sweet baby haven~

~happy 1st birthday haven!~

I've been meaning to write down Haven's birth story, for, well, about a year now, so I figured in honor of my sweet baby turning one, today would be a great day to do it.

Well, to start at the beginning, I'll give you a little background. First of all, all of my children (except Caleb who was born on his due date) have been early. Like from 8 days early to 20 days early. So, as Haven was due on 17 May, and wasn't actually born until 30 May, that made for a very, very l o n g amount of time that we were just...waiting. I am a huge planner, like, I still have 4 containers of Tide that I stocked up on before he was born and the amount of food I had in the freezer lasted us a good 6-8 months, I still have 5 more boxes of toothpaste in the cabinet, and still have some diapers that I got before. Like I said, I'm a planner and slightly ocd. So, my house was entirely clean and we were ready to go a solid three weeks before he was due. As he was 13 days late...I was going slightly crazy, wondering just exactly how large this child was going to be (Anna was 20 days early from her original due date and weighed 8#10oz, and Ethan was 11 days early and weighed 9#6oz. My dates were right, and my awesome sister in law had an 11lb baby just months earlier, so this was no small thought, people!). I was beginning to become obstinate in declaring "I don't care what the midwife says, I am not going to the hospital, I'll just hide out in the basement and he will eventually decide to be born, I mean, no one stays pregnant forever...". Not to mention that we had end of the year New Song stuff (you should have seen me at field day!), my sister was finishing up nursing school, my aunt (the teacher) was finishing up her school year, my mother in law who is a tremendous help but who has two autistic high school age sons that were about to be out of school for the summer, and Glen's work schedule, made for a lot of people trying to schedule when this baby should be born. Oh yeah, and did I mention that my midwife had all five of her children/spouses coming in from out of town for Memorial Day? Oh yeah, and I had been hospitalized with pneumonia a few weeks prior. Anyway, it was slightly crazy :o)

So, Sunday before he was born, the day before Memorial Day. I started taking blue/black cohosh. Tastes gross, but you know, whatever works. Didn't work. Didn't actually think it would. I tend to think babies will be born when they're good and ready, and if you force it before your body and your baby is ready, well, often not such a good idea. So, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Okay, so, finally, around 2:30ish on Wednesday, 30 May, I woke up with what seemed like the real thing. Finally. I love waking up in the middle of the night in labor. It's happened with four of my children, and I had been asking God the whole time to please let it happen that way again. It's just really cool to wake up and know today is the day. Then I usually sit around for awhile, the house is nice and quiet, I take a nice long bath, see the sun rise, call the midwife, and wa la! a baby is born about an hour later. Funny how things don't always go exactly the way we plan. Ha ha. I should probably add here that my whole pregnancy, I had pretty consciously been aware of the Lord preparing me for what would be an out-of-the-norm-for-me labor, and especially once I realized this was to be my first late baby, and as I realized this was going to be a really late baby, I began to really know something was going to be different. So I was prepared.

Sort of.

So, everything went according to my previously laid plans as stated above, except the baby an hour later part. I was in labor, still pretty comfortable, just not moving along nearly as fast as all my other babies. Hmmm. Back began hurting more than usual. Called Glen to come home around lunch time (I had sent him to work to wrap up a few things knowing he would head back when I called). Still thinking, normally we would have had a baby several hours ago. Glen's home, on the phone with work (do these people not realize their door knobs and garage remodels can wait until tomorrow! Gee, does my husband not realize their door knobs and garage remodels can wait until tomorrow?), and every contraction I'm kicking him, pointing at my back..up, down, left, right...push harder...get offf the phone already! Not calling the midwife as I just like to be left alone in the calmness and quietness until I feel I have just enough time for her to get here to deliver.

5pm-ish, finally call her as it's getting more intense. She gets here, checks me, sets up. Still no baby. Get to 10cm, she has me push a little, even though I don't have the urge yet, just to kind of assess progress. Finally, she and her assistant realize Haven is posterior. No worries, not a huge deal, they've actually had 8 posterior babies in the last two months, it just makes for a longer labor and harder pushing. Like I said, not a huge deal. Unless you're in active labor trying to contort your 13 day overdue body into Chinese acrobat-type positions in the name of trying to get your baby to turn already. Yeah right.

I have no idea what my kids did all day. Thankfully, they're pretty self sufficient. Plus they had Glen and Anna around to keep them in line. Toward the end there, Anna and Moriah were on the bed with me, rubbing my arm, and Caleb and Ethan would periodically run to the bedroom door, peek in and see me bent over during a contraction (thankfully, I'm a pretty quiet labor-er), make "oh my gosh-that is such a girl thing-gross!" type faces while trying not to laugh and run off again. Noah was probably lining up blocks somewhere. Who knows? Not me.

So, a couple of hours pass of trying to get this baby to turn. Lying down and pushing a little here and there to see if we can just make some progress in getting him to come out sunny side up. Nothing is saying imminent delivery. I'm lying on the bed, Glen is sitting in front of the bed, the midwife and her assistant are across the room writing something down. I decide to stand up and move around a little. Well, Haven must have decided to turn right then, because as soon as I stood up, I felt him come down. Far. As in he's coming out right now. I leaned over on Glen, yelled "head", and he fell out. Literally. Glen and the midwife dove for him and caught him inches above the floor. Still in his water bag. The cord snapped, so both of us are bleeding out all over the place, he's still in the bag, so he's cut off from oxygen, and no one was ready. It was a very chaotic minute or so. Not to mention that my NICU nurse sister who had never made it to one of my home births before, happened to arrive in my front door right as I yelled head, and walked into my bedroom door right as he fell out :o) The assistant has Haven on the bed trying to break and peel off his water bag. I was facing away from the bed, so I never got to see it, but she said it was actually really neat. She said Haven was just in there with his eyes open looking around. He wasn't actually in any distress yet, and she was able to break it in about 30 seconds. Meanwhile, Susie, the midwife, is taking care of me, getting the cord tied off and getting me back on the bed. It was very exciting and definitely the easiest "pushing" stage ever.

Everyone was fine and soon after, my aunt and other sister arrived. There's always such a rush of adrenaline after I have a baby. Being at home is wonderful. As it was around 9pm, Glen went and got the kids in bed and laid down on the couch in the living room while my aunt, my two sisters, the midwife and her assistant, and me were all back in the bedroom laughing, taking care of post-baby stuff, recounting the amazing birth, and just having a great time.

I can't wait to do it again :o)

So...

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby...

We sure do love you!