My Homebirth #2

At the end of my last homebirth post, I commented that I probably would do another homebirth.  Obviously, from the title of this post, I did have a second homebirth.


Now, here's the rest of the story...

I found out I was pregnant early on.  I can't even remember how I told my hubs or how we told our family members this time.  With the first, we did it up big in front of everyone with Grandpa/Grandma certificates and "Prego it's in there" signs.  With the second, we had #1 (who wasn't even 1) wear a "big brother" t-shirt when everyone came over.  With #3, we put a post-it that said, "#3 will be arriving in late October" in the back of a book of pictures the grandparents were looking at.  #4...hm.  I'll have to ask someone!  (Just asked Mom and she said we told them over the phone.) 

I liked my last midwife a lot.  I met a girl shortly after I became pregnant who was talking to me about her midwife and she sounded like someone I wanted to look into using.  We made an appointment to meet her.  She was a CPM and didn't have an office.  She would only do home visits which worked out perfectly so I wouldn't have to find someone to watch the other 3 while I went in for appointments.  She was very sweet and a Christian!  Worked for me!

This pregnancy followed along with my other boy pregnancies--easy for me, no headaches, no morning sickness.  We also had a sonogram at a local pregnancy center and the nurse guessed we were having a boy.  Since I was keeping up with three little ones, I was tired and had back pains pretty regularly but nothing I couldn't handle.

On July 6 (Saturday), I started having some harder contractions while we were having dinner at CiCi's.  I started timing them at that point.  They were randomly spaced around 7-10 minutes.  I let my midwife and parents know about it.  My parents said to let them know if they kept going, "even at 4am."  They were going to plan to come in the next day if the contractions kept up.  They kept going throughout the evening and were even keeping me up at night.  Around 4:00, I got up to go to the bathroom.  Since they had said to let them know, even around that time, I decided to text...and woke them up.  So they headed this way around 6.  Shortly after that, my contractions basically went to nothing.  I was still having some but they weren't regular and they weren't very strong.  I was starting to wonder if this would be the day or not.

Sunday came and went with really no change.  Easy, random contractions.  My midwife was coming for an appointment on Monday so she decided not to come before then unless I needed her.  I had another night where I was awake some with contractions and didn't sleep really well.

When my midwife arrived on Monday at 11 for my appointment, she had everything she would need for a birth ready to go.  I was having some hard contractions that I couldn't really talk through but they were spaced out.  She said that we would probably meet the baby that day and I was kind of surprised.  We then camped out in the living room while I tried to rest some and tried a few positions to get comfortable.  The contractions were still about 10 minutes apart.  She suggested a couple of ideas to get contractions going and get my body ready.

We got the tub ready a few hours after lunch and I got in.  It sure felt nice but I still felt like maybe this was all mental since my contractions weren't as strong as I remembered the last birth's being and they were still about every 10 minutes.  I was so tired, I just wanted it over!

I tried a few things to get the contractions going and get myself comfortable when I would have contractions.  I was talking, laughing and joking around most of the time.  It was pretty easy leading up to this point.
Then it happened.  Crazy hard contractions, negative thoughts in my head, and total fear.  I was done.  I thought I wasn't progressing and I was going to have to be transferred to the hospital.  I thought I wasn't going to be able to push, so I decided to just start trying to push.  Skipping a few details, I pushed on and off for 30 minutes or so praying that this would end.  I was in PAIN and I was TIRED!  He was either coming out then or he wasn't coming out.  I pushed and yelled and let them know I was hurting! 

Finally on July 8 at 5:17pm, I pushed this little vernix-covered baby into the world with a "Thank you, Lord!".  He was perfectly healthy and quickly learned to eat and sleep like a champ.  Daddy even did a great job of helping me even though he felt really sick that day and the next! When Daddy got to tell everyone his name, they thought we were joking.

Welcome to the world,

Enoch Adoniram

8 lbs.

21 inches

He is now 8 weeks old and I'm so glad that today isn't 8 weeks ago!  I'm so glad he is here and has found his place in our family of 6.  Life has been good and great fun adjusting to 4 kids 4 and under!  My cousin's baby was also born on the same day, just a few hours earlier, so we thought that was really cool. 

Enoch--Enoch walked with God and then he was no more.  God took him, he did not die.  Our pastor did a sermon about Enoch a few weeks before he arrived, before we had agreed on this name.  I was totally against it even though it had been on my husband's list for a while at that point.  I did a little more practicing saying it, writing it out and researching it before agreeing to use it.

Adoniram--Adoniram Judson was the first Baptist missionary.  He went to Burma.  We have a book that talks about different missionaries, church leaders, martyrs, etc. throughout history.  It has a different person each day and I read about Adoniram a few months before the birth.  I liked this name as a first name for a long time but agreed to it as a middle name.