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.

 

 

Getting ready for our next homebirth

Well, here we are, in a month or so we should have a new baby in our household. If you ask me, I am ready right now! I am so miserable and tired that I am just ready for it all to be done, but I must be patient and deal with the little irritations for a little while longer. The baby seems to think 4am is exercise and playing time already, so at least I am trying to get into that schedule. I try my best to put my feet up during the day, but that doesn't always happen with 2 other children to homeschool and feed, as well as all the other household things that need done. Eric has become more attentive since he was on vacation last week. He is making sure dishes are done as much as possible, laundry at least started, food cooked so it can just be reheated, and letting me sleep as much as I need to when he is home. I am truly blessed to have him as a husband.

I am very much looking forward to the Lotus portion of the birth. I have never been able to actually see a placenta up close and touch it before. I know Eric is squeamish about this, but I feel this is what we are supposed to be doing, instead of what our current culture feels is medical waste.

My home birth kit and lotus herbs have been here at the house for at least a month already and the baby clothes are already in the drawer. The cloth diapers have been washed 2 times so far and will be washed another 1-2 times before the birth, so they have maximum absorbency. I have sewn the lotus birth bags and cotton wraps, snap down infant gowns (so the cord can be safely strung through the gown), multiple diaper covers, and almost finished hemming/serging the shirts I made out of onesies.

I am also looking forward to the water birth. We are going to be making the basement into a birthing suite, since there is a bathroom, couches, adjustable lighting, and refrigerator down there already. All that is needed to do is lay down the tarp, set up the tub, and fill the tub, but that won't happen until I start labor.

House cleaning has begun. I am trying to get it done slowly and thoroughly so I don't go overboard when the "nesting" hits.

Naming our children has never been easy. Eric and I rarely see eye to eye on any name until last minute. I had already chosen names and thought he liked them, then after further discussion, he didn't really like one and I really didn't like the other. So, we took an entire week to go over even more names. The hard part for Eric is my stipulation that the name can not be on the current top 200 list on baby name websites and Eric doesn't like all of my beautifully chosen Titanic era (long) names. We now have 2 names that we agree on. I really pray that those are the final decisions.

Grady tidbits

Well, my little boy is going to be 2 years old this week. I don't have a baby anymore. I am becoming more and more emotional about it as the days go by. I did this with Tabitha too though.

Grady no longer needs me to get him to sleep. He has gone to sleep with Eric 3 times this week. My lap feels very empty right now. At least I know he will come running to me every morning for at least a little while longer for a quick nursing to fully wake up and start his day. I also am blessed that I get to sleep beside him still. I'm not in any hurry to put him in his own section of our family bedroom just yet.

I tried to find the perfect "flair" on Facebook that said that I've been nursing for 5 years, 1 month and 4 days straight, but all I could find was up to 2 years, so that is what I posted, since it pertains to Grady right now anyway.

Ok, so on with the 2 little tidbits that I could think of.

1. Grady had 3 visitors within hours of his birth. I think people couldn't believe that we really had a homebirth and expected to see something out of a gory movie when they came over.

2. Grady likes to dress up and wear "pretty" stuff. Can you blame him? He hangs around momma and Tabitha all day long. But at the end of the day, he is definitely all boy, he is running around the house and getting bruises and rough housing. He also like to hit EVERYTHING with his plastic baseball bat.