Lukus Alexzander's birth story

Lukus Alexzander
Born January 18^th, 2012
12:35 am, at home in the water
5pounds 2oz, 19 1/2 inches long

At my appointment on January 13^th I decided to have my midwife check dilation and effacement as I was having her look at something anyway, rather than her checking she had her student midwife check. I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced and baby's head was at 0 station. After the check I knew I probably wouldn't be much longer before I was holding baby. The only thing I really wanted to wait for was my yeast infection to clear up and my group B strep test results to come back. All weekend I was having bloody show and each day it would get a little bit more red rather than just pink. Sunday night I had a round of contractions that got my attention they were coming about every 8 minutes and were about 50 seconds long. That went on for about 7 hours with an hour and a half break somewhere in the middle. They stopped at around 3 in the morning and I got some rest. Monday afternoon one of my midwives was down in the area and asked if I wanted her to do another check. I decided to go ahead and have her check. She discovered that I was now 3 cm dilated and could be manually stretched to a 4 if encouraged to but I was still 80% effaced. That night I had another round of contractions that I thought for sure was labor starting but it never turned into a pattern and then died off. I was exhausted. Tuesday I talked to my midwife and she instructed me to take a warm bath and a bendaryl to try and sleep. If it wasn't active labor it would stop. I did just that and my contractions never went away but they just wouldn't get into a good pattern. That evening she called me up asking how things were going and to ask if I wanted her to come down and check me and see if they could finish sending my body into labor. I said yes to that, honestly thinking there wouldn't be anything she could do to help things along and I would just be waiting it out longer. She showed up at around 8:30 that night with one of the other midwives and all of her equipment. When I saw them bring that stuff in I started to think that maybe I would be holding my baby in a few hours. She then proceeded to check me and I was 3+ and still 80% effaced. She then proceeded to manually dilate me to a 4+. After we had to decide if they were going to break my water or do an herbal oil message and pressure points and then send me out on a walk, see if we could get labor going that way, and if needed break my water. Or just continue to wait it out. We opted for the oil message and walk. The message was wonderful and smelt so good. The midwives told previous birth stories while doing the message and we just laughed. My contractions picked up again during the message and we found I would have 1 big contraction every 10 minutes with 2 smaller ones in-between. After the message hubby and I bundled up and went out walking around the neighborhood. This was around 9:30p.m. While on the walk we were lucky to make it a full block before I had to stop and sway my hips through the peaks of the contractions. We were out in the cold for a little over 30 minutes and I could tell the contractions were intensifying. When we got back to the house Shem changed his dusty clothes (he was working in his wood shop trying to finish a towel rode) and then the midwives checked me again. I was now 5cm dilated and we went ahead and broke the bag of water, this was around 10:30p.m. Within 15 minutes my labor kicked into full gear. I have no idea how close my contractions were or how long they were lasting but I knew I needed to moan through them as it helped relieve the intensity of how they felt. My mom and our friend showed up at some point as I was down stairs in the front room on my knees, rocking on my birth ball. Lol. They both showed up while I was in a contraction or going into a contraction. At some point one of the midwives put pressure on my hips since they were really bothering, and that was heaven sent! When the pool was ready I went up to the bathroom and got ready to get and my body started clearing my bowels so I knew I was getting close. (I don't know times after they broke my water. I lost all track of time and didn't care to know either) When I got in the pool it was so wonderful! I only had a couple contractions in the pool before I got the pushing sensation. So listening to my body I started to give light pushes, and the best part is the midwives encouraged me to follow what my body was telling me to do. After several pushes sitting we discovered I had a posterior lip that I could push baby over but he kept slipping back up. Then they discovered an anterior lip that my midwife held back for me to push Lukus past. Through this whole labor and pushing phase the midwives never once told me when or how to push. It was great! I started out pushing, sitting in the pool and then baby?s HR dropped to the 90?s and my midwives had me roll over onto on my hands and knees. His HR came right back up. I knew that was a better position anyway because the pushing sensation got a lot more intense. While pushing I said several times, "I am so tired." "I can't do this" and everyone just kept reassuring me that I was doing great. Then the crowning came and I got really vocal. I never really screamed but I moaned very loud. I still never felt "the ring of fire" but there was so much pressure and it was SO intense, of course the whole labor was intense, and all I wanted to do was get him out of me and that is what my body was telling me to do anyway. Once his head was out the rest of him slid right out of me as I was trying to turn around and sit down and I heard my midwife tell the other one that was taking the notes that he came out posterior. No wonder he was so hard to push out and my body was having a hard time going into labor, and why I felt so much pressure in my hips! He came out looking at the world and it took him a minute to take his first breath, he just casually looked around and took things in. Which was so different then either one of his brothers. His apgar at 1 minute was 8 and at 5 minutes was 10. It was so cool just letting my body detach and deliver the placenta on it?s own as well. Such a different and better experience. Once I got out I was checked over while they looked at Lukus and I had one second degree tear and a couple other small single stitch tears. Took me a little bit to get Lukus to latch on because his mouth is so small. I started out having to use a nipple shield. But so far everything is going great and I had an awesome birth experience! I wouldn't trade it for anything. Total active labor time was just over 2 hours long, from start to holding baby. Turns out it was a good thing we had the midwives finish encouraging my body into labor because the placenta was calcifying.