Welcome to the world, Harvey Preston Michno! part two!

Birth Story by Mama (continued from here)

So I walked my 5 miles, didn't die, successfully loaded the girls in to the minivan and made it home without any babies being born. Actually, once I got in the car and drank some water, the contractions stopped. Bummer no car babies for me.

We made it home and it was straight to nap time. I was exhausted! The girls had been pretty much resting all day but again, they didn't give me any problems. I think they could sense something was up!

After nap, Mark came home and he brought Mexican food. Yay! We were all sitting around eating and I noticed that I was starting to have contractions again. After the 5th one, I opened my handy contraction timer app for my iPhone. I didn't say anything to anyone and just casually timed them as they came. After about 45 minutes I had only eaten one taco and Mark asked me why I was eating so slowly. Unfortunately for him, he asked during a contraction so I snapped back that I'm sorry I wasn't eating fast enough WHILE I'M HAVING CONTRACTIONS!!!!!

oh! He had no idea! (real attentive my husband ;)) and he jumped up and asked if I needed anything. No, I didn't just let me eat my dinner slowly please.


They kept coming and my family was getting on my nerves. I asked Mark to take the girls somewhere. Where? ANYWHERE! Just go! go! go! They decided to go buy dog food so I could be alone and not have to answer 50 questions while dealing with PAIN. Mark got them out of there lickety split and I was very grateful for that. I kept timing them and they were consistently about 45 seconds to a minute long and about 7 minutes apart.

They came back and I told Mark we needed to call the midwife.  We paged the midwife and after a very brief conversation, we all decided she should come now. She seemed a bit reluctant but I told her to come so we would have time to do the antibiotics (I was GBS positive). Mark started getting the girls ready for bed. I was still contracting very steadily.

I went upstairs to assess bedtime and I could see that it wasn't happening fast enough. I didn't want Mark to be putting the girls to bed while I was in the other room giving birth! I told him to abort the plan and to call his mom RIGHT NOW. He started arguing with me that he could do it fast and to give him a chance. Is this a sitcom? Why is he arguing with me while I'm in labor? Just do what the pregnant lady says and call your mom!! He called Ruthann and she said she'd be right over. Good! So now I tell him to pack them up. He starts packing them up like they're going away for a month! Again, I had to bring him back to reality and tell him to pack one outfit and some blankees! Poor guy was losing it ;)

We were downstairs and I'm buckling the girls and directing Mark to uninstall the infant car seat when Megan, the midwife's assistant showed up. She got a good laugh at me running around getting the girls packed up in the minivan. I could not relax with the girls still here and was eager to clear everyone out. Mason, our midwife arrived shortly after and so did my mother in law. Bye bye girls!

I went inside with the ladies and I sat down and took a deep breath. Phew! Okay, now I can relax and have this baby. Mason looked at me with a puzzled look and said, "I thought you were in labor?!" and before I could respond, Bam! contraction and I'm up and speed walking around to manage the pain.

Megan, asked to do fetal heart tones and I agreed. I didn't realize I had to stand still and that sucked! My contractions were coming fast now! I guess I was mentally holding back on labor until my birth team had arrived because now they were coming fast and hard! Owwwww!

Mason was preparing the IV with the antibiotics and kept asking me when I would let her put the IV in. I didn't want to stay still so I was avoiding her. She asked me one more time and I said "I'd let her know." AKA that's never gonna happen!

By this time, around 10:15, the second assistant Laurel showed up. They were quietly gathering up supplies and getting organized. All of my birth kit and items were upstairs and we were downstairs and I could tell they were going to start bringing things downstairs. I didn't want to give birth downstairs though so without saying anything I went upstairs. The pain was really getting intense and unbearable and I knew I wanted to get in the tub. Plus I was also afraid that if I didn't head upstairs now, I'd be unable to very soon.

I went straight to the bathroom and started filling up my bathtub with hot water. I could hear everyone realize what had happened and scrambling upstairs behind me. Mark was fast and started helping me with the tub. I jumped in and I immediately felt pain relief. Things were going so fast that it was honestly hard to think. I could tell my body was working perfectly and I was ready. I let go and just did what was coming so naturally. Before I knew it, I was pushing and Mason ran in when she heard what was going on.

"You're having him!"

I was squatting down in the tub and in two pushes he was out. Mark saw the baby crowning with my first push, turned around to empty a bucket and literally missed push number two. It happened so fast but it was like time had stopped for me! The time between pushes felt like an hour but I was later told, it was seconds. Mason made sure I stayed down in the tub while pushing him out. When he came out, I noticed his amniotic sac hadn't popped and she was so fast with getting him out of the caul. I was amazed and grateful for her expertise.

In seconds, I had my little baby BOY on my chest and I was so filled with all kinds of emotions! Awe, love, relief, excitement, amazement, pleasure, joy. I felt like a bubble about to burst. They asked if it was a boy and I said yes :) This little perfect baby was mine and I could hardly believe it!

Harvey Preston Michno was born at 10:34 pm. 

Daddy cut the umbillical cord after it had stopped pulsing and we were all fawning over our little Harvey.

Mason and crew snapped me back to reality and reminded me that I needed to birth the placenta. Like the baby's birth, that was quick. I was eager to get out of the tub and take a shower. Water births are messy!

Everyone was telling me how amazing I was and how cute and perfect the baby was and I was on cloud nine!! The oxytocin was pumping and I was on a serious baby high. I loved this baby so much, I thought my head was going to pop off. THAT feeling is why people have natural child birth and there really is no way to adequately describe how wonderful it is. We cuddled and started nursing. He was obviously starving because he nursed for an hour! Everyone thought he looked little but I knew better. I was right... 8 lbs, 11 ounces! 14 inch perfectly round head! 21 inches long :)

He had some gurgly breathing and Mason kept an eagle eye on things and did monitoring while I nursed. Because he was in the birth canal for such a short time, he didn't get enough of a squeeze to clear the fluids from his lungs. She was both diligent and hands off and because of that she didn't alarm me. I am thankful for that and it ended up being nothing. He just needed some time to adjust to life outside the womb.

The ladies cleaned up and Mark and I cuddled up in bed with our new little family member. They stayed long enough to make sure that everything was good and we didn't need anything. They promised to come back the next morning to check in. I could have kissed them. We fell into a nice snooze, cuddling and nursing our new baby boy. Life is so good!!

We named the baby Harvey after my grandfather Harvey Philip Hammer. His birth was perfect and I am so thankful for him.