I loved the idea of a home-waterbirth and being able to go to a friends was really special.
Next time Karen will come watch one of mine. By then Chloë will be old enough to watch Karen's baby at the hospital :-)
Catherine (mabear8)