The Homebirth of Piper Grace- a guest blog by Patricia Shoesmith.

The Homebirth of Piper Grace

~a guest blog by Patricia Shoesmith.

Sunday 18th July I woke up to DH's alarm he had set as he was going fishing and I was very upset that I was STILL pregnant. I went absolutely berserk yelling at him that how dare he go fishing when I was so heavily pregnant. I told him in the end to just go and I went back to bed in tears. I was then woken by the kids at 9am ish and I decided it actually might be a nice day to go out near the waters edge and get some fresh air, I was right, it was gorgeous.We had a lazy afternoon and by the end of the night I was ready to go to bed still not expecting anything to happen. I had a few tightenings which I just put down as braxton hicks.

Monday morning I woke at 6am to a very nauseous feeling and period pain cramps in my lower tummy, back pain and a slight leaky feeling but upon looking when going to the loo saw nothing. Told Alex (hubby) he wasn't going to work today as I think baby is coming today but to go back to sleep as things were still only mildly happening. Kids woke at 7:15am and at 7:30am I had to run to the loo with a huge urge to poo, Not fun while still getting pains (at this stage the pains were around 10-12minutes apart but I wasn't timing anything)

We were supposed to be having a midwife appointment at 1pm but I rang her and asked her to come out early as I thought things were starting to happen. Diane arrived at 10:30am and upon checking discovered bub was already 3/5engaged which had happened quick as bub was still floating a few days before hand.

The pains I was having were getting stronger the more I walked around so I was ordered to get some rest and eat as much energy food as possibly and drink lots of fluid as we were possibly in for a long day.

Kids down for a sleep at 12:30 and I sent Alex off to the shop to get some last minute supplies while I went to rest too. I tried lying down on my left side, my right side, Propped up but it was all uncomfortable. I then decided to shove as many pillows under my boobs as possible and lay with my bum in the air. Ahhh, Bliss. Pains subsided and I was able to rest for a while. Not timing again but I knew my contractions were still not regular.

Around 2ish we started to get the birthing pool ready and we had to get Emelia organised to go up to Alex's grandparents house as she was getting upset with each contraction. The pains started getting more painful and at 3:30pm ish I decided I really needed to get in the shower to have some relief, it was nice but not what I needed so got out at 4pm ish and just did what I could until there was enough water in the pool. Alex was making calls to Diane while I was doing my thing and she said to keep letting her know what was going on and she would come to us as soon as contractions were 2-3minutes apart as she was backup to a VBAC (I knew the lady that was labouring too and now our daughters share birthdays!)

At around 5pm ish I got into the pool, There was only enough water to just touch my butt when on my knees so I sank in as much as possible and ordered Alex to pour water on my back during a contraction in between him running around like a mad chook getting things ready. He was stressing but bless him, He did so well lol

I'm not sure when the pool was half filled but we ran out of water in the heat pump and Alex said we'd have to wait 20minutes for more hot water. No worries I said. That was all well and good until my contractions really picked up pace and I said don't worry about the fogging water just pour water down my back and get me a hot freaking towel to sit on it! Alex kept trying to ring Diane but couldn't get through and I heard him say "Oh no". I replied with what's wrong and he told me he couldn't reach her, I said "Do you see me panicking?" Haha. Diane rang back straight away and said she was getting ready to leave to come to us.

At about 10minutes to 6pm (5minutes ish after him ringing Diane) Alex noticed I was already starting to groan and grunt with each contraction, He said to me are you pushing? I said don't be stupid, It's too early to push now! (I was not knowingly fighting my bodies urge to push at this stage) He then got on the phone and called Diane and said I think she's pushing.

I didn't realise I was having the urge to push and was fighting it; It felt soooo different to Dom and Emelia's births that the feelings I was having confused me in a way. Diane walked through the door at about 6:13pm (from looking back at notes) and sat down next to the pool with me getting ready to time my contractions with the iphone app. We didn't get to use it lol. I asked Diane if it was too early to push and she asked what I was feeling, I said it felt good to push and grunt through them so she said to go with my body so going with it I went. I pushed and felt my waters break, what an awesome relief that was (the feeling of them breaking was amazing, I felt the "pop" inside me and instantly felt so much relief).

I think it was about another 3 pushes and a few hard core grunts that I felt her crown and felt the burn start to come, I reached down and felt her head and almost cried, I could not believe how amazing it felt to feel my babies head, I'd never felt that before so was amazed. Another push and half her head was born then another and her whole head was out, It felt amazing! I had never felt something so smooth and amazing before.

 

Once her head was out I got a small break from the contractions; it was nice to regain some breath haha, with the next contraction her body was born and Diane said to reach down and get my baby.

Her cord was wrapped around her neck once so we untangled that and I held her close to me... Totally in love and so emotional that I had actually done it! I had birthed my baby my way in my home and I was the first one to touch her. I did it!!

Her cord was really short so I decided to stay in the pool until her cord finished pulsating so it could be cut and I get out of the pool (I felt uneasy getting out holding her and navigating around her small cord)

While in the pool I passed a few quite large clots and had a bit of bleeding and borderline a PPH so felt very woozy for a while.

Once out of the pool I went straight to the bedroom got propped up with pillows and let Piper breast crawl to begin feeding. She had a few licks and sucks but wasn't interested in feeding just yet.

I then felt another contraction start and pushed with it and birthed my placenta (this was about 20ish minutes after Piper was born) my placenta was almost as big as Piper was!

We weighed her after a while and we were all shocked at how big she was, we were thinking she'd be another 7pounder (like my other 2) but we were so wrong but boy did I love and appreciate my body!

We then got Emelia brought back down and all sat snuggled on the bed getting to know our gorgeous new 9pound 15ounce bundle of joy <3