Or, as Maya likes to say (over and over again), “Welcome to the world, baby Gavin!”

Gavin made his appearance at 3:47am March 5th, after very short, very intense labor and birth at home. Let me tell ya…total labor time (from first contraction until actual delivery) of less than 3-1/2 hours made for some mighty powerful work! Whew. We’re all doing well.

(click photo for more pictures)


Gavin Leopold
March 5, 2008 3:47am
8 pounds, 0 ounces
20.5 inches long
14 inch head

Full birth story beneath the fold.

As of yesterday’s midwife visit, Gavin has lost 8 ounces, and trust me, he is EAGERLY awaiting my milk’s arrival. Oh. My. God. I forgot how sore nipples can be in the beginning — like deep breath in and cringe through the beginning of any nursing! Figures, he wanted to nurse all night, and now he’s sleepy boy today. I know — KNOW — I should be napping, but eh…I’m not prepared to go nocturnal. Yet.

The story itself:

I’d hit my limit. The worst part, really, I think was my feet. Have you ever watched sausage cooking, how the skins puff up, then split open from all the juiciness inside? That was my feet. Putting shoes on was an olympic sport. Walking more than 5-10 minutes at a time was just downright difficult. Anyway, Tuesday morning, Maya and I made a run to Walmart (30 minutes away — shopping is a planned outing now that we’ve moved), and I included castor oil on my list, unsure of whether I’d use it or not.

By Tuesday afternoon, I decided what the hell…if baby was ready, it would induce labor. If he wasn’t ready, I’d just spend lots of “quality time” in the bathroom. By the time I headed to bed around 11:30 or 12, I was fairly well convinced (and had told Mike as such) that nothing was going to happen at all. The CO had made me extremely gassy, but it seemed that was it! Then (after Mike had zonked out, but I was reading), contractions started around 12:20. With Maya, I did the CO in the evening, spent the night in the bathroom, then had contractions start at around 8am, so this was different — there was *no* bathroom time before ctx began. And, instead of starting out slowly, like regular menstrual cramps? These were 45ish seconds long, 4 minutes apart from the get-go. After an hour, I called my midwife to tell her it was starting. She said I sounded way too calm (hello, hypnosis tools!), and to call her back in 30-45 minutes to let her know where things stood.

Somewhere along the way, I finally had to GO, and as soon as that happened, the ctx went from benign to hold-on-to-your-hat intense. So much for Maya’s birth with the nice 6-7 hour slow labor to get used to the idea of it! I seemed to skip over early labor and go straight to active labor. I was even shaking uncontrollably, very much like I had *after* Maya’s birth. What the…? Anyway, an hour went by before I finally realized maybe I should call Tanja back, but she’d had a feeling she’d better be ready — a good thing, since I was able to summon up just enough in-between time to say “please come now,” then hang up! She had a 40-minute drive from Santa Fe, but at least I knew she was coming!

Things got more and more intense, and I vaguely remember thinking, “hmmm…this feels like the active labor did with Maya. That was only 3 hours, so I wonder if I’ll have a baby by 4am?” Mike was bustling around getting the birth pool filled with air, then water (oops, we hadn’t even tested it yet), and I was just enjoying the in-between times, and surviving the during times. Oh, and I was making lots of noise. Turns out, Maya was awake (she woke for the air pump earlier and I told her it was baby time), but decided to stay in her room, because while she knew what I was doing, she thought my lion-like roars were a leeeetle bit scary. D’oh. At some point, I returned to the bathroom, both for the sake of the castor oil and because the desk chair was bugging me, and from there, I just sat on the toilet for contractions…then did a little test pushing (it felt better than doing nothing through a contraction), and BAM — water all over the floor (totally passed the toilet). Thank goodness for tile floors!

Shortly after, Mike let me know the birth pool was ready if I wanted to get into it. I remember that I thought the water looked awfully shallow — turns out the bath I’d run earlier in the night had used a wee bit too much of the hot, so that’s all he had as a start for me. Tanja walked in just as I shuffled down the hall to the tub (good thing, since I knew I already felt pushy!), and I settled into the water. For anyone who wants to try a waterbirth, the pool I got ROCKED. In the photos, you can see that I’m stretched out with plenty of room to spare. That’s across the *narrow* side of the egg-shaped tub! I draped myself over the side, facing Mike (on the sofa) and grabbed his hands. The pushing had definitely overtaken the squeezing/owwwww/pain at this point, so I knew we were near. My midwife had time to reach in to check for any perineal bulging (there was none yet) and to hear baby’s heartbeat exactly once before I got down to serious pushing…I just HAD to. According to Mike and Tanja, there was essentially no sign of crowning, then all of a sudden, I knelt bolt upright and pushed out his entire head at once. From there, baby came out the rest of the way with another hard push, and I crashed backward into the tub and pulled him out of the water. Dude. I delivered my own baby, with the midwife as a spectator! She said I was impressive, lol. Baby arrived 17 minutes after the midwife.

Mike went to get Maya (who’d just been waiting in her room), who’s been absolutely in love with “my baby Gavin” ever since then. She hovers over him worrying and telling him, “it’s okay, baby. Sister is here.” whenever I change his diapers (he hates that), and she talks about all the things she’ll do with him, including stealing his toys *snicker*.

I have a minor tear, totally from pushing baby out so quickly (his head was not formed AT ALL) more than anything else, but otherwise, I’m amazed at how much more quickly I’m feeling like myself again this time around versus after Maya’s birth. But dear lord…the afterpains. Owwwww. I’m told they’ll subside soon, but until then, Advil is my friend.

I’ve rambled on enough for one post, I suppose…but at least I recorded some of what I remember so I’ll have it for later. Maya is back at school today (she was desperate for more activity), so I’ve gotten to goof off while Gavin sleeps all day. I’ll regret it tonight, I bet!