He's here!

Emmett Xavier Weddell arrived on January 31, 2013. We did have our home water birth as well as the Lotus birth like we were praying for. I wrote Emmett's birth story below if anyone is interested in reading it. This was definitely the hardest pregnancy, birth and now nursing experience I have had so far. I was very run down and did not feel well the entire pregnancy, no matter what I did. The birth was nothing like it was with Tabitha or Grady. Nursing has been a challenge also. Nursing Tabitha and Grady was definitely textbook worthy. I never had plugged ducts, cracked nipples, pain... until now, although it is finally getting better. So to say the past 9 months has been an eye opener and humbling, is an understatement.


Here is Emmett's birth story.

I was "37 weeks and 4 days" when labor started at about 6:15am. I felt the baby doing head butts against my cervix 2 times before I felt a “pop”. I ran to the bathroom and only dribbled on the floor, but as soon as I sat on the toilet, there was a small gush. I called my midwife to let her know.

Contractions started while on the phone with her. We kept track of every contraction with Contraction Master app for Eric’s iPad. It was really cool, because at the end of labor I emailed myself the chart of every contraction I had. I can also see when labor “stalled” a couple times.

Grady decided to wake up at 8:30, since he heard us talking and Tabitha woke up around 9:00. Tabitha took over recording the contractions and Eric decided to go back to sleep in case it was going to be a long day/night.

Contractions were manageable all morning and early afternoon. Labor stalled around 10:40-12:15, then again 4:20-5:30. After labor stalled the last time, I wanted to get things moving, so I had the kids take a nap and had Eric call our massage therapist friend to suggest a few acupressure points. Boy did they work! I stood up from where we were doing the acupressure and thankfully, I was standing on a pad. A huge gush of water came out. I felt like I was uncontrollably peeing, so as soon as it slowed, I hopped in the shower. Strong contractions started and they just kept intensifying. I started crying, which is our cue that the baby was coming very soon, so we had Tabitha call the midwife and tell her to come NOW!

I hopped in the tub and started having back to back contractions. My midwife, Erika, arrived about 30 minutes before I had a huge urge to push.  I did scream 2 times because the pressure was so intense. I pushed for 21 minutes and out came Emmett Xavier at 9:17pm. We did not cut the cord, as we did a lotus birth, but did decide to cut it on day 3 since I was afraid I was going to move him wrong and rip the cord from the umbilical site.  His cord did come off on day 5.

After the birth we made sure I didn’t scare the kids. Thankfully they said they weren’t scared. I am happy I prepped them with YouTube videos before hand. Tabitha also came up to me and gave me a big hug and told me “You’re really good at birth!”.  I am so blessed!

Below are pictures of Emmett's Lotus birth.