FYI: Amniotic fluid is neutral to mildly basic.

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My baby is one year old today. A year ago last night, I was wandering around the bookstore looking for a baby name book, pretty certain I'd be needing it sooner than I had expected. The baby had been christened Tomato in utero by N many months earlier, and I just couldn't see that put on her application to college. Something else had to be chosen - NOW!

I'm going to post the birth story because I'm still excited over it a year later. I'll admit that *part* of the draw to having a third child was having the birth experience I had tried for two times earlier. N was sideways, A was, well, I was afraid I was going to go through the same thing with her, and I had the worst nurse in the world for an unmedicated birth. Fear is not a good partner in birth. Both labors were very long, and although I spent over twenty hours in hard labor with both before I had the epidural, and I got the ultimate reward of a healthy baby and mom, I didn't get the complete birth experience I wanted. Which was important to me - the complete experience of that primal, visceral, utterly feminine human event of birthing a baby. I'm not critical of anyone going straight for the drugs when in labor - that's what they want. I wanted something different, and it was purely for my own sapien reasons. Birthing a child is an experience Life, if you're so blessed, gives you only a few times, I needed to take advantage of it. I also wanted to know I could do it, that I could count myself among the billions of women who have done this for millions of years with no medicated pain management.

S's birth was amazing. I loved it, I fondly reminisce about it often, today most of all. I don't often read of wonderful, unmedicated hospital births, so to help mitigate the posting of a narcissistic novel of birth, I'll help justify it by saying it's for all those moms-to-be thinking of doing such a thing. Yah, that's it, help THEM out, not because I'm damned happy with it.

So, if you're so inclined, get some coffee or beverage of choice, sit back, and enjoy.

Short version: S born at 9:01 am PST, January 27th, 2005, weighing 8 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long. Completely unmedicated birth on my knees.

Long version: Wednesday morning (January 26th), I woke up feeling a gush, and wondered if my water had broken, or at least I had developed a small tear in the amniotic sac. There were no contractions, but I was really ancy. I called my friend J, who happens to work in a chemistry lab, to see if she had any litmus paper so I could test the fluid to see if it was amniotic fluid. She brought over some pH strips, and we found it to be too acidic, false alarm.

So, I went to work. The usual story, tough to concentrate on work, finding other things to think about, lots of surfing the net for baby names. A visit to the restroom revealed a very small portion of the mucous plug. Cool! But wait, this is January 26th, she’s due February 2nd, and she isn’t supposed to arrive until at least a week after that (N was a week "late," S was two weeks "late")!

I had an OB appointment that afternoon. Dr. C told me I’m at 2 cm and things look like they are progressing. That's the most I've ever been before labor. He did a fern test to see if the fluid was amniotic or not, and it wasn’t. As he walked out the door, thinking I may go soon, I asked if he was on call the rest of the week, and he was. I love this doctor, I've been through over 25 OBs and perinatologists finding him, I really wanted him there.

I had things to get for the baby shower (yah, we cut it close), so stopped by a party store, and then a bookstore for a baby name book. I knew we didn’t have much more time to decide on one! I was feeling rather uncomfortable at the bookstore, with some contractions, but nothing consistent or very intense. But I knew I didn’t have to wait for her due date for her to arrive.

I got home around 7:30, and by 8 pm I was having real contractions, uncomfortable (especially with two kids climbing over me excited to have me home), but manageable. By midnight, as Hubby and I discussed names, they were three to four minutes apart, and I told him I thought I was in labor - get some sleep while you can. The kids were already asleep, and I tried to sleep with them, but the contractions were more uncomfortable laying down than standing up. So, I took a hot shower and then a bath when the hot water ran out, which seemed to slow down the contractions a bit, but I don’t know how much. I read the first few chapters of “What’s the Matter With Kansas?”, which is now a bit water-sogged but still readable. Out of the shower, puttered around a bit, then went back in for another hot shower. I started to feel the effects of not having dinner, feeling really light-headed and shaky-weak. I got out of the shower, had a large glass of orange juice to try to give me some energy, and by 1:30 decided I needed to call my doula, Kim, to warn her I may need her later on. I took another shower after that. By 3:30, I had called Kim to come over, and then called chemist-friend J to ask if she would come mind the kids while we labored a bit more and then headed to the hospital. I “woke” Hubby up to tell him to get dressed, we’re having company and we’ll be leaving for the hospital at some point. No need to wake him up, all that showering and puttering had kept him awake. Kim and Friend J were both there by 4, maybe earlier. Big sis N woke up soon after they arrived. By now the contractions were pretty strong and I had the urge to throw up. Which I did. I moaned through some, leaned on Kim or Hubby through some, and eventually ended up on the futon, whose mattress was slanted enough to allow my belly to fall forward a bit and be somewhat comfortable. I had noticed earlier on in the evening that the pain was mitigated by me caressing my belly and thinking about how they were getting me closer to meeting Tomato. I managed to snooze through some breaks between the contractions. I was getting a lot of pressure on my rectum, and Kim suggested it may be time to head to the hospital. I was reluctant to go - I was uncomfortable enough, I didn’t want to be checked, and poked with an IV, and laid flat on my back while they did a strip to monitor the baby, like they always did. But, eventually, I knew I was going to have to do that, so I grabbed a few things to pack in a bag, asked Jon to get a few things as well, and out the door we went. Friend J stayed to watch Biggest Sis N and Next-Biggest Sis A, and would bring them to the hospital when it was time for me to push.

Traffic was awful! What were all these people doing on the road at 5:30 in the morning? There was also a lot of construction work going on at a major interchange we had to go through, so that made things even worse. I had maybe five or eight or something contractions while on the road. We were at the hospital’s maternity ward at 5:55, where I told them I was heavily into labor. I thought all was lost when the first thing out of the nurse’s mouth was, “What are your complaints?” Uhhhhh, I’m in LABOR? The triage unit proclaimed me at 6 cm, and I was crestfallen. Surely I was in transition by now???? But Kim kept me going, telling me how good 6 cm was, and Hubby was cheering me on telling me how much farther I had gotten with Tomato than I had with the other kids. Luckily, I was assigned an incredible nurse, Mary Beth, who had six kids, five of whom were natural births. She did not make me lie on my back for the strips, I sat up instead. They were going to put an iv in me, but listened when I said I’m just having a hep-lock, and at some point read the birth plan and followed it very well. I sat up for I think at least an hour. Changing positions was excruciating, so once I was in one spot I was reluctant to try another. At some point along the line, though, we realized my old nemesis was back - posterior baby. I was having two contractions close together, then a break, two contractions, a break, etc. - just like with A and N. So I got on my knees and leaned against the raised back of the bed, and I got some much-needed counter-pressure on my back from Kim and Hubby. That first contraction after the change in positions was awful, but Kim and Hubby helped me through it, insisting that it would get better, which it did. They took the strips off of me at some point, maybe when I got on my knees, and put the sensor on my belly when needed to check the baby. Can I tell you how much I loved my nurse??? A nursing student and her instructor asked if she could watch, and I said sure. Turns out I was her very first birth! I found that pushing during the really strong contractions helped a lot - for one thing, it was the opposite of fighting them with kegels like I did with N. I wondered about how smart that was to push when I wasn’t fully dilated, but I didn’t care at that point. Besides, they weren’t the bearing down pushes like when the baby is coming.

While on my knees, they checked me again, and I was at 8 cm. Another disappointment to me, thinking I had hours and hours left of this, and I still had to go through transition. I was surprised when they called the doctor, and told Hubby to call Friend J to bring the kids. No way, I thought, these people are crazy! Considering how long I waited to dilate from 6 to ten with N and A, and then the hours I had to wait for them to drop before I could start pushing (and Tomato was still very high at this point), I thought we still had hours to go. I think this was around 8 in the morning. I was on my knees facing the wall, not the clock, so I really don’t know, and my eyes were closed during most of the time at the hospital anyways. (I remember being a little disoriented at one point, opening my eyes and seeing the room from the perspective of being in the bed instead of being in the bathroom like when I first entered and disrobed. I must have had my eyes closed most of the time there). I had more of the contractions that required pushing to get through, and harder pushes at that, but still without the “I have to push” urge. The doctor called during this saying he was on his way. I still thought this was silly. They discussed having the doc break my water, which I agreed to because I thought I still had hours to go. By 8:30 he was there (I remember because I asked when his office hours started, and he told me at 9) . He checked me, I was at 10! No way! Transition was nothing like I thought it would be - it was much easier than my imagination led me to believe. I gave a high five to Kim and Hubby - the hard part was over! Tomato was still high, though. I got back to a sitting position so he could try to break my water, but during a contraction I told him that was way too uncomfortable, so he pulled out his hand and never bothered again. He totally surprised me and won my heart even more by saying he didn't think it was necessary to break the waters, I was doing just fine. I didn’t feel like I was making any progress, and I was very uncomfortable in a sitting position, so back to my knees I went. By now I knew the first contraction after a change in position was the worst, so I bore through that and soon started feeling the real urge to push.

Hubby later told me that three other nursing students came in while I was pushing, pulled in by their instructor. Apparently, unmedicated births on knees are uncommon nowadays in a hospital setting. Imagine that, LOL. The nurses later told me the doctor gave them a look like, “What are you letting her do?” when I got on my knees, but he still was incredibly supportive of it all. I do remember someone asking me if I could get on my back at one point, and I said something to the point of, “WHY?!” and that was the last I heard of that! I had a series of hard pushes for about five minutes During one of the bearing-down pushes, my water broke. I asked about meconium, and was told it looked clear. About three pushes later, S was born!

I never did get to see her born, as I was facing the wall, but Hubby did. Three minutes later, Friend J arrived with N and A. Although they missed the birth, they did get to see her get weighed and stuff. On entering the room and seeing me in all my post-birth glory, A asked me, “Mommy, are you ok?” and I told her the honest truth - I felt great! I did have a small tear, fixed with one suture. But I felt like I could do anything now. None of the soreness from laboring on my back with the other girls. And just the incredible feeling of having gone through something so primal, and prevailing, was inspiring to the point of near-insanity, I believe. I was ready to jump out of that bed, pick up my oldest kids in my arms, and twirl about the floor a bit. At some point I realized I had yet to hear her cry, but they assured me she was ok - they had to suction her out quite a bit. So, it was a few minutes before I got to hold her, not until after the placenta was delivered, I think.

A, at two, was interested in her at the hospital, although all the gadgets and people there were distracting, so in a few minutes she was off exploring the hospital room. N, at four, was enthralled from the minute she saw her, and told the nurses all about how mommy said there would be blood but that she would be ok, and instructed them on what the placenta does. One of the nurses showed us the placenta and did a little biology lesson for the girls, and N soaked it all up.

She had apgars of 8 and 9, as she was a bit blue when born. She was also bruised a bit. Because she was over 8.5 pounds, they checked her blood sugar levels, which were a bit low. So, we did have to feed her a bottle of formula to check on her sugar levels later. N did the honors, and S ate all two ounces very quickly.

Her birth day was beautiful. Bright and sunny when she was born, cloudier towards the evening. I so wanted to go outside with her and enjoy the day, the sun, the fresh air. This hospital won't let you outside until you check out, so that had to wait until I returned home the next day.

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Happy birthday, S! May your life be long and happy, filled with wonder, joy, and love.