One Day At A Time

Well, I haven’t posted in a while because our baby boy FINALLY came. Lachlan Pádraig Fugal made his entrance into this world at 11:35 pm on Friday November 30th, barely in time to not be born in December- which I was hoping for. He was 4 days early, weighed 8 lbs 8 oz, and was 19 1/2″ long.

(NOTE- LONG birth story follows- some of you might not care to know the “details”, but then…you might, just thought I’d warn you in advance)

He really surprised us and came in with a rush at the very end of labor. It’s true that no two pregnancies/deliveries are alike- I can DEFINITELY attest to that.

Thursday night I had woken up a couple times during the night with some contractions that went into my lower back- I dealt with them and went back to sleep-no big deal.

Friday morning I got Jonathan and I ready to go to story time at Barnes and Nobles. I had noticed some bloody show, and thought “Well, maybe this weekend we’ll have a baby” I was still having contractions totally randomly, but into my back- which is a good sign that the contractions are doing something. We’re talking random like 1-3 every hour or two- I really wasn’t paying attention that much, because it was so random and easy. Story time was fun and we walked around the mall for a while afterwords.

Once we got home, we ate some lunch, Katia came over for our prenatal appointment, and I got the crazy idea to make a gingerbread house.

For the record I have never homemade a gingerbread house- so this was quite the project ;) It took a good chunk of the rest of the day up. Jonathan had fun helping mix and eat up the dough.

We still have the frame, ready to be put together. It’s been a busy week since then. Seeing as I had the baby Friday night- I wasn’t able to bring the dream of a completed gingerbread house to fruition. Who knows if I will end up finishing it, since we are scheduled to fly out to Utah this Wednesday (by the way thanks Jacob and Stacey for helping foot the bill ;)

Anyways, back to the story. I was still having contractions all day at random intervals- with no pain, just happy that my body was doing something to get this baby here. I made dinner and it was about that time that the contractions started getting closer together. (6 or 6:30 pm) We decided to time them and found that they were coming every 1-3 minutes lasting about 30-60 seconds. I was still wandering around the house doing things in between them, just calm as can be, but excited that things were happening. Hans suggested we call our midwife to let her know what was going on.

I called up Katia to fill her in, she asked if she could come over. I told her I didn’t feel like I needed her yet, but she told me that since this was my second labor and the contractions WERE really close together, AND I had such a relaxed, calm peaceful birth last time, that I might be farther along then I thought. So I agreed to have her come over and at least assess the situation.

She arrived around 7:30 or 8 and I was found to be dilated to 5 cm, effaced 80% and a -1 station. I was a little surprised, because the contractions had only gotten “serious” an hour before she got there. She said she was staying and she started setting up everything in preparation for the birth. Hans and I continued on with our nightly routine, getting Jonathan ready for bed, I sang songs with him, and he went to sleep about 8:30. I had wanted to get in the tub, but Katia thought it was best to save it for when I “really needed it”. I guess she thought it was going to be a while before the baby came, and frankly so did I.

We called up our friends Melissa and Alan Bloomfield, who live in the same apartment complex as us. Melissa is a nursing student and she had also agreed to watch Jonathan for us in the event that we needed her. She also thought it would be so neat to watch a birth. Since I met her I had thought it would be neat to have her at our birth- so it worked out GREAT! She was a big help. Katia had phoned up her assitant Heather to let her know things were happening, but that there wasn’t a huge hurry. Heather decided to take a shower, eat some dinner and head over. It turns out she didn’t make it in time- that’s how fast Lachlan made his entrance.

It was a little strange to be so far dilated and still feel so normal. I just let my body do it’s thing, and chatted in between- laboring on the birth ball, having Hans apply back pressure and a homemade heating pad (aka rice in some fabric heated in the microwave). Hans entertained Alan while I visited with Melissa and Katia. I had Hans read me a hypnobirthing script to help enhance my relaxation and it worked great. I was able to talk, relax through a contraction, and carry on with my conversation. Looking at me, you wouldn’t have known I was in labor until you saw my head drop and my body relax as I dealt with each one.

Around 10 or 10:30 Katia asked if I would like to get in the tub. I thought that would be nice. She asked to check my progress before I got in and I was pronounced an 8,almost 9 so I could have this baby any time. That ruled out the tub- though I can’t remember why. It didn’t bother me though. I trusted Katias judgement. So I kept laboring. It must have been 11:25 or so when I had to use the restroom. It was then that I felt my water break and informed Katia that “I think my water just broke” She checked heart tones on the baby and said things were looking good there. About 2 minutes later I felt like I had to have a bowel movement. Katia said, “no dear, I think it’s the baby” and I said “but I really feel like I need to poop” to which Katia replied “if you think you need to then go ahead, I just don’t want you to have this baby in the toilet” To which I agreed. I did a quick body scan and realized that indeed it was the baby coming down, and he was coming FAST!

It was quite the act to get me from the bathroom to the bedroom which was about 10 yards distance. I had Hans supporting me from the back and Katia supporting me from the front as I waddled to the bedroom. Then everything happened so quickly, it was really crazy. My body took over, I didn’t even have to push. I pretty much growled the baby out with all my vocalizing. I was a little panicked because of how fast things were happening and because I didn’t want to tear “down there”. Katia reassured me that I would not tear and Hans was whispering calming words in my ear. I recomposed myself and felt Lachlan pass through my body, and then he was here.

Immediately afterwards I felt in complete awe. I had just had a baby, in 5 hours and I didn’t even feel like it- physically or mentally. I had so much energy and peace all at the same time. I just laughed when Lachlan started to cry. Melissa asked me how I felt, and I said “Good? Like I just had a baby?” I was really in doubt because it had all just felt like another thing on my To-do list, that’s how easy it was.

Heather showed up within 5 minutes. I pushed the placenta out and Lachlan started nursing right away. Hans woke up Jonathan to show him his baby brother. Jonathan was a little wary/out of it/sleepyhead, but once he caught on he was pretty happy.

He’s been happy about him ever since- which has been a relief.

Melissa left somewhere between 12 and 12:30- Hans and I repeated the bedtime routine to get Jonathan back to sleep (books and singing) Heather and Katia cleaned up, and Katia was the last to leave around 2 am. Needless to say neither Hans nor I got much sleep that night.

Welcome to our family Baby Lachlan. I’ll have to post more later- Lachlan (aka..the little boss) calls.