It's a boy!

Body: 

Hi ladies!
I had my 3rd baby-- a boy after 2 girls-- at 4:54 Sunday October 31st about 8 days early. He was 8 # 2 oz with a 34 cm head. My water broke at 2:00 am and contrax started around 2:30. I had the baby about 10 minutes after the midwives arrived! Talk about the nick of time. :)The pushing stage was much shorter than with my second (remember my first was a c/section). I had no tear or any damage to my perenium. I was standing up when I birthed him and I am still amazed at how quickly he came.

My bladder actually seems to be working better now-- a full, "fast" stream. I am having no incontinence. When I kegal, I have the same strength as before. I have had two bm with little issue.

During labor I had no fears about damamging my organs which was good b/c I thought that might stall labor. I am doing breathing exercises on my back trying to strengthen back up my abs. I am resting a lot and nursing lying down. I hold the posture while I walk and I even try to mimick it when I'm lying down. I can feel when I have the lumbar curve it pull internally.

Now I shall continue the work...I'll start a very slow walking regimine this weekend using the posture... I'm so glad my worst fears weren't realized and that I have my sweet baby boy.
Jane

Hi Jane
Congratulations and best wishes on the birth of your baby boy,
You will be an inspiration and a model for many.
God bless you both.
Flora.

Oh Jane,

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you and your family. Your strength is something to be admired. What wonderful news too that you had a labor and delivery that was so ideal after your cesarian.

Enjoy your babymoon and get lots of rest.
Kelly

Wonderful, Jane! A Halloween baby boy! :) Congratulations and love that baby up while he's little. It goes so fast. Here's to a healthy and swift recooperation.

Julie

What a blessing! Thanks for sharing all that you have shared with us. You have been and are such an inspiration. Now you are proof for others what commitment to Christine's work can accomplish.

Dear Jane,

I'm so happy for you! I hope you're getting wonderful support so that you can snuggle all day with your adorable bundle! I wrote a little news story (home page:-) ) so that all visitors can read about your amazing courage and strength.

Love and Hugs,

:DChristine

Christine,
What a wonderful tribute! Thank you! Thank you also for searching for alternative means and for the truth as to why the organs become compromised from their natural positions.

I obviously have not been keeping up on all the posts, but I want to order the exercise video if they are ready. There are a couple of exercises (pelvic tilts, the breathing-ab tightening one, and a heel shift, where you lie on your back hold the lumbar curve, shift your heels down straightening your legs until your can't hold the curve anymore and then bring the legs back up one at a time--it feels good in my very lower ab where I feel weak from the pregnancy) I am doing from Elizabeth Nobel's book for right after birth and once I feel like I have recovered enough and gained enough strength to move on I'd love to have a video for guidance, as trying to do things out of books isn't the easiest in the world. :)

I am really listening to my body this time as I recover and it really does instruct. I can feel what is right and what isn't. It is amazing. That's exactly what I did during the birth, too. If anyone is interested I have a more detailed account of my birthstory and I can post it.

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes and to Marcella your wonderful post to my 35 week report. I feel wonderful. I know, however, that the hormonal shift is right around the corner, so I'm trying to brace myself for those emotional changes. Remember me in your prayers. ;) And blessings to you all.
Jane

Dear Jane,

You've been in my thoughts and prayers constantly. Whenever you have the time you have a large group of VERY INTERESTED women who would love to hear every detail of this blessed birth!

Jane, remember I wanted to give you and Jennifer (our two pregnant women at the time) my diet book because I so wanted to contribute what I could to your nutrition? Well...that project got waylayed! There was an expensive printing snafu and problems producing a new introduction to the old (1996) video that I hoped would accompany it. I worked with two production companies to reshoot it and neither time did it turn out very well. I think we are going to just sell the book, which is revolutionary (surprise) and then reshoot the entire video at some point in the future.

Anyway...that offer still stands! Just tell Shayla you are "Jane" and she will send it to you. I won't be giving anything else away here, as it has caused (rightfully so) hurt feelings.

All love to you and yours,

Chrisitne

Yes, we would LOVE to hear your birthstory when you get a moment to yourself! I LOVE birthstories!! :)

I have been having LOTS of help! Thank God! Last time (my second birth) when I discovered my prolapse I had NONE. I was so depressed and felt so abandoned because when I had first daughter via c/section we had lots of help. I must have bemoaned enough to my family and friends and they must have gotten the hint because I have had food brought every other day since his birth. My husband also got the point last time and he is constantly reminding me that I jsut had a baby and I need to rest. I feel absolutely wonderful. I am so amazed. I have had some weepy times as my hormones flux, but its joyful weeping: looking at my precious child and thinking about how blessed I am. I am woman of faith and went for prayer yesterday for my precious one to grow and be healthy and for myself that all organs will remain in the position God created them to be in and that I'll have wisdom about when to return to work. Even though the trauma to my bottom was so minimal it is always a mental work to to have bm; I have been taking fiber con twice a day since delivery to make certain that I didn't have any issues and I didn't physically, it was all mental. I finally ate a good deal of fiber yesterday and was able to skip fibercon (48 grams to be exact!) and I got my ball out again and sat on it rocking while I did some work on the computer and I felt normal and had no mental issue either. During the week since his birth, I have been arching my back and it has been amazing how tight it was at the beginning and now how it has loosened back up. Holding the posture still is a conscious act, but I am not fighting the tightness now.

Here's my birth story... :)
Announcing TY Jeffrey born 4:54 am Sunday October 31,2004 8 pounds 2 ounces 19
1//2 inches long and as sweet as can be.

Saturday night I had a need for my girls to be gone and we dropped them off at
my mother-in-laws at around 8;00 pm. We went to bed around 11:00. A little
before 2:00 am I felt a rubber band snap type feeling and cried out, "ouch" at
2:00 am I woke to tell Chad my water broke. I wasn't having contractions, but
I called the midwife and chad started getting the pool ready and I helped hook
the hose up to the sink. At 2:30 the contractions started and at 3:00 I called
the midwife and told her that they had better get here since it would take them
an hour an a half. Chad was great as he was the last time; birth scares him
and he is so wonderful to stand by my "crazieness" to birth at home. By 3:30
(times are now guesses as I was really to busy to pay attention) the
contractions were such that I decided to get in the pool and I needed him to
breathe with me. His breathe on me gave me another a sensation to focus on.
By 4:00 I was ready to push with no midwives here yet and breathing was not
helful. Not pushing made the contractions hurt. Chad kept trying to prevent
me from pushing, so eventually I climbed out of the pool and I stopped telling
him I was having contactions. :) I went in the bathroom and looked at myself
duirng another contraction, which I pushed with, and made the decision that I
was the only one that was going to have this baby and that I had to do what I
felt I had to do. I got on my hands and knees on a little bath mat ouside the
pool and pushed with the contractions. I couldn't resist and it was such a
relief to actually work with them instead of against them. Chad was pacing
back and forth like an alley cat in front of the window and began trying to
page the midwives to see where they were. Unlike my first hbac, pushing was
instinctive. I could feel that baby moving down. I began to pray that the
midwives would get here, because I really didn't want to have the baby on my
own, but I would if that's what happened. The first one arrived around 4:40. I
told her you better check me because I'm pushing. She did and said there was a
little cervix left, but it didn't seem to be in the way. She tried to remind
me that we were going to try gentle pushing this time since I had a prolapse
issue last time to which I replied, "I'm just doing what my body tells me."
Then my left left started to cramp up and I could hardly stand it. I
practically dove back (this had to be hilarious to see!) into the pool hoping
that that would relieve the cramp. Finally, I stood up in the pool (at some
point the other midwife arrive) and grabbed a hold of the side of it, squeezing
it, as I pushed with all my might, and I felt him move down, I felt the crowing
which I didn't feel last time, I was encouraged to blow, but couldn't stop
pushing, and then I heard them say, "get your baby, Jane." He was out! I
reached down and picked him up, looked and said, "It's a boy!" and we went to
the bedroom. No tears or anything, thank God since he came so fast and aside
from after pains which I did not experience with my other two children, I feel
pretty good. I am resting, resting, resting, though.

I had a dream while I still pregnant that I woke up in the middle of the night
and the baby's head and hand were outside of me lying on my inner thigh and I
reached down and pulled it the rest of the way up and told Chad we had our
baby. When Ty came out, his right hand was beside his head! Pretty cool!
Thank you Jesus!!!

Jane,

Thank you for sharing that amazing story with us. Truly inspirational and beautiful. What an accomplishment for you to be able to listen to your body. Very cool, indeed.

I'm so glad that you're getting the help that you need and deserve. Enjoy your time getting to know your new little one and becoming the larger family that you now are.

I'm just so happy for you!
Kelly

Oh, Jane I am just in tears after reading your beautiful story!! What a quick and uncomplicated birth! That's the way it's SUPPOSED to be! LOL. I can SO see how the how obstetrical birth experience slows down and complicates everything.

Congratulations again on your precious boy. How do big sisters like him? :)

Wow, you've given me a lot of encouragement from your whole story. If I ever choose to have another baby, I will definitely go the home birth route!

Julie

Thank you all for your wonderful well-wishes. :) The girls are in love with their baby brother, Julie, a little too in love! LOL! They are great helpers, but a little clutsy and so I am being very vigiliant in protecting him. Three is definitely a whole different ball game, but his birth and recovery was so much easier this time that that has made the transition smoother than I thought it would be.
Jane

Hi Jane,

I'm pretty sure you and I joined this forum at the same time because I remember talking with someone who was newly pregnant and due the same time as me. Anyway, I also had a wonderful homebirth, and had a boy after 2 girls :-) I am so glad to hear that things went so well for you :-) I am still just completely stunned at how wonderful birth can be.

I am starting to focus my energy on my prolapse - well, actually, now it's two prolapses. It was a cystocele before this baby, but I have been feeling uncomfortable and couldn't understand why I wasn't healed from such an easy birth yet, it's been 4 weeks, today I discovered it's because my uterus is now prolapsed.

Anyway, I saw your post and felt pretty sure you were the same person that I had conversed with when we were both newly pregnant.

Monica

Monica,
I believe that you are right. I read your other post about your homebirth and was excited that someone else had had the blessing of an uncomplicated, unmanaged birth in their own home. People tell me I am brave to birth at home to which I always counter, you're brave to go to the hospital. :) Congratulations on your little one. And continue to have hope that the prolapse is not fatal and it doesn't have to be a hinderance. It's just a reminder to take care of yourself, which us mothers tend to forget to do. Be gentle to yourself and enjoy your little one.