Birth of Brandon James Oct. 10, '98

At 7:10 I told Michelle that it felt like the baby was moving down while I was pushing and sliding back up after the contraction was over. She said that was good progress. At 7:20 I was finally dialated to 10! I was so exhausted and the water made me too relaxed, that I wasn't pushing effectively. So, Michelle told me to get out of the tub. We all moved to the guest bedroom, where I had a single bed. Michelle was getting frustrated with me, I think. Every time she tried to check me I would cry and tell her to stop because it hurt so much. They say I got my second wind, and got much more determined at 7:50, but I don't remember that. I started to get really serious about pushing. With my mom pulling back on one leg, Jenny on the other, Carl and Michelle down at ground zero watching progress, and Shannon and Lacey manning the video camera, I grunted and cried. At 8:40 A.M. they could start to see the head! I was managing 3 pushes with each contraction. Every time I felt one coming I would say "O.K.!" and everyone would jump into action. This went on and on. I was begging Michelle to give me some time to rest, but she said that we were too far along to stop now. With every push everyone would tell me " that was so good!" "it's so close!" "he's right there!" and after about 2 hours of that I said " if he was right there 2 hours ago where is he??!!" they kept telling me how much hair he had and I asked them to grab some of it and pull him out! I just COULD NOT see the end of this! I could not envision him coming out, I wondered how I was going to get through this. I started to try breathing through the contractions, pretending I wasn't having them because I just wanted to sleep for a little while. So I counted through them while resting, they all thought I was sleeping. This would go on for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. They thought the contractions were getting really far apart but I was actually having 2 or 3 in between the ones I let them know about. I can't believe I had the mental power to do that but I could not get this baby out! I couldn't get him past my pubic bone. Finally, Michelle said to me " either you do what I tell you or I am going to take you to the hospital, and they are going to put needles in you, screw a fetal monitor into your babies head and suction your baby out!" and I said, crying, " that doesn't sound so bad right now!" she tried to scare me but I was so out of it I called her bluff. But, of course everyone knew how upset I would've been if I had gone so they just told me to hang in there and push push push!!! At 10:45 A.M. Michelle decided enough was enough and told me that she was going to give me a small dose of Pitocin. I, being very afraid of needles and also being afraid of everything I had heard about Pitocin, asked her not to but she said that we needed to get this baby out. So she gave it to me and my contractions started coming one right on top of each other. I got up and tried squatting, it wasn't working. Then I went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet backwards with a pillow on the back of the toilet to rest my head on, that wasn't working either, so I went back to the bed. Everyone assumed their previous positions. I had heard of the term ring of fire, but in the last few hours, of them being able to see the head, it had a whole new meaning!!! It burned so bad I couldn't believe it. FINALLY at 12:33 P.M. my precious baby boy decided to join us! He passed his meconium as he was coming out so he was only half way out when Michelle started suctioning his mouth. I didn't know this at the time and I was telling them "take him out!!!" Michelle laid him on my chest and cleaned him up. He started breathing right away. A perfect baby! 10 fingers and 10 toes...I counted! Everyone was crying. I was so relieved..it was over...there WAS a light at the end of the tunnel! Shannon cut the cord. Michelle had to give me a shot of Methergen, because I was hemorrhaging so bad. I lost a lot of blood. Michelle said it was because I was in labor so long...32 hours from the time my contractions started till I had him...7 hours pushing... and they could see the head for 4 hours! If I had been in a hospital, I probably would've gotten a C-section...unnesesarily...I was obviously perfectly capable of giving birth the way God intended me to, it just took me a while longer than usual! I honestly believe that Brandon and I both benefited from the homebirth. Michelle said that I will be a stronger person, never doubting myself again, because I didn't give up...and I believe her. Would I do it again?...you bet I would, Brandon was worth every bit of it.

comments welcome!

Tammie Hampton Allitup123@aol.com

P.S. The name of the waterbirth tub company is Aquadoula @ www.aquadoula.com very helpful people! It was a great tub...i would highly recommend it!