Baby Micah’s Birth Story

Highlights: Micah Sean’s official stats are 7 pounds, 8 ounces; 20 inches long and absolutely perfect. 🙂 His arrival into the world was at 6:47 pm 9-8-08
Pictures: http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q236/AngEngland/Baby%20Micah/

Early labor contractions began yesterday morning before I got out of bed – very light, more crampy than anything. I ignored them and slept until Sidney got up to go to work. As they hadn’t stopped yet or let up I told him to go ahead and call in to work and tell them he would either be late or not be in at all.

As things continued to progress I called my mom that morning to go ahead and come on over. Contractions were fairly light but were only 4 minutes apart at that point. I had some show so I knew it was “real” this time instead of the on-again, off-again I’d been having throughout the week prior.

Called Gail about an hour later and checked in with her to give her the head’s up. She said “Great! I’m only 30 minutes away so call me when you feel like you want me there.” I called her back about 9:30/10am and asked her to go ahead and come out. When she got there we did an exam and I was a 4cm. So officially my “active labor” begun at 10:30/10:45am.

Micah was very low – nearly a 1+ station but the cervix was behind his head a little bit. I knew then it wouldn’t be a super fast labor like Brianna’s which actually was a bit of a relief. Gail suggested a forward leaning position to encourage my cervix to move more anterior and encouraged me that it was very soft and almost completely effaces. My contractions were definitely accomplishing things! Micah was in perfect position – I just had to let my body catch up to that good position HE was in. 🙂

It was very uncomfortable to sit down or lean forward with my feet on the floor – I think because of how low he was and how much irritation my hips had from the past two weeks of back pain. I ended up building the pillows up on my bed to make a little nest and lay face-down on the pillows. I labored there, alone, sleeping between contractions for a good while and it felt really good. The contractions were a lot stronger at that point, but had spaced out a bit (every 6-8 minutes) allowing me to get some sleep while my body did it’s thing. VERY nice. Especially after Brianna’s steam-train, bull-dozer labor. *laughing*

I got up some time later and walked around the house. Kids had gotten up from their naps and were watching a movie. Things were picking up speed and at some point my contractions began to move much closer together. Each time a contraction would hit I would go from standing, to leaning over whatever was handy – the back of the couch, the chest freezer, the midwife, my mom. Sidney had gone outside while I was napping to get some things done around the house and just as I was saying to Mom, “I want my husband in the house now.” in he came to check on me. 🙂 Soon I was asking for the tub to be filled with water – I was ready to get in!

Gail got up (she’d had another birth a couple days prior so she napped while I napped) and checked on me before I got in the tub. For awhile it was just Gail and Mom and my sisters. When I felt the tempo of the contractions changing I asked Gail to check me one more time and lo-and-behold everything was perfectly in place and I was at 7-8 cm! Hurray! It was so encouraging to know I really was on the right track and I felt more in control again after that.

Soon my kiddos came in to “help” me and they were so cute. Brianna would rub my hand or pour water on my back. Evan thought my low moanings were “singing” which was a very generous definition I think. The kids made me laugh between contractions which was a nice difference with this labor compared to my other two. Having them there kept me in control.

Right towards the end of transition/beginning of the pushing phase (they sort of just ran together) I felt a bit more out of control. Gloria took the kids out so I could concentrate more. I remember about three or four contractions in a row where nothing felt right. I kept trying to change positions or get out or whatever. Finally Sidney got in the tub and I laid in his lap and that felt better. I was pushing with the next contraction.

The pushing stage was the only part that felt different to me – Looking back I think now it was because of all the hip/low back pain I’d had during the last two weeks. Micah was born quickly, within 10 minutes.

His official stats are 7 pounds, 8 ounces; 20 inches long and absolutely perfect. 🙂 His arrival into the world was at 6:47 pm 9-8-08

We moved from the tub as soon as the cord stopped pulsing and we clamped it. Sidney cut it. Mom took him from me so we could move to the bedroom. Once I got in bed all nice and comfy I took Micah back and he nursed right away. Placenta delivered easily and in full within 20 minutes and Micah nursed for a good 45 minutes at least! He knew right what to do and the quick nursing helped my uterus clamp down quickly. No post-delivery pitocin this time! Yeah!

It was an hour later before we actually weighed and measured him. So nice to have that time to introduce myself and get to know him a bit better.

His features look more like Brianna I think but his features are very dark like Evan and Sidney. It will be interesting to see whether his skin darkens more like Sidney’s…I think it might. He has more olive tones than the other two did I think.

So anyway – there it is. 🙂 It was a really nice birth all told. He wasn’t post-dates at all…even though according to the magic numbers he was a “week overdue”. He actually had no signs of being over due at all and was perfectly perfect. So that’s ok with me.

About Angela England

Angela England has written 562 posts in this blog.

Founder of Untrained Housewife, Editor-in-Chief of Blissfully Domestic (http://blissfullydomestic.com), mother of five, wife of one, and God-seeker always.

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