Baby M's Home Water Birth

Thank you all for your sweet comments regarding our new baby girl! It is such a blessing to now have our 4 older boys and 2 little girls!

It was such a wonderful birth! Our first son was born in the hospital, and after that experience, we knew we wanted something different. Ever since then, we've had home births and really loved it, but this time I tried a water birth and it was great! The lovely woman I bought my birth pool from recommended an herbal tincture called Smooth Transitions by a company called Wish Garden Herbs. Wow! What a difference this made to me! In the past, Transition has been a time when I "start talking crazy!". I start doubting myself and thinking the pain is too much to bear. I asked my husband to remind me that when I start my "crazy talk",  I was likely in transition and the baby would soon come. After hearing me say that I would like to drive myself to the hospital and ask for a cesarean so I could be knocked out and not feel anything, he got really excited and said, "I think you're in transition!". Once I heard him say that, I went over and took Smooth Transitions tincture, and soon enough I was taking control over my labor and asking my husband to fill the birth pool and call our midwife. I was so blessed to have a short labor this time around. My contractions were very strong, but not as close as they were when I had my other children. We had our sweet baby girl just 1 hour after our midwife arrived!

Here are a few things that helped me have the best home birth experience ever this time around:

1. Letting myself go completely with each contraction when I realized I was really in labor. Moving around rhythmically really helped a lot!

2. ContractionMaster.com This website let me time the contractions and keep track of how far apart they were. As I tried to sleep because the contractions were still only 15 minutes apart, I had our iPad in the bed and just had to click start and stop.

3. Lavender Essential Oil! I have always used this in the past, and it has always made a world of a difference for me. This time I put some drops into a tissue and just put it up to my nose and breathed it in during contractions.

4. A wooden hand held massage tool. I used this on myself while my husband was filling the pool. During contractions as I was pacing around I used one hand to smell the lavender and the other to massage my back with the tool. It was really nice to be in control and know exactly how much pressure to exert and where.

5. Pandora.com I created a station on there called Nature Sounds, and had my husband play it for me in the background. It was really soothing and calming to hear waves and rain, etc. in the background.

6. We set up the birth pool in my daughters room. She went to sleep in the boys room that night, along with my aunt and mom, so I had it all to myself. We have a white paper star lantern in her room, and that was the only lighting we had on in there. I also really love the Giant Rainbow play silks hanging in her room. The soft glow from the star lantern and the pretty rainbow silks made for a very tranquil and welcoming environment for our new baby to come. It was so peaceful in there and the soft nature sounds in the background were the perfect addition to the environment.

7. Having herbal tinctures really made a difference! I used different ones at different times, during my hour of labor: Bach's Rescue Remedy, Bach's White Chestnut flower essence, and Smooth Transitions by Wish Garden Herbs. Smooth Transitions was absolutely wonderful in helping to snap me in to delivery mode when I was starting to "loose it" and feel the pain was too much to handle.

8. Natural ginger ale really helped for when I began feeling queasy and nauseous.

9. Trusting my instincts. Each birth is different and you never know what to expect. Although my contractions were still at about 4-5 minutes apart, I felt like I needed to push. Sure enough with the first push, my husband excitedly announced, "I see the baby's head!". I really wasn't expecting the baby to come so soon. In the past, I wasn't pushing until my contractions were coming like crashing waves, one after another without a break. This time around, I just went with my instinct and sure enough the baby came quite quickly. I was pleasantly surprised!

10. Choosing to have a water birth! The comfort the water provided was so awesome, I only wish I had done it before! The pool I got is called, Birth Pool in a Box, and it was very comfortable. It was large enough to fit both my husband and I, deep enough to be covered with water, and the floor was padded which was really great. The water soften the sharpness of the contractions, and when it came time to push it was easy to get into whatever position felt comfortable to me. The pain one feels when pushing was eased tremendously for me as well. If it is God's will for us to have more children, I definitely want to try for a water birth again.

Baby is here!

We have a beautiful new baby girl! Baby M was born on Friday morning at home in a birth pool. She is so cute and we are all enjoying the company of our newest little blessing from Heaven.

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the new school year. I hope to be back posting soon!

Home Birth: I'm Amost Due!

My husband took my "pregnancy picture" on a family visit to our local Botanic Gardens almost 2 weeks ago.

I am so excited to be so close to having the new baby! I've really been nesting and thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to in regards to preparing for our home birth. This link on home birth preparation given at the Mothering.com forums really helped me a lot. This is baby #6, home birth #5, and water birth attempt #2.. This is the first time I actually feel really prepared! I've always left things for the last minute in the past and have hated that. Especially with a growing family, I wanted to feel more prepared and not leave things so chaotic. I will be taking 2 weeks bed rest (as best as possible) after the baby is born, so a bit of preparation is important. I'm 37 1/2 weeks and here are a few things I've done and still need to do: (I post this for myself as a checklist, but also to share ideas if you want them too)

Done:
-Got a special mothers blessing from my priest for a safe labor and delivery.
-My husband took my "pregnancy picture" for our new baby's keepsake.
-Did some mental preparation for labor by watching some home water birth videos, re-watched "The Business of Being Born" on Netflix, read certain parts of the book "Birthing from Within (the parts on laboring because some of the other stuff is a little too"out there" for me!), praying and asking God for strength during labor and for a smooth delivery of a healthy baby, and giving myself a little "speech" I can tell myself during labor: " I CAN do it, I WILL do it, I AM doing it" and then looking forward to saying, "I DID it!"
-Finally bought a co-sleeper! This is child #6, I wish I would have done it before!
-Collected all necessary birthing supplies (pool, liner, chux, towels, trash bags, Smooth Transitions herbal tincture by Wish Garden Herbs etc..)
-Made a basket with the first items necessary for the baby (clothes, diapers, etc..)
-Have a basket in the fridge and in the pantry with items I can drink and snack on during birth and labor (In the fridge: Cheese sticks, yogurt, etc. In the pantry: Protein Bars, Smart water, trail mix, Boxed soups, etc..), plus my lavender essential oil and organza bag of loose lavender buds to help me during labor!
-Have a basket with peri squirt bottle, maternity cotton pads to put in the Depends for post partum.
-Have my "laboring outfit" hanging and ready, which is just a wrap around towel cover with straps and Velcro opening/closure.
-Have my post partum cotton nursing gowns ready and hanging.
-Made a "Post-Partum" basket for myself. I lined a pretty box with tissue paper and filled it with Mothers Milk tea, Sitz bath and muslin bags, a bag of yummy Sundrops, a box of thank you cards and a pen, lanolin, and a Catholic mothering book called Grace Cafe. It was fun doing this as a little post-partum gift to myself.
-Wrapped a little gift of tea, chocolate, and bath salts for my midwife, and a little gift of chocolate for her apprentice, each with a Thank you note ready to be filled out.
-Bought ingredients and disposable baking pans for making meals to freeze.
-Have a box with organic instant oatmeal containers as a quick breakfast for everyone at home at the time of birth. Have a basket with bagels, English muffins, and cream cheese in the fridge for this purpose as well.
-Went over to a my comadre's house to learn about cloth diapering.
-Scrubbed and cleaned the fridge and put everything in containers and baskets. Have you figured out that I am a container/basket freak?!
-Have done a lot of de-cluttering in the home.

Still Need to Do:
-Still more de-cluttering! Mary and Joseph lived simply and we try to strive for that as well. It is so much more peaceful that way, and I believe we can just enjoy life and the children more without worrying so much about STUFF! This is an ongoing task in our lives!
-Finish making and freezing meals.
-Set up the home school classroom so the children can know follow the idea of "a place for everything, and everything in its place", even while I'm on bed rest. Set up a guide for some work they can do during this time as well.
-Mop the house, set up the laundry room with labels and baskets for everyone so as to make my bed rest time easier on everyone.
-Hopefully my husband will be done remodeling our main bathroom by the time baby is here! It's hard just having one available toilet with a family of 7 going on 8!

There are lots of other little things I'd love to get done, but alas, I am very satisfied having gotten all of the things above done, with not too much more I feel is necessary to do. In the end, the baby will come whether or not the laundry room is organized and I will just say, "The heck with it!". We are blessed to have a new life joining us, and I will try to enjoy every minute of my new baby's presence within our family. It all goes by too quick to worry about other detail.

Have any of you had a home or birth center birth? How did you like it? Is there anything special you did to prepare?