India Inez
Born at home
8th October 2013
10lbs 12oz
24" long
42 weeks, 2 days
Birth Story
As many of you know, we have been waiting patiently for this little one to arrive. My 42 week of pregnancy came and went. There have been a lot of stop-starts and prodromal labor, every time leading us to believe that 'this is really it!' We have called in the birth team, called off the birth team and pretty much just got to the point of believing it might never actually happen.
Last night was no different. My midwife had stopped by in the afternoon to check in on things and the baby had actually moved further away and up. It looked unlikely that anything would happen soon. My mom stayed for dinner and helped us put the kids to bed and then left for the Island. Nick and I went to bed ourselves and had a quick powwow about what would happen if the baby didn't come by the time he needed to go to Canada for his photo shoot.
At 12:30 am, I woke up with a tingly sensation in my belly. It was not a contraction, not painful, but it woke me up and my first thought was that I should call my mom and have her catch the last ferry from the Island back to the city, which left in 25 minutes. But the stop-starts of recent past made me think I was crazy, especially without any real contractions. So I didn't call. However, by 1 am, contractions started. Around 1:15, I woke up Nick and we made some phone calls to Casi and my Mom. By 1:30 I couldn't speak through the contractions and we called the midwife.
Nick raced around the house getting our birth pool filled with warm water, cleaning and getting things set up, while intermittently helping me through a contraction. Then little Poppie woke up and he scooped her up and tried to put her to bed, but ended up having to stay in the room with her to get her to sleep again. Meanwhile, I am going through transition (the most painful stage of active labor) and howling alone in the birth pool, jumping out on one occasion to get more hot water off the stove to add to the pool. By the time he got Poppie to sleep, I was pushing.
Luckily one of our midwives arrived moments before her head was born, followed by Molly who was put to work by the midwife immediately. A few seconds later, the children woke up, my mom walked in the door and our other midwife arrived. And baby was stuck. With a tight cord wrapped around her neck. Nick was helping me get into a different position as the midwives stepped up the urgency and tried everything to help get baby out and the cord unwrapped. Meanwhile, Finn is asking questions that I am dutifully answering in between the howls of pushing. Poppie is watching rapt from my mother's arms.
India had to be manually corkscrewed out of my body and was born with a strong heartbeat, but blue, limp and not breathing. It took a few very scary minutes to resuscitate her, but once she got going she howled so loud, the older children started to cry.
All in all, from start to finish, we had slightly less than a two hour labor, just the two of us (or me alone when Nick was occupied with the children) except for the last 15 minutes or so. The children were an unexpected audience, but it worked out beautifully and I was happy they got to see their little sister enter the world.
India is doing well and I walked away with not even a scratch (thanks to my midwife who helped me breath properly through the late pushing stages). We are so thrilled to welcome our little girl into the world.
PS, Her face is a little smushy and bruised from her fast decent into the world, but she bares a strong resemblance to her older sister:
India, a few hours old
Poppie, a few hours old
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