Welcome o

After several weeks of the baby’s head being parked on my bladder and Braxton Hicks that left me breathless, early labor started around 5:30′ ish or 6:00′ ish in the morning in late August. I told Tig that today was the day, he got all serious and started to hustle.

My father-in-law took V to a our friend Victor’s house after breakfast when contractions picked up around 8:00 or 9:00am.

Tig and I went for a short walk and after a while I needed to stop at each contraction. When we came home, Tig filled up the birth tub, and we were joined by our two midwives, Audra and Tara, around 9:30 and 9:45.

Being my first homebirth, I opted for the strategy of distraction at first. I watched a bit of Lord of the Rings and a bit of the new Fame movie between waves. Later, I switched over to a simple breath-counting technique of three in, three hold and four out. I labored until about 12:00’ish, when contractions started to become more and more challenging.

At 12:23pm, Audra checked me at my request and I was at 9 cm. Shortly after, my water broke and the waves kept coming one on top of the other, and I started to have doubts about crossing the finish line.  After an hour of pushing, and some hollering, O shot out like a cannonball.

“Oh, there’s the baby,” Audra said calmly and scooped him out of the water. So technically, no one “caught” him. He cried and yelled a bit until I snuggled him onto my chest. His instincts immediately kicked in. Little tiny feet pushed against my stomach. He located the source of milk and latched on with surprising strong suction. Off to a good start.

Welcome baby O, we’ve been so eager to meet you.