zodiac

Parents: Renae and Vince
Baby: yet nameless
Born: April 11, 1998
Birth: Birth Center with dh, sil and midwife

As I had previously posted, I started having contractions round 11pm on friday night. They were pretty intermittent, but strong enough to assure me they were the real thing.Basically that continued all night.Luckily I was able to sleep between them, and the night passed peacefully enough.

Saturday morning they were closer together, but still manageable. We picked up our poor cat from the vets (dog attack:( )Dropped our children off to be cared for, did some shopping etc. At about 2pm I was getting pretty uncomfortable, so we picked up my sil Helen, who was to be at the birth with us.

We arrived at the birth centre round 3. with contractions about 6 mins apart, but not overly painful. We spent a pleasant hour out in the courtyard walking, with me leaning on a chair through contractions. By about 4.30, I needed Vince to rub my back through the pains. At around 5.30 I got into the bath, looking forward to the relief it had brought with my previous birth. This time, although it soothed me, it didn't quite "do the trick". I was basically on all fours in the bath during contractions, with yet more hard back massage required..stayed there for about an hour. By the time i got out I was feeling a bit of rectal pressure, and the pains were pretty close..I knelt on a mat at the end of the bed for a while, having to really concentrate through contrax.Dh knelt beside me, rubbing my back and encouraging me. I started to feel scared, weepy and *nauseous*....transition. That seemed to take forever. My wonderful dh, midwife and sil were so supportive and encouraging.I felt a lot better after being sick a few times, managed the pain much more efficiently. The midwife suggested the shower to me, so we all trooped into the bathroom. I knelt again, leaning on a chair, with dh running the handheld shower over my back, and rubbing during contrax. *much* better!!!!! After a while, I could feel the baby starting to descend..what an odd feeling!!I have lost track of how long we were int he shower, but when i got out, I at last felt that most wonderful feeling...the urge to push. We went back the the end of the bed and knelt again, Helen was helping to catch the baby, the video was on..after about half an hour of darned hard work..our baby was born. I was lucky enough to not tear, thanks to the midwife encouraging me to go slowly with the pushing. I turned around, and there was our perfect daughter. Dh and i were both in tears..such a relief to have our little one here. Al in all, it was a wonderful birth. It was very hard work, and yes, painful. But it was worth every moment, for the precious child we now have. And I felt so blessed to have such a supportive team. Ican't praise my dh highly enough. He was tireless with backrubbing, soothing, encouraging...I just felt so supported by everyone in the room. Our little girl nursed while I delivered the placenta,then i showered whilst she was weighed etc. Then the three of us spent the night together, returning home round 9am. We are settling in pretty well, having a few difficulities getting the latching on happening with feeding, but the domiciliary midwife is visiting each day and helping us there. Must go, my little one is stirring. Congrats to the other new parents, best wishes to those still waiting. We will let you know when we finally decide on a name:)Renae.