This will not be long, don't worry. The first 2 births, I wanted to really show the contrast between them -- drugs vs. no drugs. That is not the point of this one.
I had wanted to have the 3rd baby at home, but David said no way. Our video is a prized possession of the 2nd birth, so we knew we wanted to video the 3rd too. At 33 weeks, we found out that the hospital we were to give birth at did not allow you to videotape the actual birth. I had been jumping over red flags the entire pregnancy, so that was the last straw. David finally consented that it was time to search for another birth place.
Yadda yadda yadda, that birth place became home. I interview lots of midwives over the phone and narrowed it down. I took David to meet the one I like the best. I think deep down he was really scared to be walking this road with me. After meeting Jenny, though, he was full of confidence. In his words, "That woman could handle anything!"
Ninety percent of the births she attended were water births, so "when in Rome..." We decided to have a water birth.
I was cocky with this birth. I had all this knowledge of birth and my memory of the 2nd birth was that it was pretty easy. So, I didn't prepare. I ate my protein, but I did not practice my pregnancy exercises. We did not practice relaxation even one time before labor began. What a mistake.
You know how everyone always tells you that each labor gets shorter? That's what I was expecting. My 2nd labor was 5 hours, so 5 hours into this labor, and I'm thinking, "Where's the baby?" I really wasn't working hard though, not until the few hours before the birth. (This labor was about 14 hours.)
My water broke about 2 hours before she was born. Right before this, I was sitting on the toilet, totally freaking out in my head, thinking, "What am I doing? If I was in a hospital, I could be having drugs right now? Why didn't I prepare for this birth? I am an idiot!"
Things picked up after my water broke and I went to my glorified kiddy pool set up in the living room. I never recognized the urge to push because I was sitting on her head, propped up on my arms. Very uncomfortable. I was so hot in the water. Looking back, I should have gotten out and birth on land! I screamed my head off when I pushed this baby out. (The mailman came to the door to deliver our mail during this time!) All my cords have been short, and the water was so deep. I had a hard time holding her head up out of the water because my arms were shaking so bad. I wanted to breastfeed immediately to help deliver the placenta, but again, I couldn't because the water was so deep.
Oh yeah, she weighed 8 pounds, Dr. Wolsey! No tears.
So learn from my mistakes: practice and prepare for each birth. I have heard many midwives comment on 3rd births, that they tend to be the hardest. That was true in my case.
I love water for labor, but for birth, this was not the best situation for me. I had intense back labor again and in order for anyone to apply counter-pressure, they either had to be in the water with me or leaning over the very deep edge.
For baby #4, everyone kept telling me to keep my options open, but I knew I didn't want to birth in water again.
The funny thing about the whole story is that baby #3 has been the last to learn to swim and is always the first one out of the pool!
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