Forrest’s birth story 1/17/07

I had expected this pregnancy to end “early”, by the beginning of January, based on both my calculated due date from conception (January 1, 2007), as well as on how I felt like I was going to burst any minute, despite the official due date of 1/11/07. This baby was very low, seemingly half-way born before labor even had begun. The position of the baby made for a quite uncomfortable mama for the last few weeks, since he was pressing on all sorts of parts he shouldn’t have been pressing on. But days kept slipping by, and no baby was forthcoming.

I was also concerned because we had houseguests that were not entirely welcome additions to our tiny home, and despite my requests otherwise, they didn’t seem to understand that I wanted privacy for the sanctity of birth. I really believe that once we sent the guests to our place in Tahoe, my body was able to finally let go. In fact, as they were pulling out of the garage, my first contractions had already begun.

Because my first labor and birth took 49 hours, I didn’t expect this one to be extremely quick, but I was hoping for a shorter time frame. We had set up the birth tub in our living room only two days before labor had begun, and our 2 year old, Raven, was beside herself wanting to get in the water. “Wait until mama goes into labor”, I kept telling her. She and I had practiced the various noises that I might make during labor, such as growling like a lion, and blowing our lips like a horse.

On the night of labor, after the guests left, I was lying in bed with her, telling her a story, but having to stop frequently to “growl like a lion”. I told Vince to call Maria, as at that tine contractions were 5-7 minutes apart and 30 seconds to a minute long. By the time he came back into the bedroom where I was still trying to tell Raven her bedtime story, they had sped up considerably. He said he’d given the heads up to Maria, but he hadn’t told her to come over. I freaked out and told him to have her come over NOW, as the contractions were already twice as fast, and twice as hard. I had to abandon the story-telling. Raven was clearly excited by this time, anyway, sensing that something momentous was going to happen. We told her that her baby brother was coming, SOON!

Maria arrived 15-20 minutes later, and I was already dialated to 4 ½ centimers, and Maria said I could get into the tub. Raven took a shower and joined me in the tub, too. There was lots of growling (contractions), and not a lot of time between them. This was nothing like the very long, but very gentle labor that I remembered with Raven. These were just coming on top of each other! The water helped tremendously, though, and I was able to get through them, watching the fire, hanging over the side of the tub. I remembered reading a friend’s labor story wherein she visualized riding on a dolphin’s back, up and down, over the waves, as contractions came and went, and this visual worked for me, as well. Sweet little Raven would give me the rubber ducky spa thermometer every time my growls became intense, saying, “hold this mama”, and “it’s ok, mama”. She was finally too tired to be in the tub anymore, and her daddy put her to bed. This was at about 1:00 a.m., later than she’d ever stayed up before, by far! Labor had started a bit before 9:30 (I remember the first contraction that I timed was at 9:28.)

This was good timing because shortly after Raven went to sleep, the pushing began in earnest. I held onto Vince, who was outside the tub, and my “growling” became considerably less controlled. With Raven, I’d had back labor, and this “front” labor didn’t seem any easier, despite what everyone said! But miraculously, between the intense pushing contractions, I was able to rest, and I thought, even take little cat-naps. The pushing was an out-of-body experience for me; I remember thinking, “who is that person who can’t control herself and is so loud?” Of course it was me! There was also a time that I remember during pushsing feeling like I was a giant fish in my tiny pond, caught and flailing on a huge unseen hook. The funny part is that pushing only lasted about 12-15 minutes, per Maria’s records and Vince’s recollections, so my lovely cat-naps must have been micro-naps!

Maria wanted me to change positions to a safer one for baby’s imminent birth, but I ignored her. Moving was the furthest thing from my mind. Finally, the midwives and Vince convinced me to move, so that the baby wouldn’t breathe any of the by now not-so-clean water. Just in time, with the baby already partly out, I backed into Nancy’s arms, and the baby was born. Vince tried to get him out of the water right away, following Maria’s instructions, but the cord was loosly wrapped all around him, so it was like a giant ball of yarn that poor Vince couldn’t figure out. He did get baby out and onto my chest pretty quickly, and Forrest began to scream right away. I’d thought that water birth was supposed to be more gentle on the baby, but Forrest apparently didn’t agree.

He was big compared to Raven, 8 lbs, 7 oz, and his Apgars were 9s, so he was doing great. I had a small tear requiring a couple of stitches, and baby Forrest entered the world on his official due date, 1/11/07. He spent his first few days sleeping almost nonstop, and now, 6 days later, he’s becoming more alert, spending long blocks of time looking at everyone around him. He is healthy, gaining weight quickly, and very sweet. Raven loves him and gives him frequent kisses and helps with changing him. Our little family feels complete.