Birth Announcement

 We are thrilled to announce the safe arrival of 

Oliver Philip Anderson

born on Tuesday, May 31st, at 6:58 p.m. weighing 7 lbs 7 oz. and measuring 20.75 inches. 

Due to my advanced maternal age, I chose a hospital delivery this time around, even though the pregnancy was uneventful and free of any complications. 

Little Ollie (or Olliephant, as Eva calls him) is turning out to be a super easy and mellow baby. He is nursing and sleeping very well, and has been smiling from birth. To say we are beyond thrilled is an understatement. 

Ollie smiling as my midwife holds him

My phone is already full of hundreds of pictures of excited siblings taking turns holding him. I will refrain from oversharing them here, but this is a little glimpse into my current everyday reality. 

My oldest and my youngest ♥ ♥

We are so thankful to God for a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and perfect little son. Babies truly are God's greatest gift this side of eternity. 

Birth announcement

Eva Rose was born healthy and safe on Sunday, September 22nd, at 10:35 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 10 oz and measuring 20 in. You can listen to me tell her birth story here.

We chose her name "Eva" in keeping with the Biblical theme for first names, picking a new first initial for each child. "Rose" is in honor of both of my Grandmas, who went by the German and Hungarian equivalents of that name.

 The weight shown on this board is slightly off... mommy brain... eek!

Eva has been a very sweet, easy, mellow baby. She has been smiling from Day 1! She is also a great nurser (no tongue tie - yay!).

To see more updates, please visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

Birth announcement and story (and pictures!)

We are thrilled to announce the safe arrival of Peter László Anderson!

Peter was born last Monday, January 15th, at 10:11 p.m. weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and measuring 21 inches. 

Birth story below. Please do not read on if blood and guts make you queasy.

Chloe's Birth Story

My actual due date with Chloe was Friday, May 20th. Of our kids born up to that point, two had been born on their due dates, two had been born a few days after their due dates, and the rest had been born in the week before their due date. All that to say, our kids typically arrive right on time.

I had also learned from previous births that I typically have on-and-off contractions for 2-3 weeks leading up to birth, so for me that is another clue how far out actual labor is. These contractions started on Monday, May 2nd, a little over two weeks before Chloe ended up being born. The last few weeks leading up to the birth can be frustrating (especially for those who have to live with me!), but I think that letting baby choose his/her own birthday is one of the first gifts we give them, so I just wait (and wait and wait). Typically, baby comes right around the time I am thoroughly convinced that they will never be born. 

By the middle of May, the contractions had changed in nature, to where they no longer went away when I lay down or went to sleep. This, too, is an indicator that these contractions were now the real deal. That fact, however, is offset by the fact that I live in a house with 9 other people, 8 of which are kids that make noise and have all sorts of needs from sun up to sun down, which psychologically does not lend itself to being the perfect labor and birth environment. I knew that until my body pushed past the "point of no return" during the peaceful night hours, the contractions would mellow and space out during the day. After a few nights of sleeping only between regular contractions that came anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes apart, I finally felt I was in labor for good on the night from Monday to Tuesday, May 16/17. 

So around 4 a.m. on Tuesday, May 17th, I texted my mother-in-law and asked her to fly out. She had been on standby, ready to leave, for a couple of weeks. She has been here for the last three births before this current one, watching the kids while I am in labor. Even before that, she would come out as soon as baby was born to help for as long as she could get time off from work, but has come out in time for labor ever since retiring (she used to be a flight attendant). 

However, by the time the sun came up on Tuesday morning, I knew that was not going to be the day I gave birth. The contractions were still coming every 5 to 15 minutes, but they were much milder, too mild for being past that "point of no return" which I'm guessing is around 5 cm dilation for me. As usual, my husband took the kids to their P.E. class that morning, while I stayed home resting after not having slept well at night for almost a week by that point. After P.E., they picked up his mom at the airport, and were home in time for lunch and naps. I was supposed to have a prenatal appointment that afternoon, which I cancelled because I knew birth was imminent, and I was too uncomfortable to leave the house. I, too, lay down for a nap instead. 

In the evening, we left the kids home with Grandma for a trip to Costco. There were a few last minute things we needed, plus I figured the walking would help move labor along. It was about 10:30 p.m. when I got to bed that night, and I slept well for the first hour. At 11:41 p.m. the contractions had picked up in intensity to where I could no longer sleep through them. In fact, I could not even stay in bed in between them, as I needed to get up and move with the contractions to help ease the pain. 

Let me tell you, the hours between midnight and sun up are the worst hours to be in labor, at least for me. I was SO tired. The contractions were coming very regularly every 8 minutes at this point, ever increasing in intensity. While they lasted, I got much relief from leaning over the birth ball and rolling with it from side to side. I did this while standing up, with the birth ball on a raised surface. While it offered relief, it was impossible to sleep between contractions while standing up, and I was too tired lie down and get up again in between them. 

After about an hour of laboring this way by myself, I woke my husband around half past midnight to ask him to set up the birth pool, which involves inflating the pool, fitting it with its liner, connecting the hose to the shower head, and then fill the pool with water (which takes a while as we wait for the water heater to keep up). As with Boaz, the birth pool was set up in the office, which doubles as our guest room, and has a bed in it. In between filling the tub, my husband would doze off on the bed, while I was laboring and trying to rest. The contractions were still very manageable, but only as long as I was able to move with them. But like I said, standing up for 7 minutes in between them didn't do much in the way of letting me sleep. 

Around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, May 18th, I finally figured out a way to sit in the corner seat of our sofa in the living room in such a way that I could sleep between contractions, while still being able to move and work through them when they came every 8 minutes. So for the next 3 hours or so, I slept on the sofa, and woke only for the contractions. They were definitely painful, but manageable. My husband was asleep in the office next door, only waking to turn the hot water on and off as needed. 

Sometime around 4:30 a.m., I suddenly woke with a start, shivering and nauseated. This was an indication that labor had shifted into a new phase, and things were about to really pick up momentum. I woke my husband, and asked him to call the midwife and tell her it was time to come. I had wanted to hold off on that as long as possible to allow her to sleep, but as it turned out later, she had not been able to sleep much at all that night, knowing that I was in labor and could call at any moment. 

Once I was awake, there was no going back to sleep. I started throwing up (very typical for me in labor), but otherwise, I felt great between contractions. During each contraction, I would again lean over the birth ball on the guest bed, while my husband put gentle counter-pressure on my hips with his flat hands on either side. 

The birth team consisted of 4 ladies: my midwife (the same one I had used for the previous three births), two ladies who she had trained and who are just finishing their midwifery education (who had also been at my last two births), and a new apprentice midwife she was teaching. They showed up sometime around 5 a.m., and let themselves in silently so as to not wake the kids (labor plus kids just doesn't mesh well, and it was too early to send them all out of the house for the day). I remember hearing the cat, who prefers to sleep outside, meow - my only indication that the birth team had arrived and let the cat into the house when they came in. Later, one of the midwives told me that when she opened the door to let the apprentice in, my cat had leaped on her and scratched her up, something she has NEVER done - she must have been spooked by my being in labor. The ladies were setting up their stuff, making themselves coffee and letting me do my thing.

Around 5:30 a.m. or so, I asked my midwife to check me for dilation, and I think I was at a 6, though maybe it was 7. Things were going well and very manageable, so I didn't care much about the exact number. Having had the same midwife for the last four births, I knew she would have a good idea of when baby would be born, so I asked for her prediction. She said she would be very surprised if baby was born before 7 a.m. or after 10 a.m., so that was my "window." Might seem silly, but she's always been right in the past with me!

I got into the birth pool around this time to give me additional relief, and for the next couple of hours, I would sit in there resting and chatting, then turn over for the next contraction so my husband could push on my hips. In past labors, I always wanted counter-pressure on the tailbone, but this time, it felt much better to have him push to the right and left of my tailbone, on the hips. Between contractions, we were still laughing and talking.

By this time (about 7:30 a.m.), my mother-in-law had taken all the other kids out of the house, although they were so quiet I hardly even heard them leave. I was dilated to an 8 or 9, and I could feel the baby right at the cervix, but not pushing past the tailbone and ready to descend into the birth canal. The baby has to navigate a "turn" at that point, which is very noticeable. Once they clear that turn near the tailbone, they are born within the next minute or two. This baby, however, just stayed put right where it was. This was partly due to the fact that I was not yet fully dilated, although I knew from past experience that the last lip of my cervix typically doesn't get pushed aside until baby comes through, and I often do start pushing at 9 cm dilation.

It was around this time that my midwife told me the baby likely had its hand up by its face, based on the fact that he/she was not coming down sooner, and the fact that my hips felt like they were being split in half during contractions. This was NOT what I had wanted to hear. It meant that I could be stuck in this transitional phase for anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 days - just however long it took for baby to navigate past my tailbone, having increased its head circumference (the largest part to be born) by having a hand on its face/head.

Strangely, from the get-go, this labor had reminded me of Isaac's birth. Isaac is our second-oldest child, and my first home birth. His birth was going well, and was pretty manageable like this labor had been, except for the very end, when I got stuck in transition for several hours without any progress. After he was born, we learned that not only did he have a very short cord, but that he was making it shorter by having it looped up and through his legs. It took so long for him to be born because his cord had to stretch, stretch, stretch for him to be able to descend. By the time he came out, the cord was stretched very thin. I remember the last couple hours of that labor, I had gotten out of the pool, and was passed out tired on the bed in between contractions, waking only as they peaked and biting down on my husband's hand in pain. We have since learned to keep washcloths on hand for that! ;)

Having already experienced what it felt like to get stuck in transition, I was really discouraged by the prospect of having to relive that. Remembering Isaac's birth, I got out of the tub, and tried to rest and even sleep between contractions. At this point, labor was a lot more difficult to manage, because I no longer felt that each contraction brought me a little closer to holding baby - it felt like I was making zero progress, while in a lot of pain, with no end in sight. I remember telling my midwife to transfer me to the hospital via ambulance, so they could just deliver the baby via C-section, because I was DONE with labor. The ambulance was not due to any urgency, just the simple fact that I though riding lying down on a gurney would be a lot more comfortable than sitting in a car - ha!

After a couple of hours of that, around 9:30 a.m. I got another little burst of energy, and got back into the pool. It only took a couple more contractions until I finally felt the baby clear the tailbone, and descend into the birth canal. I knew he/she would be born with the next few pushes.

The head crowned with the next contraction, and while it was stuck there before the next one came, the midwife and I felt knuckles on both sides of the head. We had suspected one hand by the baby's face, but not two! I remember yelling for someone to put pressure on my perineum to keep it from tearing, then with the next push the baby was born at 9:48 a.m, just before my midwife's predicted delivery window ended. The cord was pretty short, I think just over a foot and a half, which probably didn't help labor progress any faster. I had to lean down carefully so as to not pull on the cord while checking to see if we had a boy or a girl. I had thought boy all along with this pregnancy, but had started to think girl toward the very end and while in labor. I was washing the dishes one night close to the birth when the name "Chloe" came into my mind as a choice for a girl, and was relieved that my husband liked it and we now had our girl name choice settled.

 This is how she was born, and still likes to sleep.

I knew I was supposed to get out of the tub as soon as baby was born (to better monitor blood loss), so with the help of my midwives, I moved out of the tub and onto the bed. The placenta was born shortly thereafter, followed by a lot of blood. It would have been alarming if not for the fact that I always bleed a lot after delivery, and my midwife knows this. They were keeping a close eye on me, monitoring my blood pressure and giving me stuff to control the bleeding, but I was not worried about it. I think that my body just makes an excess of blood while pregnant (blood volume increases anywhere from 150-200%, so there's a wide range of normal there), which is why I can afford to lose more than average without any complications. My iron levels, blood pressure, energy, and milk supply in the days after delivery were all stellar, which means that whatever amount of blood I lost was not an issue. I have donated blood before and felt far worse.

My husband called his mom to tell her the baby had been born, and that it was a girl. They were not too far from the house, and came home immediately to greet the newest member of the family.

 
 

Admiring her little fingers

My husband drained and cleaned up the birth pool while the midwives got me settled and kept monitoring me. In spite of Chloe's two little hands being born alongside her larger-than-average head, I had zero tearing. I had some pain near my tailbone from when she had to squeeze by there, but after a few hours that was gone, and I felt like I had never even given birth.

I hadn't eaten much in the last two days leading up to the birth, but I was still not hungry at all, and just ate a cheese stick. There was also cake and milk for everyone - knowing the birth was imminent, I had made birthday cake the night before.

Around nap time, the midwives left, the little boys napped, and my mother-in-law took the older kids out of the house so us parents could also rest in a quiet house.

About 10 days old and loving her bath. 

The midwife and her team came back to check on us on days 1 and 3, and at 1 and 2 weeks postpartum, which always includes flowers for baby and chocolate for mom. Chloe is growing and gaining well, and there have been no issues whatsoever with either her or me, except that I think she has a slight intolerance to me consuming dairy products. Mostly, she just gets colicky if I drink milk straight up, but seems to be fine with cheese etc. (though I have cut out all dairy for the time being just to make sure). I am not a fan of milk, and rarely if ever drank any while pregnant, which may be why she couldn't handle me drinking it now.

 

Boaz helping check Chloe's oxygen saturation

My husband drove me to see my chiropractor the day after giving birth, to set my tailbone straight again and to check Chloe for any misalignment. The chiropractor I see has taken care of me with my last 6 pregnancies, which I am certain plays a large part in my natural deliveries. I see her all throughout my pregnancies as often as I see the midwife for prenatal checkups. She is trained in the Webster technique, which is very gentle, and does not involve "cracking" my joints. 

Other than that, I have been home resting and holding baby. My mother-in-law left earlier this week after having stayed and helped for two weeks. Yesterday and today, I ran my first errands, not because I had to but because I was going stir-crazy from having been cooped up in the house so long. All went very well - Chloe actually likes the car seat, something most of our kids hate with a passion! I can't wait to go back to church this Sunday morning, though I will take some more time to phase in the evening services because I am going to bed early these days. 

Thank you again to all who prayed for a safe, easy delivery!

Stephen's Birth Story

or: Why does it take a grand multipara three days to give birth??!?

Here it is, at long last! :) 

Please note: This being about BIRTH, as much as I will try to keep my wording absolutely appropriate, you may find some of the content to be TMI, gross, offensive, or all of the above. If you are that type, please stop reading now. You have been warned! 

He's Here!

Stephen Gilliatt Anderson was born today on his Dad's 31st birthday, measuring 21 inches and weighing 8 lbs. 

No Regrets

Yesterday, I was shopping with only Miriam and Anna. As I was waiting in the checkout aisle, an elderly lady from one lane over left her cart to step over to where we were and admire the girls. She especially loved the baby, and joked that she wanted to take her home. In passing, she mentioned "I was never able to have any children of my own" before heading back to where she had left her husband with the cart. 

Previous birth stories - Part 1

With all these birthdays recently, I have been reflecting upon each of my "birth stories". I love reading other ladies stories, so I thoughts I'd share mine. I have already blogged Becky's and Anna's birth stories before. 

 

Solomon

 a few minutes after birth

Solomon, our firstborn - wow, we were so young, and knew so little! The thought of home birth crossed my mind once early on in pregnancy, wondering if anyone still gave birth at home in the 21st century, and if so, why they would want to do that. I also was under the notion that if anyone were to attempt a home birth, they probably had to have an ambulance waiting in front of the house, ready to rush to the mother to the hospital if needed.

I saw an OB early on in my pregnancy who was morbidly obese, but very friendly. Her weight would have made me doubt any nutritional advice she would have given me, but she never gave me any advice, nutritional or otherwise. My appointments took a few minutes each, and basically consisted of recording my weight, blood pressure, and temperature. Later on, we moved to the other side of town and I switched to a different OB, but my appointments with her were pretty much the same other than the fact that I suddenly weighed 9 lbs less because obviously one of the two offices had a scale that was way off. 

Instead, the popular "What to expect when you're expecting" became my main source for learning about pregnancy (we didn't have internet). What I didn't know was that pregnancy in mainstream America is a very strange adventure. But not to me, who had little else to compare it to. One night, my husband remarked that I had been reading the book so much I had probably committed it to memory. He was joking, but I told him I probably had. Just for fun, he picked it up and started reading a sentence, and I finished it word-perfectly. In disbelief, he did that a couple more times, and sure enough, I knew how to finish those sentences, too. Pathetic, huh?

The pregnancy was very uneventful, other than suffering from debilitating morning sickness at first. A couple of weeks before my due date, I started having prodromal labor: my contractions would pick up and be regular and painful, only to stall out again. What I didn't know then was that I am prone to have labor drag on like that, and that Solomon was facing the wrong way ("sunny side up"), which was causing these false contractions. My OB was either not skilled enough to palpate the baby's position and teach me how to get him to turn, or she didn't bother to inform me of it.

After two weeks of having painful contractions that accomplished nothing other than to rob me of sleep, I was induced early in the morning on my exact due date by having my water broken and being put on pitocin. Ugh, to think how little I knew about what I was getting myself into! This being our first, looking back I realize how much God was watching out for us by not allowing this to turn into a needless Cesarean for "failure to progress" - many induced first time births end in one. 

The pitocin immediately made me violently sick to my stomach. I had secretly eaten one of my husband's Arby's roast beef sandwiches when the nurse wasn't looking, and it suddenly and violently decided to turn around and come back. Funny thing was, my husband and I were only concerned about hiding all evidence of my getting sick, as it would have exposed me as having had food against hospital policy. 

The pain from these synthetically generated contractions was unbearable right from the start. Pitocin is like a storm in a water glass - it makes labor feel like transition the whole way through. Not wanting an epidural, I finally gave in to one half dose of some intravenous dope they shot me up with. It took effect within seconds, and I literally felt tipsy and like I was floating above the bed. Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt that surely this was no different that recreational drug use, and that I shouldn't be doing this, but I was too "happy" to really care. I was still in just as much pain, but in an altered state of mind where I didn't care so much.

Of course, that didn't last very long. The drug had completely worn off after about two hours, and I soon asked for another half dose. Again, it didn't take the pain away, it just drugged me up to where I no longer cared about it. By the time that dose wore off, it was evening and I was dilated to a 7, so they would no longer let me use the drug because of how it could affect the baby that close to birth. Too late to get an epidural (which I had been against all along), I was now suffering the full effects of a posterior baby - back labor at its worst. I must say that the labor nurse that was helping me was really nice. She showed me how to change into a position on the bed that would alleviate some of the pressure on my back, and also encourage the baby to turn around (which he never did). From this point up until I finally started pushing hours later all I remember is being in horrible pain and screaming uncontrollably with each contraction. The poor moms in the other rooms must have really hated me!

Pushing was surprisingly easy and relatively painless. Solomon's head was soon on the perineum, about to be born, when my OB (in full battle gear, with a plastic shield covering her entire head) announced that I needed an episiotomy. I knew that this was not good, and tried to argue with her, but to no avail. The second the doctor cut me, Solomon slipped out immediately and flopped onto the bed that I was pushing on, but I did not see him because I was reclined. They held him up briefly, cut the cord, and then whisked him off for a few minutes to do their little song and dance. Solomon was screaming the whole time, until my husband started talking to him and he took a break to listen to that familiar voice. Finally, he was handed to me for the first time, tightly wrapped in a swaddling blanket, as seen in the picture above. I still clearly remember the feelings that swept over me as the nurse placed this little bundle in my arms. My life was changed forever in that one instant.

My recovery from the episiotomy was quite painful, but we were beyond elated with our newborn son, and our little family. Breastfeeding was a bit bumpy at first because Solomon was quite tongue-tied, but we soon got the hang of it.

Isaac

two days old

Isaac was our first home birth, but we did not go into this pregnancy planning one. I was going to go back to the same childless OB who I felt had not given me the best of care the first time around, but I didn't know there were other alternatives available. Solomon at the time was 7 1/2 months old, so at my first appointment, the OB told me she would for sure do an episiotomy again on me for this second birth because the births were so close together she was afraid I would tear along the scar from the first birth. I had read enough about natural birth in the meantime to know that this was ridiculous, so I started looking for another OB. Our HMO health insurance only had 4 other female OBs that were still accepting patients in our area, and for various reasons, none of the other doctors would work out for me. One of them actually interviewed her patients before taking them on for care, and she would not take me on unless I agreed to stop nursing Solomon immediately, something I would not do. 

My husband, who didn't really see what the big deal was, would have been fine with me staying with the same doctor. I continued to see her for prenatal checkups, while trying to find an alternative. There was a birth center across from the hospital that was run by midwives, but our insurance wouldn't cover it and there was no way we could afford the cash rate. I was feeling more panicked as time wore on - the prospect of having my perineum butchered was scary at best. Then something wonderful happened. My husband met a young couple while out soulwinning one night. They were already Christians, but looking for a church, and they started attending our church after my husband's visit. The lady was expecting their third child, so of course I immediately asked her about which hospital she was going to deliver at. To my utter surprise, she told me that she was planning a home birth, and that her first two had also been born at home. Wow, she might as well have been an alien! So people DID still have babies at home!

I immediately brought the idea of home birth up to my husband, who dismissed it as entirely crazy. He was concerned about me bleeding to death at worst, or a horrible mess to deal with at best. As I kept bringing it up to him, he really didn't warm up to the idea at all, especially because of the cost of it. While we paid several hundred dollars a month to have me on his insurance plan through work, the insurance would not cover out of network providers such as homebirth midwives. Their cash rate  for midwives in the area was $3500 to $4500 for the entire prenatal package, which was utterly out of our budget - my husband only made about $2000 a month back then. The thought that we should drop my health insurance and instead pay for the midwives or get different insurance never once crossed our minds.

A couple of midwives I had called took pity on me and offered to do all the prenatals and birth for $1200, and after much pleading with my husband, he agreed to go ahead with the home birth and paying the midwives $50 each month on our balance (which we paid off in full within a couple of months after the birth when we got our tax refund).

The day I went into labor, my mother-in-law had come to our apartment to pick me and Solomon (who was only 16 months old) up and take us out for lunch. I still remember going to Jack in the Box and having to grip the back of the chair during contractions. We also stopped for dipped cones at Dairy Queen on the way back home. I remember my contractions really picking up intensity and wanting to get home quickly, but my mother-in-law was driving painfully slow, or maybe it just seemed that way. It runs in my husband's family to slow WAY DOWN during a conversation, so it was probably a combination of both.

Once my labor progressed to the point that I had to call the midwives to the house, grandma took Solomon to her house for the rest of that day, and night. We filled the birth pool (which was actually a water trough for horses that was being used "off label") in the living room of our tiny one-bedroom apartment. We like to joke that this started Isaac's love for horses. My labor was fairly easy up until 6 or 7 cm dilation. For no apparent reason, I was not able to progress past that point for several hours. My midwives finally suggested that breaking my water would most likely speed up labor, but it didn't. In exhaustion, I finally left the birth tub and lay down on our bed, where I fell asleep for the next hour or so except for the peak of each (excruciatingly painful) contraction. Suddenly, I woke up very alert, and felt the urge to push. Oh, what a relief it was! I have always found that the hardest part of labor is over once the pushing starts. Not sure how long I pushed for, but probably not more than 10 minutes, give or take.

Isaac looked slightly blue for a few seconds after being born, which is perfectly normal, and then just started breathing without crying. I thought for sure he was dead, but my midwives assured me that he was perfectly fine, and that a lot of babies don't cry much. After another minute, he did start crying. I had no tearing whatsoever, and didn't require any stitches. What a different recovery I had!

Upon inspecting the placenta, it was discovered that the reason I had had such a hard time fully dilating was because of the baby's failure to fully descend. The cause of this was a relatively short cord, and the fact that it was wrapped around his thigh and back in three loops altogether to make it even shorter. It just took a long time to get it to stretch long enough to be born. I do remember the cord appearing stretched thin when he came out.

Just a few weeks later, another lady I knew was having her first baby at the hospital. She had an almost identical situation with her cord (short, wrapped around baby, stalled in transition) and ended up being given a C-section. I was so glad that I was at home for Isaac's birth, because I would have been begging for a C-section at the hospital - labor was just so overwhelmingly painful and slow. I was very glad to have been able to have a natural birth at home, and felt confirmed in our decision to do so. 

To be continued with John and Miriam's birth stories...

Anna's birth story

Given the nature of this post, reader discretion is advised. Details may be sketchy and/or inaccurate, as I was obviously in the throes of labor - this is how I remember it to the best of my ability.

~~~~~~~~~

Anna was born early on Wednesday morning, December 8th. The weekend before that, I started having regular, timeable contractions about every 10-20 minutes. They lasted about 30 to 45 seconds each, and were not painful at all.

That same Saturday morning, Miriam woke up with a fever. She said her head hurt, and later threw up a couple of times. It never fails that some or all of us get sick just a few days before the arrival of a new baby. Midwives have told me this happens a lot and ensures that everyone's immunities to the current bug making the rounds is high by the time baby comes. So in spite of the contractions, I "knew" the baby's arrival was still days away. Miriam got better within the next day and a half after I started letting her drink as much Reed's Ginger Ale as she wanted. The stuff is a miracle cure - it stops vomiting immediately, and brings down a fever faster than tylenol - no joke! She also got a red rash on her torso a day later, so my guess is that she had some sort of virus.

I had taken on a translating assignment that I was working on that weekend (an article from a medical journal), so getting that done and off my desk before baby came was fine with me, anyway. I did finish it up a couple of days before the deadline, just to be safe.

Contractions continued to be every 10 to12 minutes all Monday, with increasing intensity. In the evening, I ran a couple of errands, and other than having to stop whenever another contraction came and holding on to the cart, it was fine. I found some things I wanted to get the kids as Christmas gifts, but could not buy them because they were with me.

During the night from Monday to Tuesday, contractions kept me awake from 3 until 7 am. My mother-in-law is a flight attendant, but had the week off and was waiting "on call" to fly out in case I went into labor, to be an extra set of hands around the house. Around 4:30 am our time, I texted her that I thought she should come out, even though I was not convinced that this was "the real thing". Sure enough, when morning came, the contractions went away for several hours, during which time I slept in. Thankfully, my MIL still came out, as birth was obviously close.

This was Tuesday. I left grandma at home with the kids while I finished up a few last errands, and went back and bought the gifts for the kids I was unable to get the night before. Then I took a nap in the afternoon. Contractions were still every 10 to 12 minutes at this point, and getting to a point where they were requiring my attention. While I was cooking dinner, Solomon and grandma were sitting at the kitchen counter, playing yahtzee. I closed my eyes during a contractions and just stood there, and Solomon said something like "Oh look, Grandma, mom must be really tired. She is falling asleep standing up." It made me laugh, which hurt because it was right in the middle of a contraction.

We inflated the birth pool before going to bed, with the hose to fill it all hooked up and ready to go in case my labor reached the "point of no return" that night. We went to bed around 11 pm, at which time the contractions were about 5 or 6 minutes apart.

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, shortly after midnight, my contractions were so strong that they woke me up. By about 2 am, they were about 3 or 4 minutes apart, and increasingly intense. I woke my husband and asked him to start filling the tub. At 2:34 am, I called my midwife and told her that I wasn't sure whether this was the real thing, but that my contractions were regular every few minutes, and becoming pretty painful. She said she'd come over right away. Both her and her assistant arrived within a half hour.

Other than the contractions, I still had none of the other symptoms of active labor, which is what made me so doubtful (i.e. water breaking, mucous plug, etc.). I asked my midwife to check my dilation when she first arrived, and I was at a 3-4 cm. I got in the tub at this point. I don't think the contractions ever got closer than 3 to 5 minutes apart, and while they were very painful/intense, I have had worse. They were relatively manageable with lots of moaning and some slight pressure on this certain spot on my lower back. Later on, I did start throwing up after contractions, but in between them, I felt pretty good, other than being cold (neither the room nor the water was cold) and tired from the lack of sleep in the previous days. 

I don't remember the exact times that it took me to dilate. I think an hour later (around 4:30 am) I was at 7 cm, and did not progress past that in the next 20 or 30 minutes. At that point, the midwife and her assistant relocated to just outside the room I was laboring in, to give me and my husband some privacy/quiet. By this point, I was starting to feel this urgent need to deliver the baby, while also feeling exhausted and like I was going nowhere. However, I did fall asleep between contractions, while in the tub, with my chin resting on my husband's hand on the edge of the tub. 

I'm guessing that it was about 45 minutes or so later when I suddenly felt wide awake. With the next couple of contractions, I felt "pushy", but did not feel like I was fully dilated for some reason. Pushing felt different than it normally did - like I was pushing against something, and also more painful. I asked my midwife to check me and make sure I was dilated, and other than a cervical lip, she confirmed that I was. 

Still, I could not get comfortable pushing. I decided that maybe I needed to use the bathroom, because even a bladder that is *almost* empty can get in the way of a baby's head coming down. Normally, I would have just gone in the tub at this point (sorry if this is too much information, but this is actually important to the story), but simply could not. So I dragged my wet, shivering self to the bathroom, which was only about 5 ft from where the tub was set up in the guest room. Still not able to pee, and still skeptical that I was fully dilated, my midwife wanted to check me on the bed rather than in the tub, which is easier and more accurate. 

As she did, she still felt that lip of the cervix, and coached me to push with the next contraction while she pushed it to the side. The baby immediately slipped into the birth canal, and was born completely within what I am guessing was less than 60 seconds from when she first checked me. What a relief!

I leaned back against my husband for a minute, who was supporting me from behind. As I usually do, I asked "Is the baby alright?", because I felt too weak to sit up and check for myself. I got no reply, so I asked again, and again got no reply. The baby had not cried at all, but that is pretty typical for our babies, because they are usually born in the water, which is gentler on them. I figured the midwife had not heard me because she was busy with the baby. So I asked my husband, who assured me that everything was fine. I sat up to take the baby (this was less than a minute after she was born, I'm guessing), and the midwife placed her on my chest and told me that the baby was okay, and coming around. I said something to the baby, in response to which she let out a little whimper, and then just breathed (sounding a little wet/raspy). I figured that her breathing had been what the midwife was concerned about, and that maybe she had needed to be suctioned. I checked to see if it was a boy or a girl, and was not surprised to find I had been right with my prediction all along. 

Just a minute or so later, my midwife said that she thought the placenta was ready to be pushed out, which surprised me. But sure enough, she was right, and the placenta came out with one big push. 

At this point, everyone came in to see the baby, John (the birthday boy) got to cut the cord, and we were all just rejoicing in this new little creature. It was shortly after 6 am on Wednesday morning. We spent the day resting. My MIL took the 5 oldest kids out of the house from about 9 am until the early afternoon, during which time my husband, Anna, and I napped, rested, and ate a late lunch. It was a nice first day.

It was not until the next day, when my midwife came for the 1-day visit, that I learned some more details about the birth that I was (thankfully) entirely unaware of at the time. I have debated with myself whether to include them here, but see no reason not to, as they are part of the birth story.

When my midwife checked me on the bed after I got out of the tub to use the bathroom, she was no longer able to feel the baby's pulse on the fontanel. Right before getting out of the tub, the baby's heart rate on the doppler had been normal. At this point, she could also see that the baby's head (right on the cervix) was lavender-gray (as opposed to pink, or maybe blanched). Which is why she held the cervical lip to the side and told me to push the baby down. Immediately after the baby came out, she was followed by huge amounts of blood. The baby's cord was also already flat and had stopped pulsing when she was born. All these symptoms indicate that it is likely my placenta had suddenly and completely detached right before the baby was born - a very rare and dangerous condition. Since the cord and placenta are the baby's lifeline, the baby will die in a matter of minutes (my midwife said a maximum of 6 minutes until complete death) if cut off from the placenta before they are born and can breathe on their own. Serious, irreversible brain damage starts occurring about a minute before that. 

In Anna's case, she came around again very quickly, and she is perfectly fine, leading us to believe that she was probably cut off for no more than a minute or two. Most cases of placental abruption are milder (i.e. partial), and have warning signs like bleeding. In our case, all the bleeding was blocked by the baby's body, hence the gush of blood that followed her. There is no way to predict placental abruption, and for cases such as mine (sudden, complete detachment with no warning signs), there is nothing that can be done. No emergency cesarean could be performed quickly enough to save the baby's life, as there are only a couple of minutes that mean the difference between baby living or dying. Hence, placental abruption is one of the leading causes of stillbirth/neonatal death.

Inevitably, I know that this might make some question the safety of home birth, but as I said, being at the hospital would have done nothing to get the baby out faster. On the contrary, I believe that having my labor "managed" would likely have interfered with my natural instincts, such as realizing that pushing didn't feel quite right (probably due to the placenta starting to detach), and getting out of the tub when I usually deliver all of our kids in the water. Any drugs that I might have received at the hospital (such as pitocin) would have greatly aggravated the condition. It was just a rare fluke, that thankfully ended well because of God's hand of protection. We are very blessed indeed.

Other than being more fatigued than usual because of the blood loss, I feel very well. There was no tearing at all, and the afterpains have been manageable with a hot rice pack and some cramp bark tincture. Nursing is going well. Anna is a very easy baby, and already in a predictable pattern of eating and sleeping. I have held/carried her pretty much non-stop since she was born, not because I have to (although it does help keep her asleep), but because I don't want to set her down and miss even one second with her. She has been peacefully asleep on my chest the whole time I spent writing this post.

My husband has been such a huge help with the kids, around the house, and running any necessary errands. My MIL had to work a trip a few days after the birth, but is coming back again today and staying through the end of the week. 

I'll leave with some more pictures of our little doll.

 Solomon reading to her out of a "book" that he wrote

 This is what happens with older siblings in the house - baby might end up being pushed in a play shopping cart on a pretend grocery store trip. No worries, Solomon was very careful not to let her fall out. 

 Only set her in the bouncer to take her picture

 She really enjoyed this bath. It was so cute.

 That's me, giving her a bath in the kitchen sink.

 With big brother John

 sisters

Miriam is all over the baby, asking to hold her constantly. Becky - not so much :)

Announcing...

It's a ........

GIRL!

Anna Marie Anderson was born at home this morning, on her exact due date, at 6:16 am, weighing 6 lbs 13 ozs. Mother and baby are well.

My labor was short, but intense. The midwife and her assistant arrived at our house shortly after 3 am. I will write a more detailed birth story soon.

Thank you to all who prayed!

A labor of love

Rebecca's birth was a planned water birth at home. As promised, here is the birth story. It is not too graphic or explicit for men or children, although I doubt any of them would be interested in reading this.

As is the case with most home births, two midwives were going to be present. The ones I had chosen were the same that had attended Miriam's birth 20 months ago, Marinah and Connie. Unfortunately, one of them, Marinah, had since moved to Mexico, so our plan was to fly her up here just for the birth. Due to scheduling conflicts, she could only come for 11 days rather than the 2 weeks that I had in mind. Still, since all of our babies had been born within a couple of days of their due dates, we felt confident that I could "make it". In case that didn't work out, there was another midwife we could fall back on as a backup.

Marinah arrived in Phoenix on the evening of the 9th, and both her and Connie came by for a prenatal that night. Nothing much happened for the next week and a half, other than me having lots of contractions at night that would go away again during the day. By the time this last weekend rolled around, I was getting pretty tired from losing so much sleep at night, and also starting to wonder if I would have the baby before Marinah had to fly home again on the morning of the 21st.

At a prenatal this past Friday, the baby had still not descended at all, but I was 60% effaced and dilated to 1 cm. On Saturday, my contractions finally didn't go away during the day, although they did space out quite a bit. They were uncomfortable, but not too much so. I started taking some herbal supplements that would either make the contractions stronger and more regular if this was in fact the "real thing", or make them go away altogether if this was another false alarm.

All Saturday night, I had very painful contractions every 3-5 minutes apart, which I usually only get when I am pretty far advanced. Since Miriam was born within a couple of hours of active labor, and only shortly after the midwives had arrived, I decided to play it safe and called Marinah at 3 AM on Sunday morning. Both her and Connie came out, but much to my dismay I was still only dilated to 1 cm, and the baby still had not engaged at all. I was very, very tired because I had not slept well in a couple of weeks and hardly at all the last two nights. The midwives left all their birth supplies at the house and went home to get some more sleep themselves, while I tried to rest between contractions. I was also very nauseated and had a bad headache at this point, and I think this is when I started throwing up.

I was feeling a little better during the early part of Sunday, although I did stay home from church because my contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart (but milder). By the afternoon, my labor picked up again, with pretty hard contractions every 3-5 minutes. After several hours of this, I called Marinah to come out again at 7 PM on Sunday night. Based on how hard the contractions were, I has hoping I would be dilated to somewhere around 5 cm, but when she checked me I was only 2 cm, almost fully effaced, and baby still not engaged.

At this point, I got extremely discouraged. I had been in what I felt like very active and painful labor for 24 hours, after two weeks of prodromal labor that had left me sleep-deprived, and I was hardly even dilating at all. Worse yet, I had hardly been able to eat anything since Saturday night, and had been throwing up pretty much the whole time since then, mostly bile because that was all I had in my stomach. Worse yet, I found out that Sunday night that Marinah was leaving for Mexico again on Monday morning, not Tuesday as I had wrongly assumed. At this point, going to the hospital and getting every pain medication available sounded like the best thing in the world. In fact, I would have been begging for a C-section because I was so tired and in so much pain, with no end in sight.

Marinah stayed at the house and supported me during this time. At 9:30 PM, she checked me again and I was about 3.5 cm dilated. Though still not much, I started feeling better because I felt that I was at least making some progress. She said she would go out for dinner and be back in one hour to see how things were going. Well, she didn't get back until about 11:30 PM because she had gone all the way to Connie's house to pick her up. When they finally got back, she checked me and I was at 5 cm. This whole time, the contractions had been about the same strength and frequency - every 3-5 minutes and very painful, but manageable because they peaked for only about 10-15 seconds, which I would be counting down. I had been in and out of the birth tub until this point, but stayed there for the rest of this labor from there on out (except to use the bathroom, which I had to do about every 10 minutes). My attitude improved, even though I was still very very nauseated and so tired I was sometimes shaking uncontrollably. I would have a contraction, then throw up violently, and doze off for a couple of minutes before the next one. By around 12:45 am, I was dilated to 7 cm, with the contractions still the same that they had been for about 30 hours at this point. I was fully dilated just 20 minutes later (shortly after 1 am) and felt like pushing, but baby had not had a chance to change its position as quickly as I had dilated. While still painful, the next 20 minutes or so were a sort of "calm before the storm" as I was waiting for the baby to rotate and descend. My bag of waters was still intact at this point. All of a sudden, baby turned during a contraction, and slipped into the birth canal. I could feel the huge difference in position, and started pushing. It only took about 5 minutes (maybe 2 or 3 contractions) until the baby's head was crowning. With one more push, the head was born and the bag of waters broke at the same time. The rest of the baby slipped out moments later with the next contractions. Marinah immediately scooped her up and put her on my abdomen, but the cord was a little short so I had to sit back on my husband's legs (who I had asked to get into the tub to support me during the pushing stage) to be able to hold the baby high enough so the water wasn't covering her face. She gave a couple of little squeaks, and then just started looking around with bright, curious eyes. I was just overwhelmed with gratitude that it was all over, and in a bit of shock because everything had suddenly happened so fast.

The kids had all gone to sleep around 8 PM on Sunday, but Miriam woke up just minutes before the birth. Connie got her from her bed and sat her on my bed next to the birth tub, from where she watched the last few minutes of the birth. She was fascinated and started laughing and pointing when she saw her little sister being pulled out of the water. A few minutes later, Connie woke the three boys and they got to meet their new little sister as well before being tucked back into bed.

During my pregnancy, I was so convinced that this was a girl that I didn't even bother to check for about 10 minutes or so after she was born. Sure enough, it was a girl.

I got out of the tub and got all cleaned up and into bed while Marinah and Connie checked the baby over. Then the midwives fixed some food for me, because I felt absolutely famished and not nauseated any more at all. About an hour after the birth, I cut the baby's cord - a first for me, because my husband had done that with all the other babies. The midwives then cleaned up the house, started the washer, and made sure we were all well and taken care of. They left the house around 4 am, just in time for Marinah to take Connie back home, then go by her parents' house (which is where she had been staying) to grab her bags and have them drive her to the airport, where she had to be by 7 am. It really was a very close call, but she made it onto her flight in time and arrived home safely (and no doubt tired) on Monday evening.

Connie came by for the 1-day checkup on Monday evening and found us both in perfect condition. Other than still being a little tired, I don't feel like I just gave birth at all. I am not sore whatsoever, and even the afterpains and bleeding have been very minimal, which I attribute to the herbs I took in early labor. Of course, I am still going to take it very easy on myself and the baby, and not leave the house at all for at least the next week. My husband and the kids are taking care of all the housework, and thanks to the meals I precooked I won't have to cook for at least 2 weeks, so I pretty much just spend all day in bed resting.

Rebecca is a very alert and content baby. She is awake for hours at a time, but never cries. She loves to look around at all the faces, and as soon as she hears her Daddy's voice she tries to turn her head in that direction. She nurses like a pro, and my milk is already coming in so she is getting plenty of dirty diapers.

All in all, this was a very long and tiring labor, but that was made up for by the fact that the contractions never really got so painful that I could no longer manage them, probably due to the fact that I labored in water (HUGE difference!).

Here are some pictures from the big night:

Connie holding Rebecca, who is meeting Miriam up close for the first time

My husband holding Rebecca

Me cutting her cord

Marinah weighing the baby

Marinah and Connie with Rebecca

Johnny, Rebecca and I in bed together shortly after the birth