Bruno
 
Henrietta
 
Jake
 
Maximillion

Bruno's Birth

Bruno's birth was such a beautiful and sweet experience. It was a little scary starting out, though. We were two weeks overdue and had gone in for an ultrasound just to check things out. There was not much amniotic fluid left in there, at all. At first we thought the doctor was being a little alarmist, but then we talked to Vicki who had talked to the doctor and she said yes, you really need to have this baby this weekend (it was Friday.)

SO, Saturday we spent the whole day doing everything in our power to get labor going. I was on an insane regimen of herbs, breast pumping, vigorous walks, and even castor oil. Matt was so great, dosing me with my herbs every twenty minutes and sending me out on my walks and I guess taking care of Jack the whole time... truth be told I can't remember what my 2 year old son Jack was up to, I sure wasn't taking care of him, much too busy... marching around the neighborhood talking to my belly saying,"We're ready for you baby, come on out, we really want to meet you..." At this point I think I finally really meant it... I had been so scared and full of trepidation the whole time I was pregnant with Bruno, not really sure we had the skills to juggle two kids... not quite sure our relationship was in good enough shape to handle the stress of two kids... now that we were faced with an induction and hospital birth on Monday, I was finally getting serious about welcoming our baby into the world and starting our new life.

Vicki popped in and out during that day, checking in on us. She came and gave me a third dose of castor oil in the evening and finally I started feeling some contractions. At that point she sent me to bed so I could rest up for when labor really got going. I probably started waking up for contractions at around 2 am, but amazingly enough I was able to go back to sleep in between each one. They were probably 8-20 minutes apart. I would get up on my hands and knees for the contractions, then lie down and drift off again. I can't believe I was able to do that. Matt would groggily ask me if I was OK or if I needed him to wake up and I didn't really see a need yet, so the night passed in this manner.

Jack woke up at 8 or 9 and Matt got up and gave him breakfast. I stayed in the bedroom mostly, not wanting him to jump all over me, but it was so sweet and perfect that I was able to go out and give him a hug and say good morning before he went off to spend the day with some friends. I had been so worried that he'd have to be whisked off in the middle of the night or something else that might be scary for a two year old, so I felt so blessed that he could just spend the night in his own bed and then go off with some great friends with whom he'd have a wonderful time.

Although it was February it was a beautiful warm spring-like day with clear blue skies and sunlight pouring in the windows. Vicki didn't even come until 11 or so because my contractions were still so far apart, and I was really pretty calm. At that point it seemed there was a little bit of a grim feeling in the air. I had taken so incredibly long to progress when I was in labor with Jack, and I think that Vicki and Matt were both feeling like that was the case again, that we might be in for another marathon labor experience. So HOW INCREDIBLY SATISFYING to see Vicki's amazed and happy face when she checked me and said I was at 9 cm! She had thought I was so calm I couldn't possibly in transistion, but I was and almost ready to go!

I don't think my contractions ever got closer than 5 or 8 minutes apart. It was so great to get a really nice rest before having to face another one. I could also notice different parts of the contraction, which seemed to make it so much more manageable. I would feel it come on in my back, then into my belly, and then into my cervix. I think the belly part was the most painful, but I felt I could get through it because I knew in just a few seconds the contractions would pass on to the next phase.

I could ONLY be on my hands and knees during a contraction. I was walking around the house and in the backyard, and the minute I felt one coming on I had to just hit the floor. With Jack's birth, I had been in lots of different positions, and also felt a lot of relief being in the warm water in the bath, but with this one I didn't even like the bath. Hands and knees was the way to go.

Vicki said that I was complete, but that I could just go lie down and wait until I felt ready to push. This felt like one of the sweetest times in my whole life. I felt so close to Matt. Vicki and Patti and Sam went into the other room and Matt and I lay down together on the bed. It felt like we were in there for hours but it was probably only twenty minutes at the most. We just lay there and talked and cuddled, it was so sunny and beautiful outside, and we knew our baby would be here soon.

Suddenly I felt the unmistakably urgent feeling that the baby was coming right that very minute. It was great to be able to feel that way, because when I was laboring with Jack, I had pushed for four hours and never felt that feeling. It was a little scary too though, another instance of knowing there was no way out of this except to walk the gauntlet. We called the midwives in and I got down on the floor. It's funny, I remembered very clearly at one point saying, “I can't do this!" and the midwives kind of laughing and saying, “You already did it, the head is coming out!" but when I watched the birth video, that's not in there. It was just in my head.

It was an extremely satisfying experience of pushing. It was probably about 12 minutes and with every push everyone exclaimed about how much progress I was making. It was so great to hear everyone cheering me on, it gave me so much confidence. Just a little bit of (extremely hard!) work and Bruno slipped out into the world! He started crying right away. Words cannot express the ecstasy of this moment! It was all over and our baby was here, perfect and beautiful.

In a way we had been hoping for a girl, and prior to his birth I thought there was no way I wouldn't be just a TINY bit disapointed if we had another boy. But it was really really true that his gender never made one iota of a difference. It never even occurred to me. We were just in total paradise and 100% in love with THIS precious little being.

He cried and cried, and the tips of his ears were folded over. Vicki said she thought his head had been stuck in an awkward position and that maybe that was why he had had trouble getting going. I liked it that she said, “Tell us all about it, little one" to Bruno, instead of saying , “Shh, shh." It had been a pretty major experience for him and he had something to say about it! After about ten minutes of cleaning us up and cutting the cord and everything, they made this great bath for me with herbs in it. I got in it with Bruno and he stopped crying and chilled right out. His eyes were wide open and he was just looking around and looking at me, totally awake and aware and peaceful. What a beautiful moment. What a beautiful and peaceful birth!

 
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Henrietta's Birth

Our first birth was a marathon...something like forty-eight hours of labor. It turned out great in the end, a happy, healthy baby born at home. Nearly 10 pounds worth!

Our second pregnancy went to 42 weeks. When it finally came, the labor was much "easier" (easy for the father to say!). Kami made it through a night's worth of contractions and actually slept in between them.

Our third birth was also our third with Vicki, so I'd been briefed on 'precipitous birth' three times. I'll admit I was even a little cocky about how I could handle it if it happened with us.

Kami was again fairly overdue. At 11 days, when we started a natural induction: black/blue cohosh, breast pumping, walking, and, of course.....castor oil (yum!) We were supposed to start bright and early Monday morning. As fate would have it we had to go pick up a new car in San Marcos that day, and we didn't actually start until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. By 9 the contractions were long and regular enough that we decided to call Vicki. With both of our earlier pregnancies, Kami's contractions never got much closer together than 8 minutes, so we were actually pretty excited to be having contractions 3-5 minutes apart and 44-50 seconds long.

They were "talking contractions" though, and when Vicki arrived and checked Kami out, she was only 2 centimeters dilated. The way Kami's first two pregnancies had gone, we figured it might still be Noon or so on Tuesday before the baby got here. Vicki left at 10:00 with instructions to relax, cuddle, watch a movie and see what happens, and to "call if she get's a stoned look on her face." Kami was feeling pretty dismayed that she was only 2 cm. The contractions were really starting to hurt and she really wanted the baby to come. I was afraid that we still had 12 hours ahead of us, and wanted to help manage Kami's expectations. "The baby might not come untill tomorrow still...it may have been this bad last time, you just don't remember." (it may sound like a terrible thing to say, but the first labor lasted soooo long, I didn't want her to be disappointed the whole time if there were still so many hours to go.)

The contractions got progressively longer and stronger. I started putting pressure on the small of Kami's back while she leaned over on our little step stool. I had been used to letting Kami or Vicki decide what should be happening at any given stage during labor, but I could see that Kami had enough to do just to make it through the contractions. I decided to move us back to our bedroom, and the contraction were now so constant that the trip (8 paces) took about 10 minutes. Kami decided to get in the shower for a couple of minutes. I asked her if she wanted me to call Vicki. She said yes, but then I asked if we shouldn't wait twenty more minutes and see how things progressed. Then I realized that Kami had the total "stoned" look on her face and I called Vicki right away. Vicki said she'd be right over. We moved into the bedroom where Kami got on her knees and leaned on the bed. She was pretty upset and wishing Vicki would get here. The next thing I knew Kami yelled "Catch the baby! Catch the baby!" I threw up her skirt to find the baby's head half-way out. Within seconds, she was all the way out. Just like that! She came out crying, so we weren't worried about her breathing. Kami turned around and sat up on the bed, and I put the little girl on her lap. While mother sank into a peaceful first cuddle with the baby, I proceeded to fly around the room ripping open birth bags, trying to find the chapter on "Precipitous Birth" in the Wholistic Birthways birthing book (failing miserably!), finding the camera, calling Vicky ("She's here!"), laughing, trying to prop Kami up with pillows, taking a couple of quick looks under the hood. All the while Kami's in LaLa Land with baby.

Vicky arrived within minutes. (Thank Gods!) I had been a bit worried about the afterbirth business with the placenta and all that. Thankfully the contractions stopped for a good 8-10 minutes after the main event. And thankfully Vicky was there to take care of it with such skill and grace. It worked out pretty good, as far as unintentional unattended births go. I got to take care of the easy part ("Catch the baby! Catch the baby!"), and then Vicki came in and took care of the serious stuff. And you just could not have a better person to be there with you when you are having (or have just had) a baby. No kidding! Thank you Vicky!

 
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Jake's Birth

It was 2 o'clock in the morning when I woke up in a puddle. 38 weeks pregnant and half in a dream, I actually thought I wet the bed and went back to sleep! The puddle beneath me grew until I could no longer sleep in it. It dawned on me that this was not some uncontrolled pregnancy sneeze but broken waters. I woke up my husband, Justin, to tell him the news. Poor thing had just gone to sleep 2 hours prior after coming home from a 311 concert and was not expecting this to happen for at least another 2 weeks.

I called Vicki who to my surprise advised me to have a glass of wine and go back to sleep since I wasn't having any contractions. This was meant to prevent labor until the morning when I would be well rested and prepared to labor. I was thrilled to enjoy my first taste of wine since finding out I was pregnant. That glass of wine hit me like a ton of bricks! I managed to fall back asleep until 7 AM.

The next morning Justin and I woke up and made a big breakfast. We were both in the best mood. It was so exciting that this day we had dreamed of and prepared for was finally here. We called family members to let them know Jake would be here soon. My nieces and nephews wanted to make sure I knew that I was in labor on Labor Day!

Vicki came over with all the supplies including a breast pump and herbs to get labor started. Thus began an all day ritual of pumping, dosing and waiting. After several hours of this and no contractions worth breathing through, Vicki left us to continue the ritual on our own.

We did everything we could to bring on labor. We went on a rigorous hike through the trails by our house, tried sexual stimulation and I bounced for a long time on a yoga ball. Around 7PM I began to have some small contractions and began to do some tai chi to help me relax and breathe normally. I found it to be such a perfect tool for that stage of labor. My parents came over and brought some movies and food. We talked for a while and then they left saying, "I cant believe you're in labor right now!" The contractions weren't even half as bad as my periods are so I was just acting normal. No stranger would have ever known that it had been almost a day since my water broke.

I was so glad that I didn't have to be in the hospital, because I would have spent all those hours that I was enjoying being at home and with Justin hooked up to a fetal monitor, an IV and being poked at and prodded constantly. In addition, it was coming up on 24 hours after my water broke and I really didn't want to have a C-section.

Vicki gave us a call to see if labor was picking up. I was still in the earliest of early labor after trying so hard all day to make it happen. She was very encouraging and said not to worry, that I would have Jake tomorrow. Again, she advised a glass of wine and to get a good nights rest, because tomorrow, I would have my baby in my arms for sure. Since a full glass of wine the night before felt like what Justin calls "college drinking," I decided on half a glass. In seconds it seemed I was in fits of hysterical laughter, giddy and buzzed. Justin and I walked down to the hot tub of our apartment complex and stuck our feet in. I couldn't believe this was how Jakes birth was panning out. It was like a holiday. All that laughing got me all worn out and soon I was tired enough to go to sleep.

At 2 AM I woke up and knew right away that I was in real labor. I went to the living room to time contractions and wait it out to see if it was worth waking up Justin and Vicki. It was! I called out to Justin from the living room couch until he woke up and came. All I could muster was, "call Vicki, call Vicki!"

Justin and I worked through the contractions until she came. He was so soothing and supportive. He just sprung out of deep sleep and became a doula. I would burry my face in the cushions of the couch as he smoothed the hair out of my face and told me I was strong and that I was doing a good job. I couldn't get myself to pick up my head to look at him and make the eye contact that I had imagined doing. I hoped he knew how much I was right there with him.

I heard Vicki open our sliding door and a huge wave of relief passed through me. By this time I was standing beside the couch swaying back and forth. She put her hand on my back and told me to drop my shoulders. That really helped.

The next thing I remember is laboring in our bath tub in the candle light. I was 4 cm when I got in. I felt like I was on drugs. I would just stare and stare at this one tile on the wall and listen to Justin's soothing voice as he comforted and encouraged me, telling me that I am beautiful and strong. As each contraction would come I would tell myself "it's going to end, it's going to end, it's going to end." When it ended I would tell myself "enjoy this break, enjoy this break, enjoy this break." It seems I had that conversation with myself a thousand times.

Vicki came in and helped me into the bed to check me again. I was expecting her to tell me that I was 6 cm or so. I was shocked when she told me I was complete with just the tiniest lip of cervix left and that I would be pushing soon. I couldn't believe that the labor went by so fast.

I spent most of my time pushing in the side lying position with Justin holding up my left leg. A million memories of other births I had attended flooded my mind. I tried to connect with all those women as I was pushing and thought of how I wanted to do it. I was a little timid at first, only giving tiny pushes, but the contractions were so strong that I made progress quickly anyway. Before I knew it, Vicki was asking me if I wanted to touch his head, and I did. Everything became so lucid and I realized this is all really happening, that Jake is a real baby and I am really going to have to push him out. It was all so intense. I wished I could pause life and take a break, or a nap.

I felt this intense heaviness deep into my pelvic floor and my perineum started to burn. It was then that I felt my skin tear and I thought to myself, "oh my God, I still have to push him out, it's going to tear more." I lost a little morale there, but Justin was like a cheering squad and I could feel his excitement all over me. He couldn't be still. Despite the pain I found it so amusing and cute and I wanted to make it through and make him proud. I knew he was just dying with curiosity to see his baby-and the end of this journey.

I started to feel like I couldn't take any more pain. I asked, "can you pull him out?" She said, "No honey, you have to push him out." I started pushing with more force and called for strength from deep within my being. With everyone's encouragement, I felt so surrounded by love and became so overwhelmed by the intensity in the room. All of a sudden, Jake's head was born! And then his whole body seemed to explode out. I had no idea it was going to happen at that moment. I was so startled by it that I started screaming for the first time in the whole birthing process. There was an earthquake inside of me, the most intense experience of my life. With my eyes clenched shut my ears were flooded with the noises in to room. Justin was all over the place, beside himself, his excitement came out in words I can't remember a million miles an hour. And then I heard Jake's cry. It was loud and strong. I felt so relieved. He sounded so healthy.

Vicki placed him on my belly. It was as if it was me as a baby lying on my own belly. It was so intense, I couldn't get myself to look at him. I touched him and soaked in every second of the relief and the rest and just felt him breathing. Justin and I shared a sweet kiss. It was over, we did it! It was blissful, our moment together of perfect victory like a 2 man army celebrating winning a war of fatigue, patience and pain. I felt in that moment we were truly married and fully prepared and ready to be Jake's parents.

The room got intense and serious again. It was time to push out the placenta and with a rush on it because I was bleeding too much. I was so lost in the victory moment I forgot all about placenta. I was a little scared but in the end, the placenta was no big deal and it felt great to have it out of there. Since then it has made its home in our freezer. We are going to bury it in our backyard and plant a tree on top of it in honor of Jakes birth.

The next thing I remember was getting into a perfectly warm bath tub in the candle light with the wonderful smell of herbs filling up the room. Jake was brought to me and placed on my chest. I was in love. His naked little body calmly pressed against me and his sweet little breathing noises became the sum of all the joy my heart could hold in one sitting and felt like it was going to explode. That was where we belonged together, in the dark, in the silence, comforting each other. My home felt like a temple The energy inside soaked in love and in peace.

I look back on Jakes birth as the most magical and spiritual day of my life. I proudly hung his home birth certificate with his first footprints on my living room wall because it fills me with happiness to know that our baby was brought into the world this way. I would encourage all women to choose this way, if they can. It was worth every moment of discomfort, because even though the pain is great, it does not compare to the joy, the comfort of your own home or the victory at the end. I would furthermore say that midwives are incredible hard working and compassionate women who can help you have this kind of life changing experience. We hope in a few years to be repeat customers!

 
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Maximillion's Birth

My husband and I had met Vicki after deciding to transfer out of AABC when I was 35 weeks pregnant.

On Friday, December 30th, we had a huge thunderstorm. That night, at 4pm, I noticed that I had started losing my mucous plug. Four hours later, I started to have contractions. At midnight I started to notice leaking amniotic fluid. We had called Vicki, and she let us know that we should give her a call once we got into active labor.

At 4am, we called in Bean, our doula. When she arrived, we had nestled into our media room with the lights off, watching movies and snuggling together on the couch through the contractions. At 6 am, I noticed that they were getting more and more intense, so we contacted Vicki to let her know of the change. She arrived at my house at 10am and did a quick pelvic exam and determined that I was only 2 cm dilated, which was heartbreaking. I had had a son seven years before, and my labor was 14 hours. I had made the mistake of trying to chart my progress against that labor, and was devastated to learn that I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I had then. With my water having broken already, Vicki informed me that we were on a timeline – if I hadn’t made substantial progress by 11pm, I would have to be transferred. After our beautiful night laboring in our home, the idea of transferring to the noise and impersonal sterility of a hospital sounded just awful. Vicki gave me some particularly foul tasting herbs to take that would kick my labor into high gear.

Around this time, some friends of mine showed up to cook everyone breakfast – pancakes, fruit, orange juice, the works! It was really fantastic, and we all feasted after a long night’s work. Shortly afterward, Vicki and our friends went home and my husband, my doula and I went for a walk to try and speed things up. We ran into a few of our neighbors on the way who were excited to learn that a new neighbor was on the way. Contractions along the way were hard – I discovered I wasn’t really able to sit down on the curb, so I slumped against my husband, allowing him to take the full extent of my weight.

We got home and I fell right to sleep for 2 ½ hours. During my sleep, I had only two or three very strong contractions, but aside from that, they’d just stopped.

At 1:30 my contractions woke me back up and I got into the shower. We called Vicki again, and she came around and checked the baby’s heart rate and mine. Any time I’d sit down, my contractions would slow, which was starting to get very frustrating. Vicki determined that I talk with my husband and determine if there was anything holding me back, emotionally.

We talked. I had given my first son up for adoption, and going through labor again had dredged up a lot of very prickly old emotions. We played through them all, had a good cry for the son I never got to raise, made promises to our unborn baby, and reaffirmed our desire to be parents.

Vicki determined that the baby was a little catty-wumpus inside, so I got to labor on my hands and knees for a little bit to get him turned (which was a very odd feeling – contracting while feeling something slowly shifting under it).

At 5pm we had terrific news! Vicki did another pelvic exam and discovered that only my outer bag of waters had broken, but that the inner one was still intact (at the earlier exam, my son’s head was pressed so tightly against the bag it disappeared – now it was bulging). This gave us carte blanche to labor as long as we wanted without needing to go to the hospital. Vicki did a little dance, we released the breath we didn’t know we were holding, and everything really kicked into high gear.

The same friends that had shown up earlier showed up again with delicious food from Guerro’s Mexican Café, and the midwives, my husband and doula got a chance to replenish themselves.

As the midwives ate, my husband, doula and I climbed into our shower (it’s one of those walk-in showers with plenty of room) where the contractions really picked up. We moved a lawn chair in there. We discovered how incredible our hot water heater is – we were in there for forty minutes before it gave out. We got back to our media room and onto a futon couch. At this point, the contractions were very close together – I could tell that they were very productive, and it was starting to get more and more difficult to stay on top of them. A quick pelvic exam at 6:00 said I was 7cm dilated. I laid on my side with a knee propped on a pillow, and worked at trying to stay on top of these contractions.

Around 6:15, I noticed a change in the contractions – it felt like I was contracting both horizontally and vertically, and started to feel pressure moving down the birth canal. Not really knowing how to describe what I was feeling, I shouted “Something’s happening! Come in here!" Instantly I felt an overwhelming urge to push, but I didn’t want to start until the midwives were there.

Ah, pushing. What a bizarre and uncomfortable task. Overall, my instincts were telling me that it would help somehow to start scooting backwards, which obviously would do no good. My husband and doula were beside themselves with encouragement, and Vicki quickly took control of the situation. “Kate," she said, “listen to me. You can’t crawl away. It’s time to push. It’s time to have your baby. I see his head."

Vicki slathered me up with olive oil as crowning happened. Apparently the position I was in (still on my side, with my husband supporting my top leg which apparently kept attempting to kick in my desire to get crawling) was terrific – my son was barreling down the birth canal, and the position slowed things down just enough to make sure I didn’t tear. After a few gentle pushes (panting, really) and my informing everyone that crowning felt terrible, my son’s head was born along with some very explosive amniotic fluid. One or two pushes later, and the rest of my son was born, pink and clean and beautiful.

He was immediately laid on my chest, and set to nursing almost instantly, which helped with the birthing of the placenta, which was going on pretty much without any knowledge from me. I was a little preoccupied with a most perfect little human.

During this time, I had started bleeding quite a bit. Vicki decided the cord should be cut before the placenta was birthed to make it easier to deal with the bleeding, so my husband cut it. She gave me Cotton Root Bark (which tasted MUCH better than whatever horrible tincture she gave me previously) to assist with getting my bleeding under control. My son had inhaled a little amniotic fluid during the birthing of the head (when the bag of waters popped with some force), so he and I shared a little oxygen before settling back in to nursing and getting to know each other.

Before we knew it, the midwives had cleaned up our house – started a load of laundry and erased all evidence of the labor having happened in the middle of our living room. At 6:28pm on December 30th, Maximillion Edward Danger was born, 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 21 inches long. He was born with a full head of black hair that was already long enough to start to curl. All in all, a terrific birth. We expect Vicki to be at our next one.

Kate

 
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