Autumn's Story of Dominic's Birth

I asked Autumn if she would like to write the story of Dominic's birth and I received this the next day...

Our little man finally arrived December 31, 2010. I have to preface this by saying a few things…
1. Baby’s due date was December 15, 2010. Yes, he came 16 days past that.
2. I was huge! Everyone said so (in some not so nice ways at times). They also said there was no way I was making it to my due date and thought I’d be lucky to make it to December! That kind of messes with your mind b/c you then begin to think “maybe they know something I don’t, maybe they have more experience than I do, maybe they have an intuition about this kind of thing and maybe I won’t make it”. I actually found myself being anxious about just trying to get to my due date. Never thought I’d go past.
3. I just knew baby was coming before Christmas! Baby had to!
Well apparently Dominic didn’t get the memo on any of these. It was such a wonderful, yet hard, lesson on what it means to really trust God’s timing. Because he was so overdue I had so many people asking why I wasn’t inducing and wasn’t that dangerous, was my midwife okay with this, did I need to see a doctor? I was always reassured by my midwife and he moved quite regularly and with great force at times so I knew he was just fine.
So with this baby we decided to do a homebirth. I just didn’t want to go anywhere once in labor and I had it in my head that baby would come quickly and it would be this nice “pain free” experience and I would hardly know I was in labor and out baby would pop ☺ We chose Christy Tashjian as our midwife through a recommendation of Bridget Brown (our Bradly instructor with our first baby). As I got to know Christy, I felt more and more at ease with doing a homebirth. I knew my body could do it, but I still had reservations about some things, most that didn’t even come out until the very end of my pregnancy. It seemed that as I got to talk things out little by little, I was able to let go more and more and just let things happen.
So back to the birthing part…our foster kids were staying with another family and Jovi and Dane and April (Dan’s sister) were sleeping in Jovi’s room. I woke at about 3:45 am with a funky feeling. I had lots of back and lower abdominal pain and had to go to the bathroom. I had had this feeling before somewhat and it turned out to be nothing but having to go potty and then rearrange myself in bed. So I tried the same tactic this time. However 15-20 minutes later the feeling was still there and was getting more intense, mainly in my back.
I called Christy and told her something was up but I wasn’t sure what it was. While on the phone with her I had several contractions but they just seemed to run together and I couldn’t tell if it was just happening fast or if something was wrong. She said she thought I was having regular contractions just based on how I sounded and told me to get in the bath or drink some wine (I have never wanted a glass so badly in my life!). I got in the tub and it helped me relax but the contractions were coming pretty quickly. I don’t think I ever timed them though. Anyways, I called her back and told her things were progressing. She came over, getting there sometime after 5 am I think…it’s all a blur as to the timing. I got out of the tub and just felt more comfortable sitting on the toilet so that’s what I did. They were getting more and more intense and I needed Dan there to help me through them. He had woken while I was on the phone with Christy the first time.
I was having to grunt/push through the end of the contractions and Christy asked me if that’s what I was doing. I said yes, but I didn’t think I should push yet. She asked why. I didn’t have an answer other than she hadn’t told me to push yet. I was used to having hospital workers giving me the green light to do anything that this new found freedom to “just try it” was a little scary. I eventually got on the bed and she checked me saying I still had a little more to go and why not walk around. I didn’t like walking around. I didn’t like any of it actually. I remember finding it so hard to focus and relax, my hips were really hurting during the contractions. The contractions seemed to be coming so close that I wasn’t getting a lot of time to refocus in between. Nothing felt ok, not sitting or standing or walking or leaning over. I just wanted baby out and I said that quite forcefully several times I know. I also began to cry at one point, to which my husband replied, “it’s going to be soon, this is what you do when you’re about to push!”. While it was somewhat comforting, I still had to figure out how to “cope” in the meantime.
So standing by the sink in our bathroom, I was trying to do as Christy suggested and let gravity help baby down. All of a sudden my water broke, but honestly I didn’t realize it was my water at first because it was this dark colored yucky and chunky stuff. Then it hit me, meconium! I called for Christy and she immediately listened to baby’s heart and said happy baby. This helped a lot! However I was a little freaked by the meconium and she could tell that. She asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. There was no way I was making it! Either I’d be having this baby in the car or I would be in so much pain trying to get comfy in a car with the contractions, neither of which I was a big fan of trying.
So I got back on the bed and she had me push some with the contractions. Here’s the weird part, I think I forgot how to push! I thought I was pushing and then right at the end of the contraction I’d finally figure out what I was doing wrong and get a bit of a good push then the contraction would stop, I’d stop and forget how to do it the next time! It was very frustrating. However baby eventually moved down enough and was crowning. I could tell something had changed but I didn’t know what. Christy said your baby is coming out with this next push and she was a little more serious in how she said it and so I just kept pushing, the head popped out then shoulders then all of a sudden he was on my belly. I didn’t know it was “he” yet. I just couldn’t believe I finally had my baby in my arms. The relief, the joy, the happiness, the blessing and grace of being allowed to birth this baby was quite overwhelming. I finally looked to see if we had a boy or a girl and saw he was our baby Dominic.
Turns out his cord was wrapped around his neck and Christy had heard some heart tones she knew weren’t good and he needed to come out right then. Christy was amazing and so calm and supportive. I remember thinking during the labor “I was supposed to do better than this, she’s going to think I’m a total wimp for this being my 3rd baby!” I don’t know if she thought it or not, but she never said it, thankfully. She cleaned me up and checked baby over, she made a wonderful bath for us to just soak in for a little while. It was so nice! The black and white photo we have of him is in the bath. I think it was no more than 2 hours after his birth. His labor and birth by the way was less than 3 hours. He came out at 6:59 am. Fast and furious ☺ but wonderful!
He was bigger than we thought. He didn’t look big to me and I just hoped (for whatever reason) that he was more than 8 lbs. I was surprised to hear her say he’s 9 lb 3oz! And, he was 21 ¼ inches long. A good inch longer than our other 2 babies. He latched on right away to nurse and we’ve had no problems since. Well, other than the fact that he wanted to nurse so very much at the beginning.
The weird thing now is that at that time I kept thinking, I can’t do this again. This just might be it for the # of kids I birth. However, now, 4 weeks later, I so hope that at just the right time God will let me birth at least one more baby. Rose colored glasses! ha!
I love this little man. It was a crazy pregnancy and birth and adjustment afterward with a lot of external “junk” going on. I pray he knows just how much I love him and what a special little boy he is. God has a plan for his life and I just love that I get to be a part of that.