Tommy's Birth Story

I was reading other birth stories and it reminded me that I had not yet finished Tommy's. So here it is. As long as it is before the next baby arrives, right?

Anyway...on to Tommy's story. Tommy was due on Saturday, Jan. 17th, 2009 so both of Ontario's parents came out to be with us that week. I started having contractions Friday night so it seemed like things were progressing nicely. Gabe was born at 12:27 am on his due date, so it looked like we just had very prompt children. Saturday everyone helped me get ready, and by the afternoon all of the set up and prep was taken care of.

We chose to have a home birth, and the midwife we were working with was Dianne Bjarnson. She is one of the most experienced midwives in Utah, and has delivered over 1100 babies. She actually founded the Midwives College of Utah. Needless to say we felt very comfortable having her as our birth attendant. On Saturday she sent one of her assistants to check on me and see how I was progressing. I am sad that I can't remember her last name, but Laina was one of my favorite midwives ever. We connected so deeply and felt like she was part of the family, even though we had just met. She stayed all day and even slept over waiting for something to happen, but I just wasn't progressing. So, she left Sunday morning and Ontario and I went for a long walk.

It was even longer than we had anticipated. We drove to the mall to have a warm place to walk around in, and when we got back to the car we found out one of the tires was flat. So we walked the mile or so home. All of that exercise didn't matter though, because I kept having intermittent contractions without any real progress. On Wed my father in law flew home. By this time I was very anxious to meet the baby. We didn't know the sex, so I was still really curious about whether or not it was a girl or a boy. We kept trying different things, but nothing was working. I wasn't worried about my health or the baby, but I did want to finally meet that small person!

On Friday I had an appointment with my midwife. She said everything looked fine and that baby was doing well, but there was no change. I was all ready, it was just up the baby to decide when the time was right.

That evening one of Ontario's friends had a fondue party. Since nothing else was going on, we went and had a fun time visiting and eating yummy food. I'm pretty sure Tari tried chocolate dipped bacon, but I refrained. :) I had contractions about every 15 minutes, but since that had been happening all week I didn't think much of it. When we got home I was still having contractions. Ontario and I decided to go on a walk and see if that would help. We went on a long walk around the neighborhood, and the contractions stayed steady. By this time I didn't think I would ever go into labor, so I was just relieved whenever I had another one. We called the midwife when we got home and she said she would come check on me.

While we waited Ontario and I layed on the bed and did relaxation exercises. We had taken a hypnobirth class when I had Gabriel, and it worked really well. We had reviewed the book and Cd's again for this birth, but I didn't feel as prepared. Next time I want to take another class so I feel more ready. It was still soothing to lay there and breathe through each contraction.

The midwives arrived around 1:20 am. The attendants at the birth were Dianne Bjarnson, Angela (Johnson?), and Lisa (?). They got set up while Tari and I kept breathing and relaxing. I knew that this baby would be different from Gabriel, and I guess I thought that meant a faster labor. However, I kept having contractions well into the night without the kind of progress I had with Gabe. Most of the time Tari and I were on the bed or the couch just laying together while he helped me breath through each contraction. Around 6 I was getting pretty tired and frustrated. Tari had fallen asleep and I wanted to let him rest, but things started getting a little too hard. About 6:30 I started feeling the need to push, so the midwives came down. With Gabriel I had pushed for half an hour, and everyone says the second birth is faster, right? Not this little monkey...he took his own sweet time. I pushed for an hour, trying different positions to help the baby through the birth canal. I finally pushed the head out, but he was such a little chunk I had to do another push for his shoulders, then one for his chest, one for his tummy, one for his butt, one for his thighs, and then he finally slid the rest of the way out. It was 7:39am, Saturday, Jan 24. I was so excited to see him and find out we had another son! He looked so much like his daddy, even from the first few minutes he was born.



I remember before I had kids thinking that it might be a little gross to hold them when they first come out and they are all covered with vernix and amniotic fluid and who knows what else. But it turns out I love the feeling of holding them when they are all still slippery and warm. We cuddled him for about an hour and started nursing, and then he got to go get cleaned up and measured and I got to get a few stitches. He came in at a healthy 9 lbs, 20 inches. Once we were both cleaned up a little everyone went to bed. By that time I was so tired all I wanted was to sleep and cuddle my baby. I would say that his birth was harder than Gabe, just because I was more tired going into it. I was also expecting it to be shorter, which it wasn't. However, it was just as peaceful and joyous, and I am very happy with the outcome. Tommy is now a happy, joyful part of our family, and we are happily awaiting the arrival of baby number 3.